Week 5

 

Class Outline

Today's class was primarily spent on student presentations, which I will briefly summarize here:

Sight Reading Factory -

  • Cheap student accounts
  • Teachers can track student progress
  • Quick creation of exercises
    • Customizable by keys, solfege syllables, and rhythmic options
  • Easy to print generated examples
  • MIDI playback available for students to hear an example before performing it

Logic Pro X -

  • Premier Apple DAW product
  • MIDI engine included within the program
  • $200 education bundle which includes multiple add-ons
  • Full loop library included
Smart Music - 
  • Tool for practice
  • Provides immediate feedback on recordings
  • Massive repertoire library
    • Includes method books, exercises, and over 5000 pieces
  • Looping capabilities
  • Built in fingering charts
  • Sight reading exercises
  • In-program grading apparatus
  • Reference recordings, both professionally recorded and MIDI
    • Individual parts can be muted for practice
  • Bulk Subscriptions available
IncrediBox -
  • Free web app, paid version is also available
  • Digital beatboxers displayed, providing visual feedback to students
    • Multiple voices can be layered on top of one another
    • Added lines are delayed to loop together
  • Useful for younger students
  • Visual feedback
    • Characters move to beat
    • Emotions displayed on the faces
  • World music options
Songsterr -
  • Interactive guitar tab webapp
  • Live playback capability
  • Free and paid versions
  • Practice tools
    • Speed options
    • Metronome
    • Looping
    • Solo tracks
  • Find a teacher mode for lesson purposes
  • Can be edited by anyone with an account
Classics for Kids -
  • Site run by a music educator
  • Composer spotlights weekly
  • Podcast run by the site founder
  • Tons of information on composers
    • Sorted by name, country, and era for easy perusal
  • Interactive activities and games
    • Games connect with other school subjects
  • Information on teaching methods
  • Resource links included
  • Parent and Teacher sections
    • Downloadable lesson plans included
YouTube -
  • Kids exclusive app
    • Restrictions on ads, comments, and content
  • Unlisted education videos can be posted for asynchronous lessons
  • Playlist functionality
  • Closed captioning available
  • Slow down playback speeds
Musictheory.net
  • Theory concepts are explained in a step-by-step manner
  • Simple and advanced theory concepts included
  • Hundreds of available exercises
    • Notation-based
    • Ear training
    • Keyboard and guitar note identification
  • Timer and scores available in app
  • Teachers can track student progress
  • Exercises are fully customizable
Musicca.com
  • Web-based music theory app
  • Notation based exercises
    • No rhythmic exercises are available as of now
  • Teachers and students can track progress
  • Lesson plans available
  • Visual practice aids
    • Virtual fretboard and keyboard
    • Tuner
    • Chord finder (shows finger positions on a keyboard/fretboard)
MuseScore
  • Free notation software
  • Full online database of scores available
  • Video lessons are available on the website
  • Small install size
  • Covers all basic functions for musical notation
forScore
  • Music library software
  • Available for Mac and iPad
  • PDFs can be imported
  • Built-in practice functions
    • Tuner
    • Metronome
    • Pitch drones
  • Bluetooth pencil markup available
  • Scores can be added to playlists
  • Bluetooth page turners are available
Garageband -
  • Lesson series included
    • Artists teaching songs
    • Piano and guitar basics
  • Multitrack recording software
  • Interactive drummer functionality
    • Great way for non-percussionists to make beats
Ella -
  • Sight singing app
  • No cost
  • Introductory exercises in multiple categories
  • Gives tuning feedback on each sung note
  • Scores your recorded performances
Tonal Energy -
  • Tuner functionality
    • Feedback "faces"
    • Full guitar tuner
    • Temperament changes
    • Can track pitch over long periods of time
  • Metronome
    • Highly customizable
    • Accents
    • Subdivisions
  • Available on computers and phones
  • Tone wheel
    • Editable sound font
    • Transposition changes
    • Sustained drones
BandLab -
  • Simplistic DAW a la SoundTrap
  • Easy to find prerecorded samples
  • Recording functionality
  • Multitrack recording
  • Easy to use on mobile devices
  • Features virtual equipment similar to AudioTool
Audacity -
  • Noise reduction capabilities
  • Generate silence
  • Amplify sections with customizable dB levels
  • Duplicate and split parts of tracks

The remainder of class had us explore film sound:

FilmSound.org -
  • Provides info on sound design
  • Includes specific examples
    • Dedicated page for Star Wars, other franchises
  • DesigningSound.org has similar information
Foley Sound -
  • Sound effects are added in post-production
  • We watched a video on how Foley processes are done
    • Artists reproduce weather effects
      • Sound of rain hitting different surfaces
      • Boat through water
      • Rippling sails
  • Jack Foley came up with the idea to synchronize these sounds with picture

Class Activities

After the lecture, we went into Garageband to try and make our own Foley sound effects for a short film. We utilized sound effects included in the program as well as ones downloaded from the BBC website, syncing up various sounds to the picture. As part of this, we learned some functions of the Garageband program, also using Audacity to edit sounds to fit the style of the movie. My very quick editing of the video is shown below:

Class Reflection

Each of my peers' presentations gave me great ideas for how to implement technology into the classroom. Several of the apps, like Musicca or MusicTheory.net could be used to assign work at home as well as an opening activity in the classroom. Others could be used for technology based projects, such as MuseScore or Logic. Still more could be used to assist with rehearsals and practice, like forScore and Tonal Energy. I could see myself using a large portion of these apps and websites in my own teaching.

As for the foley section of class, it reminded me of a project I did in high school, where I had to create and edit sound effects for a commercial. That one was much more in depth than ours, as I used around thirty sounds, so that example shows how something like this could be expanded for the classroom. A project like this allows students to be creative and also learn about career paths within the sound industry. This project also allows students to use several concepts and programs they have learned about, between searching for sounds/creating sounds, editing them, and lining them up with the video.


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