If you’re looking for something to do tonight and you’re interested in cutting edge music technology, look no further.   LEMUR - the League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots - is hosting their 8th concert tonight at the LEMURplex in Brooklyn, NY.  Called Tranzducer .008, the concert features three great musicians: saxophonist Stephen Lehman, Leon Gruenbaum and his Genes and Machines Project, and High Priest (aka HPRIZM).  Tickets are only $5 at the door.  The LEMURplex is located at 461 3rd Avenue between 9th & 10th Street.

I am really looking forward to going to this concert.  If you can’t make it tonight, the LEMURplex hosts one these Tranzducer concerts on the last Friday of every month.  It’s the perfect way to get your Labor Day Weekend started.  If you can make it, I hope to see you there!

I welcome your comments and suggestions.

Well it looks like Apple will finally offer The Beatles catalog on iTunes beginning next Tuesday, September 5th.  I have to admit that I am sucker for Apple rumors, but the ones posted on Apple Insider and Mac Rumors seem completely believable.  After decades of legal battles between Apple Computer and Apple Records, you’ve probably noticed that the catalogs of Paul McCartney, John Lennon, and now Ringo Starr are on the iTunes store.  Apple invited selected members of the press to a special announcement this Tuesday at 10am PST with a special tag line: “The beat goes on.”  Many believe that this is a reference to the closing line of the press release in April of 1970 that announced the split of the Fab Four.  I am very excited about The Beatles finally coming to iTunes, and I know that I’ll be purchasing quite a bit of it.  Although I still much prefer the sound quality (and the cover art/liner notes) of CDs over the Protected AAC format offered on iTunes, I’m not a fan of paying the extraordinarily high prices of their CDs in stores.  While I still have many of their albums on vinyl, sadly they’ve fallen victim to the “No-Phono” stereo setup that I own.  I’m looking forward to getting my daughters into the music that I grew up with.  The beat goes on…

I welcome your comments and suggestions.

Today I post for the 200th time on my blog - another milestone for me and what I believe is the most rewarding aspect of my work with music technology thus far.  For those of you who are regulars in the blogosphere you already know how powerful this paradigm is - a public space for you to publish your thoughts where readers can post comments.  I thoroughly enjoy engaging in conversations about music technology and the many exciting ways that it can be integrated into a music curriculum.

When I began this blog back in September of 2006, I had no idea how often I would post, or whether anyone would take the time to read it.  Thank you to everyone who has taken a few minutes out of their busy days to read a post, and a special thank you to those of you who have taken time to comment.    All bloggers love reading comments, myself included.  It is a way of engaging in discourse with music educators around the country and the world.  Special thanks to Evan Tobias and Ted Love who host MusicEd.net - Evan’s Catalysts and Connections Blog is my personal favorite and should serve as a model to all educators.

When I wake each morning, posting to my blog is one of the first things I do.  It’s quite therapeutic.  It is important to take time each day to think about what it is that we do, and blogging is a great way to do this.  I plan on continuing this blog for many years to come.  Until then, I’m aiming for 300!

I welcome your comments and suggestions.

In one of those “what market will they try to conquer next?” moments, WalMart has entered the digital music revolution by opening their own Music Download Service on their website.  What makes their site different is that they are selling all of their music without DRM.  Now iTunes has been doing this for a while now on a section of their store called “iTunes Plus” but the DRM-free music is sold for $1.29 per track or $12.99 per album, but WalMart is doing the exact same thing for 94 cents per track or $9.22 per album.

As of now, Macintosh and Linux users cannot download music from the site, so iTunes doesn’t have to worry about their faithful customers being lured away.  Windows users (Windows 2000 or XP only) are able to use the service and store the music on any of their MP3 players (including the iPod).

It will be very interesting to see how WalMarts’ entry into the digital music world will effect the prices on iTunes - especially in terms of DRM-free music.  As one of the largest retailers in the world, I wonder whether a small section of their website will have a meaningful impact on the market.  Competition is good, I guess.

I welcome your comments and suggestions.

Ten years ago I wrote music for a school assembly program called Wally and the Water Cycle which was performed by teachers from the Rockland Youth Dance Ensemble. It was a great little project to work on, and I truly enjoyed writing and recording the music for it. Ever since I found out about TuneCore.com - the site that allows anyone to post their music on iTunes (as well as other digital music services) - I wanted to post some of my music online. I wrote quite a bit of music during that time period - most of it for dance - and up until now, it’s just been sitting on a shelf in my basement. Now with this service, I can sell it on the iTunes Music Store for very little investment (@$20).

Click on the iTunes button to hear Wally and the Water Cycle.  Let me know what you think.

If you are looking for a fantastic source of public domain religious hymns, CyberHymnal is the perfect site for you.  Robin Hodson from Sibelius mentioned the site during a recent TI:ME course I was teaching, and I’m always thrilled to discover new sites -especially ones that offer lots of free content.

Currently there are over 6,500 hymns on the site available for free download.  The files are all in the MIDI format, with many also available in the NoteWorthy Composer software format.  You can download these MIDI files and then open them in either Sibelius or Finale.  As a band director, many of these hymns are perfect for warm-up chorales.  Church choir directors might find this site extremely useful as well.

I welcome your comments and suggestions.

Mark your calendars! The 2nd Annual TI:ME New Jersey Technology In-Service Conference, sponsored by SoundTree and Sibelius, will take place on Thursday, October 25th 2007 from 8:30am to 3:30pm at the Franklin Avenue Middle School in Franklin Lakes, NJ from 8:30am - 3:30pm. Our Keynote Speaker this year will be Dr. Sandi MacLeod, Co-Founder of the Vermont MIDI Project. To register for the conference, please send the following information to dammers@rowan.edu by Friday, October 19th 2007. NAME:

SCHOOL NAME & ADDRESS:

SCHOOL PHONE:

HOME ADDRESS:

HOME PHONE:

PREFERRED EMAIL ADDRESS:

Registration for TI:ME Members is $25, and Non-Member registration is $40. Please make all checks payable to “TI:ME”. You will need to mail your personal check or school PO to the address below by October 19, 2007. While we can accept payment at the conference, we would strongly prefer you mail in your payment ahead of time. Please mail your checks to the following address:

Rick Dammers
221 Wilson Hall
Rowan University
201 Mullica Hill Road
Glassboro, NJ 08028

Be sure to write “TI:ME NJ Conference” on the envelope.

While walk-in registrants will be accepted, we need to know approximately how many people will be attending to make plans for lunch, which is included in the registration fee.

A detailed schedule of events will be posted on the TI:ME NJ Chapter Website by the first week in September.  To download a flyer announcing the conference, click HERE.

Although my school year doesn’t start until Sept. 5th, I’ve already begun preparations for the coming year.  The first thing that I did was create a Welcome Back Podcast for my instrumental music students that outlines the entire program for the incoming 6th graders and their parents, and provides information for my returning students.  It was a lot of fun writing and recording the podcast, and I believe that the podcasting format is a perfect vehicle for this type of information.  I’ve included many graphics that accompany the podcast including some pictures, website addresses, titles, my email address, and more.  Give it a listen and let me know what you think.  Perhaps you can create your own “Back-To-School” podcast for your students.  Have a great year!

I welcome your comments and suggestions.

As a public school educator, I frequently have the experience of teaching students with special needs.  Over the years, I have attended numerous workshops about the various adaptations that are necessary for teaching students with special needs enabling me to create “the least restrictive environment” in my classroom.  I must say that over the past 15 years of teaching, some of my most meaningful teaching experiences have been with special needs students, and I am lucky to teach in a school district where the regular education students embrace the special needs students.  They are always very kind and supportive to each other.

I have found that utilizing technology in the classroom has always been a great way of facilitating differentiated instruction, especially with special learners.  Because of the patient nature of technology, and fantastic classroom aides, special needs students always have positive experiences with technology in my classroom.  Because of the “point-and-click” nature of most software titles that I use, adaptations to class projects are usually pretty minor.  But what happens if a student is blind in your music classroom?  How can you make adaptations to ensure that the student has an equally valuable experience with music technology?  Meet Dancing Dots.

Dancing Dots is a fantastic company that was founded in 1992 by Bill McCann.  In 1997, the company released GoodFeel, a Braille music translator.  Mr. McCann, himself a blind musician, has created a product which works quite simply: it scans printed music, translates it to Braille, and using an embosser (a special printer that prints out Braille) prints out a score that a blind musician can read.  I have seen the software demonstrated at numerous conferences, and I must say that it is quite impressive.  Dancing Dots is also an authorized dealer for a number of other assistive technologies, including: JAWS (a screen reader), Cake Talking for SONAR, Sibelius Reader for Sibelius, and Lime Aloud.  If you are a music teacher that teaches visually-impaired or blind students, GoodFeel is a must-have technology for your classroom.  I urge you to check out their website, and if their technologies fit your specific needs,  speak with your special education administrator about acquiring these technologies for your classroom.  All student should have the opportunity to make music in your classroom.

I welcome your comments and suggestions.

You may recall that I had submitted a recording to TuneCore.com of my Franklin Avenue Middle School (FAMS) “School of Rock” students performing at a Battle of the Bands that took place on Thursday, April 19th 2007. What TuneCore does is take submitted recordings of any band or musician and put them on the iTunes Music Store for a nominal fee. After I submitted all of the tracks, I went to the Harry Fox website to get a license for all of the songs on the album. While I prepaid the royalties for the album, you don’t have to - more on that in my latest article: School Music Ensembles Join the Digital Music Revolution.

I submitted the recording that I made (using the M-Audio Microtrack 24/96) of the concert to TuneCore early this summer and now and I am thrilled to announce, the recording is available on iTunes! What you’ll hear on the recording is 5 different bands made up of students in grades 6 through 8 (ages 11 -14). They’re playing many of the standards of Classic Rock. While you might not it’s the best album of 2007, you can bet that my students and their parents, as well as many of their friends, think it is. All of the proceeds of the album are going to be donated to the Mr. Hollands Opus Foundation.

Below is a link that will take you directly to our album on the iTunes Store (you can also find it by searching “FAMS Battle of the Bands”). Look for a childrens’ music album that I wrote a few years ago that I have also submitted titled “Wally and the Water Cycle”. It should be released sometime in September.

To check out the album, click on the iTunes button below.

I welcome your comments and suggestions.