Tuesday, May 1, 2018
I recently received a personal performance invitation from an individual asking me to play the piano as a soloist for a large group of people in our school district and community. As I pondered this invitation I thought how wonderful it would be if some of my best students could perform instead of me. However, given the large venue and terrible acoustics, I knew this was not something we were not set up to do. Sadly, by the time I came up with a solution, it was too late to accept the invitation.
Yet the concept still intrigued me. As well, why showcase just a small group--why not everybody? The Willowcreek guitar program serves 77 students this year (about 35-40 per semester). A concert for us typically involves a few whole class numbers and several small ensemble pieces. Young guitarists sometimes play tentatively, and often in our 800-plus seat auditorium, audience members must strain to hear the smaller group numbers. What if there were a way to amplify their instruments so that they could be heard clearly all the way in the back of the hall? In order for that to work, though, we would likely need to invest in several new acoustic-electric guitars and amps so that their sound could be properly amplified. I figured that owning a few amplifiers and some nice acoustic-electric guitars might be a motivator for kids to practice hard and earn the privilege to "plug-in."
But the more I thought about this, the more I considered how each student likely feels accustomed to their own instrument. Playing one of a small shared set of unfamiliar electrics would likely present its own new set of challenges. Wouldn't it be nice if there was an easy way for each student to "electrify" their own instrument so that they could successfully play for a large audience without having to get used to the feel of a different guitar? This thought, combined with the somewhat cost-prohibitive nature of getting enough new guitars, gave rise to a new plan: pickups.
Enter LMA: Legacy Music Alliance. Thanks to a generous grant from LMA's donors, we saw an increase in our budget that might be able to help us solve our problem. LMA would help us with up to $600 toward our project. That would have been enough to buy one really nice electric acoustic guitar, or two mid-grade guitars an amp, and a couple of cables if we were lucky. After a little research, I discovered Piezo Pickup Microphones. These had sticky backs that could potentially be stuck on each students existing guitar effectively electrifying it at will. But what about taking care of the pickup? Would it get bumped, damaged, pulled off in the course of normal day to day classwork? Maybe, but I believed it was worth the risk if the pickups were not too cost-prohibitive, and would actually work. So I ordered a classroom set, with the unit cost coming at less than three dollars each.
You can imagine my eager anticipation for the chance to try these new pickups out. Gotta love Amazon Prime two-day shipping! I pulled the first one out of the box and stuck it on a guitar. It worked like a charm. But what about the next guitar? Eventually, the stickiness would wear out, and maybe even ruin the finish on the guitar. I had enough pickups for each guitar, but would they get damaged in the process of continual plugging and unplugging, storing and re-storing? Imagine my delight when I found that these pickups could easily be strapped to a clip-on guitar capo (which we already had in abundance in our classroom). No need to stick or unstick, and no need to constantly plug and unplug. Just clip on, then release when done! The wear and tear factor, as well as the time to transfer this electrifying capability were reduced exponentially the instant we found this solution. AND now, the money saved by using these pickups instead of buying new instruments was more than enough to purchase three high-quality acoustic amps and five high-end instrument cables to hook them up with!
The very same class period as we got the shipment, groups who had polished their ensemble pieces were allowed to use the clip-on pickups. That was a great motivator that got students at every level interested in persisting toward excellence. After trying out the new system, two groups were invited to perform in a new recently available opportunity. They, along with another group represented our school in front of hundreds of elementary school musicians in our district at an elementary music festival held in our auditorium. We will showcase more students in a similar way next week. I am thrilled because this solution provides a win-win-win. Future junior high students get to see some of the possibilities coming up, elementary educators are exposed to quality performances in a non-traditional ensemble, and many guitar students now, instead of being afraid of performance day, will be excited to try out the new electrifying experience! My hope is that they have fun exploring what they can do with it, and that they realize this is a chance to polish their playing. I hope they will push themselves to feel confidently plugged in, no longer hiding behind their neighbors' playing, but proudly showing off what they can do!
To boot, with multiple amps, we should be able to "electrify" our practice rooms so that students can begin the plugged in experience sooner. More authentic rehearsal time will help them better prepare for the stage.
Thank you LMA and your donors! WE ARE GRATEFUL!
I recently received a personal performance invitation from an individual asking me to play the piano as a soloist for a large group of people in our school district and community. As I pondered this invitation I thought how wonderful it would be if some of my best students could perform instead of me. However, given the large venue and terrible acoustics, I knew this was not something we were not set up to do. Sadly, by the time I came up with a solution, it was too late to accept the invitation.
Yet the concept still intrigued me. As well, why showcase just a small group--why not everybody? The Willowcreek guitar program serves 77 students this year (about 35-40 per semester). A concert for us typically involves a few whole class numbers and several small ensemble pieces. Young guitarists sometimes play tentatively, and often in our 800-plus seat auditorium, audience members must strain to hear the smaller group numbers. What if there were a way to amplify their instruments so that they could be heard clearly all the way in the back of the hall? In order for that to work, though, we would likely need to invest in several new acoustic-electric guitars and amps so that their sound could be properly amplified. I figured that owning a few amplifiers and some nice acoustic-electric guitars might be a motivator for kids to practice hard and earn the privilege to "plug-in."
But the more I thought about this, the more I considered how each student likely feels accustomed to their own instrument. Playing one of a small shared set of unfamiliar electrics would likely present its own new set of challenges. Wouldn't it be nice if there was an easy way for each student to "electrify" their own instrument so that they could successfully play for a large audience without having to get used to the feel of a different guitar? This thought, combined with the somewhat cost-prohibitive nature of getting enough new guitars, gave rise to a new plan: pickups.
Enter LMA: Legacy Music Alliance. Thanks to a generous grant from LMA's donors, we saw an increase in our budget that might be able to help us solve our problem. LMA would help us with up to $600 toward our project. That would have been enough to buy one really nice electric acoustic guitar, or two mid-grade guitars an amp, and a couple of cables if we were lucky. After a little research, I discovered Piezo Pickup Microphones. These had sticky backs that could potentially be stuck on each students existing guitar effectively electrifying it at will. But what about taking care of the pickup? Would it get bumped, damaged, pulled off in the course of normal day to day classwork? Maybe, but I believed it was worth the risk if the pickups were not too cost-prohibitive, and would actually work. So I ordered a classroom set, with the unit cost coming at less than three dollars each.
You can imagine my eager anticipation for the chance to try these new pickups out. Gotta love Amazon Prime two-day shipping! I pulled the first one out of the box and stuck it on a guitar. It worked like a charm. But what about the next guitar? Eventually, the stickiness would wear out, and maybe even ruin the finish on the guitar. I had enough pickups for each guitar, but would they get damaged in the process of continual plugging and unplugging, storing and re-storing? Imagine my delight when I found that these pickups could easily be strapped to a clip-on guitar capo (which we already had in abundance in our classroom). No need to stick or unstick, and no need to constantly plug and unplug. Just clip on, then release when done! The wear and tear factor, as well as the time to transfer this electrifying capability were reduced exponentially the instant we found this solution. AND now, the money saved by using these pickups instead of buying new instruments was more than enough to purchase three high-quality acoustic amps and five high-end instrument cables to hook them up with!
The very same class period as we got the shipment, groups who had polished their ensemble pieces were allowed to use the clip-on pickups. That was a great motivator that got students at every level interested in persisting toward excellence. After trying out the new system, two groups were invited to perform in a new recently available opportunity. They, along with another group represented our school in front of hundreds of elementary school musicians in our district at an elementary music festival held in our auditorium. We will showcase more students in a similar way next week. I am thrilled because this solution provides a win-win-win. Future junior high students get to see some of the possibilities coming up, elementary educators are exposed to quality performances in a non-traditional ensemble, and many guitar students now, instead of being afraid of performance day, will be excited to try out the new electrifying experience! My hope is that they have fun exploring what they can do with it, and that they realize this is a chance to polish their playing. I hope they will push themselves to feel confidently plugged in, no longer hiding behind their neighbors' playing, but proudly showing off what they can do!
To boot, with multiple amps, we should be able to "electrify" our practice rooms so that students can begin the plugged in experience sooner. More authentic rehearsal time will help them better prepare for the stage.
Thank you LMA and your donors! WE ARE GRATEFUL!