A Bloggable Moment: Biggest Compliment EVER!!!!

I just finished teaching my Music Theory 1/Ap Music Theory class (that’s right I have both levels in the same class- talk about differentiating instruction!) there are 30 students, and since I had to “convince” my school to offer the class (they won’t open a section with less than 25 students) I had to “take all comers” meaning that there were about 10 students interested in AP, but that is not enough to make a class…

Anyway, on to the compliment…

As you can imagine, I have a WIDE variety of students in this class, but I am basically teaching EVERYONE AP (not “dumbing it down”) there are some VERY CHALLENGING STUDENTS in the class- ones that really couldn’t care less about the finer points of theory…

After class today- one of these “challenging” students came up to me and said:  ”You know, you are like that teacher in the movie Dangerous Minds- you are not happy until everyone learns even us dumb kids” I looked him straight in the eye (tearing up a bit) and thanked him.  I told him that that is one of the biggest compliments I could EVER get as a teacher.  He just looked at me like I had two heads.

What a great day!!!!!!!!!

Jemsite: It’s NOT only Rock n’ Roll (and I like it!)

Recently I was contacted by the good people over at Jemsite to do an electronic interview.  After checking out their site, I was really impressed!  If you haven’t seen the site yet, you should check it out- they are branching out into music education and (correctly, in my opinion) realizing that music education is changing and growing, crossing boundaries and blurring the lines with popular music.

It is exactly this type of partnership and teamwork that we need as we transform our classrooms to reflect the needed changes for the 21st Century. Students today are interested in more than just the traditional music education delivery model, and as I have said in my posts many times before, we MUST reach the approximately 80% of students walking around our school hallways who are NOT in our music classroom!

What an opportunity to connect and share resources- A HUGE name in guitars like Ibanez certainly commands attention from today’s non-traditional music student seeking to make choices about how to express themselves musically.  How COOL is it that they recognize the importance of what we educators do on a daily basis and want to support our efforts?  This type of partnership is CRITICAL in the coming years as we change the way we view music education!

How to Enhance Your Music Learning Experience

It’s something that the experts advocate in order to keep your mind active and sharp, especially as you grow older. Learning how to play a musical instrument is supposed to be as effective as learning a new language in helping to stave off dementia, Alzheimer’s disease and other mental illnesses that affect your neurons and the quality of your life when you enter the twilight years. No, it’s not an easy task, especially when most people who are skilled at playing music begin at a very early age and have the advantage of youth on their side. But, if you really want to achieve this goal, here’s how you can enhance and enrich your music learning experience:

• Choose an instrument that offers easy access: By this, I mean it’s wise to choose to learn an instrument for which instructors are readily available. They must live near you so that it’s easy for you to attend class every day. When you have to go out of your way to continue to learn how to play, you may tire of the experience and give up too soon. Also, choose an instrument that is not too difficult to play and one which you can continue to play on your own long after your lessons come to an end. So if you’re learning to play the piano, it makes sense to own one so that you can practice at home and continue to play regularly.
• Don’t expect instant results: It’s very hard to master even the most basic of instruments, especially if you’re learning music for the first time. So give yourself enough time and be patient with yourself even if the going is difficult. You are going to feel extremely frustrated when your fingers do not cooperate and you’re unable to grasp even the most basic of chords. But with patience and perseverance, you should be able to make progress, surely but steadily.
• Practice religiously: This is the most important aspect of learning to play an instrument – you must practice for hours daily whether you want to or not. If you want to gain mastery over or at least know how to decently play an instrument, you must spend at least an hour or two a day practicing what you have learned. Even the most gifted maestros and musicians spend time every day practicing their craft, because they know that practice is what makes perfection. So make it a habit to practice, and watch your playing skills bloom and grow.

By-line:

This guest article was written by Adrienne Carlson, who regularly writes on the topic of online degrees . Adrienne welcomes your comments and questions at her email address: adrienne.carlson83@yahoo.com

Facebook: potential problems in the classroom

Recently, we had a small problem with a student who vented her anger on her facebook page about a problem that happened in the Drum Corps (Marching Band).  Essentially, the student went on a “rant” about a decision that was made at the staff level and proceeded to use profanity as the student verbally attacked both staff and students.

Naturally, all of her “friends” on facebook were notified of the rant when she posted it and proceeded to comment on it creating quite a vitrual melee!

In these days of digital communication, it can be difficult to manage a situation such as this, and points to the urgency for some type of protocol for dealing with this type of discipline issue when it creeps into the school setting.  In this case, the incident happened over the Summer break, and the final resolution was an ultimatum for the student to take down the offensive post and delete all of the comments or face a conference with the school principal to decide on further action.

While removing a post and comments cannot guarantee that the damage will be contained, it is a logical first step.  There must be close monitoring of the situation in case someone else captures the information and makes it available again in an effort to “stir the pot”.

When dealing with the new ways students communicate, it is incumbent on all educators to teach students that the same rules of written and spoken communication apply to digital communication.

In light of this situation, here are a few general guidelines to help in dealing with digital discipline problems:

1. Communicate to students that Facebook and MySpace are NOT digital versions of a diary- there are no locks or secret places to hide potentially damaging and private information.

2. Teach students that the rules for civility and etiquette that apply to face to face and other written and spoken communication apply to their digital counterparts.

3. Institute a policy that discourages and sets consequences for derogatory references to the school or school organization and/or members of the school or organization.  It may be difficult to balance this with their first amendment rights, so be careful and always check with administration on legal matters.

We are entering an exciting and challenging time as digital communication evolves and becomes part of our everyday lives.  It is important that we enter this new era carefully and thoughtfully so that the full potential of all of the incredible technologies can be realized.

If any of you have a similar situation or have comments or suggestions about how to manage digital communication, please share your comments!

Get a Free Music Education Online

Nowadays, it is easy to get an online music education without spending a dime. Universities, colleges and other online sources offer dozens of free courses and lessons for energetic self-learners. Here are 15 free online courses that almost any music student would enjoy:

 

Introduction to Music - Wikiversity offers free music education through its School of Music and Dance. This introductory music course provides instruction in musical concepts, rhythm, melody, timbre, structure, and texture.

 

Creating Musical Sounds – This course from the Open University teaches students about the sounds that come from different instruments. The course contains six sections to help students understand the waves and frequencies of different instruments. 

 

The Fundamentals to Scales and Key Signatures – The U.S. Army Element School of Music teaches students to write and identify all the scales and key signatures in music in this free music education course. Course topics include major and minor scales, chromatic, whole tone, and pentatonic scales. 

 

Music Composition – This free online music course from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) teaches students how to compose and perform their own work. The course includes audio files, composer notes, and sample projects completed by MIT students.

 

Harmony and Counterpoint I – Harmony and Counterpoint I is a two-part MIT course that explores the formal practices of classical music. Students are expected to study tones of figuration, simple counterpoint, and diatonic harmony. 

 

Sound for Music Technology - This Open University course focuses on the physics of sound. Students study the pitch and loudness of music in relation to amplitude and frequency. 

 

Voice Lesson – Berklee provides several free online music lessons to self-learners, including this voice lesson. The lesson includes video, practice exercises, and other study materials.  

 

Organ Performance – Brigham Young University offers this free music course with an emphasis on organ performance. The course includes 16 lessons as well as assignments. 

 

Musical Analysis – This MIT course focuses on rhythm, harmony, and line relationships. The course includes assignments and other study materials.

 

Free Violin Lessons – FolkoftheWood.com offer a variety of acoustic lessons separated into three categories: from beginner to advanced. 

 

Composition and Improvisation in Cross-Cultural Prospective - Students in this Open University course study the basic principles of music through video, music structure, and memory. 

 

Blues Basics - This free music lesson, also from Wikiversity, introduces students to playing the Blues. Topics include chord progression, scale, and twelve-bar blues. 

 

Bass Lessons - ActiveBass.com offers free interactive bass lessons for students of all levels.  There are more than 8,000 lessons available in all. 

 

Free Guitar Lessons – FreeGuitarVideos.com offers free video lessons to music students who want to learn to play the guitar. The site currently hosts more than 150 free lessons. A new lesson is added each week.

 

Free Piano Lessons – GoPiano.com offers free video piano lessons for beginner and advanced students. This course includes seven lessons along with quizzes and an exam. 

 

 

Guest Post from Karen Schweitzer who writes about online college education for OnlineCollege.org.

 

Merging technologies- the lines are blurring in social networking

I just networked my blog to Facebook, which I also allowed Twitter to automatically update. Huh?

This summer I am experimenting with merging technologies as I study the phenomenon of social networking to realize it’s future impact on education.  As with many technologies- for example my new video camera which is also a 10 megapixel still camera and my blackberry which is a little of everything- we are witnessing a confluence of technology that seems to be leading to the “holy grail” of the “killer device” which will serve all of our needs.  My vote for the device in the lead would be the iphone 3gs which was just announced- this bears watching.

We seem to be always on the cusp of that “holy grail” whether it be a netbook or smartphone we seem to be heading to that one technology that will serve all of our needs.  It will be interesting to see in the coming months and years the acceleraton towards this ideal.

As for social networking, we are witnessing the explosion of information integraton on a large scale- applications sharing information with each other and overlapping to the point where we do not know where one ends and another begins.

I am very interested to hear your comments on this subject!

Texting- if you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em!

If your school is like mine we fight a daily war on the frontlines of technology- namely trying to keep students off their mobile devices long enough to pay attention in class. Those of you who are frequent readers of my blog have heard me talking about how we need to teach students how to use their technology appropriately rather than “banning” it altogether.

Recently three events have captured my thinking about how to utilize texting as a tool rather than an annoyance in class. The first event was caving in and getting unlimited texting for my family wireless plan. This made me father of the year with my champion texter daughter, but also allowed me to fully explore the possibilities it afforded on my Blackberry. All I can say is…wow.

I now understand the attraction teenagers have to this communication format- it allows you to respond while multitasking and allows you time to edit your respnse to “just the facts” with the limited space of 140 characters.

The second event was hosting state band festival at my school again this year- when our 8 year old radios did not hold a charge any more and were not working properly we immediately switched to running the event via texting. I made a group in my Blackberry of all the workers and student workers so that I could broadcast a message if needed or I could contact each person individually. The “aha” moment came when the first rush at the concession stand hit and I group texted “all available help to conc stand we are swamped!” It was surreal to see an army of students run to the stand to help while my blackberry was going crazy with responses like “k” or “on my way”. Magic- we never looked back! Anyone interested in used walkie talkies?

The final experience was our spring band trip to the Smoky Mountain Music Festival earlier this month. Again I made groups for texting- one for all, one for students only, one for chaperones only, and one for my chaperone group.

Again- I was able to run the entire event this way easily! The big test came when there was a tornado watch and severe storms one morning and I was able to just text “stay in your rooms until u hear frm me severe weather” everyone appreciated the fact that we did not have to pass the word the old fashioned way or take forever with phone calls.

These days texting gets a bad rap- I for one have certainly embraced this wonderful tool and will be using it often. By the way- I’m posting this from my trusty Blackberry

Using Audacity and Quicktime in the Band Rehearsal

If you haven’t checked out Audacity lately, the newest version has some very cool new features.  The one I was most excited about was the ability to record multiple tracks in the same window and work with them simultaneously.  Below is a screen shot from my computer showing how I used it in today’s rehearsal of “Scenes from the Louvre”.

The lesson was on the fugue in the third movement- my students are not understanding that each voice that enters must be heard clearly and all of the lines must be balanced and blended so that there is good clarity in the ensemble.  The way I approached the problem was to have a reference recording of the section we were working on (edited in Quicktime Pro so that I had just the section isolated that I wanted) where I could just click on it when needed (without having to start at the beginning or rewind, etc) I then recorded the band using my Zoom H4 recorder in it’s audio interface mode (this is why I still think that Zoom’s H4 is the best value in handheld recorders) allowing me to record directly into Audacity using it’s excellent built in microphones.

After I recorded the band, I normalized the audio (within 5 seconds it was done) and was able to play back what the band had performed in high quality with optimized volume thanks to the normalize feature (I do this so that the volume of our recording isn’t too loud or soft, which invariably complicates things when I ask the students to give feedback- their first response is always about how the reference recording is louder than ours)

We listened to the first take- ouch! not very good.  Students gave feedback and I made some adjustments- we recorded again and did the same procedure.  We did this a total of five times, and the last one was a little better.  The greatest thing about doing this particular lesson is that I can do a direct comparison A/B with the first recording and the final recording right in the same window- this is the key to making the lesson magic when students can see a big improvement after they have worked intensely.  In the past when I did this lesson with other technologies, the problem was the lag time cuing up the recordings- students cannot really grasp the amount of progress they make over the course of a rehearsal because the improvement is so minute between repetitions.  Capturing the first “raw” take without any improvements, playing that for them, and then immediately playing the last recording after all of the cleaning has been done is really very powerful.

Restoring LP’s to digital- be careful what you wish for!

If you recently purchased a USB turntable and have been anxious to dive into your old band recordings on LP and start converting them, here are a few words of caution. I titled this post “be careful what you wish for” because there is a price to pay when restoring your prized University of Michigan Revelli recordings…

We have all been spoiled by the pristine audio of today’s digital recordings. Our ears have become extremely sophisticated, and when we listen to legacy recordings, we are often disappointed that they do not sound like what we remember.

This is due to a number of reasons- there are so many variables when we are talking about analog reproduction- however surface noise is probably the biggest distraction. The constant hiss, scrape, and pop of surface noise is certainly ill-tolerated in our digital world!

Aaahhh…but there are sweet promises of restoration- programs designed to scrub away the hiss and surface noise, leaving only the heavenly strains of your one-of-a-kind recording of Trauersinfonie…

Beware, because the quiet comes at a price. It really isn’t rocket science to figure out that when you have Audacity (or any other program for that matter) learn a noise profile, it takes out all of the frequencies in that “fingerprint” from your music!  Remember, even with the improved noise removal from Audacity 1.3.3 (latest distro), software CANNOT “put back” the MUSIC in those frequencies- when they are gone, they are gone.  This can lead to some pretty harsh results as the music can take on a “tinny”, “echo-y” or “shattered” sound (the later is caused by digital artifacts when the noise was removed).

You really need to consider carefully for what situations you will use your recordings made in this way- a reference recording of a tune that is very hard to find so that you can play it for your band is one thing.  You may work very hard on a recording and get it to sound “good enough”.  Expecting that you will “re-capture the magic” of the original recording is quite another matter.  There is a very good reason why ALL analog recordings were not preserved digitally- it is really, really difficult to do this “right”.  The equipment and expertise necessary to really do justice to restoring a classic analog recording is far beyond what we are able to do with a computer, a USB turntable, and Audacity. 

Thank goodness that many classic recordings have been restored and are available again, and great ensembles keep recording great music on great equipment!

Budget woes- what will happen to educational technology?

In my home state of Florida, we are under a budget crunch such as I have not seen in my 20 years of teaching. Cuts are everywhere, but most notably in the technology area. Our school district recently spent huge amounts of money retrofitting every classroom in the district with interactive whiteboards, new computers and peripherals, and software to run them. One of the first things that were cut was the technology staff charged with keeping them up and running!

We in Education are used to dealing with things like this, but in an era where we are increasingly dependent on technology, cuts like this really hurt. For those of us who are on the “bleeding edge” when it comes to implementing technology in our classrooms, I have a few thoughts on how to mitigate the coming crisis in tech support:

1. Really dig into the “nuts and bolts” of the technology you use. Study up on how to manipulate all of the preferences, drivers, settings, etc. so that you can troubleshoot common problems yourself.

2. Establish a rapport with the technology staff at your school (if you still have one) such that you can be trusted with enhanced permissions on your computer. Many of the common problems that arise can be easily corrected, however most of our technology is so locked down that we cannot access the settings we need to fix it!

3. The internet is your friend! We will all have to support each other by sharing our expertise in various areas so that we can find the answers we need. Visit forums and blogs and don’t be afraid to ask for help- you will find that the blogosphere (especially in our area) is very willing to help.

4. Consider being your own tech support- technology that we personally own is the best way that I can think of to make certain that we have control over our own “technological destiny”. It is expensive to be sure…but the cost could be somewhat offset by a healthy tax deduction (check with your tax advisor on this)

The bottom line is that we all need to help each other in this time of need. The good news is that it is easier than ever to connect and collaborate thanks to Web 2.0 (or 3.0 as some would argue…) blogs, forums, podcasts, wikis, interactive chat, and Skype (to name just a few) will become our first line of defense as our tech support staff continues to dwindle.