Elementary Music/Music Technology Blog

Since 2007, I have had a week in February titled “Bring Your Parents to Music and Movement Class” for the students in grades PreK-2. I discovered this idea on the MENC general music message boards and I have been so thankful that I did try it.

I thoroughly enjoy the week because it opens my eyes greatly to the following items:

• I see fathers come into the classroom and dance with their young children. Many of these fathers I have not met before.
• I see students who are normally very shy open up, smile, and actively participate because their parents are smiling at them.
• The parents see and experience the curriculum as opposed to only concerts.
• Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, Babysitters, Close Family Friend, etc. If a parent cannot attend, it is so nice that the family will send another adult.
• Cooperation and Working Together: The dances, singing games, play parties, etc that we perform all require the students to cooperate and work together. When the parents join us, the parents will remark about how much they like that these activities help their children learn to work together.
• “Thank you.” It is really nice to hear the parents say “thank you for doing this.” Every year I debate if I should have this event because it is not required by the school and no other teacher does something like this. However, I feel that the parents do appreciate it and I appreciate that they take the time out of their days to come.
• Smiles, smiles, smiles. The students in this age group adore having their parents in the classroom with them. It was so wonderful for students to walk into the classroom with a smile and smile continuously throughout the class.

When I describe this event to other music teachers, I am asked about the students whose parents cannot attend. When we perform activities that require partners or groups, those students will pair up together or some parents will be 2 students’s grownup.

It is a great week and one that I will schedule again for next year.

Last night, I spent some time occasionally flipping channels around to watch the Grammys and also reading tweets and facebook statuses about peoples’ reactions to the program. I would read many reactions to the performers’ outfits and “who should have won this and who should have won that.” However, I think that the most amusing reactions were to how many performers have utilized (or more like how many engineers and producers) Auto-Tune. The term “auto tuning” is not a new term, as it has been done for at least three decades. However, Auto-Tune (as it was being discussed last night) is a plug-in created by Antares Audio Technologies, that corrects pitch in vocal and instrumental recordings. The plug-in can be used in recording studios and as a rack-mounted version in live performances. In 2009, Time magazine quoted a Grammy-winning recording engineer as saying, “Let’s just say I’ve had Auto-Tune save vocals on everything from Britney Spears to Bollywood soundtrack albums. And every singer now presumes that you’ll just run their voice through the box.” The same article expressed “hope that pop’s fetish for uniform perfect pitch will fade,” speculating that pop-music songs have become harder to differentiate from one another, as “track after track has perfect pitch” (found at http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1877372-2,00.html). Though with the Auto-tune iPhone app and the price of the plug-in being very affordable, it will be up to the artists and producers to whether the trend will fade.

Last year the group Death Cab for Cutie wore suits and blue pins in protest to auto-tune. They were quoted, “Auto-tuning is a digital manipulation, a correction of a singer’s voice that is affecting literally thousands of singers today and thousands of records that are coming out. We just want to raise awareness while we’re here and try to bring back the blue note… The note that’s not so perfectly in pitch and just gives the recording some soul and some kind of real character. It’s how people really sing.”

Last night, it was obvious that the duet with Stevie Nicks and Taylor Swift did not have the enhancement of auto-tune and you heard some real vocal sounds. Jamie Fox’s auto-tune performance was described as “Most Unnecessary: Jamie Foxx’s crazy Auto-Tune extravaganza had us thinking one thing: The Oscar winner wants an EGOT necklace.”

As many of my students, even the young ones, tune into American Idol, they are surprised and often giggle at the first few episodes which show a variety of “singers.” My students will come in the next day to tell me about “the singer who sounded like he was shouting” or “the singer who was really really bad.” The next question to me from my students is “Why do they think that they sing well?”

Those Idol auditions, and the recordings or live performances enhanced by Auto-Tune, are great teaching opportunities for your students in grades 3 and up (maybe even younger depending on your students). Having them listen intently to different types of singers is an amazing educational tool. For younger students, play a variety of recordings, ones enhanced and ones that are not, and ask the students what they think. Or play a couple of Idol auditions. The young students will be honest and they will listen intently. It will be a wonderful discussion. For the older students, create a blog or wikispace and put samples of audio and video (teachertube.com or youtube.com) of singers who are singing without the enhancement of auto-tune and singers who obviously must sing with auto-tune, and have the students comment on this. Even better, show two different recordings of the same singer: one recording with auto-tune and one without. Try this one from Enrique Iglesias-though there have been debates about whether this is fake or real-however, it is a great example of how auto-tune can greatly correct the pitch.

Years ago, I took a TI:ME Level 2 Digital Audio Course at Valley Forge Christian College and I absolutely loved the course. I learned how to utilize digital audio in my classroom and I learned what auto-tune does to my voice. My final project was a recording of me singing a 3-part SSA version of Appalachian Suite II. I was incredibly humbled when I first heard myself singing on the recording. My professor then applied the auto-tune plug-in and my voice magically sang in tune. Incredible, I thought…however, I felt like I “cheated.” I know that many performers utilize it, especially in live performances as a “safety net,” but as a teacher, I like to educate my students about this and just make them aware so that they can listen better to the music that they hear everyday.

Have you ever had a discussion about auto-tune in your classrooms? If so, how did you address it?

Picture found at toothpastefordinner.com

I have to highlight two posts from my good friend Jim Frankel, former music educator and current director of SoundTree. He just wrote two excellent posts about the iPad and music education. The first is titled “The iPad in Music Education - First Impressions.” The second is titled “A Possible Future for iPads & Tablet PCs in the Music Classroom.” Check them both out here. His latter post is a great insight into the future of music education and technology. Wow! Take a read and leave a comment for him. I promise that you will stop and think about technology in music education when you read his posts!

It was a great day for Apple as the long-awaited iPad was introduced by Steve Job’s in his keynote speech. I was thrilled to be able to catch the video, tweets, etc as the keynote was being delivered today. As I read about the iPad’s tech specs, I was immediately thinking about how this could impact education.

First, what is the iPad?  An iPad is in a category all by itself. It is not an iPhone nor a laptop. It falls in between these two products. The specs are as follows (found at http://mashable.com/2010/01/27/ipad/):

“- SCREEN: 9.7-inch IPS LCD screen. The LCD provides the backlighting, but most of the technology is IPS, or In-plane switching. This gives it a stronger viewing angle than most screens.

- RESOLUTION: 1024×768 pixels (132 pixels per inch)

- SIZE: 0.5 inches thin.

- DIMENSIONS: 9.5 inches x 7.5 inches x 0.5 inches

- WEIGHT: 1.5 pounds (1.6 pounds for 3G)

- CHIP: 1 GHz Apple A4 chip. They went in-house instead of going to Intel.

- MEMORY: Three models with 16 GB, 32 GB and 64 GB solid state hard drives.

- INCLUSIONS: Accelerometer, Microphone, 30-pin connector, Compass, full capacitive multi-touch, Bluetooth 2.1, 802.11n Wi-Fi, 3G access on higher-end models

- BATTERY LIFE: 10 hours at full blast. On standby, it will last over a month.”

Second, what’s new about this? Two features are a multi-touch screen on a product larger than an iPhone and the iBooks application. The multi-touch interface is very similar to the iPhone interface. The iBooks application will now rival Amazon’s Kindle. iBooks allows you to browse, download, and read ebooks from such publishers as Macmillan, Penguin, and more.

How could this benefit education? If your school has a “laptop cart,” this could possibly replace it. Why? One word: Price. The iPad starts at $499 for a wifi 16GB model. The students can use it for word processing, even without a physical keyboard. The students could use it to read books. Can you imagine that our students’ children could go to school where they all pull out their iPads to read their books? Where the library just holds iPads (or its equivalent) instead of hard copy books? This might be far off, however, it is technology like this that gets the ball rolling. Finally, the battery life of 10 hours makes it easy for students to use it throughout the entire school day.

However, with all that said, this is the first generation of the iPad and because it lacks some items, the future generations of the iPad might be more beneficial in education. For example, the iPad lacks adapters. You need an adapter to plug in a digital camera and you need an adapter for USB. The keyboard looks to be awkward, as when you look at the video on apple.com, you need to be lying back and have the iPad resting on your lap in order to type. The iPad does not have a built-in camera, which will probably be included in a future generation of the product. Plus, if you utilize apps in your classroom, only one app can be used at a time.

With all that said, I cannot wait until March to play with this in the Apple store. I look forward to seeing how the iPad could positively affect education.

What are your ideas for the iPad in education?

I am thrilled to see a new book recently authored by good friends and TI:ME officers Jim Frankel and Tom Rudolph, titled YouTube in Music Education. YouTube has a variety of uses for the music classroom and this book gives you many ways to utilize it in your classroom. In addition, it provides music educators a resource to try to convince administrators to unblock YouTube in the school. It also discusses copyright and how to make your own videos to post on YouTube. To read a full review, click here. My school recently unblocked YouTube on the teachers’ computers so I am excited to pick up this book and to use it in my classroom!

Congratulations to Dr. Rick Dammers of Rowan University, who was just named the Mike Kovins TI:ME 2010 Teacher of the Year! Rick teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in instrumental music education, research methods, and technology-based music instruction, as well as supervises student teachers and serves as program advisor for Instrumental Music Education at Rowan University. In addition, Rick writes the music technology column for NJMEA’s Tempo and serves as technology co-coordinator for state conventions. Rick is passionate about research, which is reflected in his dissertation that focused on laptop-based composing in a middle school band rehearsal and his recently published case study on on-line trumpet lessons that utilized Skype. As described by one of his students, “Dr. Dammers is truly an exceptional professor who is helping to inspire his students to use the resources available to them, as well as explore other media, to create a learning environment that fosters creativity and a love of music in all young students.” TI:ME is honored to have Dr. Rick Dammers as its 2010 TI:ME Teacher of the Year!

Rick will be honored with this award at the end of the keynote presentation at the upcoming TI:ME National Conference on Thursday, February 18.

I am so thrilled that the TI:ME National Conference will be held in NJ this year, in coordination with the NJMEA Conference. TI:ME is holding a pre-conference day on Thursday, February 18, 2010. There will be some excellent “music technology/music education gurus” presenting at this conference including: James Frankel, Robin Hodson, Richard Dammers, Tom Rudolph, Keith Mason, Joe Pisano, and many more. The keynote presenter is Don Muro, who in the elementary music world, is known for his recorder music. My students adore it. However, he is also an original TI:ME founder, a music tech guru, an incredible performer, a composer, and much more. His keynote is one that should not be missed.

The conference rooms are being sponsored by some great companies: Alfred, MakeMusic, Noteflight, Shure, SoundTree, and Yamaha! Some of the rooms will have music labs set up in them. This is a great way to see how a music lab is utilized in music education, and to see all of the items that are needed for a music lab. 

Speaking as a NJ music educator, I have always had to fly to get to a National TI:ME Conference. I am so happy that this year, I can drive to it. If you are in the tri-state area and have been wanting to attend locally a conference to learn more about music technology in music education, then why not go to the leaders in it? Why not come to the TI:ME/NJMEA pre-conference day on Thursday, February 18?

• Click here to register.
• Click here to see the session schedule “at a glance.”
• Click here to read about the sessions.

Are you attending the TI:ME/NJMEA Conference?

It is never ideal to be out sick from school because it seems to occur on your busiest days, or during rehearsals for the upcoming concert. Today, I am out from school due to a stomach flu and at 4:00 this morning, I had to write sub plans and send them into school. Sub plans are one of those many items that is not reviewed in undergrad or graduate school. The fact is, many of us would go in and teach while we are sick instead of calling out because it is very time consuming to write sub plans. Sometimes, we are writing plans for our busiest day and the amount of details that are involved in the plans make it difficult for us to want to stay home. However, there are times, like today, when we must stay home. Here are some things that I do to ease up on writing sub plans:

• After 14 years of teaching, I have saved every sub plan that I have written. Therefore, when I need a plan, I can just update a previous plan.
• Since I am a new mom this year, I assumed that I would be taking more sick days than I have in the past. Therefore, at the beginning of the year, I wrote an outline for each school day (we are on a rotating A-G day schedule) so that when I needed to fill it in this morning, I just opened the C day outline. All of the details about duties, class lists, seating charts, students with allergies, etc, were in this file.
• If you have Sibelius or Finale, they have pre-made worksheets that you can edit to work with your classroom situation. These are such a time saver for when you are suddenly out sick.
• Expect your substitute to know nothing about music or technology. Therefore, leave a CD instead of the iPod. If you plan on showing a DVD, ask another teacher to come and set up the system for the substitute.
• When I would like to utilize a song or musical acitvity and I am not sure if my sub feels comfortable singing or explaining it, I will record myself singing the song or explaining the musical activity and put it on the CD. The sub has been very appreciative about this.
• Finally, read this article that just appeared in the New York Times titled The Replacements. It is very insightful about the experience of a substitute teacher.

What do you do to prepare for a substitute teacher when you are suddenly out?

Hoping the weather holds and I can get through airport security, I will be heading off to Tampa, Florida for the annual Florida Music Educators Association (FMEA) Conference. I am very excited to be presenting at FMEA because I meet wonderful music educators, I attend amazing sessions, and yes, I get to enjoy some warmer weather than what we have been experiencing currently in the North East.

I will be presenting two sessions at FMEA: Podcasting in the Elementary Music Classroom from 10:30 AM-11:30 AM at the Marriott Waterside Room: Meeting Room 4 and Technology Integration in the Elementary Music Classroom from 4:00 PM-5:00 PM at Marriott Waterside Room: Meeting Room 4. Both are on Friday, January 8. The podcasting session will involve examples of podcasts from a variety of elementary music classrooms, including my own. I will also show how to utilize a software application besides GarageBand to easily podcast. In this session, I will be using TrakAx for PC to podcast. The integration session will involve examples of lessons from my book and examples of my students’ works.

I hope to see you there. I will also be podcasting my sessions and posting them on my podomatic podcasting site.

After reading Jim Frankel’s New Year’s Resolutions for the past few years, I thought that I would post mine as my first blog post for 2010. I hope to follow through with many of them!

1. Spend more time with my husband and baby girl.
2. Attend a conference and visit another elementary school to shadow the music teacher so that I can rejuvenate my teaching and lesson plans.
3. Listen to my students more when they sing and speak. Many times, the things that come from their mouths are so innocent and sweet, that they can turn any bad day into a good day.
4. Promote TI:ME and its benefits more, especially since I will take the position of President in October.
5. Utilizing Skype more so that my students can benefit from visiting other music classes from around the nation and learning from them.
6. Utilizing Google Earth more often as a teaching tool so that my students can understand the global aspect of music better.
7. Try to find a positive aspect in all situations.
8. Try to think before I react.
9. Try to empathize with the parents at my school more. Try to walk a mile in their shoes more often.
10. Play music more, whether it be in my classroom, at church, or just for fun. Just play!

What are your New Year’s resolutions?