Matisyahu: Rock, Reggae and Religion

When Matisyahu emerged with his debut album, Shake Off the Dust...Arise, in 2004, his musical persona seemed to some a novelty. Here was a Hasidic Jew, dressed in a black suit with a broad-brimmed black hat worn over a yarmulke, and sporting a full, untrimmed beard, who nevertheless performed toasting raps about the glories of traditional Judaism over reggae beats in a dancehall style directly from Jamaica, punctuating his performances with stage diving. It may have seemed like a joke at first, but Matisyahu was serious, and he began to attract press notices to go with the enthusiastic audiences that packed his concerts. (by William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide)

This song, Time of Your Song is classic Matisyahu. You just might get hooked.

The Future And MySpace Music

MySpace Music is set to launch sometime next week. It will offer free streams of full-length tracks from all the major labels, legitimizing the advertising-supported model that is beginning to challenge iTunes’ pay-per-download approach. It will be more akin to a subscription model like Rhapsody’s, but without the subscription.

The big unanswered question is whether MySpace Music will pay music labels lower prices (or simply accept a share of MySpace Music’s revenues). The music industry desperately needs a new digital business model. There is no question about that. But if the labels are going to allow MySpace Music to pay less per stream or not at all, and they themselves are joint venture partners in MySpace Music, that will open them up to charges of preferential pricing, collusion, and price discrimination.

Read more at TechCrunch.

Using Twinkle to Introduce Song Form

One of the best decisions we made for our General Music program was to transform it into a Music Technology Lab. The next best thing was to adopt the loop-based software program Sony Acid as a significant part of the student music experience.

But where to begin? And how do musical concepts get taught/learned?-especially FORM.

Here's how we begin the process:

• We create a midi file of twinkle twinkle little star (student's use Finale Print Music to create the melody and export it as a mid file).
• Using Sony Acid, import the Twinkle midi file as a track.
• Explain that Twinkle will be the Chorus of the Song and it needs to be heard in it's entirety.
• What's needed now is an introduction, verses, possibly a bridge and an "outro".
• Use the Twinkle melody itself to explain ABBA form.

A-Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.....
B-Up Above the World So High
B-Like a Diamond..
A-Twinkle Twinkle.....

Then provide a few examples of variations on this using popular songs. (I like to use Blake Lewis' song End of The World because the Form is clear: 4 bar intro/add voice/add drums/verse 1/chorus/verse 2/chorus/bridge/chorus/chorus/fade out.

Students are in good shape to begin the process of creating their own loop-based compositions at this point. (Obviously, use of Sony Acid is a pre-requisite to this project.)

My Music Tech Launches Podcast

My Music Tech launched it's podcast (March 28, 2008). The podcast will contain episodes about music education technology and will specifically feature podcasts by music students as they learn about various aspects of music, podcasting and digital audio technologies.

This podcast will be of benefit to school music teachers, technology teachers and anyone interested in learning the basics of podcasting and it's application in an educational setting.

Stay tuned for future episodes. You may subscribe to the podcast at i-tunes. Do a search for My Music Tech. Subscriptions to podcasts are free.

The website for direct links to the podcasts is at: http://mymusictech.podomatic.com/

Top 10 Web/Tech Tools For Music Educators

Throughout the school year, I often reflect on the changes I have made with regard to instructional strategies. This year has been biggie for utilizing web tools and software in and out of the classroom. As a consequence, I have been more connected to student’s real learning needs. I have also been able to effectively handle the massive ‘data pile’ of student work and assessments more efficiently.

Here are the top ten web tools/applications that made my list this year:

1- FIREFOX WEB BROWSER AND PLUG-INS

Why: Firefox is so feature-rich it’s impossible to capture why it’s indispensable as a web browser. The fact that CTRL-N loads a new page automatically, the fact that with one glance I can see what’s up with the weather (plug-in), and that I can read RSS feeds in SAGE (add-on) without leaving the browser are three important reasons why I love it.
http://www.mozilla.org/

2- GMAIL and GOOGLE WEB DOCS

Why: G-mail tracks Emails as ‘conversations’ this is extremely helpful. It’s labeling feature is primo which reduces the possibility of losing that important Email. Spam is kept way down, too.

Web Docs is the best thing that could have happened to me. Now, I do much of my spreadsheet and database management online. No need to transport files from computer to computer.
Google Accounts

3- SMARTMUSIC

Why: Makemusic, Inc. has cornered the music education market. It’s Impact grade-keeping system should become standard for all music program assessments before long. With thousands of exercises and music files to practice along with Smartmusic is serious stuff. And, oh yeah, students can Email their assessment data from home!!
http://www.smartmusic.com/

4- CANON LIDE SCANNER

Why: I promised myself that when the digital age was apparent that I would ‘digitize everything’!! This was about 8 years ago when scanners were way slower than they are now and when 8 MB was a tremendous amount of space. This is, of course, no longer the case. Scanning documents (student work, for example) takes seconds instead of minutes now and takes up considerably less space. Also, Finale Notation software (which I also use) allows importing of scanned music.
Canon Scanners

5- PDF CREATOR

Why: It creates a PDF of any file you have. For free. End of story.
Get PDF Creator

6- FOXIT READER

Why: It reads the PDF documents I have created using PDF CREATOR (scanned student work, for example again) and it takes up considerably less space on my hard drive than Adobe Reader. It’s also less intrusive.
Foxit Reader

7- BLOGGER 2

Why: Once Blogger Beta was released, blogging became so much more user-friendly which meant that kids could handle it. I use blogger as an informational resource for parents and students. Links include calendar of events, student assignment blogs and general information about our program. Students keep blogs as alternatives to practice plans. They answer specific music-based questions via their blogs and are free to comment on my blog and their classmate’s blogs. This has given students ownership of their work for which they seem grateful.
Blogger Tour

8- RSS READERS: SAGE READER, BLOGLINES and NETVIBES

Why: XML files rule. RSS has allowed me to scan news, education and music tech headlines quickly and easily, keeping me in the know. I also subscribe to my student’s blogs via RSS Readers such as Sage Reader (available for use with Firefox), Bloglines, Google Reader and Netvibes. As soon as students post a new item to their blogs I receive it in the Reader in real time.

Sage, Bloglines, Netvibes

9- i-TUNES AND MEDIA MONKEY

Why: iTunes- Excellent and quick importing and burning of CD’s.

Media Monkey- Extremely easy editing of ID-3 data and exporting of music lists. Supports flexible organization of any music collection and allows quick file conversion. Lifetime upgrade costs $35. Well worth it.
i-Tunes
Media Monkey

10- DIGITAL RECORDER-OLYMPUS-VN-3100PC

Why: Do you ever have a million ideas in your head after teaching a class or reading something compelling but you don’t really have the time to get it down? This is where a handheld digital recorder comes into play. In my case, I would speak into it after each class. I would record what we did, issues that came up and what the homework assignment was and what the follow up should be next class complete with resources I might want to consider. I’d be able to accomplish this before the next class arrived. Later that day or week, during free time, I could listen back and organize my follow up lessons.

Another excellent use is to record your performing ensembles on the fly. Then plug it into a nearby stereo for instant class-assessment. There's is nothing better at capturing music student's attention than a performance of what they REALLY sound like. My mantra is Digital Recorders Don't Lie.

Get a good one here-

Olympus VN3100PC Digital Voice Recorder

So there you are: The top ten web/tech tools that transformed my teaching this year. Go have a great summer.

-My Music Tech

Online Music Is Here To Stay

Despite the efforts of the RIAA to derail online music sales, they are soaring. Global sales of music online rose by 40 percent in 2007, confirming the soaring popularity of legal Internet-based music stores, said an industry report published Thursday. Read more here.

What Is Music Technology?

What is Music Technology when we are talking about a class with the same name?

There are many ways to answer the question but for the purpose of refining the focus of this blog and for the benefit of those who are left wondering, here's a concise definition.

Music Technology by itself can mean digital musical instruments such as digital keyboards and sequencers. In Education though, music technology refers to technological applications (computers, software, digital sound machines, keyboards, etc..) being used to learn about and to create music. The term Music Education Technology might be more accurate but Music Technology works just as well.

Most elementary classroom music programs in the U.S. are still called General Music. This is where basic fundamentals of music are taught and learned. Increasingly, music technology labs are being adopted in secondary music classrooms (Grades6-12). These classrooms usually contain MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) labs where computers are connected to digital keyboards. Software is usually loaded onto the computers that allow for the learning of music via the direct manipulation of keys on the digital keyboards or via the computer mouse.

Some Music Notation programs will actually display notes on the computer screen that a music student plays on the digital keyboard. In this context the keyboard is called a MIDI instrument since it is connected to a computer. Other programs are focused on music literacy and offer game-like lessons that allow students to learn about musical elements such as music notation, scales, key signatures, clefs, time signatures and timbre.

With the increased use of technology in Education and in student's lives, it is well worth a school district's time and expense to gradually adopt music technology programs. The ubiquitous nature of the i-pod is reason enough to go this route. Performing programs such as Band and Chorus should always be a part of every school in the country but music technology programs should also exist to serve the musical interests of non-performing students. In terms of enrollment, these students usually outnumber the performers 3:1.

To learn more, try giving a Music Education Technology Magazine a read. There are many articles and examples to sample.

Blake Lewis Releases Solid Album

While it might be a bit overproduced, Blake Lewis' debut album delivers. It was disappointing to realize that most of the songs are originals as he had great success on Idol doing creative Garageband-inspired covers. But! And this is a big but....he pulled it off!

His sweet tenor voice blends with the techno-elements on most songs leaving me yearning to hear a song with more Blake, less stuff.

The sweetest song on the album (called Audio Daydreams) and the one that sounds the most "Blake-like" is called How Many Words. Check it out.


Songs by Jordin Sparks & Blake Lewis from American Idol! Download it Now on iTunes.

Is 'Free' the New Music Download Pricing Model?

i-Tunes is getting a little run for it's money by several artists who are choosing to control distribution of their musical creations. In one of the boldest moves yet, Radiohead (and several others) are letting consumers decide what to pay. Of course, some will pay nothing but there's evidence that people are paying quite a bit more.

To test the validity of the claim, I just downloaded Radiohead's new album for free.
You could too here.

Add the album to your 'basket'
Then when you go to check out add "0.00" for the price.
Bingo. It's yours.

And here's a NY Times article about it.

I like this kind of "free market"

Cheers!