Posts filed under 'Technology'
By reader request, I would like to make my Audacity instructions available for everyone’s use. This is a one-page, full-color handout appropriate for middle- or high-school students (and teachers of all technology abilities!). I use this sheet to introduce my students to Audacity, and I insist that they refer to it every time they record a project. It is focused toward simple projects using a laptop computer’s internal mic (like playing quizzes) and does not cover detailed editing, multi-track options, or external hardware such as interfaces or better microphones.
AudacityInstructions downloadable PDF file
Permission is granted for reproduction and distribution, so long as authorship continues to be attributed to Cary Stewart. All other rights reserved.
January 25th, 2010
After the first day of the new student e-portfolio system, we have limited success.
The students reported no problem using Audacity. The laptops and their built-in mics worked. Most students set an appropriate gain level and made high-fidelity recordings (the performances recorded, however, seem to represent a wider range of quality!) Exporting to .mp3 format had the minor flaw of consistently causing Audacity to crash…but only after successfully completing the export (it is a known flaw in the Audacity 1.3 beta).
The major hiccup of the day was students’ ability to log in to our Sharepoint server. After several calls to our tech department, I think that is fixed. The major effect of this is that students were unable to upload their recordings and type in their self-critiques before the end of class.
The other half of my Advanced Band will run the gauntlet tomorrow. I’ll report back later this week.
December 9th, 2009
You might remember my struggles last school year to implement student online portfolios for all of my students, in the form of individual blogs. The short version: using Mac laptops, Garage Band audio software, iMovie video software and the school’s brand new Mac directory server, the system worked but was a royal pain in the neck. The recording and editing process was just as easy as you would expect on a Mac. However, the software included on the Mac directory server only does things one way; we had to use wikis instead of blogs, and we had to use Quicktime file types for the student videos. The result was that (1) the instructions for exporting the videos was three pages long and completely convoluted, and (2) file sizes were huge, causing upload and storage space issues. The school’s wireless access and internet reliability were also issues. When students could get their blogs finished the results were spectacular….but hit-and-miss learning tools are just no fun to use when your grade depends on the results. By the time I ceased requiring students to use the system in mid-April, cheers went up in every class. I was also relieved, and disappointed. The process was so draining that I elected to cease blogging about the experience until now.
Begin book two: new school, new technology in place. New pros and cons to navigate. The new school uses PC’s (boo) rather than Macs. We’ll use Audacity to record audio (hoping to add video later, but PC laptops are several years behind Macs in things like integrated webcams/mics), which I have used personally used on projects in the past (and which I have faith in, even though we’re using the 1.3 Beta). We’ll save the final cuts as “.mp3″ files rather than “.mov” using the LAME plugin (which is a lame acronym). We’ll use Microsoft’s Sharepoint server to run the online e-portfolios; the teachers here have been on Sharepoint for at least a year before I arrived in August, but the student Sharepoint server is brand-spanking new and my project will be the first on it. The school has slower and less reliable internet than my last, but seems to have a more reliable wireless access point network and a more reliable server.
The Technology Integration Specialist and I gave it a test run on a ProD day a couple of weeks ago. Worked like a charm. File sizes for one-minute mp3 files saved at full quality stereo are approximately 1.5 MB as would be expected (compared with 40-50 MB for similar .mov files last year). The only downside is that Sharepoint is not designed to hold imbedded media items (darn business-focused software), so audio and video files cannot play directly in the browser window (but I found a possible solution which I have forwarded to the tech department for consideration). Initial conclusions: I wish we were working with Mac laptops and with iMovie, but I am so glad to have a simpler and more reliable system for creating the online e-portfolios. The upside: reliability (hopefully). The downside: the e-portfolios look visually boring on the web page.
Monday and Tuesday this week I introduced my Advanced Band to the new system. Wednesday and Thursday will be our first recordings. I’ll report back next week with the results.
December 8th, 2009
I was recently asked to contribute to the music education portion of the Jemsite blog. Important excerpts are copied below, but I encourage you to read the full post here. You can even purchase guitars and accessories from the site.
I surprised myself a little bit with the honesty with which I answered the last question. Read it through, and see what you think.
Q: You currently teach Beginning Guitar classes in school. What do you teach exactly, especially considering you say you only have a repertoire of about 6 major chords?
A: My guitar repertoire may be larger than six chords, but I am still not a guitarist. Neither was the band director who started that class at that school. But she felt, as I do, that music is not a spectator sport and that every school should provide an inroads into music for every child.
The guitar curriculum for that class requires that by the end of one semester, every student will demonstrate that they can: hold and care for a guitar; tune a guitar; work correct left-hand technique; work both right-hand classical technique and use a pick; read pitches between the low E and high G; read rhythms including whole, half, quarter and eighth notes and rests; read basic tablature; play a melody alone and with a duet partner; play basic major chords alone and accompany a melody; play power chords; compose an original power chord riff; use simple multitrack recording software; and create an arrangement of a song using all of the tools in their toolbox.
Q: What’s the difference between “training” and “education?” Do you think teaching music education is more important than being an actual performer?
A: “Education” differs from “training” in a small but important aspect: process is more important than product. In a training scenario the student learns how to do one thing one way, whereas in an education scenario the student learns the concepts that operate that thing and therefore can apply the knowledge to new situations. A burger flipper in a fast food joint gets trained to toast the buns the same every time, but a chef in a Michelin-rated restaurant should educated in how flour combines with yeast and therefore can create new kinds of breads or adapt to different ovens. In a guitar lesson, a teacher can take one of two strategies: teach the E minor chord and the A minor chord so that the student knows two chords, or teach how minor chords are built so that the student knows every minor chord. Unfortunately, most guitar teachers in the world pander to the lowest common denominator, and teach the student how to play the song (for example, “Today we’re going to play ‘Foxy Lady’. Play this note, then play this note, then play this note…”) rather than teaching the student how to play guitar (for example, “Check out these crazy notes….they are called tri-tones. Here’s how they work, here’s why they sound strange, here’s how to make them yourself. Let’s practice some tri-tones in this song ‘Foxy Lady’.”)
“Music education” isn’t something a guitar teacher would teach. Rather, it is the philosophy with which the guitar teacher approaches the lesson. Surely every guitar student wants to be a performer. The question is, does the student want to perform a limited selection of songs in their bedroom, or does the student want to perform a wide variety of songs, including their own original tunes, on a stage in front of an audience?
Q: You direct the Wind Ensemble, Jazz Ensemble, Concert Band and Rock Band Workshop for an international school in Asia. How are guitar classes currently being integrated into school band/choir programs?
A: Most schools in the U.S. don’t offer guitar. With easy availability of guitar teachers and private guitar lessons outside of school, most districts feel no pressure to add the faculty or spend money on a class set of instruments. Schools that do offer guitar mostly offer it as a one-semester elective, with no opportunity for student to continue after the final exam. This scenario is better than the old-fashioned Music Appreciation class in which student memorized the birth and death dates of Mozart. Some schools with beginning guitar also have an advanced guitar ensemble class so that students can continue indefinitely, gaining more skill and becoming mentors to younger guitar students. Because most music classes in middle and high schools are Band and Choir classes, student who have studied guitar on their own find opportunities to participate in the school Jazz Band. Often these are students who are also singers or wind instrument players who play or sing classical music in the Band or Choir while taking guitar lessons after school.
Q: Do you believe the guitar is a worthwhile instrument amongst school musical performances? Why?
A: Any instrument, and any style of music, is worthy of school music concerts. The point of teaching music in schools is that music (1) is valuable just because it is music, (2) teaches personal and social skills that are critical to young peoples’ success in real life, (3) builds school spirit and community identity, and (4) is fun. Guitar meets these criteria just as well as clarinet, violin and voice do.
Q: Tell me about your Jazz Ensemble and Rock Band Workshops and how guitar comes into play there.
A: I usually have one or two guitar players plus a bass player every year in the Jazz Ensemble. These are typical numbers for a big band (think Count Basie, Duke Ellington, and Gordon Goodwin). In fact, my Beginning Guitar class has been an important recruiting tool for the Jazz Band.
Rock Band Workshop is an open-door program, like open-mic afternoon. We have had between two and twelve guitarists show up to any given session. Anyone can come play, whether alone or with a group. We have had singer-guitarists cover Jack Johnson, and we have had six-piece rock bands play Iron Maiden. We even had a solo bassist perform just the bass part of a Slipknot song because she was new to our school and didn’t know any other musicians. At the Workshop that day, she met a metal band who was performing without a bassist. By the next workshop she was in that band, and by the following school year she was in the Jazz Band and the Wind Orchestra. At Workshop, each person/group plays their song and then gets feedback from the guest experts (our school has a shocking number of faculty with serious gig experience) on everything from how to play in time together to how to get the best sound out of their distortion pedal/amplifier combo.
Q: How important is music education in school in determining how a child does in other areas of learning?
A: Research on this question has been huge but inconclusive. We are sure that students who excel in music also excel in other subjects. However, researchers have not been able to show whether this relationship is a cause-effect situation or merely a coincidence caused by another factor. For every study that shows cause-effect, there is another that shows no cause-effect. However, wouldn’t you rather your own child have it than not?
Q: What is the future of music education?
A: The future of music education is in technology, student compositions, and self-directed learning. Guitar and piano will play an increasing role in school music classes as Web 2.0 tools become more commonplace in the classroom. Within the next 30 years, Band class as I know it will lose precedence in school curricula. Chamber music will be more common. The new music class will be more about students recording their own music (on any instrument—guitar, woodwind, brass or otherwise) and distributing it digitally than about large ensembles. Band, Choir and Orchestra will not be forgotten; their excitement, energy, inclusiveness and community ties (not to mention their relationship to sporting events) will keep them active in schools, but as extra-curricular activities rather than as graded classes. Students’ technical performance skills on their chosen instrument will be increasingly measured by computer, giving music teachers more tools for grading technique objectively and for coaching students to more fully create the emotional effects that make classical music so powerful. And finally, within the next 50 years, music will become mandatory in every year of school for every student as new research in neuroscience and cognitive psychology will convince school administrators and politicians that music makes definite, measurable improvements in students’ ability to solve problems, mature emotionally, relate to others and generally be successful in life.
October 26th, 2009
Debbie Cavalier has posted a great deconstruction of a multitrack recording at her Music, Education, and Technology blog on the Berklee Music Blogs site. The particular song in the demo is aimed at a younger audience than your middle- or high-school ensemble student, but the concepts are clearly illustrated for any age group (and who knows what your students will hook on…the tune is catchy in its own right). Try it on your students next time you work on your own student recordings.
October 25th, 2009
I am occasionally tempted to write about topics in music technology. However, Third-Stream has tried to steer clear of music technology in order to stay focused on topics of pedagogy for instrumental ensembles. I prefer to leave the tech topics to people who are more knowledgeable (and more passionate) about technology than myself. I do care about incorporating appropriate technology, and I do read up on the subject. Today I would like to share my favorite band/orchestra/choir-relevant technology-specific blogs. All of these and more are on the 100 Music Education Blogs List.
Dr. Joseph Pisano http://mustech.net/
Music Technology in Education http://jamesfrankel.musiced.net/
Music Tech for Me www.musictechforme.com/
The Digital Music Educator http://digitalmusiceducator.wordpress.com/
Jonathan Savage http://jsavage.org.uk/
Music Ed Tech http://musicedtech.wordpress.com/
Band Ed Tool Shed http://rogerwhaley.blogspot.com/
Phil Kirkman http://kirki.co.uk/main/
Music Tech Musings http://susanadavis.blogspot.com/
Musictech4ed http://musictech4ed.edublogs.org/
Music, Middle School, and Web 2.0 http://musicmiddleschoolandweb20.blogspot.com/
Music Tech Tips http://musictechtips.wordpress.com/
Elementary Music/ Music Technology http://amymburns.musiced.net/
October 14th, 2009
I recently commended Joseph Pisano’s list of the best free music software currently available. I also wrote that one of my favorites from the list is MuseScore notation software. If you need more input before taking the leap, please check out Joy Morin’s in-depth review of MuseScore over at colorinmypiano blog. Joy’s candid review covers both the pros and cons of MuseScore. Joy’s recommendation: great functionality for students, great value for the price, but professionals may want to wait for future version of this promising but incomplete application. Thanks, Joy!
September 7th, 2009
Joe Pisano over at MusTech.Net has posted an outstanding article covering the best free music software currently available. His list includes software for notation, ear training, tuning, multitrack recording and more. My personal favorites are MuseScore notation software and Audacity multitrack recording and editing software. Thank you Dr. Pisano!
September 6th, 2009
Here’s one for the IB Music teachers and high school general music teachers, for your file of lesson plans for non-musical substitute teachers, or just to keep us all on our toes.
You should know the name of Tod Machover, if only from your undergraduate-level Music History of the 20th Century class (his composition “Bug Mudra” for two amplified guitars, electronic percussion, computer-driven conducting glove, and computer is a commonly used example of electronic art music). You might even know his Hyperscore software for composing music (and teaching higher musical concepts such as form, texture and melody) without the traditional hassle of music notation. Mr. Machover is not only a prolific composer of art music using electronic instruments, but is also an prolific inventor of astonishing new music technologies. He teaches both in his role as Professor of Music and Media at MIT’s Media Lab. In fact, Mr. Machover and his proteges are inventing the future of music–the traditions, language, instruments, even the paradigms–of whatever musical epoch will follow our current contemporary music epoch.
Discussion of Machover’s instruments and compositions is sure to fire up a good debate among your upper-level students (and faculty!) You may find that individuals with greater formal music training may be more prepared to listen with an open mind (reminiscent of older, more accepted 20th Century composers such as serialists) or less prepared to listen with an open mind (”That doesn’t sound like music” or “people make music, computers are just a gimmick” or “Composing without reading notation is just cheating”). Please take a few minutes to explore the following links, starting with the TED conference presentation. Then string a few links into a mini-lesson, and ask your students some provocative questions. Is it music? Is the performer still the performer? Will electronic music replace acoustic music entirely? Will the instrument you play soon be obsolete? Is turn-tablism (DJ-ing) an instrument/form of musicianship? If you were to create a brand-new, never-before-thought-of instrument, what would it be?
Presentation at a TED conference including new music by Dan Ellsey
Todmachover.com
Hyperscore.com
Scientific American interview covering Brain Opera
Current projects at MIT’s Media Lab
Next opera Death and the Powers
August 31st, 2009
I mentioned in an earlier post that I wanted to try to incorporate a school initiative to use wikis and blogs into Band and Guitar classes. The prospect of each student having their own online portfolio of recordings and reflections is exciting. Likewise, the possibilities were intriguing, if not clear, for using wikis for students to document and save their collected wisdom about…well, about whatever…but it was intriguing. I decided to move ahead on the blogs idea and take more time to think about the “authentic” (a.k.a., helpful rather than distracting to the music content) possibilities of wikis. After three months of trying to work with my tech department to make it work, I had given up on blogs. I wrote several posts for Third-Stream about the experiences, but chose not to post them; maybe I’ll give you the “short, positive” version later. In any case, the server we have just is not able to give each student their own blog. Sixty thousand dollars of advanced hardware and software, and it only does things one way…that’s disappointing.
Then last week, our school had an inservice day which included tech sessions. One tech session on student portfolios showed an amazingly simple work-around for giving each student their own web space to show off their growth in music. It is…(drum roll, please)…give each student their own page on the wiki. Done. Voila. Presto. Bam. Sure, students could mess with each other’s pages, but ours tend not to be the vandalizing type. I would be more likely to have a student edit another’s page by mistake because they really didn’t know where they were. Besides, the server keeps a log of all content changes, so detective work after an incident would be easy. For introductory pages, I took another cue from the workshop leader and wrote “STUDENTS DO NOT EDIT THIS PAGE” above and below content which I wanted to be only edited by myself.
So now, five days after the tech seminar, I have working, individual “blogs” for every one of my students.
They can make a recording of themselves playing, post it in their personal music wiki page, and write their reflections just underneath. Students can comment on each other’s pages (hopefully “comment” and not “edit”), and I can comment and give grades for student work all in one place. Students can even “retake” playing quizzes just by making a new recording of the material and writing a new blog post. At the end of the semester, students have a ready-made stash of evidence of achievement (or growth, creativity, etc.) in music to use in their student-led parent conferences. I have even posted my own demo pages in each class for students to see and imitate. In my Wind Ensemble demo, students can watch a video of me playing snare drum very well; in my Beginning Band demo, students can watch a movie of me playing trumpet at a mediocre level; and in my Guitar class demo, students can see me stink it up on guitar. They can even read my comments on myself, including my own appraisals of how I plan to improve each, so that they can see examples of constructive criticism…and know that their teachers are human, too!
So far, the downsides include commenting on a wiki (at the bottom of a page, rather than just below each individual posting as on a blog) and the speed and stability of our school internet connection. As the project grows from its infancy into its adolescence, I’ll keep you posted as to the growth and successes of the project.
November 3rd, 2008
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