Hi, all...

I'm sorry we didn't make things clear enough... it's not for our
desire to do so. Kory said it well: we want to give you a way of
giving feedback and a nice reward certificate SIMPLY and cheaply.

Yes, we live in a world of GUITAR HERO, but to do something like
that, you'd have to have special software and a unique controller
that would cost us much $$$ to develop and you much money to buy.
Guitar Hero has millions of customers - Recorder Classroom... not so
many.

With that in mind, and because we have gotten some of this feedback,
I wrote an article for the ReClas 1/2 Doodler flyer. Here's what it
says, by and large:

******************************************************************
Don't be afraid to let your students be
Recorder Rock Stars!

New things can be intimidating, and our Recorder Rock Star
site is definitely new. And while it is pretty simple, it is going to
take a bit of learning and a little preparation to get all you can
out of it.
While we haven't gotten a lot of feedback from you yet, what
little we have tells us that we need to do a better job of letting
you know what it's all about, and what you can bring to your program
when you use it. So let's do that.


What is Recorder Rock Star?
Simply put, it is a free web site designed to let you have a
novel way to encourage good performances from your students. Boiled
down to its simplest concept, it is a screen that shows a neat rock
band, and gives you a way to tally a score based on the performance
of any student for any tune. After the performance, we make it easy
to turn the screen into a cool certificate you can print out from any
computer, customized for that student and that performance.
That sounds simple enough. What's the challenge? In our
testing, we found that your mind and body have to work with a couple
of skill sets that take a little practice. What's involved:
- The person keeping score needs to read music, and as they
are reading the tune being played, they need to tap a key
corresponding to the note value. Of course, if the player misses the
note, that value is not added to their total.
- At the end of the tune, an evaluation is also made on tone
quality and other musical aspects of the work, some controlled by the
teacher.
What we have just described are computer gaming skills. They
are simple ones, but they include multi-tasking and hand-eye
coordination. As a computer veteran (I've had a computer for almost
30 years) and a fairly bad gamer, I can understand any reticence you
may have. But there is an easy solution, one that will bring you even
more student participation and a special way of rewarding other
students for skills beyond their performances on recorder. Let us
explain.

Hail The Score Master!
We encourage teachers to learn how to keep score. It's not
really that hard, with a little practice. Honest... really... believe
us... If we can do it, so can you. But that's not the point. We
encourage you to learn so you can oversee the kids that you make the
REAL score keepers. Truly, you need to elevate the job of ScoreMaster
to a much-coveted position among your students. It may well be of
most interest to your computer-savvy kids, but then, that's a lot of
them these days. Here's the plan:
- The Set Up - Tell each class that you will have a special
job that will let them show off their music and computer skills at
the same time. Show them the web site and describe the task at hand:
scoring players in real time as they play songs.
- Training - The learning process for your ScoreMasters should
take place separate from actually playing tunes with Recorder Rock
Star. We recommend that you use the full recordings of tunes so they
hear the recorder, and as the tune is played, your prospective
ScoreMasters keep score on a computer. Once a student has
successfully followed the music and scored correctly for three
separate tunes, he can be an official ScoreMaster. If you want to
take it away from class time, allow students to practice in small
groups or at least with a partner to watch their work.
- Time To Play - Make a big deal of introducing new
ScoreMasters. They are in positions of honor. To ensure best scoring,
you should probably have a second student (an apprentice?) watch the
scoring to make sure that everything goes well.
- Reward Your ScoreMaster! - If you use Recorder Karate with
your program, consider having a special belt for your ScoreMasters,
maybe a gold one or some color not in the program.
You can learn more about belts at our web site, as well as
all of the details about accessing the Recorder Rock Star site and
instructions for using it. That's:
RecorderClassroom.com
******************************************************************
Let me know if that helps...

Hope so,

Paul

--
*****************
Paul Jennings
Plank Road Publishing, Inc.
Publisher of MUSIC K-8 magazine & RECORDER CLASSROOM magazine
Wauwatosa, WI
pj@prpmk8.com
http://www.MusicK8.com
http://www.RecorderClassroom.com
http://www.GoldenRuleMusic.com
http://www.MusicK8Kids.com
http://www.SchoolMusicMatters.com
http://www.MooToobMoosic.com