Failure is the Key to Success

A while back I started looking into how a recorder works and came across an article on the Physics of Music Instruments which explained the maths behind the hole sizes and positions.
The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to make my own recorder from scratch to prove I could. I could have started small, but I don’t do things like that. I realised that the inside diameter of my Woodnote bass recorder head was about 40mm (40.4mm) and the waste pipe I had used for making a support to carry my monopod on my bike was also 40mm (actually about 41mm outside diameter). In theory they could be made to fit together and so avoid making a headjoint for a while.

I put the two together and with a pipe about 1.9m long, I got a low note. On investigation, using a software tuner on my computer (Auto Tuner), I found that the note was only a couple of tones lower than my bass recorder, it was obviously a harmonic and reducing the pipe to about 94cm produced the note C3. Hmm, maybe this was not going to be a bass recorder, but a great bass.

I took the formulas from the website and entered them into an Excel spreadsheet so that I could calculate my own hole positions and sizes based on the frequencies needed and once I was sure it was about right, I set about drilling holes. I drilled each hole individually and undersize and then, using the tuner for guidance,opened them out with a needle file to bring up to frequency. After a few hours, I had a waste pipe that, by covering the holes with fingers or tape, would play from C3 to A4 on pitch. I will admit the low C was difficult to achieve without the harmonics forcing it up.

It was totally unplayable, as there was no practical way to reach all the holes, however, my daughter and I could play a scale between us. The next stage was to try making some keys. I picked up some brass rod and tube from B&Q and set about fashioning my own keys. The pads were made from more of the waste pipe with a pad of foam. Springs were made by winding a paper-clip around the brass tube. Initially the brass was glued to platforms of waste pipe that were attached with Superglue to the instrument, but this didn’t prove to be long lasting. The next approach was Araldite and in the end I used brass brackets and then re-enforced areas with Araldite. Working out the key locations, I realised that I should have located the holes differently which would have made keying easier, but this was a prototype after all.

Long before I reached the end of the keying, I realised that it was not going to work. My approach to the keys had created keys that were too flexible with too much movement in them. Also, while the diameter tube was the same as my bass recorder, it didn’t work for the lower notes; the harmonics took over.

The above post was drafted back in May and since then I have explored manufacturing alternate keys, more along the lines of a clarinet key. This has been more successful and at some point I will return to my second prototype. I already have the hole positions calculated for a different pipe size that will make it more practical to key.

Tags:bass recorder,great bass recorder

I’ve missed the boat here! I missed Central Bedfordshire Council’s announcement regarding the re-launch of the music service, Creative thinking to maintain creative services, which was released on 6th June.

On 2nd June, Jo and I attended another stakeholder meeting, held by Central Bedfordshire Council at their offices in Chicksands. The tone of the meeting was very honest and encouraging. It was accepted that the fee rise had proved very negative and hadn’t actually raised any additional revenue. However, a proper business plan was now in place and being reviewed weekly. It is planned that as the numbers of people using the service increases the cost savings can be passed onto the users.

Greater emphasis needed to be put on advertising what is available and increasing the number of people using the service. Different groups had started working together to enable activities to be delivered; an example of that was this summer’s courses that had originally been cancelled. I think everyone at the meeting accepted that what had happened was in the past and that we all needed to work together to make a successful music service for the future.

The future of Dunstable Music Centre is secure for the short term, but increased numbers and an individual business plan will be needed going forward.

I planned to write this post after the council released their statement and then missed the announcement. It is encouraging to be able to write a more positive post than the previous ones in the last few months, let’s hope I wasn’t right earlier.

Tags:Central Bedfordshire Council,Dunstable Music Centre,music service

The fiasco that is the fees rises for Central Bedfordshire Music Service continues. Yesterday, we received an invoice for this term for both my son and daughter’s violin lessons. We had cancelled my daughter’s lessons at the end of March by email and gave notice that we were cancelling all use of the service at the end of the Summer Term.

Jo rang Bedfordshire Music yesterday and they were going to investigate where my notification had got to. Looking last night at the email address I sent it to, I realised that the details printed on their fee rise letter were wrong; they had printed the wrong email address. Jo rang them again today and they confirmed that the email address was wrong on some of the letters. I wonder just how many ‘some’ is? I have now forwarded my email to the correct address.

It also makes me wonder how much difference that will make to the reduction in numbers for musical instrument tuition that Central Bedfordshire provided me with. If many people used email to notify of their intent to cancel, then the numbers cancelling could be significantly higher.

So in summary, if you notified Central Bedfordshire by email and the address on your letter was @centralbedfordshire.co.uk rather than @centralbedfordshire.gov.uk, then they probably didn’t get it and you will have to contact them to sort the invoicing out.

Tags:Bedfordshire Music Service,Dunstable Music Centre,music centre

From the spring term to the summer term, following the fee rise, 40% of those taking musical instrument tuition with Bedfordshire Music Service have cancelled their lessons.

This isn’t as high a number as I was expecting, however many people may be doing the same as us, seeing it through to the end of the summer term. It will be interesting to see the figures again in the autumn term.

From the council’s Agenda for the Executive meeting on 7th December 2010, fees, charges and other activities provided funding of £1,105,000. If we said 3,000 people having tuition at £100 a term, that raises £900,000 leaving the ‘charges and other activites’ with the remaining £205,000.

The fees went up 69% and the numbers dropped 40%, so that would be 1,800 people paying £169, raising £912,000, not a massive change from the original amount raised. Does this mean the fees have to go up again to cover the shortfall. I guess not, as the number of staff hours needed to teach would have dropped by 40% in line with the cancellations. Maybe the 40% staffing costs is enough to provide a cost neutral service, but at what cost.

Intentional or otherwise, the impact of these reductions in numbers of users of the service cannot be good for the future of music in Bedfordshire schools.

Tags:Bedfordshire Music Service,Dunstable Music Centre,music centre

I was reading the minutes of the CHILDREN’S SERVICES OVERVIEW & SCRUTINY COMMITTEE that took place on Tuesday, 29 March 2011 10.00 a.m. and was interested to read about the stakeholder meeting that took place on 22nd March at Dunstable Fire Station.

From the minutes:

The Portfolio Holder for Children’s Services provided the Committee with the following information:-

…

A meeting had been held on Tuesday 22 March 2001 at Dunstable Fire Station, to which all stakeholders associated with the music service were invited.  It was reported that only 18 people attended which was very disappointing.  In response to this, several Members of the Committee raised concern that they did now know that the meeting had taken place and that they did not receive an invite and therefore questioned the method of communication taken to inform stakeholders of the meeting.  Following a detailed conversation about these concerns, Councillor Mrs A M Lewis clarified that a letter had been issued to all stakeholders and that schools had been asked to cascade the invite to all parents.

…

Now either Councillor Mrs A M Lewis is wrong about the date of the meeting, the one that Jo and attended was held on Tuesday 15th March, or even worse another meeting was held a week later. Continue reading » Stakeholder meeting regarding music service

Tags:Bedfordshire Music Service,Central Bedfordshire Council,Dunstable Music Centre

The new term started this morning at Dunstable Music Centre and as expected following the fee rises, the numbers were reduced. The first day back is always a bit down on normal, so next week will really tell the impact of the rises, but based on today, I would say we were about 30% down. Encouragingly, we did also have some new members start today.

We were also one member of staff down, who is, I understand, not being replaced. Central Bedfordshire say that they intend to continue with the music centres, but to me this is looking like winding down.

I have put the new Dunstable Music Centre summer timetable up on their website.

Tags:Dunstable Music Centre