About Recorder Classroom Magazine

Children love recorders, and recorders can change their whole musical outlook.

Recorders are a special part of a well-rounded music education. They are wonderful instruments with a long and rich history, and they provide students with an ideal way to experience the joy of instrumental performance. The founders of Plank Road Publishing spent their entire educational life playing in instrumental ensembles, so we feel strongly about helping children enjoy the experience.

Throughout the history of Music K-8 magazine, we have tried to provide a wide variety of music, and through Plank Road Publishing we offer a number of other recorder resources. But a magazine totally devoted to recorders in the classroom allows us to approach the material in a more dynamic fashion. So, for the past year, we have been planning a unique new resource for your music program: Recorder Classroom magazine.

Here are just a few of the details on this revolutionary new magazine:

• Starting in the Fall of 2008, we will be publishing this new resource four times per school year: September/October, November/December, January/February, and March/April/May.
• Great New Music & State Of The Art Recordings! As you would expect, there will be lots of new music in a variety of styles from top composers and arrangers, including many of the writers you know from Music K-8. And, by the way, we won't change the quality or quantity of music in Music K-8. We would never do that. And the recordings will be first class, with top musicians and the same excellence you have always gotten from Plank Road Publishing.

  Here are the songs in the first-ever issue of Recorder Classroom: Entrance Of The Dragon Riders BAG Soprano; EBAG Soprano; Simple Alto, opt. All parts work together, or can stand on their own Preview This Tune Help Find A Happy Place Two different settings: BAG Soprano, and CDE Alto Preview This Tune Alto Help Soprano Help A Questionable Alliance Of Warm, Tasty Baked Goods Recorder Method Energizer for this issue - Hot Cross Buns Recorder part as in most methods, with teaching extensions Preview This Tune Help Dolphin Dreams Lyrical BAG selection Preview This Tune Help A Night On Bald Mountain AB Soprano (also playable with just A); EABCDE' Soprano; Medium difficulty Alto, opt. All parts work together, or can stand on their own Multiple tracks, including background tracks with scary sound effects or just orchestra Preview This Tune Help Fais Do Do BAG Soprano; BAGCD Soprano - work together or on their own Separate slow and faster recorded tracks Preview This Tune Help B Cool B Soprano; BAG Soprano - Work separately or as a nice duet Extensive teaching extensions including rhythm exercises, dexterity lessons, Q&A phrases Also includes a good beginning lesson on improvisation including a riff vocabulary While it is intended for BAG use, the trax also work nicely with DEBAGD'E' Preview This Tune Help The Gerbil's Gavotte Virtual Consort for this issue, based on the song "Bouffons" Easy SATB with optional parts for percussion, simple Orff and/or Boomwhackers® Multiple tracks to let your students play along with Soprano, SA, or SAT. (If you have SATB, you don't need the tracks. What fun!) Preview This Tune Help ZIPPY TOAD In Waders Of The Lost Park Barturo Toadscanini's silly rock opus - Soprano BAG and/or Soprano DEBAGD' Multiple tracks in two tempos, with and without sound effects and Zippy vocal track Preview This Tune Help Mockingbird, Sing BAG Soprano round with lute and guitar accompaniment tracks Teaching extensions including rhythm exercises, dexterity lessons Preview This Tune Help The first issue also includes a great article by Artie Almeida about her recorder program, her retention game "Recorder Hike," two recorder songs with Orff ensemble by Norm Sands, and lots of surprises.

• With lots of variety... There will also be other types of recorder music including Orff arrangements, exercises, warm-ups, technique builders, and lessons designed to encourage creativity. And we will help you plan your lesson objectives with the National Standards in mind. Recorders are such a great way to experience music!
• Special Contributors with Special Resources. We are especially excited about a regular column from master teacher Artie Almeida called Fun Foundations For Recorders. Her articles have that special flair that teachers have learned to love in her myriad of popular resources

  We love a parade! Artie Almeida infuses her teaching with a spirit of fun and the love of music. (Photo by Lauren Mickler.)

  for music educators. Her articles here will begin with beliefs about the recorder as a teaching tool. Then, she will move on to the lesson plan for the specific activity for that issue. (The game in the first issue looks like it will be a lot of fun... and an activity teachers will use often.)

  And there will be other special contributors including renowned recorder guru Norm Sands, a creative teacher and clinician. Aside from sharing his imaginative classroom methods, Norm will also be sharing some of his music, beginning with some of his music for recorders and Orff instruments.

• Look for a special section where teachers can share ideas and lesson resources with one another, similar to NETWORK, but centered on teaching recorders.
• Our regular feature Recorder Method Energizer presents intriguing new settings of tunes that are common to many methods, as well as techniques to enhance the learning experience. The requirements for your students will be the same, by and large, but the arrangements will help you keep the students more interested, especially during early lessons.
• Another unique feature is the Virtual Consort. These tunes let your students experience the joy of playing with a real consort with the other parts played by professionals. Some of these tunes will be a recorder ensemble, and some may have other instruments in the consort. The student parts are easy, and if you have more experienced players, the consort parts are all available online (as is the score).
• While much of the musical content will follow the difficulty contour of most recorder methods, we will also offer other things you have asked for - alto recorder features and pieces that combine players of various skill levels. We know that many of you have enjoyed this in Music K-8 with tunes such as Fantasia On A Christmas Spiritual and Finale Maestoso. When you listen to the excerpts of our music online, look at the description to see exactly what you are hearing. Listen to our music (more of it with each month) at the web site that will soon grow into the most indispensable online resource for your program: RecorderClassroom.com
• Amazing Online Content! Every issue will have a wide array of great content available on our web site. Just the nature of the subject matter makes downloadable material more appropriate. We will have optional parts, scores, teaching aids, and files for color printing and projection. Just in the first issue alone, you will find files to print flash cards for Artie's game, the files needed to construct your own Recorder Dude (see slideshow, above right), the score and advanced parts for the Virtual Consort work, color posters, optional percussion parts for some tunes, and much more.

  One of the coolest things tied to Recorder Classroom is that your subscription will entitle you and your students full access to all versions of the innovative new online motivator and teaching tool, Recorder Rock Star! This feature alone may well be worth the subscription price, but we'll let you be the judge of that.

  This cool web-based program is a way for your students to play any song, with the teacher or a fellow student keeping score for the performance. It features many ways to motivate the players to higher standards of performance, and in the end, each performance is rewarded with the cool-looking certificate that you can print (free) from the site to your printer. This is going to be a student favorite and we can't wait to have you try it!

Pricing

The special Charter Subscription is just $49.95 for magazines and CDs. You can also get a Downloadable Subscription of PDFs and MP3s for $45.95. Get the "Best Of Both Worlds" for $59.95. This subscription gives you the cool experience of receiving the magazine and CD, plus the ability to immediately download all of the files. And printing from a computer file is fast, colorful, and less painful than standing at a photocopier with your magazine.

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For the price of a song collection, you get a year of excitement and great music! We invite you to join us on the new adventure that is Recorder Classroom. Take a deep breath!

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