A few weeks ago, I was contacted by a man who created a website and an app for beginning instrumentalists.
I checked out his website, and thought this would be fun and engaging for beginning musicians.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Amit Gur, BandPad websites and app creator for my Radio Show on the BAM Radio Network. Here's some of what we talked about….
A little background
Amit holds a BA in computer science from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, and an MA in conducting from Bar Ilan University, along with vast experience in teaching and conducting wind instruments all over Israel. In 2011, Gur published the “First Steps for Wind Instruments and Band” booklet series, and formed a social Community for Instrumental students, serving 150 schools in Israel.
Amit has been teaching beginning Band for the past 20 years. He has written many songs for his students in Israel. He noticed over the years that it's vital to make the first years of playing an instrument fun and exciting so that students enjoy music and continue to perform on their instruments.
What is BandPad?
BandPad innovates instrumental method books by acting as an interactive score; notes on the score can be clicked to reveal fingerings and note names, and music symbols can be clicked to reveal their information as well. It is available for smartphones (Android and iOS), the web, iPad's and projector screens.
It includes 75 of the most popular beginner tunes to play along with. It's important to learn to play tunes to build a musical vocabulary.
At the present time, BandPad is for wind instruments and recorders only. As far as I know, this may be the only program that's interactive for recorders. (Please Comment below if I missed a resource for this.)
It is currently in Beta mode. In a couple of months, teachers can create their own accounts and add their own tunes. Students will also be able to create accounts where teachers can monitor their progress.
Music education is global
Music education can be easily accessed all over the world. Students without access to a teacher can find many resources on the internet that can help them learn how to play an instrument and read music.
The BandPad site is currently being translated into several languages, including Russian and Spanish.
Interestingly enough, an hour before our interview, someone from Trinidad visited BandPad and was interested enough in it to message Amit.
How Can I Access BandPad?
Click here to be brought to the website and see how the site is interactive. You can take a tour to check out all the features.
