So we, as music educators, are probably going to do a lot of music writing and arranging, yes? I think that's something music educators generally have in common. I think they also have one more fact in common: we all find the price of Sibelius and Finale abhorrent.
I admit, I've never worked with either company, nor have I known anyone that did. So from that angle, I won't claim to know everything behind their ridiculous pricing decision. Maybe there are some economics involved I don't understand.
But I also know this: At the time of this writing, the most recent version of both Finale and Sibelius with full features is $600.00 flat. Considering all I'm paying for is code on a CD that is changed minimally year to year, that's completely outrageous. Most big name PC games with developing staff far greater than that of the Finale or Sibelius team cost $50.00 on release. That's 15% of the cost of music notation software! What's even more offensive is the considering of how I'm willing to bet any game produced in the past five years (being generous) is easily more complex than notation software by an order of magnitude.
I think I understand the logic here. From their perspective they probably figure they have a niche market and are catering to those with relatively high income (established composers and university professors) and institutions of education. Hence their discounted pack of five computer installs for computer labs and the like. And since they figure they're marketing to a niche, they have to keep prices relatively high to sustain a regular income. Hence the $120ish upgrade fee from edition to edition.
What they fail to realize is this. If they dropped the purchase fee to $50 (or even $100), every college music student in the nation would buy their software. We all notate music for homework every day! If the price was dropped to $50, you would also open your market up to high school music students. High schoolers can and will afford $50 for software. They will not, in this or any other lifetime, spend $600.
So they believe they have a niche market and they price accordingly, effectively creating an artificial price floor for themselves. Ironically, by pricing outside of the normal price range that the market would otherwise dictate, it has become a self fulfilling prophecy: their exorbitant prices have created a niche market whether they like it or not. They have denied themselves thousands, if not tens of thousands, of customers across the country because of their pricing policy.
What makes even less sense to me is the complete lack of price competition between the two aforementioned software firms. They're the leading names, yet they act as if they're in accordance regarding what the stable price for their product should be.
All that said, some day when I finally do have the cash to drop on what is truly an essential tool of the trade anymore, I might have to inquire as to why they have such an incredible price of their products. They must truly be proud of their work.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Sunday, April 25, 2010
A Little About My Musical Education
I think it's only fair that I, as a music educator, share a couple of performances I was a part of so that parents and students can see the foundation my music is based upon.
Here are two selections from the West Texas A&M 2008 Symphonic Band that I particularly enjoy. We had the opportunity to perform at TMEA, and received a great deal of praise from schools across the state, both large and small.
I do apologize for the lack of video syncing with the music, but that's out of my control.
Here are two selections from the West Texas A&M 2008 Symphonic Band that I particularly enjoy. We had the opportunity to perform at TMEA, and received a great deal of praise from schools across the state, both large and small.
I do apologize for the lack of video syncing with the music, but that's out of my control.
CHS Soaring Pride Band
I had the pleasure of working with the Canyon High School Soaring Pride Band during the Fall of 2009. This is their UIL contest performance. I was the instructor of the front ensemble, which ironically this year was in the middle of the field, not at the front of the band.
This performance received a Division I (highest rating possible) and was something for the students to be proud of! If only there hadn't been a train travel past right in the middle of the performance - go figure!
I have to say, working with these kids was by far the best learning experience I've had during my quest to become a music educator. It was both a learning experience, and an affirming experience, something I'll never forget!
This performance received a Division I (highest rating possible) and was something for the students to be proud of! If only there hadn't been a train travel past right in the middle of the performance - go figure!
I have to say, working with these kids was by far the best learning experience I've had during my quest to become a music educator. It was both a learning experience, and an affirming experience, something I'll never forget!
Website Evaluations
1) Name of Web Site: Percussive Arts Society
2) Web Site Address: http://www.pas.org/index.aspx
3) Copyright date and/or last update: March 27, 2010
4) Author/organization credentials:
The official news and scholarly website for the Percussive Arts Society. The Web Manager for the Society is Marianella Moreno. The PAS is the largest scholarly society of percussionists in the world, spanning multiple continents and many countries. It's large membership and international reputation, including its scholarly publications, museum, and international convention held annually make the PAS the premier authority on the state of the percussive arts worldwide.
5) Web site design and ease of navigation
This website was actually very recently updated, within the past two months. It features a navigation bar across the top of the website, including links to all the major branches of the website itself. These include methods of contact, the websites discussion boards, links for teachers, a list of ways to experience the benefits of being a member of the PAS, a page listing the scholarly publications of the PAS, and a list of products of the PAS.
One of the most beneficial aspects of the website is the list of scholarly publications. If one is a member of the PAS, they are given a login to the website, which unlocks access to, among other things, electronic versions of the physical publications that the PAS mails out on a monthly basis, as well as other publications that exist only in electronic form. Many of these publications are cutting edge in the field, and written by some of the top authorities in the Percussion world, including many articles related to pedagogy that would be of keen interest to the percussion educator.
Another great strength for the website is the ability to find out any information you need to know about the national convention. They have all registration forms for any aspect of the convention available on the website, many to be submitted electronically instead of printed out and submitted by mail, which allows for easy access to many educational opportunities for students.
The website also includes an educators corner to allow you methods of showcasing your ensemble at the PAS convention. It also has a list of PAS approved summer programs for percussionists of all ages (from beginner to continuing education for professionals) neatly compiled into one corner of the web.
The website itself is quite intuitive, with all the major 'clickables' on the page being self explanatory and taking you to subpages of the most valuable sort. It's very professionally presented and easy to navigate, particularly with the addition of a search window that can search for any key term on the website itself.
6) Your response and recommendation for use
The website is great for students, educators, amateurs, professionals, and anyone else who has a significant interest in the world of percussion. It is a valuable website, one that I am a member of, and intend to continue my membership for years to come.
---
1) Name of Web Site: Ricci Adam's Musictheory.net
2) Web Site Address: http://new.musictheory.net/
3) Copyright date and/or last update: ©2010
4) Author/organization credentials:
Ricci Adams has a BA in Computer Science and an avid interest in music. He's used these combined skills to create an online music theory trainer and integrated lesson teacher.
5) Web site design and ease of navigation
This website is primarily designed for honing your music theory skills, particularly new music theory students. It has a navigation bar that has links for lessons, exercises, and the ability to report any bugs for the website administrator.
The ability to report bugs, while seemingly minor, is a very important detail and significant part of the website design. It allows the users, many of whom are music educators, to provide quality control for the website, producing a higher quality product all users to follow. Not enough websites have this feature.
It's especially important because of the content of the website. It actually has a fair amount of interactive lessons, which it calls exercises, which you can use to develop your inner ear and your music literacy. These often consist of interval exercises, where an interval is play and then identified by the student using a series of buttons in a flash application, or a chord quality exercise, where a chord is played, and the quality is quantified by students using the same flash application.
However, not all of the buttons within the application are intuitive; there are times when buttons don't necessarily look like buttons, and it takes some searching to figure out what is clickable and what isn't.
Furthermore, the instructions aren't always clear. The sequence of buttons to hit for a particular exercise isn't always clear.
However, despite these drawbacks, the website overall is structured very well. Lessons are grouped topically and, better yet, in a logical pedagogical progression, building upon previous lessons learned knowledge so students can work at their own pace, often with little external instruction.
While no replacement for traditional music theory instruction, it is a great supplement to students education, since it is extremely self paced and relatively easy to cater to a particular students needs.
6) Your response and recommendation for use
This website would be an invaluable tool in training students in basic music theory. Since many larger high schools have music theory programs, this could be used as an alternative to very expensive music theory software available to music programs. Since it is entirely free and doesn't require any sort of registration, it doesn't violate any aspect of student privacy. However, the only downside of this is there is no easy way to track a student's progress long term since there is no individual registration.
---
1) Name of Web Site: The International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
2) Web Site Address: http://www.imslp.org/
3) Copyright date and/or last update: March 20, 2010
4) Author/organization credentials:
Author Edward Guo has his BM of Music Composition, and is currently pursuing a law degree at Harvard. The website is set up as a sort of wiki, but based entirely on extant scores that are currently public domain.
5) Web site design and ease of navigation
The website design isn't the most user friendly. It is set up like a Wiki, however, unlike a wiki, all the resources on the website can be considered reliable. It isn't a compilation of articles or opinions, but rather a compilation of PDF versions of Public Domain Scores from composers of yesteryear scanned into the computer for the world's scholarly access. These scores tend to be very strictly documented as to which publishing they were initially a part of, and all documentation is to the letter. And since it contains nothing but the music itself, it is pure and without bias.
The search engine on the left hand side of the page is the website's greatest strength. You can search using any term, although obviously composer or piece name would be most beneficial.
If the search engine isn't bringing up relevant results, there is in fact an alphabetical listing of composers names, which, when clicked, allows you to browse a list of their works, with clickable links to those works for which the website has a score.
What makes this part of the resource even more useful is the methods of sorting a composers works. Not only are they listed both alphabetically and by opus number, but also by any other work cataloguing number specific to the composer. For example, the works of Schubert are also categorized by Deutsch Number, Mozart has the Koechel Number, etc. Works are also listed by period and genre, making this site not only a wealth of scholarly resources, but formatted in a very intuitive and easy to navigate manner for someone with a rudimentary knowledge of music history.
6) Your response and recommendation for use
While this website perhaps has minimal use for secondary students, it is an excellent resource for music director's both vocal and instrumental. Having a one stop shop for free PDF versions of public domain scores is a massive advancement of knowledge and resources available in the field of music study. Even ten years ago, most public domain scores had to be rented, even if free, and returned to their respective library after a certain amount of time. Often, older scores, even those that are public domain, were out of print and almost impossible to find except in private or university collections, and they required physical travel over a great distance to study. Now, conductors have a great, invaluable resource, free and at their disposal! This website is astounding.
---
1) Name of Web Site: Music Educators National Association
2) Web Site Address: http://www.menc.org/
3) Copyright date and/or last update: ©2010
4) Author/organization credentials:
It is the National Association of Music Educators, spanning all fifty states, and has no one specific author or one set of credentials, but is rather a conglomerate of ideas and contributions from all members.
Paul Fergus is the name of their web specialist, and as near as I could discover is in charge of the web site.
5) Web site design and ease of navigation
First, the biggest drawback: The search box. The search box on this site just doesn't work right. I've searched for terms that I know for a fact are on the site, that I see on the page I am currently on, and drawn a 'no result.' The search box seems effectively useless for browsing the sites information at the time of this review, and shouldn't be relied upon to find any specific information regarding the MENC itself.
Perhaps the best resource on the website, however, is specifically for MENC members. It has a searchable library of lesson plans created by members of MENC nationwide and submitted to a lesson plan database for public use. This is a great example of a single database that the web has made accessible to educators for the betterment of education. It has a powerful search tool (too bad the website search tool isn't comparable) that allows you to narrowly define your parameters and request only lesson plans specifically for your particular field of interest.
There is also a strong music advocacy portion to the website that keeps tabs on music in the public realm of education and new related thereto. The MENC does strongly advocate for music education, both on the state and national level, and is one of the most powerful lobbying forces for music education, which makes the MENC's advocacy important for anyone in the music field.
The Career center is also a vital tool. It allows for the posting of both open jobs and resumes for those looking for jobs. While there are other state level websites offering the same, I know of no other national website that does this specifically for music educators, making this a great tool for any recent college graduate.
6) Your response and recommendation for use
While the intended audience is obviously members of the MENC, there is still a significant amount of information and resources available on this website to non members for their use. While perhaps not as scholarly as the PAS website, the information is valuable and directly applicable to the classroom, or in the case of college students, to the up and coming music teacher.
---
1) Name of Web Site: Choral Public Domain Library
2) Web Site Address: http://www2.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
3) Copyright date and/or last update: December 21, 2009
4) Author/organization credentials:
A true wiki with the same intention as the IMSLP, but more free form, and restricted completely to choral music. The document scans themselves have all publication information, and it is all within copyright law.
5) Web site design and ease of navigation
Fairly easy to navigate. It has a pretty powerful search option on the left side of the page. Finding works isn't as easy as at the IMSLP, but it has a greater selection of choral works.
The website is anything but aesthetically pleasing. It seems hobbled together, and somewhat mishmash. Functional, but not optimized for the eye. That may be its greatest detractor; it just doesn't look all that professional, and many people will judge it based not on its content but on its appearance.
Since the design of the website is that of a wiki, I'm sure most people will be sharply opinionated over it. It's easy to use and navigate, has a lot of great quality scores and parts, and is a great resource. However, some people frown upon wikis, even when they're something like this, a database of scanned Public Domain scores, which cannot have bias or factual errors.
I find the format and structure of the website intuitive and highly useful. Others may not.
6) Your response and recommendation for use
Great resource for financially troubled choir programs. In many pieces, parts are available for download and printing, meaning a music library could be created for a program at the cost of prints. Even when only a score is available, its relatively easy to enter choral parts into a music publishing program and printing them yourself, even if it's a bit more time consuming and less authentic. I know of a at least one case where a good friend of mine used it to perform a piece with a choir that is otherwise out of print. Valuable resource.
2) Web Site Address: http://www.pas.org/index.aspx
3) Copyright date and/or last update: March 27, 2010
4) Author/organization credentials:
The official news and scholarly website for the Percussive Arts Society. The Web Manager for the Society is Marianella Moreno. The PAS is the largest scholarly society of percussionists in the world, spanning multiple continents and many countries. It's large membership and international reputation, including its scholarly publications, museum, and international convention held annually make the PAS the premier authority on the state of the percussive arts worldwide.
5) Web site design and ease of navigation
This website was actually very recently updated, within the past two months. It features a navigation bar across the top of the website, including links to all the major branches of the website itself. These include methods of contact, the websites discussion boards, links for teachers, a list of ways to experience the benefits of being a member of the PAS, a page listing the scholarly publications of the PAS, and a list of products of the PAS.
One of the most beneficial aspects of the website is the list of scholarly publications. If one is a member of the PAS, they are given a login to the website, which unlocks access to, among other things, electronic versions of the physical publications that the PAS mails out on a monthly basis, as well as other publications that exist only in electronic form. Many of these publications are cutting edge in the field, and written by some of the top authorities in the Percussion world, including many articles related to pedagogy that would be of keen interest to the percussion educator.
Another great strength for the website is the ability to find out any information you need to know about the national convention. They have all registration forms for any aspect of the convention available on the website, many to be submitted electronically instead of printed out and submitted by mail, which allows for easy access to many educational opportunities for students.
The website also includes an educators corner to allow you methods of showcasing your ensemble at the PAS convention. It also has a list of PAS approved summer programs for percussionists of all ages (from beginner to continuing education for professionals) neatly compiled into one corner of the web.
The website itself is quite intuitive, with all the major 'clickables' on the page being self explanatory and taking you to subpages of the most valuable sort. It's very professionally presented and easy to navigate, particularly with the addition of a search window that can search for any key term on the website itself.
6) Your response and recommendation for use
The website is great for students, educators, amateurs, professionals, and anyone else who has a significant interest in the world of percussion. It is a valuable website, one that I am a member of, and intend to continue my membership for years to come.
---
1) Name of Web Site: Ricci Adam's Musictheory.net
2) Web Site Address: http://new.musictheory.net/
3) Copyright date and/or last update: ©2010
4) Author/organization credentials:
Ricci Adams has a BA in Computer Science and an avid interest in music. He's used these combined skills to create an online music theory trainer and integrated lesson teacher.
5) Web site design and ease of navigation
This website is primarily designed for honing your music theory skills, particularly new music theory students. It has a navigation bar that has links for lessons, exercises, and the ability to report any bugs for the website administrator.
The ability to report bugs, while seemingly minor, is a very important detail and significant part of the website design. It allows the users, many of whom are music educators, to provide quality control for the website, producing a higher quality product all users to follow. Not enough websites have this feature.
It's especially important because of the content of the website. It actually has a fair amount of interactive lessons, which it calls exercises, which you can use to develop your inner ear and your music literacy. These often consist of interval exercises, where an interval is play and then identified by the student using a series of buttons in a flash application, or a chord quality exercise, where a chord is played, and the quality is quantified by students using the same flash application.
However, not all of the buttons within the application are intuitive; there are times when buttons don't necessarily look like buttons, and it takes some searching to figure out what is clickable and what isn't.
Furthermore, the instructions aren't always clear. The sequence of buttons to hit for a particular exercise isn't always clear.
However, despite these drawbacks, the website overall is structured very well. Lessons are grouped topically and, better yet, in a logical pedagogical progression, building upon previous lessons learned knowledge so students can work at their own pace, often with little external instruction.
While no replacement for traditional music theory instruction, it is a great supplement to students education, since it is extremely self paced and relatively easy to cater to a particular students needs.
6) Your response and recommendation for use
This website would be an invaluable tool in training students in basic music theory. Since many larger high schools have music theory programs, this could be used as an alternative to very expensive music theory software available to music programs. Since it is entirely free and doesn't require any sort of registration, it doesn't violate any aspect of student privacy. However, the only downside of this is there is no easy way to track a student's progress long term since there is no individual registration.
---
1) Name of Web Site: The International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
2) Web Site Address: http://www.imslp.org/
3) Copyright date and/or last update: March 20, 2010
4) Author/organization credentials:
Author Edward Guo has his BM of Music Composition, and is currently pursuing a law degree at Harvard. The website is set up as a sort of wiki, but based entirely on extant scores that are currently public domain.
5) Web site design and ease of navigation
The website design isn't the most user friendly. It is set up like a Wiki, however, unlike a wiki, all the resources on the website can be considered reliable. It isn't a compilation of articles or opinions, but rather a compilation of PDF versions of Public Domain Scores from composers of yesteryear scanned into the computer for the world's scholarly access. These scores tend to be very strictly documented as to which publishing they were initially a part of, and all documentation is to the letter. And since it contains nothing but the music itself, it is pure and without bias.
The search engine on the left hand side of the page is the website's greatest strength. You can search using any term, although obviously composer or piece name would be most beneficial.
If the search engine isn't bringing up relevant results, there is in fact an alphabetical listing of composers names, which, when clicked, allows you to browse a list of their works, with clickable links to those works for which the website has a score.
What makes this part of the resource even more useful is the methods of sorting a composers works. Not only are they listed both alphabetically and by opus number, but also by any other work cataloguing number specific to the composer. For example, the works of Schubert are also categorized by Deutsch Number, Mozart has the Koechel Number, etc. Works are also listed by period and genre, making this site not only a wealth of scholarly resources, but formatted in a very intuitive and easy to navigate manner for someone with a rudimentary knowledge of music history.
6) Your response and recommendation for use
While this website perhaps has minimal use for secondary students, it is an excellent resource for music director's both vocal and instrumental. Having a one stop shop for free PDF versions of public domain scores is a massive advancement of knowledge and resources available in the field of music study. Even ten years ago, most public domain scores had to be rented, even if free, and returned to their respective library after a certain amount of time. Often, older scores, even those that are public domain, were out of print and almost impossible to find except in private or university collections, and they required physical travel over a great distance to study. Now, conductors have a great, invaluable resource, free and at their disposal! This website is astounding.
---
1) Name of Web Site: Music Educators National Association
2) Web Site Address: http://www.menc.org/
3) Copyright date and/or last update: ©2010
4) Author/organization credentials:
It is the National Association of Music Educators, spanning all fifty states, and has no one specific author or one set of credentials, but is rather a conglomerate of ideas and contributions from all members.
Paul Fergus is the name of their web specialist, and as near as I could discover is in charge of the web site.
5) Web site design and ease of navigation
First, the biggest drawback: The search box. The search box on this site just doesn't work right. I've searched for terms that I know for a fact are on the site, that I see on the page I am currently on, and drawn a 'no result.' The search box seems effectively useless for browsing the sites information at the time of this review, and shouldn't be relied upon to find any specific information regarding the MENC itself.
Perhaps the best resource on the website, however, is specifically for MENC members. It has a searchable library of lesson plans created by members of MENC nationwide and submitted to a lesson plan database for public use. This is a great example of a single database that the web has made accessible to educators for the betterment of education. It has a powerful search tool (too bad the website search tool isn't comparable) that allows you to narrowly define your parameters and request only lesson plans specifically for your particular field of interest.
There is also a strong music advocacy portion to the website that keeps tabs on music in the public realm of education and new related thereto. The MENC does strongly advocate for music education, both on the state and national level, and is one of the most powerful lobbying forces for music education, which makes the MENC's advocacy important for anyone in the music field.
The Career center is also a vital tool. It allows for the posting of both open jobs and resumes for those looking for jobs. While there are other state level websites offering the same, I know of no other national website that does this specifically for music educators, making this a great tool for any recent college graduate.
6) Your response and recommendation for use
While the intended audience is obviously members of the MENC, there is still a significant amount of information and resources available on this website to non members for their use. While perhaps not as scholarly as the PAS website, the information is valuable and directly applicable to the classroom, or in the case of college students, to the up and coming music teacher.
---
1) Name of Web Site: Choral Public Domain Library
2) Web Site Address: http://www2.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
3) Copyright date and/or last update: December 21, 2009
4) Author/organization credentials:
A true wiki with the same intention as the IMSLP, but more free form, and restricted completely to choral music. The document scans themselves have all publication information, and it is all within copyright law.
5) Web site design and ease of navigation
Fairly easy to navigate. It has a pretty powerful search option on the left side of the page. Finding works isn't as easy as at the IMSLP, but it has a greater selection of choral works.
The website is anything but aesthetically pleasing. It seems hobbled together, and somewhat mishmash. Functional, but not optimized for the eye. That may be its greatest detractor; it just doesn't look all that professional, and many people will judge it based not on its content but on its appearance.
Since the design of the website is that of a wiki, I'm sure most people will be sharply opinionated over it. It's easy to use and navigate, has a lot of great quality scores and parts, and is a great resource. However, some people frown upon wikis, even when they're something like this, a database of scanned Public Domain scores, which cannot have bias or factual errors.
I find the format and structure of the website intuitive and highly useful. Others may not.
6) Your response and recommendation for use
Great resource for financially troubled choir programs. In many pieces, parts are available for download and printing, meaning a music library could be created for a program at the cost of prints. Even when only a score is available, its relatively easy to enter choral parts into a music publishing program and printing them yourself, even if it's a bit more time consuming and less authentic. I know of a at least one case where a good friend of mine used it to perform a piece with a choir that is otherwise out of print. Valuable resource.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)