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Robby Burns
David MacDonald unboxes the Odla music notation ...
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Presentation Notes

Teaching Intonation with Tonal Energy

This blog post, podcast episode, and presentation were prepared for the NJMEA professional development conference in 2024.

This blog post exists to serve as both session notes for conference attendees, show notes for listeners of the podcast episode, and any teacher who wishes to develop intonation in their performing ensemble.

Complimentary Podcast Episode:

Where to Find Me

Subscribe to the Blog...RSS** | Email Newsletter

Subscribe to the Podcast in...Apple Podcasts** | Overcast | Castro | Spotify | RSS

Support My Work

Become a Patron!

Teaching Intonation

Philosophy

  • Prioritize these...
    • Tone
    • Intonation
    • Balance/Blend
    • Melodic Accuracy
    • Rhythmic Accuracy
    • Expression/Phrasing
    • Technique/Articulation
  • Sound Over Sight
    • If we are asking students to use their ears, then why are we having them use their eyes?
    • Natural Learning - think about how children learn to speak. Through modeling from parental figures, constant repetition, and encountering these repetitions in various contexts.
    • Electronic tuners can only tune intervals of unisons and octaves accurately.
    • We are used to hearing the piano in its slightly “out-of-tune” tempered state.
  • Interval Adjustment
    • Pure intervals have varying degrees of adjustment from tempered intonation to make them in tune.
    • Scale Degree | Adjustment
      • 1 | 0
      • 2 | +3.9
      • 3 | -13.7
      • 4 | -2.0
      • 5 | +2.0
      • 6 | -15.6
      • 7 | -11.7
      • 8 | 0
  • We must teach our students to HEAR when something is out of tune by listening for beats. But how?
    • Resonant intonation is the result of two other important features: superior tone and balance.
    • Good tone comes first.
    • Learning balance is difficult in a room by yourself.
    • Use of an electric drone helps.
    • Turn the drone up to a level that equals the student.
    • Song based learning that utilizes lots of simple melodies in standard keys teaches students to understand basic consonance and dissonance.
    • Lots of repetition!!!
    • Patients!
    • Reinforce that one success does not mean that everything will be in tune from here on out.
    • Don’t strive for a perfect intonation system. Resist teaching students the theory of intervals and focus on them hearing consonance and dissonance through listening to the relationships of intervals.
    • Once you know what a 5th sounds like, you can tune it anywhere.
    • Avoid technical talk unless something is absolutely in a students way.
  • Daniel Kohut - Musical Performance: Learning Theory and Pedagogy
    • Superior Concept
    • Relaxed Concentration
    • Focused Awareness
  • Reasons teachers give up on teaching intonation this way...
    • Fear of other areas of musical performance failing - wrong notes, rhythm, poor technique, inability to execute musically. The solution to this - pick easier music!!!
    • Abstract nature of these skills make them less concrete to student minds and harder to teach.
    • This is a long road. It takes time. But! - the end reward is ultimately better because students own their critical listening skills and now make musical adjustments themselves, even to features in the music that are not tone and intonation related. Each year will have an upswing towards the end. Independent musicianship is the result.

Features of Tonal Energy

  • Overview of each feature and setting - Live Demo
    • Strategies
  • Everything with drone
    • All music taught around tonal centers
    • Students tune down to the tonic most immediately beneath where the majority of their part sits
    • Students write tonal centers in their method books and concert music
  • Analyze mode - Students practice scale patterns and songs in this sequence...
    1. Visual and aural feedback
    2. Aural feedback only
    3. No drone at all
  • Practice Guide

CleanShot 2022-01-09 at 12.45.41.png

  • You can balance to the drone

    Tell students to match the volume of the drone at various levels.

  • Play along melodies with students on a keyboard or on the display

CleanShot 2022-02-03 at 18.21.25@2x.png

A midi keyboard like the Xkey can play certain key areas in tune perfectly and can automatically tune chords to just intonation. Combined with an iPad, this is like owning a Yamaha Harmony Director.

CleanShot 2022-02-03 at 18.21.47@2x.png

Lightly Row with Tuning Drones

Recording Tonal Energy into GarageBand with Inter-App Audio

Embellishing the Drone Track with Drums

Embellishing Lightly Row

Scale Exercise Play-Along Tracks with Trap Beats - Promotional Video

Image.png

Image.png

CleanShot 2022-02-03 at 18.23.30@2x.png

  • More Resources

Extra Show Notes from the Podcast Episode:

App of the Week

Album of the Week

Tech Tip of the Week

Digital Organization Tips for Music Teachers - TMEA 2023 (4:15 pm)

Update! -- February 17, 2023:

Thanks to everyone who came to my session! I received two requests after the session and have since written two complimentary blog posts to address them.

  1. I was asked to show off the screenshots of my "Band Wiki" in Craft. You can view those here.
  2. I was asked if there are any strategies for making meaningful connections between web-based documents like Google Docs, and the more traditionally type that live on a hard drive. Here is a post about how I use Obsidian and Hookmark to create a personal wiki-style list of links to information of all kinds.

This blog post and presentation were prepared for the Texas Music Educators Association Professional Development Conference 2023.

This blog post exists to serve as both session notes for conference attendees, show notes for listeners of the podcast episode, and any teacher who wishes to develop intonation in their performing ensemble.

Where to Find Me

Subscribe to the Blog...RSS** | Email Newsletter

Subscribe to the Podcast in...Apple Podcasts** | Overcast | Castro | Spotify | RSS

Support My Work

Become a Patron!

  • My Book: Digital Organization Tips for Music Teachers | Oxford University Press
  • My Scale Exercise Play-Along Tracks: Audio Only | Audio and Stems ... current on sale

  • My appearance on LearnOmniFocus.com (Learn how I manage time and tasks in the music classroom)

    • Session Outline and Links to Resources Mentioned in the Session:

      • The three things that have changed the most since my book:

        • Not really a lot

        • I wrote it to be workflow based, not prescriptive. Some ideas are a little out of date but the principles remain

        • Exceptions and developments:

      • Types of data and where they go

      • Native apps vs. web apps

        • Native apps typically store data locally on your computer, sometimes giving you access to the individual files themselves in your file system
        • Web apps typically require an internet connection and keep your files all inside of the application they were created in

      • Project vs. Category/Tag vs. App organization

        • Files can be organized into Folders on your computer
        • Alternatively, files can be tagged on your computer, giving you a more dynamic and flexible organization system
        • You may also choose to think about your files as stored within the app they were created in (you might not have a choice if they were created using a web app)

      • Email

      • Tasks and projects

      • Notes

      • Files

        • Finder

        • Folders

        • Tags

        • Stacks

        • Syncing iCloud documents

        • Google Drive

        • Spotlight and Searching apps (finding it is the key) - Press Command+Spacebar

        • Use apps like Hook to bridge the gap between native and web apps

          • I use a Dashboard in Obsdian

      • Making things digital that are not digital

      • Sheet Music Management

      • Audio

        • iTunes

        • Apple Music

        • Spotify

        • IDAGIO

        • Apple Classical?

      • Automation

Teaching Intonation with Tonal Energy - TMEA 2023 (11:30 am, Room CC 216 B)

This blog post, podcast episode, and presentation were prepared for the Texas Music Educators Association Professional Development Conference 2023.

This blog post exists to serve as both session notes for conference attendees, show notes for listeners of the podcast episode, and any teacher who wishes to develop intonation in their performing ensemble.

Complimentary Podcast Episode:

Where to Find Me

Subscribe to the Blog...RSS** | Email Newsletter

Subscribe to the Podcast in...Apple Podcasts** | Overcast | Castro | Spotify | RSS

Support My Work

Become a Patron!

Teaching Intonation

Philosophy

  • Prioritize these...
    • Tone
    • Intonation
    • Balance/Blend
    • Melodic Accuracy
    • Rhythmic Accuracy
    • Expression/Phrasing
    • Technique/Articulation
  • Sound Over Sight
    • If we are asking students to use their ears, then why are we having them use their eyes?
    • Natural Learning - think about how children learn to speak. Through modeling from parental figures, constant repetition, and encountering these repetitions in various contexts.
    • Electronic tuners can only tune intervals of unisons and octaves accurately.
    • We are used to hearing the piano in its slightly “out-of-tune” tempered state.
  • Interval Adjustment
    • Pure intervals have varying degrees of adjustment from tempered intonation to make them in tune.
    • Scale Degree | Adjustment
      • 1 | 0
      • 2 | +3.9
      • 3 | -13.7
      • 4 | -2.0
      • 5 | +2.0
      • 6 | -15.6
      • 7 | -11.7
      • 8 | 0
  • We must teach our students to HEAR when something is out of tune by listening for beats. But how?
    • Resonant intonation is the result of two other important features: superior tone and balance.
    • Good tone comes first.
    • Learning balance is difficult in a room by yourself.
    • Use of an electric drone helps.
    • Turn the drone up to a level that equals the student.
    • Song based learning that utilizes lots of simple melodies in standard keys teaches students to understand basic consonance and dissonance.
    • Lots of repetition!!!
    • Patients!
    • Reinforce that one success does not mean that everything will be in tune from here on out.
    • Don’t strive for a perfect intonation system. Resist teaching students the theory of intervals and focus on them hearing consonance and dissonance through listening to the relationships of intervals.
    • Once you know what a 5th sounds like, you can tune it anywhere.
    • Avoid technical talk unless something is absolutely in a students way.
  • Daniel Kohut - Musical Performance: Learning Theory and Pedagogy
    • Superior Concept
    • Relaxed Concentration
    • Focused Awareness
  • Reasons teachers give up on teaching intonation this way...
    • Fear of other areas of musical performance failing - wrong notes, rhythm, poor technique, inability to execute musically. The solution to this - pick easier music!!!
    • Abstract nature of these skills make them less concrete to student minds and harder to teach.
    • This is a long road. It takes time. But! - the end reward is ultimately better because students own their critical listening skills and now make musical adjustments themselves, even to features in the music that are not tone and intonation related. Each year will have an upswing towards the end. Independent musicianship is the result.

Features of Tonal Energy

  • Overview of each feature and setting - Live Demo
    • Strategies
  • Everything with drone
    • All music taught around tonal centers
    • Students tune down to the tonic most immediately beneath where the majority of their part sits
    • Students write tonal centers in their method books and concert music
  • Analyze mode - Students practice scale patterns and songs in this sequence...
    1. Visual and aural feedback
    2. Aural feedback only
    3. No drone at all
  • Practice Guide

CleanShot 2022-01-09 at 12.45.41.png

  • You can balance to the drone

    Tell students to match the volume of the drone at various levels.

  • Play along melodies with students on a keyboard or on the display

CleanShot 2022-02-03 at 18.21.25@2x.png

A midi keyboard like the Xkey can play certain key areas in tune perfectly and can automatically tune chords to just intonation. Combined with an iPad, this is like owning a Yamaha Harmony Director.

CleanShot 2022-02-03 at 18.21.47@2x.png

Lightly Row with Tuning Drones

Recording Tonal Energy into GarageBand with Inter-App Audio

Embellishing the Drone Track with Drums

Embellishing Lightly Row

Scale Exercise Play-Along Tracks with Trap Beats - Promotional Video

Image.png

Image.png

CleanShot 2022-02-03 at 18.23.30@2x.png

  • More Resources

Extra Show Notes from the Podcast Episode:

App of the Week

Album of the Week

Tech Tip of the Week

, ,

Communication and Collaboration Apps for Music Teams

, ,

CleanShot 2022-02-03 at 17.57.53@2x.png

Communication and Collaboration Apps for Music Teams

This blog post, podcast episode, and presentation were prepared for the Ohio Music Educators Association Professional Development Conference 2022.

This blog post exists to serve as both session notes for conference attendees, show notes for listeners of the podcast episode, and any teacher who wishes to explore the many great collaboration tools available for teams today.

Complimentary Podcast Episode:

Where to Find Me

Subscribe to the Blog...RSS** | Email Newsletter

Subscribe to the Podcast in...Apple Podcasts** | Overcast | Castro | Spotify | RSS

Support My Work

Become a Patron!

Buy me a coffee

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, ,

Teaching Intonation with Tonal Energy (Session Notes, Podcast Episode, and Blog Post)

, ,

CleanShot 2022-02-03 at 17.59.12@2x.png

Teaching Intonation with Tonal Energy - OMEA 2022 (5:15 pm, Room 21)

This blog post, podcast episode, and presentation were prepared for the Ohio Music Educators Association Professional Development Conference 2022.

This blog post exists to serve as both session notes for conference attendees, show notes for listeners of the podcast episode, and any teacher who wishes to develop intonation in their performing ensemble.

Complimentary Podcast Episode:

Where to Find Me

Subscribe to the Blog...RSS** | Email Newsletter

Subscribe to the Podcast in...Apple Podcasts** | Overcast | Castro | Spotify | RSS

Support My Work

Become a Patron!

Teaching Intonation

Philosophy

  • Prioritize these...
    • Tone
    • Intonation
    • Balance/Blend
    • Melodic Accuracy
    • Rhythmic Accuracy
    • Expression/Phrasing
    • Technique/Articulation
  • Sound Over Sight
    • If we are asking students to use their ears, then why are we having them use their eyes?
    • Natural Learning - think about how children learn to speak. Through modeling from parental figures, constant repetition, and encountering these repetitions in various contexts.
    • Electronic tuners can only tune intervals of unisons and octaves accurately.
    • We are used to hearing the piano in its slightly “out-of-tune” tempered state.
  • Interval Adjustment
    • Pure intervals have varying degrees of adjustment from tempered intonation to make them in tune.
    • Scale Degree | Adjustment
      • 1 | 0
      • 2 | +3.9
      • 3 | -13.7
      • 4 | -2.0
      • 5 | +2.0
      • 6 | -15.6
      • 7 | -11.7
      • 8 | 0
  • We must teach our students to HEAR when something is out of tune by listening for beats. But how?
    • Resonant intonation is the result of two other important features: superior tone and balance.
    • Good tone comes first.
    • Learning balance is difficult in a room by yourself.
    • Use of an electric drone helps.
    • Turn the drone up to a level that equals the student.
    • Song based learning that utilizes lots of simple melodies in standard keys teaches students to understand basic consonance and dissonance.
    • Lots of repetition!!!
    • Patients!
    • Reinforce that one success does not mean that everything will be in tune from here on out.
    • Don’t strive for a perfect intonation system. Resist teaching students the theory of intervals and focus on them hearing consonance and dissonance through listening to the relationships of intervals.
    • Once you know what a 5th sounds like, you can tune it anywhere.
    • Avoid technical talk unless something is absolutely in a students way.
  • Daniel Kohut - Musical Performance: Learning Theory and Pedagogy
    • Superior Concept
    • Relaxed Concentration
    • Focused Awareness
  • Reasons teachers give up on teaching intonation this way...
    • Fear of other areas of musical performance failing - wrong notes, rhythm, poor technique, inability to execute musically. The solution to this - pick easier music!!!
    • Abstract nature of these skills make them less concrete to student minds and harder to teach.
    • This is a long road. It takes time. But! - the end reward is ultimately better because students own their critical listening skills and now make musical adjustments themselves, even to features in the music that are not tone and intonation related. Each year will have an upswing towards the end. Independent musicianship is the result.

Features of Tonal Energy

  • Overview of each feature and setting - Live Demo
    • Strategies
  • Everything with drone
    • All music taught around tonal centers
    • Students tune down to the tonic most immediately beneath where the majority of their part sits
    • Students write tonal centers in their method books and concert music
  • Analyze mode - Students practice scale patterns and songs in this sequence...
    1. Visual and aural feedback
    2. Aural feedback only
    3. No drone at all
  • Practice Guide

CleanShot 2022-01-09 at 12.45.41.png

  • You can balance to the drone

    Tell students to match the volume of the drone at various levels.

  • Play along melodies with students on a keyboard or on the display

CleanShot 2022-02-03 at 18.21.25@2x.png

A midi keyboard like the Xkey can play certain key areas in tune perfectly and can automatically tune chords to just intonation. Combined with an iPad, this is like owning a Yamaha Harmony Director.

CleanShot 2022-02-03 at 18.21.47@2x.png

Lightly Row with Tuning Drones

Recording Tonal Energy into GarageBand with Inter-App Audio

Embellishing the Drone Track with Drums

Embellishing Lightly Row

Scale Exercise Play-Along Tracks with Trap Beats - Promotional Video

Image.png

Image.png

CleanShot 2022-02-03 at 18.23.30@2x.png

  • More Resources

Extra Show Notes from the Podcast Episode:

App of the Week

Album of the Week

Tech Tip of the Week

"What Do We Keep? Integrating New Tech Into In-Person Teaching" Session Notes | NAMM | January 21, 2022 - 2pm

Thanks for coming to my session today! Below you will find links to everything mentioned in the session, and more!

Where to Find Me

Subscribe to the Blog...RSS | Email Newsletter

Subscribe to the Podcast in...Apple Podcasts | Overcast | Castro | Spotify | RSS

Support My Work

Become a Patron!

Buy me a coffeeBuy me a coffee

TAKE LEAVE TRANSFORM

TAKE: Software that empowers student creativity

LEAVE: Virtual performances

TRANSFORM:

  • Podcast episode about transforming the music classroom with tech, featuring Will Kuhn and Ethan Hein:

TAKE: Software that empowers efficiency and teacher creativity

  • Evernote - Cross platform service and app for managing all your notes, research, and resources
  • Spark Mail - Free Apple and Android app with supercharged email features
  • Drafts | Where Text Starts
  • Todoist - Cross-platform task management app
  • OmniFocus - My preferred task management app
  • About my task and time management workflow as a music teacher:

LEAVE: Software that gets in the way

  • LMS--> Find the point of diminishing return. Don't do more work than actually gets results!

TRANSFORM: Practice resources and play-alongs

TAKE: Digital communication

  • Use effective digital communication tools when they eliminate unnecessary logistics!

LEAVE: Lengthy and verbose documents

  • Short, sweet, detailed, and frequent communication is idea in the digital age.

TRANSFORM: New models for non-musical logistics and collaboration

TAKE: Microphones, audio interfaces

LEAVE: need to be tethered to a computer

TRANSFORM: take the best of both

  • Wenger modular stand
  • Being tethered to a computer means more resources at your finger tips!
  • Farrago soundboard app
  • Other Rogue Amoeba apps that are indispensable for making content and wrangling audio: Audio Hijack, Loopback, and Soundsource. Check out their education discount.
  • AirServer app which lets you share an iOS screen to a computer
  • Podcast episode featuring maker of Audio Hijack, Farrago, Soundsource, and Loopback

Soundtrap for Instrumental Music Teachers (HCPSS PD August 23, 2021)

I am presenting at the Howard County Public School System Music Professional Development on August 23, 2021.

These are the notes for that session...

  1. "What Do We Keep?" - This presentation is an loosely adapted from a post I wrote for the NAfME blog titled "Take, Leave, Transform! What Do We Keep from Last School Year", which was based on a presentation I gave at the Music Ed Tech Conference this past summer. Check it out for more resources and ideas, and most importantly, links to the software mentioned in today's session.
  2. "What Do We Keep?"" Session Notes - If you want just the links and resources from the blog post above, click here.
  3. Getting Your Students to Compose - Click here to read more about implementing Putting the E in Ensemble and to listen to my interview with Alex Shapiro.
  4. "Develop Performance Skills Remotely" - TMEA Presentation Notes - Some of the videos in today's presentation were taken from my TMEA presentation this past year. Click here to watch the entire thing and receive the session notes.
  5. Making Just Intonation Play-Alongs with Tonal Energy Tuner - Click here to read my blog post about making play-along tracks using the TE Tuner app.

These three podcast episodes also address the subject of using Soundtrap creatively in the performing arts contexts.

What Do We Keep? (Podcast version of the above NAfME post)

Interview with Alex Shapiro about her "Putting the E in Ensemble" Curriculum

3 Soundtrap Projects Your Students Will Love (more Soundtrap ideas for in and outside of the performing arts classroom)

Develop Performance Skills Remotely with Cloud Software - YouTube

Making a Play Along Track - YouTube

Making a Virtual Ensemble Video - YouTube

"What Do We Keep?" Session Notes | Music Ed Tech Conference | July 20, 2021 - 2pm

CleanShot 2021-07-19 at 13.15.45.png

Thanks for coming to my session today! Below you will find links to everything mentioned in the session, and more!

Where to Find Me

Subscribe to the Blog...RSS | Email Newsletter

Subscribe to the Podcast in...Apple Podcasts | Overcast | Castro | Spotify | RSS

Support My Work

Become a Patron!

Buy me a coffeeBuy me a coffee

TAKE LEAVE TRANSFORM

TAKE: Software that empowers student creativity

LEAVE: Virtual performances

TRANSFORM:

  • Podcast episode about transforming the music classroom with tech, featuring Will Kuhn and Ethan Hein:

TAKE: Software that empowers efficiency and teacher creativity

  • Evernote - Cross platform service and app for managing all your notes, research, and resources
  • Spark Mail - Free Apple and Android app with supercharged email features
  • Drafts | Where Text Starts
  • Todoist - Cross-platform task management app
  • OmniFocus - My preferred task management app
  • About my task and time management workflow as a music teacher:

LEAVE: Software that gets in the way

  • LMS--> Find the point of diminishing return. Don't do more work than actually gets results!

TRANSFORM: Practice resources and play-alongs

TAKE: Digital communication

  • Use effective digital communication tools when they eliminate unnecessary logistics!

LEAVE: Lengthy and verbose documents

  • Short, sweet, detailed, and frequent communication is idea in the digital age.

TRANSFORM: New models for non-musical logistics and collaboration

TAKE: Microphones, audio interfaces

LEAVE: need to be tethered to a computer

TRANSFORM: take the best of both

  • Wenger modular stand
  • Being tethered to a computer means more resources at your finger tips!
  • Farrago soundboard app
  • Other Rogue Amoeba apps that are indispensable for making content and wrangling audio: Audio Hijack, Loopback, and Soundsource. Check out their education discount.
  • AirServer app which lets you share an iOS screen to a computer
  • Podcast episode featuring maker of Audio Hijack, Farrago, Soundsource, and Loopback

Rehearse Your Ensembles Remotely! - MMEA In Service, March 6 (5:45 pm) - Session Notes

About Me

Connect with Me

Follow me by clicking on the social links below. I will be streaming live on Twitch at 6:45 pm to take additional questions about the session and to show off more of my online teaching setup. Click here to visit my Twitch stream.

Learn More From Me About Technology

Website - robbyburns.com

Blog - Music Ed Tech Talk (musicedtechtalk.com)

Music Ed Tech Talk podcast - Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS

Get tech tips in an email newsletter here

Buy my book, Digital Organization Tips for Music Teachers, here

Buy my Scale Play Along Tracks here

Let's Connect.001.jpeg

Brief Bio

Learn more here.

Robby Burns teaches band at Ellicott Mills Middle School, co-directs the HCPSS Middle School Honor Band, and teaches 20+ private percussion students. He’s presented at conferences all over the country on music and technology. Robby addresses these topics on his blog and podcast. As a percussionist, Robby has filled many roles in the DC-Metro Area, ranging theater, opera, funk, and cello-rock.

Abstract

Learn the strategies and technologies to run engaging synchronous rehearsals. Engage students visually and speed up your flow using Open Broadcasting Software. Pump the sound video/music/play-along tracks directly through Zoom or Google Meet for a lag-free experience. Explore play along with resources, student reflection with Google Docs, effective camera/mic practices, and have students working collaboratively in synchronous chamber ensembles with Soundtrap! Software discussed includes: Keynote, Google Slides, Loopback, Soundsource, Farrago, AnyTune, Soundtrap, Smartmusic!

Links

Broadcasting Software

Audio Routing

Making Play Along Tracks

Visual Presentation

Recommended Hardware

Other Resources for Teaching Virtual/Hybrid

Develop Performance Skills Remotely with Cloud Software (Session Notes) - TMEA 2021 | Saturday, February 13

Are you coming to my TMEA session, Develop Performance Skills Remotely with Cloud Software today? It starts at 3 pm! Here are the session notes which include links to all of the software mentioned in the presentation.

About Robby Burns

Website - robbyburns.com

Blog - Music Ed Tech Talk (musicedtechtalk.com)

Subscribe to the Music Ed Tech Talk podcast - Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS

Subscribe to my email newsletter

Buy my book - Digital Organization Tips for Music Teachers

Buy my Scale Play Along Tracks

Let's Connect.001.jpeg

Find Robby elsewhere on the web