Introducing:
The Music Stand Practice Bar!
October 2009 - Sarah Whitney: Young Inventor / Entrepreneur
Taking the first step: Patent Pending
Sarah is a second grader at Eastover Elementary School in Charlotte, NC and is in her second year, playing violin through the Community School of the Arts.
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please contact:
After being instructed to play a piece of music seven times (to match her age) Sarah Whitney began asking her Dad to keep track of the number of times she played the assigned piece.
With other distractions, her Dad began numbering post-it notes so that Sarah could flip them over and thus, keep track herself.
This was a less than eloquent solution, as post-it’s found their way under the sofa. So, the number of notes needed to be checked and added to, daily.
Like most people we first turned to Google to search for a better solution to our practice problem. While we discovered many accessories for music stands, there was nothing that would help us keep track or count the number of times we were instructed to play a piece of music. Even after a field trip to a local music store, we returned empty-handed.
Sarah’s Dad finally asked her about placing a bar across her music stand with beads that she could slide across to keep track of playing. Sarah loved it and pushed to get something made to fix her problem.
After a garage development process that included parts from a home improvement store, office supply store, and a local toy store, we had something that snapped onto Sarah’s music stand. And, it was an instant success. This simple solution was intuitive and much easier to use.
With our excitement in creating something new and useful, we proceeded with a more in-depth product search that has now led to our filing of a U.S. patent.
The
next Step:
After showing our prototypes to Sarah’s friends and music teachers, they re-enforced our determination to continue. Everyone, immediately saw the benefits and teachers also saw the Practice Bar as a teaching aid for when students practice independently.
Now, Sarah’s Dad explained, we can’t continue making these in the garage. And, the design and parts need to be refined for mass production. So, we must look for a manufacturer, preferably aligned to distribute this type of product.
Our next step, will be to find a partner for manufacturing sales and distribution or we will explore partnering directly with a manufacturer and offer the Practice Bar through the internet. Either way, Sarah is excited to see her product become available to other students and to see them use it for their practicing.
For additional information, please contact:
Google is a registered trademark of Google, Inc.. Post-it is a registered trademark of 3M Corporation. Eastover Elementary and Community School of the Arts are the names of their respective schools.
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