Dear Bruce,

Just a quick note to say that I found your "Beginning to Intermediate Sibelius" workshop to be very helpful.  I was very impressed with your familiarity with every aspect of the the program and your ability to simultaneously teach complete beginners as well as more advanced students.

Prior to attending your workshop, I'd owned Sibelius for quite a while. And despite the fact that I'm a working composer (and very conversant with Digital Performer and ProTools) I'd never become comfortable with Sibelius.

Workshops that deal with software, particularly programs that are as deep as Sibelius, can be mind-numbing because of the sheer volume of information involved.  But instead of overwhelming us with a litany of instructions (i.e. "memorize this sequence of keystrokes to get this result") you focused on providing a high-level understanding of Sibelius' design philosophy and operating principles.  Armed with that knowledge and a bit of practice, I am now starting to make good progress in finding my way around Sibelius.  

I hope to sign up for your Intermediate to Advanced Level seminar before too long.

Thanks again.

Best,

Jon

Jon Herbst
Coventry Studio
Kensington, CA

Bruce did an exceptional job presenting to a group of music teachers whose technology experience was quite varied. His presentation style,

9/1/09
 
I would highly recommend taking Bruce's Sibelius training workshops, even if you've worked with Sibelius for several years, which was my case. I greatly benefited from Bruce's ability to make us re-think not only our methods we use but to also understand how Sibelius thinks to tackle the situations you'll inevitable face in compositions to come. This beginning course was invaluable and I look forward to an intermediate course soon.
 
Sherry Lewis
An Elegant Touch of Strings Quartet

I have had the opportunity to work with Bruce Munson in my capacity as a school district fine arts coordinator for two school districts and as a music educator for the past several years.  He is an excellent presenter when it comes to teaching teachers.  He has the technological skills and understanding of many practical and useful music education tools, especially Sibelius.  However, unlike some techno-gurus, Bruce actually has the pedagogical skills and experience to work with adult teacher/learners.  He explains the technology in a way even the most fearful "technophobe" can understand.  He also can relate to some of the challenges that classroom teachers face and help them see how the technology can help them enhance their personal teaching skills.  He sees the big picture as to how the technology can enhance the artistry, skill and musicianship the teacher is trying to teach.  He provides examples of how the technology can be used in practical real-life classroom situations where optimal music labs are not always available.  Many music and elementary classroom teachers in the Jordan and Nebo school districts are comfortably and creatively using Sibelius in their classrooms as a result of Bruce's in-service instruction.  They are not afraid of the technology and are eager to learn more music technology as it becomes available.  I plan to continue using Bruce as a trainer as much as I can because I know my teachers will receive quality instruction as well as continued support and feedback!

Julie P. Christofferson
President/ Utah Music Educators Association
District Fine Arts Coordinator/Nebo School District                                           Spanish Fork, UT

Bruce Munson is an excellent Sibelius (music technology) trainer. Because of his teaching background, and because he's also a musician, he is able to communicate clearly with a wide range of audiences how technology works, in language that's easily understandable, and not filled with jargon. Those whom he teaches are thus able to use the skills they learn to be more creative in their musical lives and also to complete music technology tasks quickly and with confidence.

Bruce Munson has been very instrumental in helping me speed up my engraving time and having a much more well-rounded knowledge of my (now favorite) notation program, Sibelius. Having been a Finale user for 15 years, he introduced me to a whole new way of working. He’s worked individually with me on problems, and I’ve also taken his classes, which are very organized and concise. ALL questions are answered and explained thoroughly, and one goes through all elements interactively that he presents on a computer provided. Bruce has also bailed me out of some very sticky issues with his endless knowledge of the program, and is always available by email or phone within 24 hours for help or questions. We’ve worked together on projects, and I would highly recommend him for software training, engraving, or arranging.

Charylu Roberts

Bruce Munson and I worked together at Sibelius USA for several years. As a former music educator, Bruce has classroom experience and exceptional teaching skills that made him a top trainer and clinician for Sibelius.  Because of his detailed knowledge of Sibelius and sound pedagogical approach we've relied on him to "train the trainer" and to write course materials.  He is equally comfortable working with novice users or professional "power" users of the software.  His support and training of music educators, students, professional artists, music publishers and production companies significantly contributes to their success and satisfaction with Sibelius.

Bruce is an excellent teacher. He keeps a balance between sticking to the outline of the class and answering individual questions as they come up. He is flexible, but does not let the class bog down.

I am an amateur musician playing piano and fiddle.  I think that any powerful program like Sibelius requires training. I have used Sibelius for several years, but Bruce’s training gave me several hints that were each worth the price of admission. The best thing I learned was to get myself off the mouse and onto shortcut keyboard commands.

My most recent use of Sibelius was to rewrite a short piece by Beethoven. I was having trouble with the rhythm and the engraving was cryptic. I re-wrote the variation in Sibelius, marked every single one of the 16^th triplets with a bracket and number 3. The engraver wouldn’t bother, but I’m the student and I need those brackets marked. I significantly improved my rhythm…like night and day, said my piano teacher. 

Like all good classes, I learned what the teacher promised, and then more!

Barbara Furgason

Thank you Bruce for a fabulous workshop! One of the many positive comments heard from teachers included: "This is exactly what I needed to start working with Sibelius. Thanks to Bruce's excellent instruction and support documents, I'm now ready to go! He answered all my questions and didn't make me feel "silly" for asking them. Hope he comes back soon!"

We look forward to a continued partnership with Bruce! 

Here in the Grapevine Colleyville Independent School District, we’ve hired Bruce Munson to fly in for our teacher in-service training, and work directly with the music faculty.  We were impressed with Bruce’s knowledge of the software, versatile teaching style, and overall warm personality.  We highly recommend Bruce Munson for Sibelius software training, and we look forward to seeing him for our “next step” here in GCISD.

Jeff Ausdemore

If Bruce Munson were a mountain climber, he would be remembered with the same respect as Sir Edmund Hillary.  For nearly a decade now I have done my best to monopolize his time asking questions, listening, and attending his seminars. Even though I have a masters degree with a focus on notation, have written two books on the subject, and have invested many thousand hours sequencing and notating within my school teaching career; I feel I am stumbling around the foothills while Bruce stands on the summit.  Every serious musician or educator should have the chance to glean from his tireless preparation.  From my experience, he is the final authority on Sibelius and Pro Tools.  Anyone who intends to climb the digital notation mountain should start by learning as much as possible from Bruce Munson.

Budge T. Porritt, Jr.

When we first introduced Sibelius to our district music staff, Bruce offered a workshop on the basics of Sibelius.  The workshop was invaluable.

In subsequent workshops, Bruce would demonstrate higher level capabilities of Sibelius and always a "gem" of a new shortcut or function.  He is a treasure.

Pamela Schroeder

I've had the pleasure to be in training sessions for various computer music software with Bruce.  He moves fast, but never loses anyone.  I can't believe what a patient teacher he is!  I appreciate that he explains something in many ways until everyone understands it.  Although he has taught Herbie Hancock and Michael Tilson Thomas, he shows no ego when he's teaching me.  In fact, Bruce makes me feel as important as them.

Bob Athayde

Mr. Munson presented a wonderfully helpful and insightful workshop on the use of the Sibelius music software program for the K-12 music department in the Easton Area School District in late August, 2009.  He began with general background information and terminology that allowed both novice and experienced users the ability to communicate about and navigate through the program.  His course outline provided the necessary structure and guidance as we explored in some depth the particular nuances of the program.  There was plenty of opportunity to experiment in using the program applications as well as to ask questions.  As a department, we found the program to be very user-friendly and accessible. While we currently have the software only in our middle and high school keyboard labs, we hope to soon expand its scope to include all of our buildings.  We were very impressed with Mr. Munson’s presentation and hope to have him return in the future for further training on more advanced applications of this program.

Marie Miller

Easton, PA