6 Music Podcasts I Love

This is a followup to my post about my favorite tech podcasts from a few weeks ago.

There are a handful of music shows that are in my regular rotation. They span the topics of performance, conducting, theory, musicology, and pedagogy

Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast

Great show for people who want to learn more about classical music, regardless of experience level with it.

Sound Expertise

Will Robin has conversations with scholars about music. This show goes deep, but I find it really approachable no matter how much experience you have with the weekly topic.

The Third Story

Leo Sidran hosts long-form interviews with musicians from various backgrounds. I particularly enjoyed the interviews with Cory Henry, Becca Stevens Louis Cole.

He really gets the guests to open up and reveal their humanity, intimate accounts of their life experiences, and creative journey.

The Brass Junkies

This is one of the few instrumental music education shows that doesn't feel like the air has been sucked from the room when I listen.

This show features candid, personal, conversations with brass musicians from all over, about their professional journey and pedagogy.

Everything Band Podcast

Mark J. Connor does an excellent job interviewing band teachers, performers, and composers of music for winds and percussion.

UpBeat

This is an awesome podcast about conducting, with great industry advise and interviews with conductors from all over.

I may be a little biased because I went to school with one of the hosts, John Devlin.

The show is great and the parody ads are hilarious.

Getting Young Performers to Compose, Putting the E in Ensemble (and Much more), with Alex Shapiro

A few weeks back, I wrote and podcasted about getting my general music classes to compose, make beats, write, and remix songs this past school year. Read and listen to that here.

I am thrilled to report that I also got my band students to compose for the first time this past year, with very good results. I used composer Alex Shapiro's Putting the E in Ensemble curriculum (linked below). I am so inspired by her music, approach to composition, and general awesomeness that I invited her on my podcast. The conversation was an inspiration and a delight.

Listen to the episode and follow my podcast below. Keep scrolling through this post to see photos of Alex's amazing recording space and to listen to some examples of my student's compositions that resulted from using this curriculum.

Support Music Ed Tech Talk

Become a Patron!

Buy me a coffee

Subscribe to the Blog... RSS | Email Newsletter

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

Episode Description: Composer Alex Shapiro joins the show to talk about getting young students to compose, the importance of composing repertoire for young musicians, writing electro-acoustic music, Putting the E in Ensemble, future tech, and her amazing studio space. Join Patreon for extended conversation about technology and overcoming blocks in the creative process.

Putting the E in Ensemble Links

Curriculum: - https://www.alexshapiro.org/Shapiro-E-ensemble_Syllabus.html

Wind Band music: - https://www.alexshapiro.org/ASWindBand.html

Show Notes:

The Great Hack - Netflix

The Social Dilemma

Christopher Cicconi appearance on Music Ed Tech Talk

Off the Edge - Alex Shapiro

Tight Squeeze - Alex Shapiro

Rock Music - Alex Shapiro

Count to Ten - Alex Shapiro

Toothpaste privacy Tweet thread

Apple WWDC 2021

My Scale Play-Along Tracks

App of the Week:
Robby - Magnet
Alex - Two Dots / SpellTower

Album of the Week:
Robby - Sarah Jarosz - Blue Heron Suite
Alex - O Seguinte é Esse / Howling, featuring RY X and Frank Wiedemann: Sacred Ground

Tech Tip of the Week:
Robby - Try widgets!
Alex - Back up your stuff! / Don’t get the latest version only to have paid to get the latest bugs!

Where to Find Us:
Robby - Twitter | Blog | Book
Alex Shapiro - Twitter | Website

Please don't forget to rate the show and share it with others!

Examples of student work

Alex's studio space

Profiles in Teaching with Technology Podcast | S3 E20: Robby Burns

I am pleased to be a guest on the MusicFirst podcast, Profiles in Teaching with Technology, this week.

I had a great conversation with Dr. Jim Frankle. We talked about my journey into music ed, catching an interest in technology, tips for teachers who are apprehensive about tech, what my school’s music program looks like (normally and during the past year). and my favorite uses for technology in the classroom.

Check it out below and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

MusicFirst - Profiles in Teaching with Technology · MusicFirst: Profiles in Teaching with Technology - S3 E20 - Robby Burns

Support Music Ed Tech Talk on Patreon!

As you can imagine, running a blog and podcast isn’t free. Costs of tools and hosting fees are monthly investments, not to mention the countless hours it takes to edit, publish, find guests, and other logistics.

Backstage Access patrons get access to an early-access podcast feed with bonus discussion. Ooooooh…. look at that pretty alternate artwork.

As public school teaching and private teaching are already far greater responsibilities in my life, this site has remained largely a hobby project to share the tools and strategies that help me manage my actual job, which is performing and teaching.

This past year, COVID forced me to be home more often and I felt a great need to share more of my experience with technology during a year where people needed it. I bumped up my average publishing to two episodes a month and a few blog posts.

I’d like to maintain that pace into the future and continue to produce deep, high quality content, that helps both teachers who are new to technology and those who are looking for more out of it.

Watch my Patreon Welcome Video.

For this reason, I’d like to ask for your support! I have four tiers you can choose from, and all of them have perks.

Click here to check out my Patreon page and show your support.

Become a Patron!

All supporters get a video update once a month which is kind of like an extended version of the Tech Tip/Apps/Albums of the week segments of my podcast. All supporters also get invited to the Music Ed Tech Talk Discord community. All you need is a Discord account and then you can join other patrons and guests to talk about tech, music, pedagogy, lesson ideas, hardware, tech support, and more.

There has already been some lively discussion there. I hope you will join in on the fun!

The Music Ed Tech Talk Discord community is a place you can talk with me and others about all things music, teching, technology, and more.

If you’d like to support, but not monthly, see my Buy Me a Coffee page. If you have something to promote, you can also sponsor the show.

I am looking forward to many more blog posts and podcast episodes, and to connecting with you online.

Become a Patron!

Buy me a coffee

The Discord even has custom music-ed-tech-nerd emoji.

App of the Week: Timery for Mac

I started time tracking around this time last year as a way to see how long I was spending on making virtual ensemble videos and other creative projects I was pursuing in my personal life.

Toggl is absolutely the tool for this job, and Timery is the best Toggl experience on iOS.

Using Apple’s Catalyst technology, Timery for Mac is built off of the iPad experience, with tweaks that make it adhere to macOS standards.

The hardest thing about time tracking is remembering to start and stop the timers. Because Timery has such a user-friendly design, it becomes way easier to trigger timers. Support for always-visible iOS widgets and support for Shortcuts make the experience even more frictionless.

The app is now available for the Mac using Apple’s Catalyst technology which I have recently taken about on my podcast (listen and subscribe below). forScore for the Mac is also made using this technology.

A TImery widget on iOS can be fixed to your Homescreen where you can see which timers are running and quickly launch the ones you need most.

I enjoy using the same apps for doing things across platforms. Timery is no exception. And because the Timery app takes advantage of macOS platform norms (like putting all of its commands in the menu bar), you can do cool things like automating it with Keyboard Maestro.

The only reason I might continue to stick with the standard Toggl app on Mac is because it does even more to take advantage of the system. For example, you can pin the window so it stays permanently visible on the screen no matter how many other windows you have open. It can also detect when your keyboard and mouse aren’t in use and offer to backdate the time you were idle (or working) based on your computer activity.

If you want to learn more, check our the MacStories review, linked below with a quote:

Timery Comes to the Mac and Makes Time Tracking With Toggl Easier Than Ever -- MacStories:

I’d still like to see reports added to Timery in the future, but I’m glad the Mac was addressed first. Time tracking is the sort of activity that needs to exist everywhere to be most effective. I’ve spent the past couple of years using Toggl’s Mac app, which has improved dramatically in that time, but I’m glad that I can now learn one set of keyboard commands and use them across both the iPad and Mac. If the lack of a Mac version of Timery was holding you back, now is a perfect time to give the app a try.

6 Tech Podcasts I Listen to Every Week

I am often asked where I go to learn about technology.

The truth is that most of it comes through a few blogs and podcasts. I don't listen to many podcasts that deal specifically with integrating technology into the music classroom, though there are a few good ones. (Aside from my own, I recommend Katie Wardrobe's show Music Tech Teacher and MusicFirst's Profiles in Music Teaching with Technology.)

I don't listen to prescriptive "how-to" shows. I focus more on industry analysis, details of hardware and software features, and extended discussion. My favorite shows are conversational in tone rather than the hyper-produced style of the modern-day shows that NPR has popularized.

I find this style of show to be far more listenable and engaging while giving me a deeper and underlying understanding of the technology I use. This way, I am more empowered to adapt the technology I have to my unique professional challenges and lifestyle.

Here are my six favorites...

Upgrade

Probably my most listened show. Heavily focused on Apple technologies, news, and the streaming media landscape. The show is deeply informative but also has some produced elements like theme music and segments, which keep each episode moving at an engaging pace.

Here is a recent episode where the hosts review the new M1 iMacs and M1 iPad:

The Vergecast

The Verge is a great website for learning about all things in consumer tech. Their podcast is the most produced on this list, but the camaraderie between speakers allows for the ideas to present as looser and more raw than they do in written articles.

I have been considering an electric vehicle lately and enjoyed this episode about recent EUVs:

Mac Power Users

This show delivers tips for making the most of your computing devices each week. It includes pro tips, app recommendations, and interviews with professionals spanning many industries. Listening to MPU is one of the inspirations for my book, as it focuses on not just the tools, but how to implement them creatively.

If you are looking for a place to start, check out Music Ed Tech Talk frequent guest, David MacDonald, on this episode of Mac Power Users:

The Talk Show

John Gruber's The Talk Show is one of the shows that made me love podcasting. Though episodes are inconsistent in length, scope, and irregularly released, Gruber and his guests always have engaging discussion. So much so that I don't mind rants about sports, politics, and other "off-topic" diversions. This show is in some respects a prototype for the kinds of discussions I like to have on my podcast. Personal, detailed, and analytical.

Accidental Tech Podcast

Also very Apple-focused, but with more perspective on software development and adjacent technologies. This show is lengthy and more unstructured but also very deep. The three hosts are in software development and sometimes talk about topics that are just on the outside of my wheelhouse, but I am still able to follow along. The perspective of these hosts has strongly influenced the kind of quality and detail I expect from my technology.

This episode is a fan favorite, and gives you an insight into the kind of detail the hosts cover, and also their relationship:

Dithering

This is a paid show. For me, it is worth the $5 a month because it includes John Gruber from The Talk Show with one of my favorite of his reoccurring guests, Ben Thompson, who is a brilliant technology analyst. Two 15-minute episodes are released each week. The tight format keeps the discussion fast and rich.

Here is a clip:

What are NFTs?

Ben tries to explain NFTs to John

Subscribe at https://t.co/MAKQBl2Lyh pic.twitter.com/ynjHBxoFot

— Dithering (@ditheringfm) March 15, 2021

3 Things I Started Doing with My Band Class During COVID That I Will Do Every Year From Now On

It seems plausible that some people subscribe to this blog and do not follow me on Twitter, so allow me to expand this recent Tweet thread into a lazy blog post.

🧵🪡🎶👇 Thread: a few things I am doing in my band teaching this year, that I previously didn't have the time or resources to organize, but COVID forced my hand. (I will definitely be doing each of these every school year from now on)...

— Robby Burns (@robbyburns) May 10, 2021

Thread: a few things I am doing in my band teaching this year, that I previously didn't have the time or resources to organize, but COVID forced my hand. (I will definitely be doing each of these every school year from now on)...

A chart designed by my colleague Ben Denne. By thinking critically about music that will challenge, but not overwhelm them, students pick their select their own, grade appropriate, solo music.

1. Solo prep: by asking colleagues for rep ideas across all instruments, I created a resource in my LMS that guides students through a process of selecting appropriate solo rep for our district Festival and then registering for it. Student enrollment is up over 300 percent this year.

2. Composition: students LOVE writing short themes and ostinato patterns in Noteflight After recording their comps, they will make unique band arrangements out of each other’s recordings in Soundtrap by dragging them on top of one another and splicing/editing them, like loops. Inspiration for this idea and supporting materials provided by Alex Shapiro and can be found here.

3. Recording: having my students record video performances is not new. But having them record in a DAW, with respect to measure number, beat placement, and a metronome has been huge for our understanding of rhythm and form. Also it requires them to practice way more.

And then there are 100 new things I can do in my general music class simply by having access to a notation editor and DAW. I don't have enough time to detail them now but here is one example:

As much fun as I have grinding in Final Cut Pro, I do NOT see virtual band videos becoming a thing beyond this school year. It was fun while it lasted. Here's last year's WW Quintet:

Are any of these ideas worth writing about in more detail? Let me know on social media or by heading over to my Contact page.

🎬 Technology Tips for Musicians and Teachers, Facebook Live with David MacDonald

Speaking of live video, here is the video from my Facebook Live with David MacDonald last Sunday. In the video, we discuss apps and gadgets we are using to teach virtually. Watch on Facebook here or in the embedded video below.

Follow me on Twitch!

I’ve been experimenting with live video over the past weeks. I went live on Facebook with David MacDonald last Sunday to talk about tech we are using to teach music. This past Saturday I went on Twitch and tried to build an automation that would automatically log me into my virtual classes and open the apps I need to teach. The video is up on my Twitch, YouTube, and Facebook pages.

Join me for this fun experiment! Follow me on Twitch, YouTube, and Facebook using the links below to tune in to future live sessions.

Music Ed Tech Talk Podcast on YouTube

Music Ed Tech Talk is now on YouTube!

Make sure to subscribe to my channel. You can listen to the recent episode featuring Katie Wardrobe there now or below.