Blog Reflection 8

Today's class focused on equipment that might be necessary for your music room. One of the things that was discussed at length was a PA system. Professor Riley showed us a Fender Passport PA system. This system was extremely compact, and seems like something that would be extremely useful for the classroom setting because of its simplicity and size. 

The next item was a mixing board. Professor Riley showed us a couple of different mixing boards and explained how to adjust the pre-amp before adjusting the volumes on all of the channels. Adjusting the volume on each individual channel is to achieve a better balance in an ensemble. 

Professor Riley showed us a small keyboard called a Korg Nanokey. This is a tiny musical keyboard, even smaller than most computer keyboards. I feel that it would work best for schools that didn't use keyboards often, but still needed them for the students. It was explained to us that the school Mrs. Riley teaches at has large Casio keyboards that they only use about once a year. These "nano" keyboards would be a cheaper, and much more compact, way of using keyboards in a classroom, especially when they don't get used very often.

We finished off class by looking at the purchase orders that Mrs. Riley has made over the past couple of years. It was interesting to see how much is actually purchased, and what is needed or useful in the classroom. Using a spreadsheet to sort out all of the different purchases is a great way to keep finances neat and organized.