Practicing Over Winter Break

Tuesday, December 17, 2019 No Comments

We like to share this post each year to give you some ideas for practicing at home over break!

You’ve made it through the first half of the school year! For many of you, that means you’ve probably played a few concerts, recently completed your marching band season, or maybe you’re headed to the Rose Parade. With winter comes the thrill of pep band, the improvisation of jazz band, the spinning of winter guard, or the rhythms of winter percussion. You know by now, being a musician is a never-ending process with performances and rehearsals perpetually around the corner.

Read More

Musical Mastery Helps Language Processing

Monday, December 16, 2019 No Comments

Much like expert technical skills, mastery in arts and humanities is closely correlated to a greater understanding of language components.

~ Trei, Lisa. “Musical training helps language processing, studies show.” Stanford News. Accessed February 24, 2015

Mouthpieces and how to choose, “Unpopular Opinion Edition”

Friday, December 13, 2019 No Comments

Raise your hand if you’ve had a band teacher or private instructor tell you that you needed to go from your 7C to a 5C, then to a 3C, then to a 1-1/2C and so on and so forth. Ok, now that we’ve all put our hands up, let’s get down to my unpopular opinion: There is no set progression for mouthpieces. They are not like shoes where you start with a size 5 and eventually get up to a size 12.

As discussed earlier on October 3rd, 2019; we talked about some factors that help us choose mouthpieces. Today we will briefly discuss a couple of those and other things to think about when testing mouthpieces.

Read More

Contest Season Starts Next Month – Is Your Instrument Ready?

Tuesday, December 10, 2019 No Comments

 

It’s not too late, but time is running out. Contest Season is almost here!

January through April is a really busy time of year for school music students. Many of the annual contests and festivals happen during this time of the year. These include:

  • Solo & Ensemble Contest
  • Jazz Band Festival
  • Junior/Middle School Organizational Festivals
  • High School Organizational Festivals

Your performance level and the success of your organization depend on a properly playing instrument. If your instrument has not been looked over by a technician in the last 6 months you may be overdue.

Send your instrument in for proper maintenance to help avoid small problems from turning into something larger at an inappropriate time. It could help you get to the next level during the upcoming contest season.

If you’d like to send your instrument in for us to check, we have a step-by-step guide on how to do that right here.

As always, please give us a call if you have any questions.

1-800-382-1099

School Music Students Show Higher Levels of Math Proficiency

Monday, December 9, 2019 No Comments

U.S. Department of Education data on more than 25,000 secondary school students found that students who report consistent high levels of involvement in instrumental music over the middle and high school years show “significantly higher levels of mathematics proficiency by grade 12.”

~ U.S. Department of Education NELLS88 Database

Guidelines For Indiana All-State Band Audition Preparation

Wednesday, December 4, 2019 No Comments

The All-State Band is one of the most prestigious audition-based ensembles any student can perform with! It is an ensemble made up of elite musicians from all corners of the state.

The audition application deadline is Friday, December 6, 2019. Auditions for this prestigious ensemble are on January 12, 2019. More information can be found here

Here are some guidelines for audition preparation:

Read More

The Arts Help Students Become Problem Solvers

Monday, December 2, 2019 No Comments

“At this time when you are making critical and far-reaching budget and program decisions….I write to bring to your attention the importance of the arts as a core academic subject and part of a complete education for all students. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act defines the arts as a core subject, and the arts play a significant role in children’s development and learning process. The arts can help students become tenacious, team-oriented problem solvers who are confident and able to think creatively.”

~ Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education, Letter to Schools and Community Leaders, 2009.

A Special Staff Spotlight on Tim Roethler

Wednesday, November 27, 2019 No Comments

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and it feels like the appropriate time to show our extreme gratitude to long-time staff member who will be retiring from Paige’s next Month. Tim Roethler has built and led our repair department since May of 1977. His leadership of over 4 decades will be sorely missed and we can’t thank him enough for all that he’s done in the past and how well he has us setup for the future. Well done, Tim!

 

Our very first staff spotlight with Tim is above. Take a few minutes to learn how Tim got the repair shop started and how it’s grown over the years.