Orchestra and Football

In a recent music tech class, made up of more non music students than music students, we had a debate over whether there are similarities between a music ensemble and a sports team.  Being stubborn high schoolers, it was hard to get any point across before I was interrupted by a non-sensical point and eventually gave up.  Truly, no one wants to argue with a freshman boy who's world is only football and who is unwilling to listen to anyone else.  Today, I came across this news clip from CBS that validates my (and my music students points) of a football team being similar to a symphony orchestra.  Wynton Marsalis spoke with Tom Brady, quarterback of the New England Patriots, and Alan Gilbert, maestro of the New York Philharmonic, comparing the two seemingly different disciplines to change the minds of the audience.  I'll have to show this to my class when we resume on Monday and see what they think.

What Do Tom Brady And The Conductor Of The New York Philharmonic Have In Common?

DIY Fingering Chart

Even though I am not a band director, I did have to learn how to play and teach the woodwind instruments while in my undergraduate program.  It has been many years since then and if you asked me what fingers are needed to play a certain note I would have no idea what to say.  Today, I stumbled upon a website that has an interactive fingering chart that can be customized by instrument, size, and color.  Students can create fingering charts for notes that they are having trouble with, and can then save and print them.  When we begin full orchestra in the spring I may have to use this site myself.

Fingering Diagram Builder

El Sistema Right Next Door

This week is not so much a post about music technology but more about a wonderful program coming to New Jersey, only one town over from where I live.

El Sistema, if you don't already know, is a music program designed to teach instrumental music to children from low-income households and in high poverty areas.  Originally started in Caracas, Venezuela, children and families sign up for private and group music lessons with the goal of not only learning an instrument but to improve upon their lives through music.  Starting with only 11 students in Venezuela in 1975, the El Sistema program has risen to world acclaim and now has over 400,000 students in programs in cities like New York, Baltimore, and Philadelphia, and can be found in countries like Australia, the United States, and Brazil.

Living in Hoboken, New Jersey and teaching in a suburb near by, I get to  see and teach students from a wide variety of ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds.  Hoboken itself has a wide variety of school options considering the entire city is only one square mile in size.  From the public school district to your choice of four private schools and two charter schools, families (who mostly work in New York City) have a wealth of programs to choose from.  Up the road (and pallisades) is the neighboring town of Union City, where the population is made up predominantly of minority home and lower income housing.  The public school district recently built a brand new high school, but money has not been reinvested into the lower grade schools and their fine arts programs.  Through the NAfME news feed I found out that Union City is the home to a new branch of El Sistema, providing a quality music education for the children who may not ever be able to learn to play an instrument and better their outlook for the future.

UNION CITY MUSIC PROJECT GIVES AT-RISK KIDS SOMETHING TO SING -- AND PLAY -- ABOUT

Cheats for Edmodo

In the world of social networking, sometimes the only way to get our students to remember something is by meeting them on their own turf.  That is where Edmodo comes in.  It looks like Facebook in color scheme and lay out and has a lot of the same features.  However, in order for students to join a particular class, or "group", they must be provided the class code by the teacher.  Students can send and receive messages, post to the group wall (which is then moderated by the teacher), and receive, turn in, and see their grades on the site.  As always, there is an accompanying app that is free for both droid and iPhone.  I use Edmodo to post recordings of concert pieces, send and receive assignments for my music tech class, and studetns are able to quickly communicate with me when they forget my email address.  Edmodo has become a tool that we all use on a regular basis and the students feel that they are on their home turf with the social networking layout that they have come accustom to.
Here is a great infographic from Edudemic that makes Edmodo even easier to understand.

The Teacher's Cheat Sheet For Edmodo

Hook Theory

This week, while browsing through the various blogs and sites that are in my RSS, I was sad to see a lack of posts and links that I wanted to write about.  I then turned to one of my favorite resources, the String and Orchestra Teachers group on Facebook but, once again, found nothing.  Either it was a slow week in music technology and education or I was looking for something so amazing that I was not pleased with what I was seeing.  Luckily, Facebook it self has become a personal learning network for me simply because I am friends with so many other music teachers and general educators and by scrolling through my news feed I am privy to links and sites that my friends simply find interesting, funny, or educational.

This week and friend of mine stumbled upon a website called Hooktheory.  What a wonderful music theory resource for students.  Hooktheory makes song analyses and writing easier than ever by breaking down the chord progressions of popular songs, analyzing chord progression trends, and making it easier than ever for students to actually see where the chord changes are in their favorite pop tunes. My favorite aspect of the site is that they group together pieces and songs with similar chord progressions and can also show predictions for what chord will follow based on trends in music.  Students can also go into the editor mode and create their own songs by using chords and their inversions, changing keys and modes, and adjusting tempos into something they find pleasing and saving their work.  Not only is this site available on any web browser but there is also an app for the iPad.  While only in the early BETA version, this site is fun to play around with and shows students the connections between their favorite songs and how to take what they love and write their own music.

Hooktheory

Practicing With Accompaniment

As a teacher of high school orchestra I like to provide recordings of the concert pieces for student reference.  There are times when students what to practice along with the recordings but are unable to play them quite up to tempo.  In an age of smart phones and apps, there are plenty of resources (both paid and free) that allow students to slow down audio files without changing the pitch.  However, if one does not have a smart phone, Quicktime on a Mac and Windows Media Player on a PC, are all you need to slow down recordings and the various computer operating systems already have these programs installed.  Here is an article with information for both apps and the various computer programs.

Slow Down Music

Bicycle Built for Two

Noteflight is a free, browser based, music publishing site.  Great for music programs on a budget, teachers and students alike can register for a free account and create score for various ensembles.  While clumsier than programs like Sibelius and Finale, being free and with no required download, its a great option for students who compose both at home and at school.  Saving and printing are free!!  Here is an example of a finished score, "Bicycle Built for Two" for violin solo and piano (with lyrics provided if you want to sing along!!).

Marching Band and iPads

As a Columbus native with family members who are both former and current members of The Ohio State Marching Band, I am extremely happy to see all of the publicity that they are getting recently.  As a former member of my high school's marching band, I know how much work it takes to create a competition show over the course of a season and as a sister of two former members of the OSU band I know how much work they do to learn a new show every week.  The Today Show on NBC did a piece on the band recently and revealed that they are now using iPads to help create and learn their new shows.  Their director, Jon Waters, the assistant directors, and each squad leader have been loaned an iPad that has animated versions of their shows that not only give them their coordinates for each set, but can also show them exactly how they are to get from one point to another and where they are in their music at the same time.  Talk about technology in music!!

All the Right Moves

PDF Creation With Your Phone

When it comes to using musical notation computer programs there are times when using an existing score is necessary.  Whether it be for excerpts for auditions or assessments, photo copying and using the original cut and paste method can be very time consuming.  Luckily, programs like Sibelius and Finale have the ability to read PDF scores and make them editable.  Not everyone has access to a scanner in their school to make paper scores in to PDF files but with the use of an app on your smart phone, teachers now have the ability to scan documents into their phone using the camera, edit, save, and send them where ever they are needed.  Imagine being able to scan a score into Sibelius with your phone in a matter of minutes and edit, rearrange, and send to students.  Edudemic has a great post about three apps (both paid for and free) that are now available for use that can make the ability to rework music even easier.

3 Powerful Apps for Mobile PDF Creation