Seth Sandler, maker of the poplar mobile tuner app Tunable, joins the show to talk about the process of making a tuning app, developing for iOS/Mac, and more!
I’m getting ukuleles for my general music classes this year so I thought it would be natural to have past guest Chris Russell on the podcast. He is a technology expert and maker of many online ukulele resources, amongst his many other skills.
I learned a lot talking to him. The conversation was packed with resources for teachers looking to better their ukulele skills so be sure to scroll down and check out all of the resources he mentions on the show, which I have provided links for.
Episode Description
Robby is getting ukeleles to teach general music this year. Chris Russel (tech and ukelele specialist) joins the show to talk about how to get the best use out of them. We also talk about the state of tech in music ed.
Full Topics:
Ukelele pedagogy
Where to find ukelele resources online
How to integrate ukelele and technology
The state of technology in music education
Apple's App-centric and native approach to education vs. Google's web-centric approach
Our favorite apps, albums, and tech tips of the week
The tools and process Chris uses to make ukelele play-along videos on his iPad (in the post-show for Patreon subscribers)
I aspire to write more about my smart home setup here but doing so requires a style of writing that doesn’t always come easily for me. So I decided to podcast about it. Scroll below to hear my recent conversation with David MacDonald about how I set up my smart speakers. Click here to learn about my favorite smart home devices.
Episode Description:
Robby and David (music composition, theory, and technology teacher at the Wichita State University) compare smart speakers, their assistants, and their smart home ecosystems. This episode covers the HomePod, Google Nest, Amazon Echo, Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant, Sonos speakers, and the various quirks that result from trying to use them in combination.
Backstage Access Patreon supporters get extended conversation about Apple Notes, DEVONthink, Standard Music Font Layout compatibility, FileMaker databases, student motivation, grading (and ungrading), and sticker charts.
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.
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.
Its been a busy few weeks as I have been wrapping up the end of a tough school year. While I am late to getting this week’s podcast episode out, I have been working on this site and have a bunch of content to share in the coming week.
I managed to sneak in enough time during the last week of school to watch Apple’s WWDC Keynote and to talk about it on Music Ed Tech Talk with Craig McClellan (cohost of my other podcast, The Class Nerd).
It was an opportunity to take a nice break from the challenging end-of-year procedures, and to think about how Apple’s fall software updates will impact how I get work done in the classroom. Listen below.
Robby and Craig break down the announcements from Apple's Word Wide Developer Conference and discuss how teachers might use the upcoming features to their latest software updates.
This is the first year that I have had consistent access to a cloud-based DAW and notation editor with all of my students. The result of this experience has been dozens of new Soundtrap project ideas. I plan to do an episode and post about how I am using these tools for composition projects in the band classroom later this year.
In the episode above, and in this post, I give an overview of three of my most successful Soundtrap projects this year. These projects can be done in any digital audio workstation, including Bandlab, GarageBand, Logic, Ableton Live, etc.
Listen to the episode for a more thorough explanation of each idea.
C Melody and Loop Audition
Melody writing in Noteflight and producing in Soundtrap go hand in hand. Because of Noteflight’s many export options, you have many ways to get your melody out of Noteflight and into your Soundtrap project.
After giving students some time to experience the user interface of Soundtrap, I have them write a short, 8 measure long, melody in the key of C using Noteflight.
Next, I have them export this melody as a MIDI file and then import it into a track in Soundtrap. Next, I have them add three more tracks and create an accompaniment for their melody using at least one of the three loop types.
Bass
Percussion
Harmonic (guitar, synth, piano, etc.)
Here is a recent submission of this project one of my students made. This assignment was submitted later in the semester when we had expanded the project into composing two alternating melodies which became the basis of a song-form in Soundtrap. By alternating between both melodies (and varying the loop accompaniment) the student made a song that follows the form: Verse—Chorus—Verse—Chorus—Bridge—Chorus. This particular student chose to improvise the blues scale over the bridge.
Row Your Boat Multi-Track
This idea was taken from the amazing Middle School Music Technology class content in MusicFirst. I recommend checking out their subscription options if you like this idea. MusicFirst combines the activity with curated YouTube and Spotify playlists that give students an idea about early recording studio practices for multi-track recording before music was produced digitally.
I am giving an overview of this project with permission from MusicFirst. Full Disclosure:MusicFirst is a past sponsor of the Music Ed Tech Talk blog and podcast.
To start, the student performs the song Row Row Row Your Boat into a software instrument track in Soundtrap. After it is recorded, they quantize it to the nearest 1/8th or 1/16th note so that it is rhythmically accurate.
Next, they duplicate this track two times. Using the piano roll to edit the MIDI content of each loop, students select all notes and drag them higher to create harmony. I have them move the second track a third higher and the next track a fifth higher so that they get a nice three-part voicing.
After multi-tracking the melody of Row Row Row Your Boat, this student moved the starting point of each region to create a round.
Next, I have them move any notes that land on black keys as a result down to the nearest white key so that every note of each voice is in the key of C.
Next, I have them duplicate these three tracks and transpose them up an octave. Next, I have them take the lowest voice and transpose it down three octaves to add some bass. You can have students make the final result as dense as you like.
Optionally, students can experiment with using different instrument sounds and adding groove-based loop accompaniment.
Here are three recent examples of my student’s submissions:
All-Star Remix
In this assignment, I take a popular song that students choose and separate the voice from the instrumental accompaniment. Then I add it to an audio track in a Soundtrap template and match the tempo and key of the Soundtrap project to the vocal track.
This way, students can drag and drop loops and have them match the pitch and tempo content of the vocals.
I have a post with more details about this project here.
You can watch a video of how to do it below.
Here are two examples of my own student’s recent work:
For a Soundtrap project idea for teaching band/choir/orchestra students to compose, check out the podcast episode and blog post below:
