A Bloggable Moment: Be careful what you wish for- music technology

I’m sitting at my desk shoving spaghetti in my mouth and wondering how I’m going to get the wind ensemble set up for the command performance this afternoon for the big art exhibit that I just found out is opening today (I found out that I’m supposed to provide “entertainment” on my way into class this morning). Further proof that there is no excuse for not blogging (I should take my own advice more often!)

I had to get these thoughts out as I have had several emails from readers who are going to be exploring the option of the “non-traditional” music class. I feel that I need to give “full disclosure” as to what you are getting yourselves into- I don’t want anyone to think that it is magically easy- it is really, really hard work!

I was all excited about laying down some tracks in GarageBand with one of my non-trad groups in my second block class this morning. I had envisioned all last night how great the session would go- just like those big recording studios and how we would all hug each other because we had created something beautiful and “cool”. Then reality hit and I woke up.

The second period bell rang and I scrambled to get all of the materials ready for our stellar session. How hard could it be? All I had to do was open a new basic track on Garageband, hook up the inputs and away we go- simple, right? WRONG. Oops- I realize as the late bell rang that I don’t have enough space on my laptop hard drive to record a session- no problem, I have a portable usb hard drive w/250gigs- just plug it in and away I go. Oops…forgot that on a Mac G4 PowerBook there isn’t enough bus power to spin the hard drive- no problem, I’ll just plug into two usb ports and away I go. Oops…I forgot that I have to use the usb imic for good quality recordings into the computer- no more usb ports (I only have two on the computer). No problem, I’ll just get rid of some files on my laptop hard drive (by now it’s 20 minutes into the class- but don’t worry, the other kids are all working on their own projects- they are fine do I hear “hey jude” in the background?) I guess I didn’t need those files (I hope) now off we go!

We started with the drum track- hook up the edrums through the group controller- configure the controller to output to the imic- OK I hear drums (a little too low level, but I can tweak that later) OOOPS! We forgot the cardinal rule of all drummers- as Buddy Rich once said- so many drummers so little time!!!! The tempo is all over the place, so out comes Dr. Beat so I can show him where the tempo is. I recalibrate the track to about mm200 (where he thinks he can play “rock n’ roll high school”) and resolve to record and quantize later. A LOT of quatization!

It’s now about halfway into an 85 minute block- here we go laying down the bass part- that goes pretty well after I figure out that there is not enough gain from the bass to drive the PocketPod (a separate post about that later) so we drag in the bass amp and go out from that into the computer with an adapter. OK- bass part is done.

Now it’s about 10 minutes till the class ends (mind you, during all of this I have been interrupted by my students with such important things as “can I go to the bathroom”) and the veteran teacher in me nags that there won’t be enough clean up time if I don’t stop now. The idealistic teacher in me says (picture angel and devil on shoulders) that I have trained my kids to have enough responsibility to put everything away. Idealistic wins- let’s go for the guitar track!!!!!!!

OK- cue drums, cue bass, CUE GUITAR!!!!! OOOOPS!!! the guitar is 1/2 step flat in relation to the bass…sounds terrible (”but Mr. B I’m playing the right chords!”) Gimme that guitar, kid! (world’s fastest retune) and we manage to get the track down. OOOPS!!! they figure out that they haven’t practiced the form of the song enough together to make sure the I-vi-IV-V progression happens together w/the guitar and the bass…we keep recording anyway…and we’re done.

We go into my office to listen (my kids think I’m mad at them, but I’m just frustrated and disappointed that it didn’t go better). As I click “play” here comes the drums, the bass and guitar (all mis-aligned and everything) and it sounds to me like a hot mess. But I look at my kids and they are all smiles “Hey- that’s us!!! it’s not too bad…COOL!!!!” and they are high-fiveing each other and spouting all kinds of kid jargon for good job…I just sit back and laugh…

It was wonderful.

A Bloggable Moment: Classroom management and technology

Teaching with technology can be very rewarding. Having the students collaborate and utilize technology to deepen and expand their knowledge is at the very epicenter of education philosophy these days. Unfortunately, it also requires a heightened level of classroom management. Not so much the behavior kind, although there certainly are a different set of expectations for what is acceptable behavior when students collaborate- it is more the materials management that must be worked out carefully.

Today was a typical day in my alternative music class- students working on independent and collaborative projects with myself as their “host and guide” for the process. It is my policy that all electronics are signed out at the beginning of class. After the initial wave of handing out PocketPods, hooking up electronic drums to the keyboard lab, etc. I gave the “last call” for anyone else who needed materials. Hearing none (going once…going twice…) I began working with groups on their projects. Then it happened. The “stragglers”. The slow, random procession of students who didn’t pay attention the first time and now realize that they need something!

As educators, we need to ensure that the short time we have with our students is concentrated on instruction. In my case, I tie a portion of their grade to their ability to handle materials wisely and efficiently. Anything that has to be done as far as distribution of equipment, assembly or connections, etc. should be handled before class if at all possible- or at the very least it should occur very early in the class period utilizing a set procedure each and every time (it becomes part of the class expectations). If this is not done, in short order the class will come to a grinding halt while you “put out fires”.

Back to my student “stragglers”. After asking them to repeat what the classroom procedure is regarding equipment, I asked “where were you when I asked if anyone needed anything else?” The response? The classic shrug of the shoulders and an almost unintelligible “I dunno”. Nevertheless, the expectation was that I drop what I was doing and take care of their needs. Rather than halt all learning and switch to “caretaker mode” I had that student join in what we were doing until I was finished, then had him follow me around the room as I made my way to the equipment cabinet (helping several other groups along the way). The bottom line is: Plan, organize, explain, demonstrate, practice procedures. Then be prepared for “I dunno”.

Mac vs. PC- alternative music lesson learned!

I’ll admit it- I’m a Mac guy. Yeah, look at my picture and I look more like the PC guy in the commercial, but trust me, if you are doing music technology- there are so many reasons to use a mac. In our alternative music class we have begun our next project which involves doing a cover of a song or composing one of your own (it’s much deeper than that, but for the purposes of this post I’ll leave it at that) I have the Korg PadKontrol plugged into a HP dual-core laptop and running SampleTankXL 2.1. You can see a video of my students using the PadKontrol in the video widget in the right sidebar.

They were really going along fine, then they ran into a frustration- the loops that they were triggering were “hiccuping” intermittently. They spent about 30min. troubleshooting before they came and got me. I had my cell phone handy, so I asked another student to video. I worked on it for another 30min. and came to the conclusion that it was the sound card! How did I find that out? I decided to run the same project on my PowerBook G4 and what do you know, it worked flawlessly!

That was one whole hour of time wasted that those students could have been creating and working, but for a cheap sound card- stopped them dead in their tracks! I won’t even get into how much more difficult it was to install drivers for the PadKontrol on the PC (Windows XP)! The moral of the story is that you get what you pay for. The HP computer they are working on in the video is just fine for internet and other basic tasks. It also does fairly well with video and is a reasonably fast machine (processor) but the sound card is CHEAP, therefore NOISY and very unpleasant to work with. My older Mac however has a very fine sound output, and while it is slower than the XP machine (quite a bit actually) it is still my machine of choice (until I can get a new MacBook Pro like they have been promising me!)

Beware- just because your school tech person says that it is a fine machine that should do what you want it to, and the district loves it because it is such a “value”- do your research!! What might seem like a bargain at first could end up to be a headache.

Join the campaign for 100 music education bloggers!

Dr. Joe Pisano over at MusTech.net and I have begun a campaign to have 100 music education bloggers by 2009- come join the conversation and help further the cause of music education globally!

If you didn’t know you can start your very own blog completely FREE. You can go to www.blogger.com (which is run by google) or www.wordpress.com and you can set your own blog up on their sites with no cost at all.

Here is the list so far that Joseph has compiled - there are some great blogs in here full of really interesting and relvant information - so check them out!

1. http://www.mustech.net
   Dr. Joseph M. Pisano- MusTech.net
2. http://digitalmusiceducator.wordpress.com
   Owen Bradley -The Digital Music Educator
3. http://etobiasblog.musiced.net
   Evan Tobias- Catalysts & Connections
4. http://musiced.about.com/
   Espie Estrella -About Music Education
5. http://jamesfrankel.musiced.net/
   Dr. James Frankel-  Music Technology in Education
6. http://weblog.siba.fi/msalavuo
   Dr. Miikka Salavuo-  Music Education, Technology & Social Media
7. http://pwhitfield.edublogs.org
   Pete Whitfield-  e-Learning for Music
8. http://www.musicedmagic.com
   Chad Criswell- Music Ed. Magic
9. http://81.179.47.224/jon/
   Dr. Jonathan Savage- Jonathan Savage
10. http://musictechforme.com/
    V. Keith Mason- Music Tech. for Me.
11. http://tjweller.wordpress.com
    Travis J. Weller- Composing Like Mad
12. http://mystro2b.edublogs.org/
    Ken Pendergrass- Music is Not for Insects
13. http://www.soyouwanttoteach.com/
    Joel- So You Want to Teach
14. http://stengel99.wordpress.com/
    Steve Engel- Music Ed. Lounge
15. http://fsharpbflat.wordpress.com/
    Linda Granite- Bb, F#
16. http://doublebassblog.org
    Jason Heath- Double Bass Blog
17. http://musicisfree.ning.com/
    Robert Brannan- The Music is Free
18. http://dvzmix.wordpress.com/
    Deborah Valdivia-Zwolinski- DVZ’s Mix
19. http://choirteachers.blogspot.com/
    Kyle Gardner- Choir Teachers
20. http://www.pauldraper.org
    Paul Draper- Draper’s Blogspot
21. http://johnwilborn.wordpress.com
    John Wilborn- John Wilborn’s Weblog
22. http://iknowithink.blogspot.com
    Leo Park- I Know…I Think
23. http://gluedtothestring.blogspot.com
    Stan Haskins- Glued to the String
24. http://edgroves.wordpress.com
    Edgar Groves- Edgar Groves’ Weblog
25. http://musicedtech.wordpress.com
    Barbara Freedman- Music Ed. Tech.
26. http://tomrudolph.berkleemusicblogs.com
    Dr. Tom Rudolph-  Make the Most of Notation Software
27. http://wirechoir.dlewisweb.com
    Dale Lewis- Teaching the “Wire Choir”
28. http://docandry.edublogs.org
    Dr. Kevin Andry-Dr. Andry’s Band Blog
29. http://sperham.wordpress.com
    Steffany Perham- Perham’s Prattlings
30. http://alexruthmann.com
    Alex Ruthmann- Alex Ruthmann’s Blog
31. http://www.beatechie.edublogs.org
    Carol Broos- Be A Techie
32. http://musicanthology.org
    Geejay Arrioloa and Jeffrey Langlois -Music Anthology
33. http://southiowamusiced.blogspot.com/
    Michael Compton -Southern Iowa Music Education Network
34. http://qachsband.edublogs.org/
    Eric Wright- QACHS’s Band Blog
35. http://jonathanfilbert.com/blog/
    Jonathan Filbert -Sound On ~Music and Music Education
36. http://alleyjazz13.wordpress.com/
    Alison Hulihan- Marching Music

Happy Spring Break!

I’m heading out of town for some much needed R&R this week. After a grueling month of preparation for our spring musical and getting our new electronic music lab up and running I’m simply exhausted! Not even time for blogging!

When I get back I am looking forward to starting our next project in the alternative music class as well s preparing our spring concert (we’re doing the note-for-note transcription of Raiders’ March- fabulous! as well as video games live pt. 1) my kids can’t wait for the performance! We decided not to go to State Concert Band MPA this year (even though we earned a superior at district) it is just too much to keep polishing the district music and we don’t have time to prepare anything new, so we are going to put on an incredible spring concert instead!

We are also going to do our first Night of Jazz with our top jazz band- this is going to be a stretch for them as they have never given a concert all by themselves. I’ll have to pick Joe Pisano’s brain as to how to do the sound reinforcement- he and Darren did a great podcast about it a while back.

Speaking of podcasts- I’m planning on interviewing and talking about how we do our Spring Musical when I get back- I’ll put it on my PodOMatic podcast site- I think we really have a unique working relationship between all of the Arts areas and we really shine when we work together.

OK, so I guess I do have time to blog- I really do enjoy it and miss it when things get crazy- perhaps I should look at it as therapy! I can’t wait to read all of the ME bloggers sites to see what is happening around the country. Maybe I’ll do this on my ipod touch while lounging at the pool!

Preparing for the next alternative project- the gear

I received a call today saying that the rest of the technology order for my keyboard lab enhancement project is on the way! I thought you might enjoy reading about what we will end up working with in the new lab.

Existing Lab: Keyboards (16 stations)

Korg Triton LE

Korg GC3 group controller

Windows XP-based computer (boo!)

Tascam CD/Cassette recorder

New Equipment:

12 AT831b microphones w/guitar mount (for acoustic guitars)

1 DM5ProKit electronic drumset

12 MyMonitor interfaces for plugging into the existing keyboard lab stations (think swiss-army knife)

3 PocketPod amp emulators

1 PadKontrol midi control device w/Reason Adapted, Live Lite 7, virtual drum machine, and a host of effects

6 Silent Brass Systems (2 trumpet, 1 French Horn, 1 Trombone, 1 Baritone, 1 Tuba, 1 mixing board)

Cords n’ stuff to hook it all up and together…

What this will enable me to do:

I will now be able to allow my class to all be in the same room at the same time working alone or in groups. We can incorporate synthesizer, brass, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, drums- and can record, sequence, program, and interact in almost infinite combinations. I can now have a digital portfolio on each student and each group. I can now connect (via the GEC3) groups together to practice their projects and communicate with them and they with each other. We also have the makings of an uber-cool performance ensemble!

We will begin this project during the last 9 weeks. I plan to post my lesson plan/unit plan w/assessments and projects, etc. so stay tuned!

I have also basically quadrupled my practice facility (virtually) for a fraction of the cost of new construction- that made my principal happy!

What I’m missing and on my “wish list”

I’d really like to get an electronic wind instrument like the yamaha or akai so I can let my sax players jam along as well! (I can sort of do that with the AT831b mics, but sort of defeats the purpose of the whole “silent” thing…

New toys- silent brass, pocketpod, digital drums

Been a while since I posted, but I’m still alive- seems like I have been preparing for one festival, concert, performance, etc. after another!  Non-stop as I’m sure the band directors in the crowd can attest.  My wife has also been sick, and we are dealing with tests, etc. but enough about me…

I recently got a grant for $5,600 to upgrade our keyboard lab- (subject of a future post) and integrate my “alternative” class with silent brass, line 6 pocket pods, Alesis digital drums, and a cool midi controller that doubles as an electronic drum as well.  I have been working on this for almost 3 months, and Thursday the silent brass came in- I got 2 trumpet  sets, a french horn set, baritone, trombone, and tuba along with a mixer board to tie them all together. When I get it all up and running, I’ll be able to have the class interact without an overwhelming amount of sound in the room.  There is a bit too much to tell here in this short post , so I will post photos/video of the whole system when it is installed.

I also plan to post about the results of the “alternative music” gig- what an experience! Good and bad, we sure learned a lot about what it takes to put a performance together!

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My Non-Traditional Musicians: THE GIG!

This Sunday, my “Alternative Music” class (see my other posts for an explanation of what this class is…) is having their first honest-to-goodness GIG!  I guess I really wasn’t prepared for how UNprepared these students would be.  In my band classes, jazz band, and marching band (drum corps- see my other posts for an explanation of THAT one too…) I always strive to have my students consistently rehearse exactly how they will perform.  More simply put- I say “Good- now do it again” about 1,000 times before it is ingrained in them at the very sensory-motor level how a performance feels.

In watching my “special” class prepare, to my horror, they left some VERY big details for the last possible moment.  To be sure, I have been giving them feedback (and grades) on their progress, recording them, and having them evaluate each other’s performances with suggestions on how to improve.  I even had them write a “success plan” for having a successful performance.  All for naught.  For example, my blues group- while they have a pretty good understanding of the 12-bar blues form- struggled today with how to find an ending for their song.  I had to keep myself from laughing out loud (I know that sounds mean) but it was like they were on a highway and kept missing the exit!  Each time they reached the end of the form, they would launch into another chorus, and couldn’t for the life of them figure out how to cue each other that they were about to end.  I spent a half hour having them play just the last chorus with an extended “fill” for the final chord (we tried a IV-I kind of double-fill blues ending- if that makes any sense to you- but they couldn’t feel both the extended IV chord AND the extended I chord, so we had to simplify it.  (I guess I could have explained that better…) suffice to say that they were VERY frustrated.

I gently chastised them about having left this to the very last, and that it simply wasn’t acceptable to “figure it out when they got there”.  They would HAVE to get it right enough times to be comfortable or they would risk falling apart at the performance.  To my surprise, they seemed to be OK with the risk!  Now, my “traditional” musicians would have been beside themselves and working extra hours to correct the problem (no doubt due to many years with me “guiding” them toward that conclusion!) but with this group, it was OK to be just so-so because there were any number of excuses why they couldn’t possibly fix it- all of which had nothing to do with their lack of musicianship!  “My guitar needs new strings!” “This bass pedal sucks- I can’t get the drum to sound the way I want” “I’m used to a different amp” and so on.

Some very basic non-musical things were working against them:  they did not have the actual instruments they planned on performing on- “I’m going to bring my guitar from home to play”.  I told them that it was a really bad idea to practice on one set of instruments and then switch for the performance!  Also, it never occurred to them that they should stand in a certain fashion or face the audience, not each other like a “jam session”.  Little things like that.

I believe that this is exactly the way they approach their other classes, study, and homework (life skills?).  Just trusting that somehow it will magically work out without really working at it and getting all of the details worked out.  I know that my finer “traditional” band students are also outstanding students.  Kind of a chicken or egg thing:  did they develop great study habits and scholastic skills because of their exposure to music, or are they fine musicians because of their innate study habits and skills?  I am very interested to explore this question.

I will post video/audio of the “gig” so you can see these guys (and gals) in action.  Most of them will be pretty good, some are going to learn a painful lesson, but in any case- what I wanted to teach them about the amount of work it takes to put on a live performance, rather than just recording tracks into a computer, is about to be driven home!

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This is a test of blogging…

This is a test of blogging from my phone to WordPress. Talking on my cellphone, blogging to my blog. Very cool. listen

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Podcast episode- An interview with two of my own “August Rush”’s

Since my last post was the most popular of my blog ever, I thought I would follow up with a podcast with two of my students from my “Alternative Music” class. The two students I talk to in the episode really shed some light from a student’s perspective on the dilemma we are now facing in music education (and have been talking about in the blogosphere for some time now). When you hear in their own words how excited they were when they were given a chance to own the learning, I think you will be moved as I was- here are two average students, one who struggles to pass his classes (and our high-stakes FCAT state test) not from lack of talent and intelligence, but from not being engaged. I hope you enjoy listening to the episode as much as I enjoyed making it.

I’d love to hear your thoughts after you have listened!

Here is the link:

http://www.nphsperformingarts.podOmatic.com

It’s at podomatic, the same service that Joe and Darren from mustech.net use (although I’m neither the talented orator that Joe is nor am I the gifted technician that Darren is ) While you’re there, why not click on the badge to add it to your itunes podcast library?

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