Music Is Not for Insects

Ok- this is not really about my predictions for music education…I am guilty of creating a provocative title for my last post of 2007 with hopes that you will read my final thoughts, resolutions, confessions and hopeful predictions about my practice as a music educator in 2008:

In 2008 I predict that I will:

*Plan ahead.
The immediacy of the internet and my own laziness has made me a lousy planner. No more last minute lessons or off-the-cuff rehearsals.

*Keep my chops in shape.
If I can’t wow my students with my playing or singing, I’m just a teacher. I need to be a performer as well as a teacher. As a general music teacher, it’s too easy to let my technique slide. I need to keep performing and practicing regularly.

*Only perform quality repertoire.
I’m done picking repertoire based solely on the label Editor’s Choice for my students. I need to take the time to find quality music; the kind that inspired me to be a music teacher. I need to remember that excellent music may not be easily accessible at first playing or singing for my students, but the reward comes in digging deeper each time the piece is rehearsed and performed.

*Convince my students that hard work and self-denial is what it takes to get results.
I need to remind my students that time spent practicing is the only way to get better. Can I create a culture of excellence based on good practice habits?

*Teach my students how to practice.
I will no longer tell my students to practice without defining clear expectations and outcomes for each practice session…(sounds like a future blog post).

*Use technology responsibly.
I vow to create meaningful uses of technology in my practice as a music teacher. I have been guilty of creating fun moments with technology, but now I need to plan (see first point above) on connecting my use of technology to standards and learning for each of my students.

Here comes 2008…I want to be ready for a new year of better teaching.

Photo attribution: by venegas

UPDATE: this is a follow-up to my last post about Frets on Fire. After poking around the FOF website, we were able to find a simple hack to get the program to work on my Intel based iMac. Here is what you do:

1) Download 2 separate versions of Frets on Fire: Version 1.1.324 and Version 1.2.438

2) Follow the directions from the screencast here to make a simple change to the program.

3) Start shredding!

You will definitely want to Google your way to adding more songs to the library. There is a great post here from the FOF Fan Forum on how to use Audacity to convert mp3 files to Ogg Vorbis files so you can create your own songs.

I see a lot of potential for a fun program you could use with your students…especially the creation of new songs. Let me know if you have tried this with your students.

Frets on Fire according to the game ’s developers “is a game of musical skill and fast fingers. The aim of the game is to play guitar with the keyboard as accurately as possible.” It’s basically a freeware version of Guitar Hero where your computer keyboard acts as the “guitar” controller. Check out the short video of my son giving it a test run on his Vista computer. Notice how he is holding his keyboard like a guitar- right hand pressing the enter key in time with his fingers on the left hand pressing the function keys (I tried downloading the MacOSX version, but it caused my intel based iMac to crash…) UPDATE: Check out my post on how we got the game to work on my iMac.

In addition to the pre-loaded songs, you can also “compose” new songs with the game’s built in song editor and Ogg Vorbis files. I had a blast trying to play Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. It’s surprisingly well done for a freeware program.

File this under: books I should have read in my college general music class but will now read knowing that it will either inspire me or make me feel like a bad teacher…

The Ways Children Children Learn Music: An Introduction and Practical Guide to Music Learning Theory (Revised Edition) by Eric Bluestine is a great introduction to the sometimes thorny field of Music Learning Theory. An alternate title could be “Gordon Music Learning Theory for Dummies”- based on the research and ideas of Edwin E. Gordon. (I hadn’t heard of him either before reading this book….)

Some worthwhile quotes from Mr. Bluestine:

Music class is not simply a stop-gap during the school day during which students can relax between the “important” subjects; music is more than simply a source of entertainment, more than a means of raising the self-esteem of a relatively small segment of the student population. Music is a discipline as well as an art. And, like other disciplines, it’s worthy of study for it’s own sake.

We are not educating our students to become indpendendent musicians and independent musical thinkers…We music teachers should design a curriculum to help us teach better so that our students can grow musically and approach, maybe even surpass, our level of musical proficiency.

Let’s teach our students to strive not for perfect imitation, but for imperfect audiation. Why imperfect? Because a musician who audiates the music she performs is never satisfied with her performance. There is always “something wrong”-audiationally, technically- with the phrasing, dynamic choices, articulation, intonation, or rhythmic accuracy. Perhaps only the musician herself is aware that there’s a problem. A music student who imitates has no such problems. Her perfect imitation leads to perfect satisfaction. By contrast, the mark of any true musician, of any serious artist, is dissatisfaction-and a life of thrilling and unending artistic growth.

Music may not be for insects, but it can be made using vegetables. Check out this unbelievable video from The Vegetable Orchestra:

Garageband is a great tool many of you are using to create license free music for your podcasts, slideshare presentations, and videos. Access to hundreds of loops allows easy creation of original soundtracks by literally dragging and dropping a guitar riff, bass line and back beat onto a track.

While the ease of using Garageband loops is appealing, it can also create tracks that are predictable and uninspired to listeners. Even if your aim is to create a transparent background track, careless use of loops can distract your audience or cause them to dismiss your project entirely.

Many of the loops in Garageband are so popular, they are immediately recognizable. With a bit of planing, even familiar loops can be used to create music that sounds original, not “canned”. Here are some tips on using loops in Garageband responsibly:

1) Use basic musical forms such as ABA and Rondo (A,B,A,C,A)
This will give your musical project a basic structure on which to build your ideas. One loop extended in endless repetition gets old quick. Check out Pete Whitfield’s wiki on structure and intensity for some great examples from pop music.

2) Vary a basic loop with a single percussion loop.
Does the phrase Needs more cowbell ring a bell? Adding a shaker or tambourine loop on top of a more substantial loop is like a dash of spice for your musical composition.

3) Change the original tempo of a loop.
The standard tempo for many of the most popular loops in Garageband is 120 bpm. By shifting the tempo at least 10 bpm more or less, you can breathe new life into some of the more redundant loops.

4) Combine loops to create new ideas.
It drives me crazy when I hear a single loop used exclusively for a single track. Maybe it’s because I use Garageband every week with my students and familiarity breeds contempt…
Don’t be lazy. Combine loops to create new ideas. Your fellow listeners will be grateful.

5) Watch your levels between transitions and listen before you post.
This last tip is not necessarily about creativity or structure. Many loops in Garageband have different volume levels. Be sure that the overall volume of all the parts of your project is an acceptable level for the listener. Be careful when you transition between musical vs. spoken sections. Nothing says delete me faster than a poorly mixed project where the volume between spoken and musical sections drastically changes, forcing the listener to madly scramble for their volume control. You’ve worked hard on your presentation; make sure it gets heard in its entirety with audio levels that are consistent throughout.

We all take time to plan our content before posting ideas on-line- take some time to plan the music that will be a part of your projects as well. Music teachers will thank you for the extra effort.