Music Ed Tech Talk

Dr. Cory Meals joins the show to talk about building a second brain, personal knowledge management apps, and how to keep it all together!

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Thanks to my sponsors this month, Scale Exercise Play-Along Tracks.

Show Notes:

• Slide deck from Cory's Building a Second (Music Teacher) Brain Session at TMEA
• A Second (Music Teacher Brain) - Resources from the "Building a Second (Music Teacher) Brain" Session | TMEA 2022
• Book: Building a Second Brain: A Proven Method to Organize Your Digital Life and Unlock Your Creative Potential
• Evernote
• Notion
• Readwise
• Airr - Podcast App
• Craft
• Roam Research
• Obsidian
• Athens
• Drafts
• DEVONthink
• Craft for Music Educators - podcast episode with Dr. David MacDonald
• Get Organized Digitally! - podcast episode with Dr. Frank Buck
• Pass the Baton - podcast episode featuring Theresa Hoover
• Apps for Research and Remembering - podcast episode with Dr. David MacDonald
• Designing Curriculum and Assessing Students With Filemaker - podcast episode with Ben Denne
• Communication and Collaboration Apps for Music Teams - podcast episode with Ben Denne
• Articles from MacStories.net to help get set up with Obsidian:
• My Obsidian Setup, Part 1: Sync, Core Plugins, Workspaces, and Other Settings
• Obsidian In Depth: Core Plugins (Part 2)
• MacStories Starter Pack: Introducing Obsidian Shortcut Launcher, A Free Plugin to Trigger Shortcuts from Obsidian
• Overcast - Free, simple, award-winning podcast player for iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch.
• Eliminating Canvas Stress by Writing Content in Markdown - my blog post that explains Markdown
• Deckset - app that designs your slides, so you can focus on your ideas
• Obsidian - Discord community and forum
• Taking Notes with Drafts - podcast episode featuring developer Greg Pierce
• Institute for Composer Diversity
• Steinberg Summer Sale
• Poolsuite.fm
• Playdate

Other Recommendations from Cory, not mentioned in the episode:

• Work Clean: The life-changing power of mise-en-place to organize your life, work, and mind
• Tiago Forte Interviews Dan Charnas

App of the Week:

• Robby - OnTheWay
• Cory - Carrot Weather

Music of the Week:

• Robby - Poolsuite Mix Tapes | Poolside - Low Season
• Cory - MUETE - Slow Loris | Ak Dan Chil (ADG7) - Yeong Jeong Geo Ri (Live on KEXP)

Where to Find Us:

• Robby Burns - Twitter | Blog | Book
• Dr. Cory Meals - Twitter | Website | University Link

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David William Hearn (composer, arranger, producer, and creator of StaffPad) joins the show to talk about StaffPad, how teachers can use it, and the thought process behind designing great iPad software.

Patreon supporters get bonus discussion about recent tv, movies, and music we have been engaging with. Thanks to my sponsors this month, Scale Exercise Play-Along Tracks.

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Show Notes:

• StaffPad
• File Not Found - a generation that grew up with Google is forcing professors to rethink their lesson plans | The Verge
• Procreate
• GoodNotes
• Playscore podcast episode featuring Anthony Wilkes
• Dorico
• Noteflight
• MuseClass podcast episode featuring Bob Chreste
• Keyboard Maestro
• Audio Hijack

App of the Week:

Robby - Default Folder X

DWH - Soulver

Music of the Week: Robby - Button Masher - Origin Story

DWH - Prince

Tech Tip of the Week: Robby - Universal Clipboard

DWH - Automate stuff

Where to Find Us: Robby - Twitter | Blog | Book David William Hearn - Twitter | Website

Please don't forget to rate the show and share it with others!

Tim Chaten, host of the iPad Pros podcast, joins the show to talk about the announcements at Apple's WWDC Keynote earlier this month.

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Thanks to my sponsors this month, Scale Exercise Play-Along Tracks.

Show Notes:

• iPad Pros - A podcast about getting work done on iOS
• iPad Pros Episode 121 – Dorico and Sibelius with Robby Burns
• iPad Pros Episode 130 – Teaching Music with Robby Burns
• Canvas podcast
• Dorico for iPad 2.3 introduces one-off purchase Lifetime Unlock option
• Home+ app
• Hook app
• HOOBS
• Starling io
• NapBot
• EDU Apple Store
• Spark Mail
• Small Cubed Mail Plugins
• Apple in 2021: The Six Colors report card
• Broadcasts app
• Malibu - Anderson .Paak
• Presumed Innocent - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
• Black Patch / The Man Re-Recording
• [Home Widget](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/home-widget-for-homekit/id1579036143
• Outcast Apple Watch App

Where to Find Us: Robby - Twitter | Blog | Book Tim Chaten - Twitter | Website

Please don't forget to rate the show and share it with others!

Bob Chreste joins the show to talk about MuseClass, a free musical assessment management platform from MuseGroup.

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Thanks to my sponsors this month, Scale Exercise Play-Along Tracks.

Show Notes:

• MuseClass - https://museclass.com
• MuseGroup - https://mu.se

App of the Week: Robby - Overcast

Bob - MuseClass - https://museclass.com

Album of the Week: Robby - Black Radio III - Robert Glasper

Bob - Via Havana - Joachim Horsley

Tech Tip of the Week: Robby - Make a keyboard shortcut for any menu item on macOS

Bob - Chrome tab groups

Where to Find Me: Robby - Twitter | Blog | Book

Please don't forget to rate the show and share it with others!

Anthony Wilkes joins the show to talk about PlayScore 2, a sheet music scanning app. Anthony is the CEO of PlayScore, and in the conversation we talked all about what it can do, the challenges of developing music scanning software, and practical uses for teachers and students.

Patreon supporters receive bonus conversation about machine learning, the future of score scanning software, and automation.

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Support Music Ed Tech Talk

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Thanks to my sponsors this month, Scale Exercise Play Alongs.

Show Notes:

• PlayScore 2
• ReadScoreLib
• Dorico 2.2
• An interview with PlayScore creator Anthony Wilkes | Dorico Blog
• Scanner Pro
• PDF Expert
• Documents by Readdle
• Spark Mail
• forScore
• Sheet Music Scanner
• Michael Good, inventor of MusicXML | Scoring Notes podcast interview
• Music XML
• Apple Shortcuts User Guide
• OmniGroup JavaScript Automation
• My Audio Hijack blog post - Audio Hijack 4, Shortcuts, Podcasting Automation
• What's New in Audio Hijack 4

App of the Week: Robby - Audio Hijack 4 Anthony - Dorico

Music of the Week: Robby - Listen to This - Audio Guide Anthony - On BBC's first ever live broadcast of Beatrice Harrison, featuring cellist Clare Deniz

Tech Tip of the Week: Robby - Universal Control Anthony - iPad multitasking

Where to Find Us: Robby - Twitter | Blog | Book Anthony - Twitter | Website

Please don't forget to rate the show and share it with others!

Dr. Frank Buck returns to the show to talk about digital productivity and his new book Get Organized Digitally!

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Support Music Ed Tech Talk

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Buy me a coffee

Thanks to my sponsors this month, Scale Exercise Play Along Tracks.

Show Notes:

• Recent Dorico episode of Music Ed Tech Talk with Daniel Spreadbury
• musescore 4 Alpha
• Craft update
• Craft episode of Music Ed Tech Talk with Dr. David MacDonald
• Ableton Microtuner Blog Post
• Scala Files
• Audio Hijack 4
• Rogue Amoeba episode of Music Ed Tech Talk with Paul Kafasis
• Dr. Frank Buck's new book: Get Organized Digitally!
• Dr. Frank Buck's other books
• Todoist
• Craft extension for Todoist
• Evernote
• Remember the Milk
• Hook
• Blog post: Never Miss a Task, with OmniFocus Project Templates
• Task apps:
• Asana
• Tick Tick
• Google Tasks
• Spark mail app
• DEVONthink
• OneNote
• TaskClone
• Calendly
• Fantastical
• Cardhop
• TextExpander
• Text Blaze
• Doodle
• Clipboard apps - Alfred / Pastebot / Yoink
• Peek-a-View - app for sharing a limited part of your camera roll with others

App of the Week: Robby - MaskerAide

Dr. Frank Buck - Google Lens

Music of the Week: Robby - Gabriel Kahane: Magnificent Bird

Dr. Frank Buck - US Marine Band YouTube Channel

Tech Tip of the Week: Robby - Quick Gif with Cleanshot

Dr. Frank Buck - Windows Clipboard History

Where to Find Us: Robby - Twitter | Blog | Book Dr. Frank Buck - Twitter | Website

Please don't forget to rate the show and share it with others!

Daniel returns to the show to discuss the release of Dorico 4 for desktop, Dorico 2 for iPad, Steinberg licensing, and other updates!

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Support Music Ed Tech Talk

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Show Notes:

• Dorico 4
• Dorico 2 for iPad
• Dorico YouTube Channel
• Introducing Steinberg Licensing
• Scoring Notes Review of Dorico 4
• Dorico 4 | Music Ed Tech Talk
• Previous Appearances on this show from Daniel - Dorico | Dorico for iPad
• Club MacStories

Album of the Week: Robby - Dilla Time Book | Slum Village - Fan-Tas-Tic Vol. 1 | Vol. 2 | Jay Dilla Essentials | J Dilla Influences | Inspired by J Dilla Daniel - Horizon Forbidden West Soundtrack Volume 1

App of the Week: Robby - Audible

Daniel - Raycast

Tech Tip of the Week: Robby - Whispersync

Daniel - Pi-hole

Where to Find Us: Robby - Twitter | Blog | Book Daniel - Twitter | Website

Please don't forget to rate the show and share it with others!

Krystal Williams joins the show to talk about all of the diverse tools, instructional, and organization strategies she uses to teach a variety of content areas ranging from band to music theory.

Krystal teaches at North Western High School in Hyattsville, Maryland, and is the Technology Chair for the Maryland Music Educators Association.

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Show Notes:

At about the 30-minute mark, Krystal shared her screen and showed off some examples of how she is using the Google Suite to engage her students and organize her classroom materials. See a video excerpt of that part of the conversation here:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/IjgP0qHL0eI

Links to things mentioned in the show:

• MMEA Tech Page
• YouTube Embed
• Craft
• Craft episode of Music Ed Tech Talk
• Krystal's Tech Three:
1. Google Classroom/Site/Slides
2. Smart Music
3. MusicFirst
• OBS
• Hyper-Charging Online Classes with Open Broadcaster Software
• Classroom Maestro
• AirServer
• Lightspeed
• Getting Young Performers to Compose, Putting the E in Ensemble (And Much More) with Alex Shapiro
• Markdown
• Cory Henry
• Snarky Puppy
• DuPont Brass Band

App of the Week: Robby - Deckset Krystal - Perfect Ear

Album of the Week: Robby - Aoife O'Donovan - Age of Apathy Krystal - Thundercat - This is Thundercat

Tech Tip of the Week: Robby - Noir - Dark Mode for Safari Krystal - Repurpose old phones!

Where to Find Us: Robby - Twitter | Blog | Book Krystal - Band Director Toolbox Facebook Group | Diary of a Lady Band Director | Diary of a Lady Band Director YouTube Page

Please don't forget to rate the show and share it with others!

Ben Denne returns to talk about apps we use to communicate and collaborate with our music team.

Where to Find Me

Subscribe to the Blog...RSS | Email Newsletter

Subscribe to the Podcast in...Apple Podcasts | Overcast | Castro | Spotify | RSS

Support My Work

Become a Patron!

Buy me a coffee

- My Book: Digital Organization Tips for Music Teachers | Oxford University Press

- My Scale Exercise Play-Along Tracks: Audio Only | Audio and Stems ... current on sale

- My appearance on LearnOmniFocus.com (Learn how I manage time and tasks in the music classroom)

Links:

- Slack

- Microsoft Teams

- Discord

- Todoist

- Trello

- Google Docs

- Dropbox

- iCloud Drive/OneDrive

- iWork

- Microsoft Office

- Evernote/Apple Notes

- Airtable

- Notion

- Craft

- Squarespace

- Spark

- Sanebox

Learn how to teach your students to play in tune by taking advantage of the features of the Tonal Energy tuning app. In this episode, my colleague Ben Denne joins to talk about a comprehensive methodology for teaching your students how to play in tune using their ears, not their eyes.

In the episode, we overview the primary features of TE as they relate to playing with a beautiful tone and intonation. Features include: single and polyphonic tuning drones, modeling just intonation in chords and melody, visualizing pitch, and more!

Where to Find Me:

Subscribe to the Blog...RSS | Email Newsletter

Subscribe to the Podcast in...Apple Podcasts | Overcast | Castro | Spotify | RSS

Support My Work:

Become a Patron!

Buy me a coffee

- My Book: Digital Organization Tips for Music Teachers | Oxford University Press

- My Scale Exercise Play-Along Tracks: Audio Only | Audio and Stems ... current on sale

Philosophy:

- Prioritize these...

- Tone

- Intonation

- Balance/Blend

- Melodic Accuracy

- Rhythmic Accuracy

- Expression/Phrasing

- Technique/Articulation

- Sound Over Sight

- If we are asking students to use their ears, then why are we having them use their eyes?

- Natural Learning - think about how children learn to speak. Through modeling from parental figures, constant repetition, and encountering these repetitions in various contexts.

- Electronic tuners can only tune intervals of unisons and octaves accurately.

- We are used to hearing the piano in its slightly "out-of-tune" tempered state.

- Interval Adjustment

- Pure intervals have varying degrees of adjustment from tempered intonation to make them in tune.

- Scale Degree | Adjustment

- 1 | 0

- 2 | +3.9

- 3 | -13.7

- 4 | -2.0

- 5 | +2.0

- 6 | -15.6

- 7 | -11.7

- 8 | 0

- We must teach our students to HEAR when something is out of tune by listening for beats. But how?

- Resonant intonation is the result of two other important features: superior tone and balance.

- Good tone comes first.

- Learning balance is difficult in a room by yourself.

- Use of an electric drone helps.

- Turn the drone up to a level that equals the student.

- Song based learning that utilizes lots of simple melodies in standard keys teaches students to understand basic consonance and dissonance.

- Lots of repetition!!!

- Patients!

- Reinforce that one success does not mean that everything will be in tune from here on out.

- Don't strive for a perfect intonation system. Resist teaching students the theory of intervals and focus on them hearing consonance and dissonance through listening to the relationships of intervals.

- Once you know what a 5th sounds like, you can tune it anywhere.

- Avoid technical talk unless something is absolutely in a students way.

- Daniel Kohut - Musical Performance: Learning Theory and Pedagogy

- Superior Concept

- Relaxed Concentration

- Focused Awareness

- Reasons teachers give up on teaching intonation this way...

- Fear of other areas of musical performance failing - wrong notes, rhythm, poor technique, inability to execute musically. The solution to this - pick easier music!!!

- Abstract nature of these skills make them less concrete to student minds and harder to teach.

- This is a long road. It takes time. But! - the end reward is ultimately better because students own their critical listening skills and now make musical adjustments themselves, even to features in the music that are not tone and intonation related. Each year will have an upswing towards the end. Independent musicianship is the result.

Features of Tonal Energy

- Overview of each feature and setting - Live Demo

- Strategies

- Everything with drone

- All music taught around tonal centers

- Students tune down to the tonic most immediately beneath where the majority of their part sits

- Students write tonal centers in their method books and concert music

- Analyze mode - Students practice scale patterns and songs in this sequence...

1. Visual and aural feedback

2. Aural feedback only

3. No drone at all

- Practice Guide

- You can balance to the drone

Tell students to match the volume of the drone at various levels.

- Play along melodies with students on a keyboard or on the display

A midi keyboard like the Xkey https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DU2VKV8/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 can play certain key areas in tune perfectly and can automatically tune chords to just intonation. Combined with an iPad, this is like owning a Yamaha Harmony Director.

- In rehearsal: Have students buzz along and find their place in the chord

- Use In-App Audio Apps to make play along tracks

- Making Just Intonation Play-Along Tracks for Your Performing Ensemble (Using Tonal Energy and GarageBand)

GarageBand for iOS allows easy creation of engaging play along tracks by using TE Tuner as a plugin and combining its sounds with other instruments.

Video demos of Inter App Audio Apps:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMgypjhNPL0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tmyw1j0vb4U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWsHqD816rw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SM8dNCEbPro

- Tools for Making Play-Along Tracks

- Yamaha Harmony Director

- My Scale Exercise Play-Along Tracks (CURRENTLY ON SALE)

- Farrago

- GarageBand Drummers

- Shure BLX14/PGA31 Wireless Headworn Microphone System

- Band in a Box

- My NAfME Article about teaching music in unison, making practice resources, and using drones/beats - Always Start from the Beginning: Developing Tone Quality, Intonation, Concert Repertoire, and Classroom Management through Unison Playing in Performing Ensembles

More Resources:

- Hal Leonard Intermediate Band Method

- Beat Elimination as a Means of Teaching Intonation to Beginning Wind Instrumentalists, The Journal of Research in Music Education, Winer 1972

- The Problem of Tonality in Seventheenth Century Music, Delbert M. Beswick, Music, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of North Carolina, 1950

- Musical Performance: Learning Theory and Pedagogy - Daniel Kohut

- Automating Band Warmups, Teaching Auditory Skill, and Managing My Classroom… With Solfege Bingo

Extra Show Notes from the Podcast Episode:

App of the Week

- Obsidian

- Hook

- Jamulus.io

Album of the Week

- Church on Hell Street - Punch Brothers

- Encanto (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Tech Tip of the Week

- Numbers & Fantastical for Batch Events

- Craft App

- Craft episode of Music Ed tech Talk