This issue celebrates our current music educators while embracing new ways of serving you. The future is indeed bright!
Introducing the 2026 class of “50+ Music Teachers Who Make a Difference.” This award goes back a quarter of a century and began as “50 Directors Who Make a Difference.” As SBO+ transitioned to include all types of teachers of music, we changed the name. Also, the award was formerly published in our December issue. However, many teachers told us that piling this on top of marching band season and holiday concerts wasn’t a good idea.
Each of the winners was asked to answer three questions: What is your proudest moment as a music teacher?, How do you hope to make a difference in your students’ lives?, and What’s the most important lesson you try to teach your students?
A common thread in all of the responses is their desire to produce good people rather than good musicians. Think about that for a minute. In a profession where positive recognition is often determined by the quality of performances at festivals, competitions, and assessments, these teachers prioritized student welfare and happiness over musical proficiency.
Another striking thing about the 2026 class is the wide diversity of types of music teachers represented. In addition to band, orchestra, and choral directors, there are general music teachers, modern band teachers, and teachers who work with students with a wide array of disabilities. One common thread is their love of music as a way to enrich students’ lives.
Over the past few months, SBO+ and our sister magazine, MMR (Musical Merchandise Review) have been transitioning from a legacy, print-based focus to a digital “e-zine” with a steady stream of daily featured online articles. As with any tech-based endeavor, the real work happens in the “back end” with many thousands of lines of code to produce products that continue to meet your needs. Thanks to Mike Lawson, our owner/publisher for making this huge investment of money and time to preserve this free resource for music educators.
One of the advantages of this is we now have numerous AI tools to analyze readership and trends so we can stay relevant. I recently queried these “bots” to look at over 33,000 of our articles and list what has engaged our readers the most. Here’s what that query produced:
- SBO+’s content strongly emphasizes practical strategies for music educators, including program building, student recruitment, and creative teaching methods, showing a need for actionable advice.
- SBO+ educational articles consistently engage, indicating strong interest.
- SBO+ articles on educational strategies and leadership show strong interest.
- Frequent articles about travel destinations suggest a market interest in exploring new places for performance.
- SBO+ articles like ‘Crafting a Creative Mindset for Band’ and ‘Leadership Doesn’t Have to Be Draining’ indicate that educators seek content supporting their professional growth and well-being.
- Numerous articles on performance travel indicate a strong reader interest in this topic.
- Several articles on music education strategies indicate demand.
- SBO+ campaigns related to music education technology (DAWs, virtual instruments, remote learning) show above-average engagement.
- Variety in travel-related topics suggests a broad reader engagement with both educational and leisure travel content.
The real heroes of this story are our authors/contributors who share their expertise and passion for music education. If you have a chance to thank them, please do so and if an article strikes you as particularly useful, share it with others!
