Art is the transfer of emotions from one person to another. ~Tolstoy
This website started out as a site for my middle school students, then I added some things that might interest my adult band members (Sudbury Valley New Horizons Band). Now that I've retired from teaching middle school, it has become a generic band website, with information that may be useful to all musicians. Feel free to email me if you have any questions or comments.
Looking to purchase some music? Good music stores are hard to find these days and I, personally,
really miss being able to walk into a store and browse for things..
There are a couple of really good on-line stores -- Sheet
Music Plus and JW
Pepper are two of them.
Purchasing a new
instrument?? -- Exciting! PLEASE
beware of instruments that have a
cheaper sticker price -- they look great, but there
is a reason that they don't cost as much, and
usually they develop major wear problems very
quickly (we sometimes call them "Band Quitter
Models"). Ask a private teacher or your band
director about the brand you are considering. Don't just buy off the shelf! I would say never buy from a discount store, and I would be
cautious about buying from a store that seems to
deal primarily in guitars, keyboards, drumset, etc.
I have found that even though they look like they
have a band/orchestra instrument department, they often don't have people who really know the
instruments and the instruments are often not good
quality. Even some of the beginning drum kits
that come from these stores are often not worth the
money - I had a terrible time trying to adjust an
elementary student's drum at the spring concert (I
never did get it to sound right). When I asked, he
said it came from a local store that really deals
mostly with guitars. Follow
link for more info on cheap instruments and why it
is a waste of money to buy them.
