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Which Glockenspiels are best for Elementary Schools?
By kevin | January 1, 2009
Here is an interesting question I received via email this afternoon:
“I have a question for an expert. I am a elementary music teacher looking to purchase a good set of glockenspiels for my K-3 classroom. I have talked to two different store experts and received two different perspectives about what is the best product out there. One of them says that the Studio 49 2000 series is the best that ever was with excellent tuning of the bars including the overtone sequence. He says Sonor has been trying to catch up with Studio 49 (which in the past has stolen the competition hands down by creating a better product) and seemed to imply that Sonor did not tune their instruments as well although he didn’t see overly knowledgeable about their newest product because it is so new. The other store seems to be pushing Sonor’s newest soprano and alto glocks–GAM and GSM–with the wider bars and handy storage of the extra bars. She says that Sonor also has excellent tuning but doesn’t seem to know quite as much about tuning. I am confused. I want to buy something really good that will last. I don’t know any experts to ask and I found your website. Do you know anything about these instruments or have an idea about where I might get some good unbiased information?”
Thanks for your question – I think its very relevant topic for discussion on this blog.
I don’t really have personal first hand knowledge with the instruments you are talking about, but I’ll try my best to give some help. I’d be grateful for anyone else who does have experience with these instruments leaving their comments on this post.
The first thing that struck me when I read your question was:
“What a lot of baloney is talked by sales people!”
I hear stories like this all the time from students who go to one store and get one story, and then go to a different store and get a completely different story about what suppliers are doing and the supposed “strengths” and “weaknesses” of different brands against each other.
Firstly its important to realize that each shop usually has agreements in place with wholesalers that require (or at least encourage financially) that supplier to promote one brand over another. Its even possible that certain stores cannot even get supplied with particular brands. I’ve certainly heard of this happening with Drum Kits and Pianos – and it may be the same with mallet percussion. Therefore the salespeople are just doing their job – trying to convince you that purchasing their product ahead of the other store’s product is the right thing to do.
The issue with tuning makes me laugh – its clearly one of the areas that salespeople like to pretend that one brand is going to be better than another because its something that all music teachers are sensitive to of course!
Glockenspiels are very high pitched instruments, so even on concert quality instruments rarely ever are a great many overtones tuned, and certainly not in these classroom style instruments. On the lower notes they sometimes tune the first harmonic, but really most of them just have the Fundamental tuned. Think about it…… at the pitch of a glockenspiel most of the harmonics are so far above audible range that it is really insignificant anyway if they are going to tune harmonics.
Therefore does it really matter?… With tuning you should be able to use your ears to determine if the fundamentals have been tuned well, and that really is all that matters. Let’s leave harmonics for another discussion where they are more relevant!
Play a scale, see if it sounds tuneful, and then if you want to test it take a chromatic tuner along and make sure that each bar is tuned well, and that should be all you need in this area. I’ve never really known any brands of glockenspiel to have any tuning issues.
I’m not going to say that the thicker wider bars are not necessarily better, as they may be, as I can’t personally test these instruments side by side. Bar wideness and thickness is also not really a big issue – metal bars will last for years anyway… and thicker wider bars are not going to do much other than make the instrument heavier to lift!
The only thing you can really trust is common sense. You need to ask yourself these two questions:
1) What is important in the instruments that I want to buy?
2) Which instruments give me the features I need at the best price?
If you can answer these questions about any instrument purchase for a school you’ll be on the right track, and you can go to the store knowing exactly what you want, or just ring around the suppliers in your home town until you get the best prices.
If I was to purchase glockenspiels for K-3 classroom use my importance criteria would be:
1) Will this instrument LAST in a school?
2) Is this instrument going to be easy to manage and use for the students?
3) Is this instrument going to be too LOUD in the hands of a class of K-3 students?
Making the instrument LAST is the critical thing. How many times have you been into a music classroom with instruments where notes have fallen off, where the rubber mounting posts have broken or been removed or where design flaws in the instrument have rendered it useless after a while? These things happen all the time, and its very important to get it right if you’re going to be investing in an entire class set of instruments.
What would I do in this situation?
I would test them all for myself. If possible BUY one of each of the brands, and then try it for an entire year before committing to a classroom set. That’s really the only way that you can know for sure which instrument is going to be the most useful and practical for you and your teaching situation.
If that’s not possible, because you need the entire class set now what I would do is at least borrow the two instruments from each respective store (they should let you do this), Take them into your classroom, put them side by side and then think about how they will be used in your music classes. How easily do they fit into your storage shelves? How easily will they be carried? What parts look weak and might easily break? How do they sound when played by a young student?
Anyway, that is my thoughts on this topic – if you’d like to add to this discussion feel free to add a comment on this post
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Topics: Classroom Percussion, Glockenspiel, Mallet Percussion, Tuned Percussion, Xylophone | 2 Comments »
March 24th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
It seems that your website has a lot of great tips and resources for music teachers. Will be following your future posts. Thanks for sharing!
May 24th, 2010 at 2:08 am
I have found the Studio 49 2000 series to be reliable and have a quality sound on both soprano and alto glocks. They are also comfortable to play. At one school, the kids were actually fighting over who got to play glocks!
What glocks you choose may also depend on what woods you use. I like the Studio 49 2000 xylos and metallophones as well, so I would aim to have my entire ensemble in that series. They sound great, are reasonably priced, and have the option of stands that fit the handles, rather than tables that easily tip. I have absolutely no complaints about any of the instruments in this series, so I personally would not venture out into another brand unless I tried all their instruments out, heard them played together in a large ensemble, and noticed a significant difference in the feel and the quality of sound. Even if I liked those qualities better, I would be tempted to stay with Studio 49 for the convenience, affordability, and reliability.
BTW, I am both a percussionist and a K-8 general music teacher.