Save the date! Monday, October 11th, 2010 12:30 pm – 5:00 pm EDT SoundTree – the leader in turn-key classroom learning systems – invites you to join us for the fi rst-of-its-kind online music technology conference! Admission to this event is free for all music educators.

Introducing the next generation of the SoundBeam - the invisible, expanding keyboard in space. It's a Soundbeam, it's a synthesiser, it's a sampler, It's an amplifier, it's a drum machine - hence the '5'! The team at Soundbeam have been listening to their customers over the past twenty years, and this new version of Soundbeam incorporates a host of new features which users have consistently been asking for.

The following webinars have been added to the SoundTree After School Webinar Schedule: Thur, May 20th: 7-8PM EST Finale 2010 Basics Thur, May 27th: 7-8PM EST Finale 2010 Tips & Tricks for Music Educators Visit http://www.soundtree.com/web-training for more information and to register.

If you’ve been reading the newspapers, listening to the news, or following Facebook and Twitter updates over the past few months, then you know that music programs across the country are being cut at an alarming rate. Just yesterday I received an email from my former cooperating teacher in New Jersey letting me know that the elementary instrumental music program in the district is being cut next year due to drastic reductions in state funding. This district has one of the most respected music programs in the state, and this was certainly upsetting news to hear.

In July 2010, the USC Thornton School of Music presents their annual Pro Tools training workshops for music educators. Held on USC’s University Park Campus, faculty from Thornton’s Music Industry program and representatives from Digidesign will train music educators to teach the official Pro Tools courseware and develop curriculum for teaching digital audio recording related courses in the high school and college classroom. For more information, call (213) 740-3224 or email musicindustry@thornton.usc.edu.

by Sandi MacLeod

Previous issues of SoundTree's newsletter on Music Technology in Education, SoundWAVES, have been archived and are available at the following URL: http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs064/1102000675258/archive/1102031634402.html If you currently do not subscribe to SoundWAVES, you may sign up here: http://www.soundtree.com/newsletter

SoundTree now has its own group on Facebook and a feed on Twitter.  Stay in touch with SoundTree and the latest music technology news, events, tech tips and more using these incredible social networking sites.If you are a member of Facebook or Twitter, please subscribe or join today!

While this company has been around for over 10 years in England, it is still one of those best-kept secrets here in the United States.  SoundBeam is a device that converts physical movement into sound.  Using ultrasonic sensors, the SoundBeam system detects the speed, gate and distance of even the smallest movements you make with anything from a fingertip to your entire body.  These ultrasonic signals are converted by the SoundBeam controller into MIDI information that can then be processed by a sound module, keyboard, or sampler.  The controller itself does not make any sound, but it does