Coming Soon: The X Academy
At Rhythm X we work hard to bring the best designers, performers, and instructors together. We've created a great community over the last thirteen years and have been able to accomplish some amazing things. Rhythm X, as a performance ensemble, has had many accomplishments in the WGI circuit. We feel that we've been able to bring our voice to the activity in a powerful way. While we know that our way of doing things is just one of many successful ways, we're proud of our approach and - over the last year or so - we've been working hard to find ways that we can continue to expand our voice and make a resounding impact on the music education community.
A small preview of The X Academy start page.
Today we're announcing plans for the launch of a product we're calling The X Academy. We're extremely excited to bring this platform to the world. While on the surface The X Academy is an online resource for percussion education and show design, The X Academy is truly an innovative, state-of-the-art online school that will be accessible around the world.
The best way to learn more about The X Academy is to visit the launch page at rhythmx.org/academy. There you can learn more about the site's structure and product offerings. You can also sign up for the mailing list. Those who do will have exclusive access to launch announcements and discounts for downloadable products.
Basically, The X Academy will be divided into four portals: Exercises, Video, Lessons, and Design. The Exercises portal will contain tons of downloadable PDFs of etudes and excerpts that we have used over the years at Rhythm X. What's most exciting about the Exercises portal isn't the downloads though. The Exercises portal will have a page dedicated to each download where students will find performance videos, VDL recordings, Jam tracks, basic performance info and - most importantly - a video breakdown of the exercise with a staff member or the piece's composer explaining the music, section-by-section.
The Video portal is an area on which we worked hard to get right. Currently, video content about percussion is easy to come by, but it's not as organized and clearly presented as we'd like. The Video portal is a beautiful stream of our video content: some streaming, some downloadable. The Video portal will contain performance videos of our exercises, technique explanations, design resources, and section-by-section breakdowns of the etudes and exercises in the Exercise portal.
The Lessons and Design portals are perhaps the most innovative section of The X Academy. Each will offer live one-on-one sessions via your webcam and Google Helpouts technology. In the Lessons portal, students can schedule a lesson with Rhythm X instructors on any percussion instrument. Whether it is to play through a Rhythm X exercise or to get commentary on a xylophone excerpt, The X Academy will become the single best location for percussion students around the world to seek help with a qualified instructor. Instructors on The X Academy have years of experience in marching and concert percussion. Most will have Bachelor and Masters Degrees in percussion performance and education. If a student doesn't want a face-to-face lesson, the Lessons portal will have the option to upload a video of the student. An instructor will then record helpful commentary and demonstrations and send a video back!
The Design portal is much like the Lessons portal but we've tailored it for ensemble directors and designers! We're really proud of the programs that our team designs each year, both at Rhythm X and at their other programs. Now directors and designers will be able to schedule a live consolation via Google Helpouts or submit a video of their show and receive recorded commentary back.
All together, you should know that Rhythm X is deeply committed to the music education community. The X Academy won't be a one-shot deal. We will continue to curate and upload new material after we launch.
To learn more visit rhythmx.org/academy. You can read today's press release here.