It's easy to get off track when you fall out of a routine! Sorry for the absence in the last couple of weeks. This past Saturday was my graduation, hence my absence the week before, and this past week I have been focused like a laser on the job search. Fortunately the job hunt has picked up quite a bit, and if I'm lucky I may land something in the next couple of weeks. Please keep your fingers crossed for me! But on to the blog...
The Idea: Stand Mirrors for Beginner Classes
One of the things I wanted to do with my graduation money (or at least some of it) was to buy teaching materials. One of the biggest ideas was to get a bunch of small mirrors, like compact mirrors (that come with women's make up), that I could put on student's stands so they could watch their embouchure while they play. Usually you only get this with a well equipped lesson teacher, or occasionally a teacher uses one mirror and lets the student see themselves as they play. I don't hear about this often, though, but I've always heard it can be a very valuable tool for students.
After all, if you've tried to teach embouchure to a student, you know that they tend to do things with their lips that you didn't tell them to. And sometimes, even if you tell them not to do a certain thing (move their corners/puff out cheeks, etc. etc.), they'll continue to do it without realizing it. Watching themselves play is probably the only way they can see that they really are still doing whatever it is you asked them not to. After all, aren't some students more visual learners than physical learners?
So what if you could find a way to put a mirror on every stand without burning through a small fortune? Here is a simple solution that I've embarked on - Acrylic mirrors.
Traditional Mirrors vs. Acrylic Mirrors
Traditional mirrors are basically glass with a reflective material on one side so that it reflects through the glass. Acrylic mirrors are basically the same thing, except instead of glass, it's a plastic material, like fiber glass.
Regular mirrors are expensive, and they're also potentially dangerous. I originally looked into regular mirrors at the potential price tag of $3.00 a pop. But then my Risk Management training kicked in. What if I take these to a rough school some day? A kid could potentially break one of the mirrors and use a shard as a deadly weapon. I mean, who knows, right?
So I decided to look for something safer. In comes my grandfather, a life long handy man. He went into his backyard during a recent visit and brought a dirty, scratched up sheet of acrylic mirror. I immediately got pumped.
Making Acrylic Stand Mirrors
This part is actually very easy. It only takes three steps.
1. Find a sheet of acrylic mirror.
Depending on where you live, this might be the hardest part. The Lowe's in where my grandfather lives, for example, has them, but the Lowe's where I live doesn't. This is a shame because the sheet he gave me is pretty scratched up. It won't look completely nice, but I'll still use it as it's definitely better than nothing! He claims that you can get a sheet of 24" x 14" for $10, but I haven't been able to find it that cheap or that small. You can order a sheet a little over twice that size online for $55. I can't remember the size, but I remember estimating it would make 74 4" x 4" mirrors. That's still pretty cheap for the quantity, and MUCH cheaper than glass mirrors!
2. Go to the home improvement store of your choice and have them cut the sheet into squares.
It will be in the Hardware section, and they will do this for you for free. It just takes some time standing around! I chose 4" x 4" squares, but not for any particular reason.
3. File the corners to round them off.
When they're done cutting, the corners of each square won't be sharp enough to cut someone, but they could probably do a little damage. Rounding off the corners will take some time, but it will decrease the risk involved with having them out, and it looks nicer. You'll need a metal file. I bought the cheapest one available for about $5 and it worked just fine. If you have a few extra dollars, you might also pick up a file cleaner. Not being able to easily clean my file added to the time it took to finish the job.
Optional: Add magnets to the back of the mirrors.
This would let you stick them onto the stands and leave them there, but allow you to remove them later at your discretion. I hope to do this later so I don't have to spend a ton of time collecting and distributing mirrors each day. Besides, the less they get handled by the students, the better. After all, I'm sure some students will try to steal them at some point. You just never know.
The Finished Product
Here is how my DIY Stand Mirrors turned out:
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| It's not the prettiest with all the scratches, but... |
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| it's just as reflective as a glass mirror, so it should get the job done! |
If your stores don't have acrylic mirrors, and/or you don't want to pay that much for it, you could buy regular plexiglass (like what drum lines and outdoor groups use to keep music on their stands), have them cut it, and them follow this DIY guide to making your own acrylic mirror on eHow.com.
Alright, that's all for now! I can't wait to put these babies into action! I hope it was helpful, or at least gave you a useful idea or two. Thank you, as always, for reading. Take care, and until next time...
Musically yours,
Mr. Cooper
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