New Beginner Band Course from Rising Software
I’m really excited to announce the launch of a brand new beginner band curriculum for music theory and ear training, now included in Auralia and Musition and the MusicFirst Classroom. This new Beginning Band Course is available as part of MusicFirst’s Performance Solution and is designed to support the earliest stages of band instruction with structured, developmentally appropriate musicianship learning. If you are a current MusicFirst Classroom user, you will find this new course, as well as the new Beginning Orchestra course, in the MusicFirst Content Library under the Band and Orchestra categories, as of today.
Beginning band students are learning fundamental instrumental skills at the same time they are developing music literacy. Reading notation, understanding rhythm, recognizing pitch, and listening critically are all essential to successful ensemble performance, yet these skills can be difficult to reinforce consistently within limited rehearsal time. The Beginning Band Course provides a way to support this learning directly within MusicFirst Classroom, reinforcing what students are doing in rehearsal through focused practice and assessment.
The course centers on the foundational concepts young band students need most. Students build skills in rhythm and meter, note identification, pitch recognition, scales and key signatures, dynamics and articulation, tuning, and basic musical terminology. Activities are automatically assessed, giving students immediate feedback while providing teachers with clear data on individual and ensemble progress.
An important component of the Beginning Band Course is the integration of instrument fingerings with notation. Students see notes on the staff alongside visual representations of how those notes are played on their own instrument. This helps strengthen the connection between reading and playing and supports accurate habits early in a student’s musical development.
Because the Beginning Band Course lives inside MusicFirst Classroom, it fits seamlessly into existing teaching workflows. Assignments can be delivered quickly, progress can be monitored easily, and instruction can be adjusted based on student performance data. The course works alongside the other tools in the MusicFirst Performance Solution to create a cohesive system that supports assessment, practice, and instruction.
The Beginning Band Course reflects MusicFirst’s commitment to supporting strong ensemble performance through solid musicianship. By providing a structured way to develop listening and music literacy skills outside of rehearsal, the course helps students arrive better prepared and allows teachers to focus more rehearsal time on tone, balance, blend, and musical expression. I’m very proud of the work done by the team at Rising Software, as well as the MusicFirst content team, led by Marjorie LoPresti. Well done!
If you would like to review this new resource but you’re not yet a MusicFirst Classroom user, just sign up for a FREE 30-day trial.