Roland VQD106 V-Drums
Price: £1,799
The Roland VQD106 V-Drums are an excellent choice of drum kit, either for a practice room or for use in the classroom. Standard V-Drums can sometimes be too loud to enjoy. The physical noise of striking pads may be bothersome to others, especially if you're trying to teach. In addition, kick and hi-hat pedals transfer low-end thumps and vibrations to the floor that resonate to create noise in other rooms. Enter V-Drums Quiet Design. While they may look like conventional V-Drums, every component is infused with innovations to make them purposefully quiet. Carefully engineered pads and hardware dramatically reduce the volume of playing noises, while sound-absorbing materials isolate all your kinetic drumming energy to prevent its escape into adjoining spaces. Perfect for a relaxing classroom experience!
Boss GX-10 Guitar Effects Processor
Price: £365
The Boss GX-10 is a perfect way for students to add effects to their guitar playing in a streamlined, easy-to-digest interface. Armed with the core GX-100 engine, the compact GX-10 brings you the same inspiring experience in an even more portable footprint. You get loads of effects for covering every style, plus speedy sound building with the intuitive colour touch display and panel knobs. Adding in footswitches, an expression pedal, and USB connectivity, the GX-10 seamlessly transitions from use in the classroom to the recording studio and the stage.
Boss Katana-Mini X
Price: £149
The Boss Katana-Mini X delivers the acclaimed Katana tones in a compact design. Evolving on the features of the popular Katana-Mini, it offers six versatile analogue sound options and two simultaneous effects, providing students with a breadth of sonorities to explore. Katana-Mini X also provides many enhancements to energise playing sessions, including an onboard tuner, front-facing panel controls, and an internal rechargeable battery. Teachers will also be pleased to know that the Mini X features a headphone jack, so that students can practise without disrupting the learning of others!
Solfeg.io
Price: subscription, variable
Solfeg.io provides an innovative way to teach ensemble playing. Simply login on any computer and connect to a projector or screen and a sound system. An interactive full score (with vocal line, chord symbols and instrumental lines) then appears, which can be customised (different parts can be removed) for individual instruction. The app features a backing-track for the songs, so students can get a feel for the song and play along to the backing-track. Solfeg.io features a variety of trendy pop songs that students will recognise. It also features a homework feature – students can login at home and see the same parts to practise before the lesson. Tempo can also be customised for slow practice. What's more, Solfeg.io has a series of brief YouTube tutorials where all the features are explained. It is priced as a subscription service – and the annual price increases when more songs and features are added. The free version comes with 10 songs, which is more than enough to get started with.
