So right now I’m trying to set up The Evan Thomas Institute- The Initial Music Program. They suggest using a perfect pitch Xylophone. LOL of course they have one for sale that is not advertised on their website. Its actually pretty reasonably priced. Just under $60, then just under $40 to ship to Canada. I’m waiting for them to email me an image if they have one.
Does anyone have this xylophone? Or has anyone run this program with their little ones. I’m hoping I can get a look at this and find something comparable locally for a bit cheaper.
Any suggestions would be great!
Here is the link to the old Xylophone they sold:
http://images.miretail.com/products/optionLarge/RhythmBand/DV016_Jpg_Large_468059_front_with_mallets.jpg
I was able to find the supplier online :http://www.rhythmband.com/default.aspx?page=item+detail&itemcode=RB2207
The new one apparently has 20 bells, but since the program I have only has 17, I think that will be good enough.
I just emailed them about shipping info. From the website is sounds like they charge 20% or the actually cost to ship, which ever is higher.
Then I also found this:
http://www.long-mcquade.com/products/205/Drums/World_Percussion/Angel/25_Note_Xylophone_With_Mallets.htm
Which is located just down the street from me!!
I would consider using the xylophone for half of the training and then complement it with keyboard or grand piano notes played on the computer/downloaded and burned to CD (you can use LMs for this too). There is a lot of controversy of using bell instruments for PP and whether or not they are truly ideal on account of their timbres. I’d probably put that $100 in a pot to put towards tuning forks but they are sooo expensive! Also, find out the brand of the Xylophone sold and check out the reviews first (I’d just call them up and ask). Some of the best xylophone are manufactured in Germany (or so I have read), and you can even get some that are sold in individual notes/bars. My kids have a very difficult time hitting the specified notes individually to play a song on the xylophone now that they are old enough to use it because they are so close together and it involves a lot of fine motor skills. I can see how it would be very helpful to space them out wider onto a wooden base with velcro, for example, and also just use them individually.