Google Sheets Dashboards — David Getz Creative

David Getz is an educator from Illinois who is doing crazy awesome things with Google Spreadsheets to track the progress of his orchestra students. It reminds me of some of my own goals for tracking data and assessing students. Read about his awesome workflow on his blog.

Post #3 - Creativity in Organization: Google Sheets Dashboards — David Getz Creative:

Spreadsheets begin as endless rows of empty cells, neatly organized in columns and rows; a pure, blank canvas. What’s hidden in each cell though are endless formulas and shortcuts that can allow any creator to manipulate them for artistic and imaginative purposes.

I have always enjoyed goofing around with spreadsheets, but it was typically for the sole purpose of organizing baseball statistics or populating March Madness brackets. It wasn’t until I began coaching cross country that I began using my knack for number crunching for a professional purpose. After a few seasons of gathering large amounts of running data and analyzing trends to help us in our races, I realized I could also be using Google Sheets for educational purposes in my classroom. Music teachers often have the same students for multiple years, so having a way to analyze data over a long period of time is essential.

This year, I have decided to take a deep dive into building Google Sheets Dashboards. Keep reading here…

Spotify sells its music-creation tool Soundtrap back to its founders - Music Ally

Music Ally reports that Spotify is selling Soundtrap back to its founders.

Spotify sells its music-creation tool Soundtrap back to its founders - Music Ally:

Spotify is selling music-creation tool Soundtrap back to its founders to become a standalone business again, five and a half years after acquiring it.

Originally a startup from Spotify’s homeland Sweden, Soundtrap built its service as a cloud-based tool for recording and collaborating on music. Aimed at grassroots musicians and schools, it was bought by Spotify in November 2017.

Soundtrap has now been sold back to its original founders, Per Emanuelsson and Björn Melinder, for an undisclosed amount.

Keep reading here…

I was intrigued back when Spotify purchased Soundtrap and podcast publishing tool Anchor. The idea of putting both the audio creation tools and consumption tools into the hands of the general user seemed like it could result in some synergistic results long term. I guess Spotify isn’t interested in that. I am not really sure what Spotify is interested in. Their vision for the experience of using their app seems to be all over the place lately. And I don’t understand what the app offers that other music streaming services don’t, other than perhaps their superior music discovery algorithm.

MusicFirst welcomes MusicProfessor — Dr. James Frankel

MusicFirst welcomes MusicProfessor — Dr. James Frankel:

Coming this Fall, the MusicFirst Classroom will include ALL of the amazing Level One videos from MusicProfessor.com at no additional charge. MusicProfessor is an online library that contains hundreds of short videos that provide lessons so that students learn how to play an instrument at home at your own pace on any device. The videos are excellent and professionally produced, and I personally believe that it is a perfect resource for any band or orchestra director who may not have the time to provide individualized instruction to EVERY student. Keep reading here…

Ableton Announces the Push 3

Ableton introduced the Push 3 last month and it looks amazing. The MPE-enabled touch sensitivity features are huge improvements to what was already a very playable and expressive piece of hardware. I appreciate that Ableton is making this a standalone production device by building an audio interface into it. So many products in the “colorful grid of squares” category already are, and it makes sense that a device as powerful and loved as the Push goes in this direction.

Dorico 5 Released

Dorico 5 was released last month! The Dorico blog has a a thoughtful introduction to version 5. I find these posts and videos so insightful and clarifying, that I almost enjoy reading and watching them as much as I do using the software. You can see the love and intention they put into every detail.

Dorico 5 helps you create music that moves – Dorico:

We are delighted to announce the immediate availability of the brand new generation of our music notation and composition software, Dorico, with updated versions available now for macOS, Windows, and iPadOS. Dorico 5 is packed with powerful and useful features throughout the application, all designed to help you get great-looking and great-sounding results as quickly as possible. Let’s dive in. Keep reading here…

My school year is coming to a busy close this year, and I haven’t had enough time with Dorico 5 to generate anything more meaningful to say here. So, as usual, I recommend you read the excellent review at Scoring Notes.

Apple Music Classical (Mostly) Plays the Right Chords -- TidBITS

Kirk Mcehlhearn wrote a detailed breakdown about Apple's new classical music app for TidBITS last month.

Apple Music Classical Mostly Plays the Right Chords:

Apple Music Classical is a free app for Apple Music subscribers to access this new, enhanced collection of music. Inexplicably, it is only available for the iPhone. One would expect Apple Music Classical to be available for desktop computers, especially since many people listen to classical music from a Mac, or a PC running iTunes, connected to a stereo. Since Apple Music has added a lot of high-resolution music, which requires an external DAC (digital-analog converter) to play at its full quality, it is quite difficult to play that sort of music from an iPhone. You can stream music to an AirPlay 2-compatible receiver with a DAC attached, but most people don’t have that hardware. You can, of course, stream Apple Music Classical from an iPhone to a HomePod—the second generation of which also supports Dolby Atmos, or what Apple calls spatial audio—but overall, this focus on the iPhone limits playback options considerably. Keep reading here...:

Introducing MusicFirst Elementary — Dr. James Frankel

Introducing MusicFirst Elementary — Dr. James Frankel:

After 4 years of work, thousands of pages of lessons plans, more than 1,000 interactive resources, and the tireless work of an amazing team of teachers and developers from our award-winning partners Charanga, I am so very proud to introduce you to a truly revolutionary music curriculum for Grades K-5 - MusicFirst Elementary, powered by Charanga. Unlike other online collections of resources that are targeted to the elementary music teacher, this is the first complete sequential K-5 music curriculum to hit the market in over a decade, and it is truly spectacular. The following provides an overview of what the curriculum includes, and most importantly, how you can preview it for yourself. Keep reading here…

What Does It Mean To Be Creative? - Off the Beaten Path

Theresa is addressing important questions on her blog this week. Stay tuned for a near future episode of Music Ed Tech Talk. She is the next guest.

What Does It Mean To Be Creative? - Off the Beaten Path:

Creativity is a word we hear often in education, especially in music education, and it’s something I’ve become quite passionate about in the last few years. How are we, as music educators, offering opportunities for students to be creative? When do students get to create their own music and make their own musical decisions, instead of only recreating someone else’s music and performing music as dictated by someone else? Keep reading here…

9to5 Mac: Notability for iPad adds new ‘Pencil’ feature for a ‘lifelike handwriting experience’

9to5 Mac reports on an update to Notability. For a few years, I have been solidly in the GoodNotes camp when it comes to handwritten notes on iPad. It is great to see that there is still competition in this space.

Notability for iPad adds new ‘Pencil’ feature for a ‘lifelike handwriting experience’:

Notability, the popular note-taking app for iPhone and iPad, has been updated today with a new “Pencil” feature. According to the company, this feature brings “the most paper-like sketching experience to digital notetakers,” including support for the Apple Pencil as well.

MacStories -> The Practicality of Art in Software

This blog post from Federico Viticci over at MacStories is worth a read.

This part jumped out at me:

In bringing this back to software, it’s evident that – again, historically – Apple doesn’t believe in art as a veneer to make something “look good”. Art – whereby “art” we refer to the human care behind the design of software – is intrinsically tied to the technology that powers the computer. It’s the intersection of technology and liberal arts: skew toward one side more than the other, and you risk of losing the balance many of us like about Apple. Art in Apple’s software isn’t some secret ingredient that can just be added at the end of the process, like a spice: great design _is_ the process itself. Case in point: the Dynamic Island.

Federico argues that the iPad is not striking a balance between beautiful and useful. I agree with this point. After trying to use it like an equal counterpart to macOS in 2016-2019, I have been back to the Mac (so to speak) ever since.

The iPad makes a great digital piece of paper. And I think I am leveraging its strengths best when I use it exactly like that.