Everyone knows that guitars and ukuleles are made out of wood, but not as widely known are how different types of wood can affect an instrument’s sound. When shopping for instruments (whether online or at your local music store!), you’re going to see a lot of mentions of woods like mahogany, rosewood, spruce, maple, ebony, and so many more! The variety of tonewoods used in crafting these instruments is enough to make your head spin, but that’s where we come in! Below, you can find a comprehensive list of tonewoods utilized in instrument creation. The list is handily split up into “Top Woods” (tonewoods exclusively used for the top, or “soundboard”, of a guitar/ukulele) and “Body Woods” (tonewoods most often used on the back/sides of the instrument), and includes a brief description of the overall sound that each individual tonewood brings to the instrument. The top piece of wood on a guitar is the first point of contact for the vibrations coming from your strings, so it has the biggest overall effect on the instrument’s tone. The body wood expands upon that original tone, filling out the sound with tonal characteristics unique to each tonewood!  One final thing to note: while tonewood choiceå can give a great indication of what they will sound like, every single instrument is different! The best way to get a full sense of what a guitar or uke sounds like is to drop by your local music store and hear each individual one for yourself. Top Woods: Spruce: Easily recognizable by its light colour, Spruce is a go-to for classical players looking to add projection and brightness to their sound, and is essentially the standard for steel-stringed players! The tightness of the wood causes increased resonance of whatever sound you transfer into the guitar, which means you can really fill the room with the sound of many different styles of playing! Spruce also comes in a few different varieties, each with their own little intricacies. Sitka Spruce: One of the most common tonewoods there is, Sitka Spruce is a consistently-available and well-rounded wood for soundboards. A very stiff-yet-light wood, Sitka Spruce has the dynamic range to project heavy strums and folk fingerpicking with strong fundamentals. Engelmann Spruce: As well as being a little lighter in colour that Sitka, Engelmann Spruce is a lighter and less stiff type of Spruce.This leads to a slightly richer midrange and more overtones than Sitka, making this a fantastic choice for classical and fingerpicking players! European Spruce: This Spruce is an amazing combination of power and warmth. Able to have rich highs as well as calm lows with a soft touch, European Spruce has an incredible versatility that brings out the best in flatpicking, fingerpicking, and classical players alike! Moon Spruce: “Moon” Spruce refers to the lunar phase in which the wood is harvested, as the rising and falling of sap is affected by the moon (just like the tides!).  By harvesting the wood at a time where the sap of the tree is at its lowest, it’s protected by insects and fungus, thus increasing its durability. This process results in a superior quality of Spruce which contracts tighter during drying, has a lower carbon footprint, and requires no toxic wood preservatives!. Western Red Cedar: A tonewood seemingly destined for fingerpicking and classical players, Cedar is a common staple on classical guitars from the beginner to professional level! Considerably softer as a tonewood than Spruce, Cedar is much more reserved in its projection by comparison. However, Cedar’s strength comes from its wide tonal pallet and strong overtones that are brought to life by fingerpicking. Due to these strengths, classical and fingerpicking players can get warmth and character out of a Cedar-top guitar that is unmatched! Body Woods: Acacia: Very similar to Koa, Acacia is as close as you can get to that classic Hawaiian ukulele sound without going there yourself. Acacia shares that bright high-end and very warm mid-range with Koa, and even has beautiful, curled patterns to match!  African Mahogany: Very similar to Mahogany, African Mahogany has a strong mid-range presence. However, this type of wood is slightly stiffer and harder than regular Mahogany, thus expanding its frequency response and giving it more overtone production.  Cherry: A dense and hard tonewood, Cherry is a less commonly used wood but is much loved by Canadian-based Godin, Seagull, and Art & Lutherie! Thought by many as similar to Maple, Cherry has much of a presence in its mid and low ranges than the former. The mid-range of Cherry is balanced and rich, with lots of sustain in the lows and mids.   Cocobolo: Described as a “cannon” of a tonewood by some, Cocobolo matches that energy with a truly stunning visual appearance. Sonically comparable to Koa with its bright highs and warm mids, this wood from Central Mexico expands on the former’s low end (though not as much as say Rosewood or Ovangkol). Furthermore, Cocobolo boasts a fast and responsive articulation that guarantees fantastic note distinction for faster players.   Cypress: Treasured by flamenco players the world over, Cypress is a light and soft wood that reflects those traits in its bright yellow-orange appearance. Cypress is often referred to as “bright and percussive”, which makes it perfect for hard-hitting flamenco playing when paired with a Spruce top (this combination is referred to as a flamenco “blanca” guitar).  Ebony: Much like Rosewood, Ebony has a striking dark look to it with dark brown streaks down the grain. A very strong hardwood, this Madagascar-harvested tonewood has an incredibly strong bass response, clear highs, and a little bit of a mid-range scoop (also like Rosewood!). Ebony takes a little extra time to open up when compared to other woods, but the wait is worth it! This tonewood tends to favor heavy-strumming or heavy-handed players, so if you’re looking for a guitar you can really give it your all with, look no further than Ebony!  Granadillo: While often thought of as similar to Indian Rosewood, Granadillo has its own unique perks. While having a very similar range to Rosewood, Granadillo has much more of a ring in the high end due to its density and hardness. This combination of a Rosewood-esque low-end and high-end clarity makes it the perfect pairing with a Spruce soundboard.  Koa: A staple in the history of Hawaiian ukuleles, Koa is like a beautiful combination of Mahogany and Maple in terms of its sound. This tropical tonewood has a very warm sound which the ukulele has come to be known for and has a lot of brightness at the beginning of the instrument’s life. As Koa is played more and more, the wood opens up and that beautiful warmth comes through to an incredible degree!  Mahogany: Possibly the most commonly used tonewood in the history of guitars, Mahogany is a hardwood that boasts a big midrange boost that any type of player will love. Mahogany is a beautiful wood to complement both Spruce and Mahogany top woods; and while it may not have the brilliant highs and deep lows of Rosewood, it has a distinctive character to its sound that’s earned its place in guitar history.   Mango: Another visually intricate tonewood, Mango is an immediately eye-catching wood that has the sonic qualities to match! Mango has deep resonating bass projection as well as an incredible warmth to its mid-range. This projection is matched by its lengthy sustain, meaning that Mango will absolutely make its presence known whenever it’s played!  Maple: One of the brightest and prettiest woods you’ll ever hear and see, Maple truly has a unique place in the world of tonewoods. This very dense hardwood has a rapid note decay, a strong fundamental, and little overtones. This makes it a great choice for performers in a live environment, as the strong fundamental sits nicely in a mix of instruments and the fewer overtones reduces the chance of feedback. For these same reasons, it’s also a great tonewood for larger-body guitars!   Myrtlewood: Native to California and Oregan and frequently used by Breedlove, Myrtlewood is a beautifully vibrant tonewood that combines the best features of Maple, Mahogany, and Rosewood. The highs, mids, and lows of a Myrtlewood instrument are pronounced, rich, and have the most elegant sustain. In addition to its sound, each cut of Myrtlewood has a unique grain pattern to it, so you can rest assured that your Myrtlewood instrument is one of a kind!  Okoume: Native to West Africa, Okoume is often used as a substitute for Mahogany. Similar to the former’s soundscape, Okoume has a good midrange with a bit more of a warmness to it. This wood has an articulate high-end with short sustain due to the quicker decay of its higher overtones.  Ovangkol: A highly sustainable wood from West Africa, Ovangkol shares a lot of sonic similarities with Rosewood.This includes a deep low-end and solid highs but expands upon Rosewood’s range by filling out its mid-range. A great and cost-effective tonewood that’s suitable for a plethora of styles.    Rosewood: Among the most versatile of body tonewoods, Rosewood takes the midrange of Mahogany and expands it in both directions. A very hard wood, its deep low ends and bright, crisp highs make sure that every note in a chord is beautifully present. East Indian Rosewood ranges from a chocolate brown to a beautiful purple colour, and is used today in lieu of Brazilian Rosewood, which is highly regulated. With its massive range and stunning clarity, every player can appreciate the beauty and soundscape of Rosewood.  Sapele: While often thought of as a variant to Mahogany, Sapele has made quite a name for itself in the world of tonewoods! This highly sustainable tonewood has a striking reddish hue, which makes it immediately recognizable when compared to Mahogany. Tonally, Sapele has a similar mid-range warmth to mahogany, but with a little extra high-end shimmer.  Walnut: Much like Koa, Walnut is a tonewood that grows over time the more you play it! Originally having a very bright top end due to the wood’s stiffness, the low-end opens up considerably over time. In addition to these changes, Walnut’s mid-range delivers fantastic clarity and a great amount of sustain.  Ziricote: One of the more visually striking tonewoods, Ziricote is a premium choice for players looking to match an intricate look with a sound that can fill a room. Its deep, booming bass is matched by high overtone production and long-lasting sustain. Classical, baroque, and flamenco players will appreciate the effect Ziricote has when performing, and everyone can appreciate the look of it! 

School Instrument Repairs Ed Dumas I remember seeing in some very old band rooms a quite large sink which was maybe just a bit smaller than a basic bathtub in a house. This sink, sometimes placed in the band room, and sometimes placed in a side room, was intended as a place for band teachers to bathe the brass instruments. Over the years these old schools were being rebuilt due to just being worn out, and I have noticed that these large sinks were rarely included in the new buildings. Sometimes the band teacher would still get a small kitchen-sized sink in his or her office, but rarely did they ever include a sink large enough to fit a tuba. Today, many music programs do not even have access to a sink within the music room. I can understand the reluctance to include such a thing in new buildings as there is a substantial cost to add any extra plumbing. I also understand that music teachers are more stressed today than ever before, and have more duties to complete with less available time to complete them. It is no surprise, then, that many music teachers simply cannot afford the time that is required to service a fleet of school-owned instruments, and those sinks are simply not used as much as they used to be. Still, I look back at all the many things that I have done over the years to keep a fleet of instruments in working order, and I wonder where that all came from. I believe the correct answer is “Necessity.” I learned how to do some things, just because I had to. Here is an example of necessity. In my VERY first school year of teaching, at our very first concert, just before our very first tune even, but of course after I had introduced the first piece of music to the parents, I was about to launch into the downbeat  when I hear a loud whisper “Mr. Dumas!” I kind of looked around as if to say “Not now!” and then I hear a more persistent “Mr. Dumas!” Just then our tenor sax player holds up one of the rods of his tenor sax that had just fallen off his instrument! So, to a few chuckles, I asked the parents if they would just pause a minute before we start while I check on this. It turned out to be just a screw at the end of a rod that had come too loose leaving enough gap for the rod to fall out. “Not a problem, easy fix,” I thought. I put the rod back in place, and use my thumbnail in place of a small screwdriver to turn the screw enough to keep the rod in place. That should get us through the concert at least. But once I got the rod back on, I realized the needle spring was now not in the correct position, so the rod was flopping around still unplayable. So, I undo the screw, take the rod off again, and this time re-position with the needle spring on the correct side of the stopper on the rod, and tighten it up one more time. Good to go. This only took a couple of minutes to complete, but it certainly seemed like ages under the gaze of the parents. Lesson learned about positioning the spring as the rod goes back on as well as teaching students what to look for on their instrument so that rods do not fall off at inopportune times. (Is there such a thing as an opportune time for a rod to fall off?) The trick for new teachers is finding that line between knowing what to do to fix a problem, and knowing when you should most definitely leave it for a qualified repairman. Here is another story to illustrate how easy repairs can become very expensive at the hands of someone who does not know. I had a student trombone player, let's call him Mark (names have been changed to protect the innocent!), who came in one day with a substantial dent on the bell of his instrument. It was more like several dents, but they were back from the bell about one foot, and it looked like the round tube was now made square-ish. When I asked him about it, I could see that this was very emotional for Mark as tears began to well up in his eyes. “Don’t worry,” I said. “This is actually very minor. A good repairman will be able to get this dent out to the point where you will likely not even be able to tell that there was a dent there before.” I explained to Mark how the repairman had this special tool called a mandril that was the exact shape of the bell. It goes up into the bell of the horn, and then they use a special leather mallet to gently tap out the metal until all of the dents are gone. I tried to take enough time to calm Mark and let him know that it will all be okay. “The most important thing,” I said, “was to just leave it alone and after your parents have okayed the work, I will take the horn away and send it to be fixed up.” Well, Mark was still emotional about it, and that night tried to undo whatever mistake had caused this little problem. So, he put a broom handle up the bell and tried to “reem out” all the dents with that broom handle. The trouble is, the metal does not become smooth this way even if the dents start to come out. So, he just kept going and going. Mark then opened up the tubing of that bell piece so large that the entire instrument now played about one quarter-tone flat. The instrument was destroyed, the parents had to pay for the full value of the instrument, and then they still had to rent another one to keep the student in the band program. For me, the worst of it was that I ended up losing him soon anyway when I thought he would have enjoyed being in the band program in his senior years. I have used that story numerous times to illustrate to students and parents why they should not mess with instruments when things go wrong. Stress to your students and parents that things will go wrong. At those moments, the first thing they should do is ask you, the teacher, about it, and not try something on their own. If you cannot deal with it, then it should most certainly go to a repair shop. What Things Should Students Do? Students should be taught how to do some very basic kinds of servicing on their horns. All students should know how to wash out their mouthpiece, or flute head, once per month or more. This is mainly for sanitary reasons, but even brass mouthpieces that do not get washed frequently start to close in at the throat. This means playing it becomes more difficult, so students should wash it often. Make sure you show students how to use the PROPER mouthpiece brush. Using a reed mouthpiece brush on a brass mouthpiece will not fit, and using a brass mouthpiece brush on a reed mouthpiece risks scratching the inside of the mouthpiece. Tell your students, too, that they should use gentle dishwashing soap, the kind you would use to do dishes by hand. Beginning woodwind players should also know how to swab an instrument dry to protect the pads, and that they should NOT leave the swab in the case. That just puts the moisture back onto the instrument. Put the swab in an outside pocket of the case, or tie it to the case handle. Beginners should also know how to use a rag (not the swab!), to wipe off the corks or the joints of the instruments. They should clean off where metal touches metal such as the neck of a sax, the head of a flute, or the shank of a brass mouthpiece. This keeps these parts moving smoothly. Once it is clean if it is still slow and hard to slide together, wipe one finger across their brow to gather a bit of skin oil, and wipe that on the metal. That is plenty. Keep the cork grease just for the corks. Young clarinet players should also know how to check for dryness of the cork before adding more grease. They can also use Q-tips to clean the cork grease out of the finger holes of the clarinet, which happens after they apply cork grease with their fingers. Beginning sax players should also know to keep the end stopper in the sax when it is in the case, as this keeps the octave key mechanism from being damaged. Beginning brass players should know how to oil the valves by wiping off the old oil on a rag before applying new. They can also learn how to wipe off old slide grease from slow slides before applying new grease. The faster trombone main slide requires a similar treatment of wiping off old before applying new, but use slide oil, not grease. New brass players should also be reminded to check how close the slow slides (like the main tuning slide) are to seizing. When the student attempts to move the slow slide and it “pops,” meaning it suddenly jumps in or out, this is a huge warning sign. Students may have only a few weeks or less before that instrument needs to go in to get the slide unstuck. Wiping off and applying grease now can prevent that. There is a good explanation of slides in the article “Slide Lubrication” and is worth a visit if you have not read it. What Things Should Parents Do? Nothing. Okay, that might be a bit extreme, but Dads that are paying the bills for their child to play an instrument tend to get a bit neurotic when something goes wrong with the instrument. And things do go wrong. I have seen more plier scratches on trumpet mouthpieces and lead pipes than I care to think about. Many of those trumpets would come back to me from defeated fathers who still could not get the mouthpiece out. I would take out my trusty mouthpiece puller and pop the mouthpiece out in seconds in front of the student (and sometimes Dad). This would make the Dad feel doubly foolish for leaving the scratches behind. Stress to your parents that the role of the parent is to NOT try to fix the instrument unless they happen to be a musician or musical instrument repairman of course. Instead, they should just keep the student calm when things wrong (and they will…), and then just direct the child back to you. You can then decide what the next step is, and usually, it is not nearly as bad as they think it is. What Should the Band Teacher Do? There are plenty of things that band teachers can learn to do that can help solve some of the problems when things go wrong. (Need I say this again…) These are things like knowing how to put a spring back on a flute, clarinet, or sax. Popped-off springs are very common and if you can do this in a few seconds, you can save everyone some dollars and lots of wasted class time. You might even want to know how to reposition rods that come loose because the end screws have come undone too far. Keep in mind that you must not overtighten as then the rod and key will not move at all. If the end screw keeps coming undone, then send it to a repairman for a more long-term fix. For your flute players, you should also know how to set the cork in the flute head by using the line marked on the flute cleaning rod. It is even worthwhile knowing how to remove the cork, wipe it clean, and re-grease it to set it again. This is something that your senior players could also do, and it will help with the intonation of their flutes. Your senior flute players may also want to know how to clean off a sticky flute pad with pad paper. New band teachers should know how to bathe a brass instrument, even if you may not use it very often or at all. If you have bathed instruments a few times, you will be able to teach this to your senior students better, and this could save them some funds. New band teachers need to know how to re-assemble brass valves, both trumpet style with spring on top, and euphonium style with spring on the bottom. I have seen students accidently disassemble these valves completely, and then not know how to put them back together. They have been directed to see you first, so if you know how to reassemble that trumpet valve, you can save days of waiting for an instrument to go into the shop. Here, you might want to revisit the article “Why Do Trumpet Valves Jam?” for a good explanation of how to avoid these problems, and how to diagnose the problem when it happens. Also, band teachers should have a quality mouthpiece puller that will fit any size brass mouthpiece. Practice using this puller on older dead instruments until you are comfortable using it. For percussion instruments, it is useful to know how to put on a new head on a snare drum or bass drum. I have never seen one break, but I have seen them become so worn that they are dead. This is a simpler job than you would think once you have seen it done and once you understand the concept of tightening the lugs “across the clock.” Know What to Not Do Knowing what to do is important, but it is just as important, or maybe more, to know what to not do. The trouble here is that the list of “Don’ts” is just so much longer than the “Do’s.” Our human brain is just so good at imagining things, that we are very creative at ways to screw things up, even if we did not mean to. It is quite literally impossible to cover all of the don’ts, but here are a few common ones that I have seen. You might want to teach these to your students. Don’t bathe a woodwind instrument! Flutes, clarinets, and saxes really do not like water, so putting a woodwind instrument in water to “clean” it will do far more harm, maybe even destroy it! Just don’t! Don’t take dents out yourself! Do I need to repeat Mark’s story? Don’t leave instruments on chairs! The safest place for a musical instrument is laying on the floor. I have NEVER seen a musical instrument get stepped on in my entire life, but I have seen them fall off more things than I could ever possibly count. Chairs are the most common. Don’t leave instruments on beds either! Okay, this one is for your students, but I have seen more banana-shaped flutes because of practicing on a bed than I care to think about. The student is practicing away, gets distracted by a phone (yes, this was a thing even before Smartphones!), goes out of the room, comes back into the room, forgets the flute is on the bed and sits on bed and flute. Cases are your best friend. The floors are pretty good too. Don’t leave flutes on music stands! Loose stand bolts mean big bills for flute players. Don’t stand an instrument on its bell! Unless you have a dedicated instrument stand, just don’t do it. See the above comment. Don’t try to put on woodwind pads yourself! A fair number of old-school band teachers, even before me, used to temporarily put a clarinet pad back on with a lighter. Just don’t. Those days are over since we discovered what plastic is about. Plastic and heat are a bad mix. Don’t try to free a stuck slide yourself! Okay, maybe try some gentle tugs and see how bad it is. But if it will not move soon after, just leave it for a repairman. Forcing a stuck slide could mean increasing the bills because you can break solder joints and bend tubes. Don’t forget to ask! If you do not know but would like to, please ask. For example, if you are unsure how to remove the cork from a flute (it goes through the bottom of the flute head), get some information first. Pushing that flute head through the top (small) end will stretch the metal out and potentially damage the flute head. All instruments have their little quirks and knowing some of the more common ones will help. Using a Qualified Service Department Students that are renting or own their instrument should consider having their instrument serviced by a pro every year or two at the most. This is especially true for beginners who may not be ready to service their instrument themselves. But even as the students get older, they may find it still needs to go into the shop more often as the instrument has aged, because now the instrument is beginning to show wear. Sending in your school-owned horns each year to the Tapestry Service Team is well worth the investment. I know it is an expense to music programs that are underfunded these days, but in the long run, there is money saved by not spending on “things that didn’t go wrong.” For example, flutes and clarinets that are left unopened after a student has played it for a while and then returned it to the school, will deteriorate on their own. This happens because usually, the student has left moisture in the case from either not swabbing, or leaving a wet swab in the case. The wetness allows mites to grow. The mites eat the pads of the instrument as a food source. After a year or two of not being played, you then open the case to discover huge chunks taken out of the pads. This causes a much bigger bill than just a basic service at the moment when the instrument was returned to the school. For brass players, stuck slides and valves can grow more stuck over time. The finish on the instrument also gets more corroded from fingerprints that are not removed. Build-up on valves and in tubes becomes harder to remove later after it has had time to dry and set. One of the ways that I found basic yearly servicing valuable was by stocking the instruments with all the necessary supplies for the next player to begin. This way I did not need to take valuable class time to hunt down all the things that each different instrument needed. I could simply go into the instrument room, choose from the serviced instruments, such as flutes, clarinets, trumpets, and so on, and then hand these instruments out. I knew that if I sent the instrument in for servicing, part of my ask of the service department was that all valve oils, slide oils, swabs, starter reeds, flute cleaning rods, and any other necessary supplies were already in the case. I wanted my instruments to have the same supplies that a store-owned rented instrument would contain so that the startup for the students was faster. That task alone saved me many hours of class time every year. I encourage you to talk to your local Tapestry Music rep and schedule a time to look at which instruments need to go in for servicing. The reps are capable enough that they can tell you which ones are very urgent, and which can be delayed if necessary. Having all this done over the summer is one of the best ways you can ensure a smooth and faster startup with less stress for you and more fun for your students. Your administrators will understand the concept of Deferred Maintenance, or delay the maintenance to some unspecified point in the future. Our school system in BC is struggling under an overwhelming amount of deferred maintenance. During the time of political restraint created in the early 2000s, about 15 years of Deferred Maintenance created a system that is now being crushed under some extreme bills for school repairs. Administrators understand that Deferred Maintenance means more than just delaying costs, it also means substantially increasing costs.     Ed Dumas is a retired band director who taught his entire career in the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows School District. Ed is now living with his lifelong partner Laurie in Parksville, BC.  Ed & Laurie also work as Mid-Island reps for Tapestry Music while enjoying making music in retirement.   You can find Ed’s other writings for the MusicED Blog at: https://www.tapestrymusic.com/news.aspx   If you are not receiving these articles regularly and would like to, please send an email to [email protected] to join our email contact list!

Building A Library Ed Dumas As a music teacher, one of your most important functions will be to choose the music that your students will learn. Many of the pieces that you choose will certainly come from an already existing library, but at least some will be new music recently purchased by you for your music program. The choices that you make now in purchasing music for your program will ripple into the future and will continue to affect what you can choose from your existing library to reuse and replay once again. It is important, then, to make sure that you choose wisely when purchasing new band music to add to your library collection. You will want to ensure that the items you are choosing now have lasting value that can be replayed in future years. Items that are purchased today which have less “repeatability” means that future years have less choice and more financial cost associated with fulfilling your repertoire needs. Below are some suggestions as to how you can ensure more repeat usability for your library by only purchasing great selections for your concert bands and jazz bands. Look for Repeatability Avoid purchasing music that is very trendy but has a short lifespan. This often includes this year’s favourite pop/rock tune, or theme to the latest TV hit show. For example, I am sure there are thousands of music programs across North America whose library contains the theme from the TV show “Friends,” but I am not at all sure how many students today have ever watched the series. Offerings such as these may seem nostalgic to the person buying the chart but are guaranteed to be almost valueless to future generations. Amidst the excitement of purchasing something recognizable, try to determine how much staying power a trendy arrangement will have. It might be easy to say that new purchases should stay away from all theme music, but that could also cause you to not choose an arrangement which may have lasting staying power. For example, not choosing the James Band theme for your jazz band might be missing an opportunity, since the James Bond 007 spy thriller genre of movies has been going strong for 60+ years so far while the world is impatiently waiting for the next installment to be released. Sometimes it is okay to choose what you know is a one-year chart for either concert band or jazz band knowing that you will use it to raise the profile of your music program. If you use this strategy, though, I would suggest you fix a limit on how much of your budget will be dedicated to short-term music to ensure that repeatability in your library is still maintained. One of the major facets of repeatability is the concept of writing music specifically for the wind band genre, as opposed to transcribing or arranging something written for another medium. I mentioned above the issue of pop/rock tunes being used in a wind band setting, and most music teachers understand how far apart these two mediums are. The nature of electric guitars, bass guitars, and drum sets does not translate well into a wind band using flutes, clarinets, brass and divided concert percussion. But beyond that discussion, consider the more subtle ramifications of transcribing from orchestra to a wind band setting. While these charts can be more successful than pop/rock tunes to wind band settings, they are still often less successful than the writings created by composers specifically for winds and percussion. This is often because specific challenges of writing for strings vs writing for winds do not line up exactly, or even close, for that matter. Even within the winds, writing for one group such as clarinets with the “over the break” challenges is completely different than for brass with their harmonics challenges. A great composer writing specifically for the wind medium can be more precise in their writing for all winds to create a product that is more exciting or more beautiful than a transcription, or both. I would encourage you to choose more specifically composed works for winds, and fewer transcriptions from any other medium brought to the winds. You will find wind compositions to give you more longevity of use in future years. Collect Festival Syllabus Lists I used to keep a paper file of printed syllabus lists from various festivals which I could use as suggestions for new music choices. While this was cumbersome to keep and read through, today's technology allows for a digital file to be kept with all sorts of syllabus selections that can be sorted according to grade level. Festival syllabus lists can be especially valuable since these are selections which some of our finest music educators have already agreed are excellent quality works which will retain playability for many years to come. MusicFest Canada syllabus is a great place to start looking for quality arrangements. This list also contains a large quantity of Canadian content. Even if you are not attending the festival, you are welcome to scan the list and listen to the choices at each level to find quality selections for your students. Local festivals often do not contain a specific syllabus list but are still useful in helping choose your selections for your students. The first place to look would be in attending a winner's performance evening concert where the finest groups from the festival are showcased. Here you will find other teachers’ selections that can lead to great choices for your students. If you are participating in a festival with your students, plan on listening to some other groups in their adjudications. Here you will find selection recommendations from colleagues that can help you with your future music library purchasing choices. Attend Concerts Attend concerts held by your colleagues, community groups, or local university music programs, and while there, keep the program handout. Always take with you to concerts a pen or pencil to write on the program any notes about specific arrangements you heard that might be exciting for your students. Later you can put the program in a paper file, or more likely today, keep a digital file of pieces that you heard that you would like to later acquire. Attend Tapestry Music Reading Clinic Every year, Tapestry Music assembles some of the best new publications for concert bands and jazz bands and presents these new offerings to teachers in a reading clinic. The reading clinics give teachers a chance to play through the new publications, or even to just sit and listen to them performed live. These events are a great opportunity to hear firsthand how successful the new charts might be for your students. One of the biggest advantages of attending the Reading Clinics is that the music has been pre-selected, which means someone with a long history of wind music has already approved the composition as worthwhile to include in the clinic. This year Ken Surges, who has an extremely long history with wind music, is once again choosing the concert band music, while Dave Sabourin, the owner of Tapestry Music, is choosing the jazz band repertoire. The date for the two reading clinics presented this summer will be August 23rd, 2023 in Surrey, BC., and August 24th, 2023, in Lake Country, BC. Contact your local Tapestry Music rep about information to register for either reading clinic. Bring your horn, too! Attend BCMEA Clinics The BC Music Educators Association annual convention has long been an excellent source of advice regarding repertoire for wind bands and jazz bands. There are sometimes workshops called “Desert Island Five” which present teachers’ suggestions of their five favourite works that they could not be without if they were stranded on a “Desert Island.” These events provide excellent resource suggestions for teachers as they most often come from current working teachers who are finding success using the works they have chosen. While at the BCMEA convention, also make note of the honour group performances. The honour groups are ensembles made up of the most talented students in the province and led by prestigious conductors from around the world. The music chosen for these honour groups is always of high calibre and is worth considering adding to your library in future years. Teaching Music Through Performance in Band This series of books and recordings is an indispensable set that has huge value for music teachers everywhere. Released by GIA Publications, this original series for wind bands is now up to twelve volumes and on a second edition of books! The series has also been extended to present volumes for other groups including orchestra, choir, jazz band, and young ensembles. The idea in this series is that the music selected is considered some of the best available for each type of performing group, and is presented by grade level for each group. Writeups and analyses of the selection are also presented to help the classroom teacher judge the suitability of the recommendation for their students. Full-length recordings of all the music chosen are also provided, and these recordings can be of significant value to you and your students. Purchase of the entire set in any one category can be daunting to say the least, considering how encompassing this series has become. But even just adding a single volume each year can soon add up to an extremely useful teacher resource for finding high-quality literature for your groups. A good plan could be having your school district purchase one complete set for whatever performance groups are offered in your district and make them available for all music teachers through a district lending library system. Even one central music program having a complete set and offering it to all other music teachers is a good possibility as well. Contact your local Tapestry rep if you need help with this resource. Get to Know Historical Repertoire Some of the great names from the beginnings of the wind band genre should never be forgotten. These include writers such as Gustav Holst, Alfred Reed, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Clare Grundman and Percy Grainger among many, many others. While you may not want to program for only the historical greats, it is important to expose your students to at least some of this repertoire during their time in your program. One substantial traditional work per year is probably sufficient. Get to Know the Modern Greats At the same time, it is important to know who the current leading composers are. Frank Ticheli is a name right now that is huge on everyone’s list of great modern composers who are changing the world of wind bands. But beyond Frank Ticheli are many others, such as James Swearingen, Randal Standridge, Robert W. Smith, Elizabeth Raum, Eric Whitacre, and David Holsinger. So many great modern composers write specifically for wind bands at all levels that there is no reason to be satisfied with poor-quality choices. Once you become well-versed in the various composers who write specifically for winds (as opposed to transcribing from another medium), you will find that you will soon be able to name the composer after hearing only a few moments of the music, even if you have never heard that specific creation before. You will come to know the undeniable sound of each composer and will immediately think of them when you hear a new work they have just created. Get to Know the Canadian Greats Finally, music teachers in Canada should know that we have a strong and vibrant history of composing music specifically for wind bands in this country. Canada’s best composers include Howard Cable, Robert Buckley, Morley Calvert, John Weinzweig, Donald Coakley, Andre Jutras, Elizabeth Raum, Vince Gassi, and many, many more. Here on the West Coast, we are blessed to have the amazing Robert Buckley nearby. I have worked with Robert several times and conducted his compositions more times than I can count. I am always impressed at how fine his compositions are and how pleasant he is to work with at the same time. I would encourage you all to include some Robert Buckley and other Canadian content each year with your students and point out to them just how much Canadian content is all around us in the wind band literature. Wish List Finally, I would like to recommend that you keep a wish list of compositions that you would like to perform with your students. You will find new additions to the wish list at just about any time of your day. You never know when a moment strikes you that need to write down the name of a piece of music that you just heard as something that “someday” you need to go back to. Keeping these names of compositions in one place, preferably digitally, will help you do a quick scan later when you are finding that you are missing that one “certain” piece for one of your groups. If the Wish List was kept digitally and accessible from your smartphone, you would find that the list is more useful to add names to or use names from the list. When you get your mindset into a mode of developing a great library of wind band literature, it seems like great options for inclusion always just kind of appear and make themselves known to you. No longer will you and your students be satisfied with the “latest pop tune” to be transcribed for the concert band. When compared to great musical literature composed specifically for concert bands at the level of your group, pop music just seems to be missing so much depth and longevity. Searching for the next great concert band composition becomes an exciting search which enriches the student performance. Original concert band compositions will give your students more “protein in the meal” that helps them continue to progress and develop as musicians.     Ed Dumas is a retired band director who taught his entire career in the Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows School District. Ed is now living with his lifelong partner Laurie in Parksville, BC.  Ed & Laurie also work as Mid-Island reps for Tapestry Music while enjoying making music in retirement. You can find Ed’s other writings for the MusicED Blog at: https://www.tapestrymusic.com/news.aspx If you are not receiving these articles regularly and would like to, please send an email to [email protected] to join our email contact list!