Jamstiks in the Classroom: Introduction

Hello! My name is Troy Strand and I'm a music teacher with the MacPhail Center for Music at Paideia Academy in Apple Valley, Minnesota. MacPhail was fortunate enough to receive a charitable donation of 20 Jamstik MIDI guitars from Zivix LLC, creator of the Jamstik MIDI guitar. This partnership started when I met some of the folks from Zivix at a video game media convention and they told me about their product. It was awesome to see in action! I explained some of the pitfalls of teaching classroom guitar and they asked me to try a Jamstik in the classroom. My kids were immediately hooked. Because of the success of one Jamstik in my class, they wanted to see what 20 could do.

I created a nine-week curriculum that incorporates the Jamstik and JamTutor app and I can't wait to see how it goes. I've got two classes of 8th grade students that are excited to give it a go. Please join us as we document the fun and learning! I'll share not only my impressions and conclusions, but those of the students I teach. It's going to be a lot of fun!

Troy Strand