Last night I had the distinct pleasure of meeting with 15 teachers who are a part of the 10th class offered by the South Carolina Music Technology Institute. The project was started in 2000 by Dr. Patricia Foy, who teaches at Converse College in Spartanburg, SC. Dr. Tim Brimmer and Dr. Foy created the original course curriculum (Dr. Brimmer taught at the Institute for a few summers) and now both Dr. Foy and Steve Rummage - a great teacher and fellow technology proponent - teach the course. The model of the program is fantastic, and should be replicated throughout the country. Teachers from around the state submit a grant application, and if selected, receive a complete music technology system so that they can use it to help teach their students in the coming school year. The students spend 7 days learning how to set up a PC-based music technology system (complete with a computer, USB MIDI keyboard, powered speakers, and software), and how to use a variety of software titles that are selected based on the level taught (K-5/MS/HS). Patti and Steve teach the teachers not only how to use software such as Sibelius 6, Music Ace Maestro, Musition, the Groovy titles, and productivity software; but also how to teach with music with them. Provided the teachers complete the curriculum they are then able to keep their setup so that they can bring the technology back into their classrooms.
I was around last night to help the teachers put their systems together. They were all very excited with the new gear and I know that they will all do great things with it to help students learn about music. This morning I will have the chance to speak with the students, and I am looking forward to it. SoundTree has been involved with this program from its inception, and I look forward to staying involved with it for many years to come. The project is funded by a grant and through the hard work and dedication of both Patti & Steve, I think it will run for many years to come.
I am one of the few people remaining in my circle of friends that does not yet have an iPhone. Believe me, it’s not because I don’t want one.
I do however have an iPod Touch and I love it. I have been playing around with a few music apps recently, and I thought I would share my thoughts on them with you - in case you don’t know about them already.
iTM Keys
I found out about this music app from a Twitter (you can follow me at www.twitter.com/jtfrankel) feed from Dave Marra from Apple Computer. He was recently at the TI:ME PA State Chapter Conference and saw Marc Jacoby do a presentation on non-keyboard MIDI controllers. One of the things he showed was iTM Keys - an INCREDIBLE little application that turns your iPhone or iPod Touch into an actual MIDI controller that you can then use with any DAW. I didn’t believe it - a wireless MIDI controller that worked? I downloaded the app from the iTunes App Store for $5.99. I then visited iTouchMidi.com and downloaded the application on my Mac Book Pro. As soon as I installed it I opened GarageBand and then iTM Keys on my iPod Touch. To my absolute shock, when I played the virtual keyboard on my iPod Touch screen, it triggered the Grand Piano sound in GarageBand. Incredible. I then tried it out in all my other music applications, including Reason, Sibelius, and ProTools - and it worked! Best $5.99 I’ve spent in a while. I strongly recommend checking it out.
Bloom
Again, I found out about this music app on Twitter (forgot who) and was intrigued when I heard that famed record producer and composer Brian Eno had created it. I immediately downloaded it. Another incredible application. For $1.99 (I think) Bloom is a very interesting way to create music. You simply touch the screen and based on where your finger is on the vertical axis, you play a note. There is an amazing sounding pad in the background that makes anyone sound great. The notes you play are looped and the music just sounds good. If you get tired of what you hear, you can change the mood of the music and even listen to pieces that others have created for inspiration. You can play as many notes as you wish at any one time, and you can control the length of the loop. A great way to make music - regardless of your musical skills. I love this application.
SynthPond
If you’ve ever seen the Reactable on YouTube and like the interface, then SynthPond is for you. You can create little shapes in the virtual pond just by touching the screen and then manipulate them by dragging the around the pond. They react to other shapes near them by changing sound and functionality. While it took me a while to figure out what was going on, I checked out some tutorials online and was making some really interesting music soon after. Thoroughly enjoying it - I recommend checking out the free version first to give it a spin before buying the full app (which is only $1.99).
A lot of the apps on the iTunes Store are kind of one trick ponies in my opinion. I’ve downloaded almost every app for music that I can find. Some - like Bebot - are really fun to play with, and others are just plain lame. I find this entire software phenomenon fascinating, and I am very interested to see what music educators will do with these applications and their students. Do you think this type of thing has a place in our classrooms? What are your favorite apps? I’d love to hear form you. Until next time though, I’ll be playing music with my iPod Touch!
I am a member of Indaba Music - a really interesting site that encourages musical collaboration between its members. Yesterday the site sent out the following message and I wanted to pass it along to you:
Indaba Music is happy to announce a special collaboration contest with the Alkaline Trio!
The Alkaline Trio are masters on the punk-rock scene with over 1 million albums sold worldwide. Known for their earnest lyrics about regret, despair, and heartbreak, their featured song on Indaba is no different. “I Found Away,” off their their highest charting album, Agony and Irony, was inspired by Matt Skiba’s discovery of Transcendental Meditation - the same form of tranquil reflection The Beatles discovered in the 1960’s.
The Alkaline Trio and the Indaba community wanna hear what you’ve got. Rework the track stems, add new instruments, or strip it bare and spill your guts.
The grand prize winner will have their song available for sale in the iTunes Music Store and will gain exposure from the song.
Submissions are Due by April 14, 2009 at 5:00 PM EDT
Voting Starts April 14, 2009 at 5:00 PM EDT
Similar to what Radiohead did with Reckoner (although in this contest you don’t have to purchase the stems from iTunes) - Indaba and the Alkaline Trio are actively encouraging music fans to remix their work in a contest form where the winner gets their remix sold on the iTunes Music Store. I look forward to hearing the results.
Why not try this contest with your students? What a great incentive to inspire their creativity!
I found this clip on Twitter last week, and I have to say, it is the single best example of a mashup that I have ever seen. This clip (along with eight others that were posted on a site called Thru-You) includes short audio samples from dozens of videos on YouTube that someone named Kutiman found, cut up, twisted, and manipulated to create an entirely new piece of music - which he calls The Mother of All Funk Chords. I have viewed it dozens of times, and I am still amazed by what he has accomplished - a brand new genre of music/video/mashup. The amount of time necessary to create this work is tremendous and the amount of creativity is even greater.
I attended a lecture at the New York Public Library with Lawrence Lessig, Shepard Fairey and Stephen Johnson a week ago, and one of the points that Prof. Lessig made was from a quote by Aldus Huxley about technology creating a culture of passivity. This YouTube clip, along with the other titles from his collection (including I Am New, and Someday), is the ultimate example of how Huxley was wrong. Here, Kutiman has been anything but passive in his use of this technology. Instead of simply viewing the clips, he has created something entirely new. While it should be noted that it is likely he did not receive permission from any of the people in the clips to use their work in his (and thus a copyright infringement) I believe that this is a strong reason for why quoting music should be as legal as quoting authors.
What do you think? Would you ever teach your students how to create a similar mashup? Is this a new art form or an example of piracy (or both)? I urge you to try doing something similar with software such as GarageBand, iMovie, ProTools, Ableton LIVE, Media Composer, Logic, Pinnacle, or other similar products. I’m getting started right now!
I logged onto the YouTube Symphony Channel this evening and noticed that they had posted the results of the auditions for the incredible YouTube Symphony project coming to Carnegie Hall on April 15th 2009. I have scanned through many of the sections of the orchestra (the interface is really user friendly) and I’ve played many of the videos from the successful musicians who will make up this unique orchestra. I urge you to check out the site and see for yourself. You can click on the section of the orchestra that you’d like to listen to (and see) and you’ll be able to play all of the videos.
I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised by both the quality of the audio in the recordings and also the level of musicianship. I know that many might think of this whole project as a shameless publicity stunt, but I am really convinced that this is a wonderful example of crowdsourcing, and that the orchestra will be very strong - even though they have never played together before. I can’t tell you how excited I am to have tickets to this event.
So - what do you think? After taking a look at the videos what do you feel about YouTube as a tool for auditioning? Is this something that should be replicated at the district level for music festivals? What do you think of the videos? I’d love to hear from you.
My good friend Tom Rudolph and I are working on a project that focuses on the different ways that music educators are using YouTube to teach music. Are there some great videos that you use to teach certain musical concepts? Do you post student videos to the service? Do you create videos for your students to learn from? If you have a use of YouTube that you would like us to include in our project, please email me directly at jtfrankel@hotmail.com and we will consider them.
In addition to the uses of YouTube content in the classroom, we’d like to know about whether your school district allows you to access the service in your classroom. If they don’t, how do you get around it? Do you use proxy servers or do you use some type of software that allows you to download the videos to your hard drive? We’d like to know how music educators are dealing with any roadblocks that their districts might have in place. We are fully aware that there are legal issues surrounding this, we are just interested in how people are dealing with firewalls.
I look forward to hearing from you. If you know someone else who uses YouTube in the classroom, please pass this post on.
After nearly 10 years of research and two years of back and forth with publishers, my book - The Teachers Guide to Music, Media & Copyright Law - is finally available for purchase. Hal Leonard published the book (they are a fantastic company to work with) and it is available on many different websites for purchase, including Amazon.com, HalLeonard.com, Barnes & Noble, and soon on the SoundTree Educational Web Store. There is a companion website for the book located at www.copyrightbook.net that includes a Q&A forum, links to other copyright resources, and downloadable files to be used in the classroom. The book actually came out ahead of schedule, thanks to the editorial contributions of David Moser, Rob Cohen, and the amazing Rusty Cutchin. I couldn’t be happier with the result.
If you are heading down the San Antonio, TX for the upcoming, TI:ME/TMEA Conference, I will actually be doing a book signing, and the SoundTree booth will have plenty of copies on hand. If you already have a copy of the book I’d love to hear what you think of it. Now, on to the next project…
Believe it or not, I still get Christmas presents from my parents every year. At almost 40, I still look forward to seeing what my parents will get me each year. For the past couple of years it has been something either for the house or a new suit - useful to be sure, but not like the presents I got when I was a kid. This year however, they got me a gift that I absolutely love, and when I ripped the wrapping paper off I believe the word “Awesome!” was uttered at an unusually high volume. My gift: RockBand 2 for the Nintendo Wii.
For those of you who read this blog on a somewhat regular basis, you might remember that my wife bought me Guitar Hero 3 for my birthday back in September. I thoroughly enjoy the game, and usually play it late at night when everyone has gone to sleep. The graphics and lyrics are a bit too risqué for my two young daughters so I don’t play it in front of them. RockBand 2 however is a little different, so for the past couple of days it has been the Frankel Family Music Hour in our basement. For those of you who don’t know the game, it comes with three instruments: guitar, drums, and a microphone. Each is hooked up to the Wii game console via wireless USB dongles that plug into the back. The game allows all three devices to be used simultaneously during a song. I love playing the drums (at the medium level right now), my daughter loves being the lead singer (she is a bit of a ham), and even my lovely wife gets into the act playing either drums or guitar. I had my brother (he is a Blue Man in Blue Man Group and an excellent drummer) over this weekend and it was terrific to have a community experience with music - the first time I can recall since childhood.
The game setup is very similar to Guitar Hero 3, with two cascading music tracks on either side of the screen and the lyrics to the song scroll across the top of the screen. What amazed me about the game is that it actually judges the pitch accuracy of the singer by translating the voice that comes in to a visual representation on the screen. It also amplifies the voice and even adds effects when the song calls for them. Our current favorite songs include “Eye of the Tiger”, “Hungry Like the Wolf”, and my daughter’s favorite “That’s What You Get”. We have created a band, and we will be touring soon!
So what are the implications for music education? As you may be aware I believe that music educators should whole-heartedly embrace games like Guitar Hero, Wii Music, and RockBand as the students they teach are spending hours playing these games at home. There are very real musical skills being trained while playing the games (sight reading, rhythmic accuracy, pitch, and the value of practice), and with some creative implementation, I believe that they could be used to get students making “real” music on traditional and non-traditional instruments. It wouldn’t be that crazy in my opinion for a teacher to have a Wii system (or PlayStation and XBox 360) in the music classroom. What do you think? Do you have a video game console in your classroom? How do you use it? Would you ever consider integrating one into your music curriculum? Why? Why not?
I welcome your comments and questions. Thanks Mom & Dad!
While it is probably old news for some of you, there is an incredible groundbreaking event happening on YouTube, and I thought that it would be good to share it with those of you who haven’t seen it yet.
It’s called the YouTube Symphony, and I’ve never seen anything like it. It is a collaboration between Carnegie Hall, the composer Tan Dun, the London Symphony Orchestra, conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, and the San Francisco Symphony. The project asks YouTube users to download parts to a new composition by Dun titled “Internet Symphony No. 1 Eroica”, watch Master Classes for each instrumental part including a video of Mr. Dun conducting the part, and then (after quite a bit of practice), submit a performance of the part on to YouTube by the deadline (January 28, 2009). These performances will then be judged by a panel of judges, and finalists will be asked to come to New York to perform the premiere of the work in April of 2009 at Carnegie Hall - conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas.
While some might call this a shameless publicity stunt, I think that it is a brilliant use of the site to find musicians from all over the world who have participated in a truly “Classical Music 2.0″ event. It is a brilliant idea and after looking through the tuba part (and realizing that there is simply no way I have any chance) I wish I had some chops to submit a video. I can imagine students in music conservatories all over the world submitting their performances. In fact, it is possible that with that large of a talent pool, the orchestra that is gathered on the stage that night will be incredible. I have subscribed to the site and I am really looking forward to seeing what happens. In fact, I am going to go and buy my tickets for the concert right now.
What do you think? Is this good for classical music, or have these venerable organizations sold out? What are the implications for education?
I was looking through the Sibelius website yesterday and I saw an amazing upgrade deal on the site that I thought you’d like to see (if you haven’t already). If you’ve been on the fence about forking over some cash to upgrade your copy of Sibelius 3 or 4 to the current version, then now is the time to do it. I’ve never seen this price before. Here is some copy from the site:
It’s the Sibelius Sale of the Season!
Beginning Monday, December 8th through Friday, December 12 registered Sibelius users can upgrade to Sibelius 5 for $85/Professional Version and $65/Education Version. Sibelius 5 Lab Pack Upgrades are just $215. That’s 50% off regular price.
To take advatnage of the deal (hurry - it ends on Friday) visit www.sibelius.com/upgrade today. Thanks Sibelius!
If you don’t have a copy of Sibelius yet, take advantage of the holiday sale at SoundTree by visiting our store and using coupon code Holiday08 to receive an additional 10% off our already lowest price.
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