More Ways to Start: Does pBuzz Increase Participation in Band?

pBuzz, pBone, and pTrumpet plastic wind instruments continue to provide greater accessibility of music to more children in the U.S. and throughout the world. That’s a wonderful thing to say, but we are always looking to learn how educators are using pInstruments in new and innovative ways that make this statement true.  

For example, before the COVID pandemic, the School District of Philadelphia purchased hundreds of pBuzz instruments to increase participation and greater accessibility to instrumental music education.

Frank Machos is the Executive Director for the School District of Philadelphia's Office of The Arts & Creative Learning and gave his insight on the partnership back in 2018. “This illustrates our commitment to ensure access and equity to music education for all students. These plastic instruments – colorful, light, fun to play, and durable - have proved a big hit amongst our teachers and students and have already encouraged many more students to pick up a musical instrument for the first time – and play.” 

One SDP teacher leading the charge is elementary music teacher, Sean McCusker. Before COVID, he was exploring how pBuzz could be used to increase participation in ensembles, especially band. While some of these plans were put on hold due to COVID-19, he was able to restart and, for the past two years, gathered these results.

• Sean implemented a very effective plan for “pre-band” working with classroom music teachers to bring the pBuzz experience to all students in two elementary schools. After two years, students who went through this, and are eligible for band, are joining at far higher rates than in previous years.
• Sean worked with some other pre-band instruments as well and got mixed results.  Students were excited to play the pBuzz, as it is an instrument that is conducive to peer-to-peer and ensemble learning.
• Accessibility and equity – it’s important that every child gets the musical experience at SDP. The choice to continue in music ensembles is in the hands of the students and not limited to opportunity or availability.  Many more students want to join band after learning basic music skills on the pBuzz.

This success is not without its problems, though. Joining band is so much more popular now that there is currently not enough room for all students who want to join.  At another school, scheduling became an issue for every student who wanted to join band. Yet, it’s very exciting to see that the music ‘bug’ is alive and well and bursting out of Philadelphia students exploring their music opportunities with pBuzz.

Teaching with pBuzz provides early skills needed for success in music.  Among the benefits:

• Students learn that they CAN play a real instrument – that translates to any instrument.
• Learning the concepts of how a tone is produced is much easier when it’s external, like with a mouthpiece, and can even promote a better understanding of how other instruments, including the voice box, work for making music.
• Gross motor skills like slide movement translate easily to bow movement and percussion movement. Learning to move air gives every wind and voice student a much larger palette of sound.

It's gratifying that teachers like Sean McCusker have pursued the original vision for Philadelphia student music opportunities and success. Results like these with teachers from across the United States are not uncommon. 

Several teachers have come together to create teaching resources for other teachers to use, including the pBuzz Journey method book and FREE teachers guide. 

Video guides, audio background tracks, and easy-to-follow instructional tools make teaching the basics of music with pBuzz fun and easy. It might even inspire your students to stretch their musical futures beyond what they thought possible.

If you are interested in finding out more about pBuzz and the pBuzz Journey book, fill in the form below to receive a free Teacher's Guide that has everything you need to get started with pBuzz!