Jan 16 2009
Well, we didn’t win, but we had fun participating in the Indaba Music Contest. This was a great opportunity for my students. Who won? A handbell choir director/composer and a heavy metal guitarist! Talk about a broad spectrum of musical styles. Hear the announcement over at NPR.
Jan 10 2009
After reading this post at MacWorld, I ordered my copy of Garageband ‘09 and the entire iLife ‘09 suite.
I hope that my previous posts about using Garageband in the classroom won’t be obsolete with this latest version of Garageband.
Jan 07 2009
If you have been following my blog you know that, the students in my period 2 and period 7 piano classes participated in an on-line music contest hosted by world famous cellist, Yo-Yo Ma, and www.indabamusic.com, an on-line collaboration music service. Each student recorded an original theme and variation using Garageband on the Mac Mini computers in my piano lab. Then they uploaded these files as mp3s to the contest web page at www.indabamusic.com.
The contest is now over, and anyone can go on-line and vote for their favorite submission. The first place winner will have the opportunity to record with Yo-Yo Ma, and the top ten vote getters will get a signed CD of Mr. Ma’s latest album. This has been an awesome 21st century learning opportunity for my students.
It only takes a couple of minutes, and your vote will really help us in this contest. Here is what you do:
1. Click on or paste the following link in your web browser: http://www.indabamusic.com/submissions?page=4&short_name=yo-yomacontest&sort=date#submissions
2. Look for the icons in this post to quickly find my students who have submitted entries in the contest.
3. Click on the vote button. You will be asked to submit an email so your vote can be confirmed or you can choose to sign-up for a free Indaba Music account (which is optional but worth it…).
4. When the email from Indaba Music arrives, click on the link in the email to confirm your vote. You are done!
It will only take about 2 minutes.
Jan 03 2009
The latest from Toyota is a violin playing robot: (you have to click the link to see the video)
Violin Playing Robot from Toyota
I hear vibrato, but I don’t see the hand moving…what do you think?
UPDATE: At about 1:09 or so in the video, you can see the robot finger shaking to create some vibrato…hmm. Kinda creepy or cool?
Jan 02 2009
My former principal sent me a link to this NY Times Article about an incredible young chorus from Stanten Island. The PS22 Chorus will inspire you to become a better music educator and show you how young people can sing and respond to music with genuine emotion and perform with great vocal technique. I was blown away. See one of several videos below that have gone viral on Youtube:
