AFL Resources (Course downloads)
By Phil | February 8, 2010
After running a course last week on AFL I though I would post some resources which I found helpful here. The course was designed not to give answers but to encourage reflection so that you can find your own. I think that if you understand why the different bits of the recipe are needed then you are more likely to know how you can tweak it to suit your tastes (thanks for that one Beth). PowerPoint slides are online courtesy of Slideshare.net. See below for the resources.
- AFL_principles
- ASF booklet English
- beyond_the black_box
- blackbox
- Developing whole-school assessment March 2009
NB Remember also:
- AFL and Teaching in Secondary Schools (Fautley & Savage, 2008)
- Assessment in Music Education (Fautley, 2010)
Topics: Classroom, Conferences, Resources | No Comments »
Unlocking the digital door
By Phil | February 6, 2010
Revisiting Larry Lessig’s Ted talk on the web yesterday, I was prompted to reflect on where we are ‘creatively’ with music education and technology in school. Larry is a law professor at Stanford and takes an active interest in civil rights and technological innovation. He founded the Center for Internet and Society, chairs Creative Commons and regularly comes “to the aid of citizenry” against corporate interests (see here).
His Ted talk is partly a commentary on laws that choke creativity. John Philip Sousa is given as an example of someone who foresaw the transformational potential of technology when he predicted the end of music making as they knew it with the invention of recording machines. He goes on to talk about how when ASCAP threatened to double their rates for broadcast music BMI (having been set up a year previously in 1939) stepped and opened up the market with African American music and arrangements of public domain works. ASCAP said “the people will revolt” because we have the best music. Well, they didn’t and this forced an opening up of the restrictive policies of ASCAP. He closes by suggesting that copyright laws, which currently make many remixes and mashups illegal, are forcing our youngsters to behave outside the law (because these new forms of expression are part of their digital culture). The example of Sousa demonstrates that technology will transform music making whether we like it or not. At the same time, the example of ASCAP and Lessig’s discussion of copyright laws illustrate that restrictive ideas towards music may force creativity underground but it is still there waiting to rise to the surface in whichever way it can.
“So how does this link to music education?” you may ask. Well, I have a couple of points to ponder. If we teach Bach harmony do we make sure that we tell students never to use cadences, passing 6/4s, cadential 6/4s, augmented 6ths, etc (and also ensure that they use plenty of chord III and VIIs)? Of course not! (At least I hope not). Yet, if we do not promote the use of samples (which could be seen as building blocks of digital culture) to be the building blocks of the music that some our students create then the music we are teaching is the music of history. Still many course and exam specifications are limited in their view of where and when samples are ‘acceptable’. Famous musicians have their place in history not because they did the old stuff well but because of the way they transformed the art and took ideas forward with new innovations. Just as Sousa identified the transformational potential of technology at the turn of the century (although he was a sceptic), in a digital age might a positive transformation be digital in nature? If so, then don’t we need to allow students to build forward from these innovations.
This leads on to a second and wider point. If we only teach students the music of the past how will they learn how to live and work responsibly within their worlds and the worlds of the future? If we do not engage with what is happening in their world, then music as a subject of study will become just as irrelevant as the ASCAP polices of the late 1930s. Change will happen (and has) whether we embrace it or not. Surely technology in music education is not about ‘doing Bach better’ or even just ‘making pop songs’ but moving our art forward and reflecting on the world in which we live. I should add that so many students do manage it… but if we are engaged in the tasks of nurturing learning and fostering development then could we help a little more than we are doing at the moment?
Some questions to ask:
- How many of your school instrumental lessons teach instrumental techniques that did not exist until the last half century?
- How much of your local school’s curriculum looks at music from your students’ lifetimes?
- How much will your school curriculum help students to engage with, understand and transform their world?
Topics: General | No Comments »
Misa guitar – the future just round the corner?
By Phil | January 20, 2010
Some months ago I had a conversation with a friend that went something like this: “Wouldn’t it be great if someone would design an instrument that used a touch screen interface to extend the resources that trained musicians already find in traditional instruments”. In other words, using technology to extend and transform our opportunities rather than just replicating them. I think that the misa guitar is one of the first examples of a recent instrument design that genuinely seems to do this. The background to its design is outlined at the Misa website. A quick read will illustrate why this is an example of how I think we need to be thinking.
In Misa’s own words:
“Guitars by their very nature have limitations…Effects can be inserted into the signal chain, but they are usually foot pedals which makes the experience of controlling effects disjointed from what your hands are doing. Plus, you can only really make use of one pedal at a time…This may be okay if you only use effects occasionally, but when every note you play needs the controls set differently – good luck with that. Electronic music cannot be played effectively with such constraints. In electronic music, the timbre (or colour) of the sound can be morphed in an infinite number of ways…You need to be able to control elements of the sound, such as sustain, pitch, filter cutoffs, contour or any other synthesizer parameter, in a way that has no physical constraints…This was my thought process when designing the Misa digital guitar. There are no strings on this instrument. The right hand doesn’t pluck strings, it controls sound. So don’t compare Misa digital guitars to acoustic guitars or electric guitars. Those are different instruments, for different artforms, for different music. This is electronic music.”
Well said! (and I applaud the amount of detail on the ‘how’ that is on the Misa site).
But before I get too excited (now with my teaching hat on) lets see how much these things cost when they come into production. Also, it’s a little dissapointing that the video demo isn’t a good example of innovative electronic music!
Still…the idea is out there so let’s also see what’s next. If we are to continue to develop musicianship rather than just simplify how we get a ‘nice sound out’ then we have to move beyond the current rather stagnant relience on traditional keyboard type designs or controllers that make little use of existing physical musical expertise.
(Thanks for the email Rod!)
Topics: Comments, Links, review | No Comments »
Garageband for windows?
By Phil | January 19, 2010
I am often asked if I know of any programs for windows that are similar to Garageband. Well, if you have the luxury of a small budget then I would recommend mixcraft at the moment.
The screen feels just as streamlined as Garageband. They have taken out a lot of the ‘clutter’ of other sequencers and so it ‘feels’ easy to use. As well as your standard transport controls, mute solo effects record they have also included a sound library (loops and effects), loop editor, virtual instruments, piano roll, vst effects, and the facility to mix to CD as well as wav and mp3. The more demanding user may not be entirely convinced by the screen layout (it can feel like windows software for ‘playing mac’ rather than a good resource in its own right). Still, this may be what you want from a ‘Garageband for windows’.
A really nice feature is the time stretch. They call it FlexAudio™, and it allows you to easily change the duration of audio samples without affecting the pitch. This wins me over because it’s so simple; unlike several competitors that just make things too difficult for it to be useful in the classroom. My biggest complaint is that some of the loops are just terrible and lack variety. If you are going to provide royalty free loops then great…but students may get frustrated looking through for something they can use. Quantity certainly trumps quality in this case. However, there is a quick solution to this as you can import Garageband and acid loops.
My eldest son Reuben who is 7 has had a go with this and thinks it’s great. With very little instruction he was off and running in 10 minutes so I think there is a lot of scope for use in the classroom.
Mixcraft currently retails at $65 per unit (about £40 today).
For a free substitute try Acid express but be ready for a 10 track limit and a more complicated feeling bland ‘windows 2000 like’ experience.
Topics: Classroom, Composing, Resources, Reviews | 1 Comment »
Open education
By Phil | January 16, 2010
I recently came across a great resource (thanks Stephen) from Yale University; the ‘Open Yale course‘ series. Of particular interest is the course by Professor Craig Wright from the department of music.
You may be familiar with Professor Wright’s coursebook ‘Listening to Music (5th edition, 2007)’ which I believe is widely used in the US. This lecture series by Professor Wright takes a look at how western music is constructed and helps students to develop an appreciation of how to listen to music.
While the course is aimed at undergraduates, with care many aspects of this course will be accessible to younger audiences. Particularly music students doing A-Level in the UK. With fondness I remember sitting in my music classroom every week during an extra lesson where we would watch videos about the musical ‘greats’. In particular I remember a wonderful series by HC Robbins Landon which helped to foster my love for ‘Papa’ Haydn (thanks Mrs A!). Like the lecture series, these programs were not aimed at A-Level students, but the music is the same and many of the stories I watched still stick with me. What’s more, some of the examples are useful by themselves. For example check out ‘Macarena a la Mozart’ in Lecture 6!
Great resource and its free for real (no sign in, password, give us your email, here have some spam, etc.)!
Topics: Resources | No Comments »
How do you…? (W3# 9-52 )
By Phil | December 23, 2009
One of the questions teachers frequently ask me when I run courses is “How do you….?” usually followed by some variation of video, audio, downloading editing and making useful in the classroom. Thinking about this allowed me to realize that I have come across lots of discussions online which celebrate the many resources available online for teachers. Sadly however, for many teachers the unpredictability and eccentricities of school networks together with a lack of time and installation permissions can put these resources tantalizingly out of reach. Hence the question.
In fact this discussion neatly matches one of the themes emerging from my recently completed fieldwork (yey!). I have discovered that one of the most significant issues facing any exploration of digital technologies (or in fact music) in a composing context (for the students in my study at least) is translating, converting, adapting, transposing or moving ideas between different locations be they spatial, temporal or modal. I think this is a critical issue which may get lost amongst the flotsam and jetsom of educhatter; perhaps because it is part of composing processes but not in a ‘frequently mentioned aspects of established models of creativity’ sort of way?
So, unapologetically jumping back to conversion resources, I would like to offer the following as my current ‘navigators toolbox’ that helps me get from A to B with as few casualties as possible. Some really obvious, some not so much.
Quickstart (converting to digital):
- Google – if in doubt….(preview the new version by doing this NB make sure you start at google.com and not .co.uk)
- Google reader – Allows me to view RSS feeds from websites I visit often without all the clicking and waiting.
- Google calendar – Keeps me sane
- Google tasks – the last of my silver bullets. I save so much paper by writing my lists here.
- Bonus Google…Picasa – My quick picture converter
Firefox section (converting from and on ‘the web’):
- Zotero – database plugin that allows me to bookmark articles, web pages and notes
- Download helper – download plugin that helps me to download video content (yes it does do YouTube)
- Speeddial – another plugin that gives me 25 (number is set in preferences) web pages on my homepage meaning I can go quickly where I want to go.
- Greasemonkey – plugin that makes the handling of RSS feeds quicker and easier
- Remember to try right click (even on a mac)!
Web authoring (converting my thoughts into something visible to others):
- Filezilla – Allows me to upload and download quickly and easily
- Wordpress – Great blogging tool. Easy to set up and use.
- Drupal – My favourite CMS…can’t wait for version 7
- Stockxchng – my number 1 source for pictures
- Feedburner – OK maybe I coudl have put this in the Google category. Still I use feedburner on my website to convert my Google reader RSS feed into something I can put nicely on my website.
Social (converting my office):
- Facebook: – helps me to feel like I’m not alone at home working when in actual fact I am at home alone working
- Twitter: – Just getting into it. I need to learn to say things more succinctly
- Twine – I use this via an RSS feed in google reader but often come across interesting things here.
Audio editing and notation (Converting my music):
- Logic – Yes sorry this one costs money and I know it’s a sequencer but at the moment I am using it for everything. A free alternative is of course Audacity for Mac, PC and Linux. NOTE: You need to install the lame encoder to export mp3s
- I have also used wavelab (not free) for mastering as this is what was available at the time. Pretty easy to pick up and some killer plugins available.
- Audio CD ripper – I use iTunes
- Audio CD burner – I use iTunes
- Magic ISO – burn and manage CDs DVDs and disk images
- Notation – Sibelius – Sorry another one that costs money but very good. Transferring MIDI between logic and Sibelius is possible through MIDI file export/import. Transferring BETWEEN versions of Sibelius is also possible in reverse – newer to older – via MIDI file (although a complete pain because you may loose all of the formatting).
- MIDI to text – converts MIDI files to a list of text data that can be imported into a spreadsheet or word processor.
- Switch – audio converter for quick jobs
Printing (Converting to paper – or not)
- Printconductor – batch print your files without having to open.
- Primo pdf – not a problem for mac users but on a PC it’s really useful.
- Pdf to image – converts pdf files to jpeg files.
Video tools (converting my movies):
- Video screen recorder – camtasia – £60 but good. Debut is a free option for PC.
- Video editor – I am using imovie at the moment (Mac) but have used moviemaker (PC) and Adobe Premier which is stunning but not very cheap. I have used all three programs at some stage to convert video (VHS) and DV tapes to digital format along with a nice little gadget that converts from composite to USB. See also videopad.
- Any video converter free – converts video from one format into another. Pro version give you more options. Also allows batch conversion. See also Prism AVI
- Klcodec – seriously helps with video playback. Basically a big set of codecs in one fell swoop.
- FFDshow - allows you to choose which codec you use to playback you video files. Great when you need to trick your computer into allowing you to play almost any kind of video.
Between computers (Converting from Mac to PC to Linux – the ultimate inconvenience):
- Parallels desktop: – stunning timesaver . I can now jump between XP, windows 7, Ubuntu and OSX 10.6 without logging off or on. I can also try out programs without fear of corrupting my whole system. If it hangs I just make a new copy of an image file. NB you still have to buy all of the operating systems you install (if they are not free & legal downloads)
- Remote desktop: simple, straight to the point, built into windows and for mac it’s here
Others (converting between my disorganized and overloaded office and a haven of peace, tranquility and paper free space – well almost):
- Endnote – My reference database lifeline.
- A bit more technical – R-Studio – from a broken hard disk and further hair loss to the promised land. Costs…but less than paying someone to do it for you.
- Stylewriter – helpful program that helps me convert my bad writing into something that can be understood by others (plugin available for word).
- Mac3Tag – mp3 tag editor that’s Java based, simple and straight to the point (Convert to digital and be organized at the same time). See tagscanner for something more powerful & complex
- Driveimage – converts my disks to an image for backup
Can’t find what your looking for? Try here:
Hope some of this is useful to you.This is how I do it anyway.
Please feel free to post an comment and share any utilities or programs you find useful for converting
Topics: Classroom, General, Links, Resources, Tips | No Comments »
Logical shortcuts!
By Phil | December 16, 2009
A little while ago you may remember that I posted about editors keys – these are stickers that go on your keyboard to remind you of the shortcut keys for various software programs. The beauty of this system is that it is VASTLY less expensive than buying the custom keyboards that are available (also come in Sibelius, Pro tools, Finale, Reason, Samplitude, Serato, Sonar, Cubase Ableton and Soundforge flavours) I have just been upgrading my home system and so the time came for me to get a new set. In the process of buying.
I also came across these covers that fit neatly onto my mac and also this image that you can set as your desktop background (original file here) and this great set of pdf files that contain the complete set of key commands here. Both the image and the pdfs are FREE.
I can honestly say that the sticker set is the best £10 I have ever spent when I consider how much time I have saved due to increased productivity. Please note I am NOT on commission, I just think they may help!
Enjoy!
Topics: General | No Comments »
Quick note: time critical!
By Phil | December 10, 2009
Following an inset I ran a couple of weeks ago Charles kindly told me that the latest edition of computer music has “an extensive article on mobile music looking at apps for various types of hand held devices. It’s very useful and expands on some of the apps we covered as well as looking at some others for Nintendo, PSP, Ipod etc”.
For those in the UK that can get hold of this then it may well be worth a look. If you are an international visitor then keep a lookout on the computer music website (http://www.computermusic.co.uk/) and I will try to pass on any useful bits when I get my hands on a copy.
Topics: General | No Comments »
A different culture!
By Phil | November 25, 2009
And also not so different!
Topics: General | No Comments »
How good are your sounds?
By Phil | November 23, 2009
A while ago I came across this video and stored it away as I thought it would come in useful at some point. At the time I thought it was pretty neat but not much more…
I revisited this by chance the other day after running a seminar on using new technologies for music teaching at key stage 3 (11-14). What struck me this time was that even with next to no resources you can create something fresh and vibrant (admittedly this was probably a reaction to what seems to be a recurrent discussion of the quality of electronic sounds sometimes available in school).
I often hear comments on the poor quality of sounds available to students using technologies in school from teaching sources (although not from the enthusiastic group of teachers I was fortunate to meet with on Tuesday). As well as this there are several articles around (admittedly quite dated now) that suggest that what technology makes available is less than acceptable.
I should make it clear at this point that I am not concerned with what is possible but what actually happens in many UK schools. Of course there are superb resources available that some schools are fortunate to have and which come at a price. But what about the teacher who has saved up their precious department budget for those 4 PCs that are now running Cakegic*, Cubageband* or perhaps free tools (for a good collection with descriptions see http://freemusicsoftware.org/, musescore, Mixxx, Audacity, trakAx and see also Dr Pisano’s page of freebies)?
Well, I can accept that some soundcards may come with a less than realistic collection of sounds. Also, I concede that some of the sound synthesis resources that will be available in many music departments may be less than what you would like. BUT…this can become a way of unleashing creativity rather than stifling it.
I remember that back in the 80s when FM synthesis was the norm and samples were a thing for the professional studio…good artists used the FM sounds to create new soundscapes. Great ones made new worlds (In a conversation last week I was reminded of the Bladerunner soundtrack – must take a listen again!). If we posture in our ideas about what constitutes ‘good’ and ‘poor’ quality sounds is there a danger that we miss the freshness of what is possible in the pursuit of ‘virtual’. Why synthesize a piano when you have a real one sat in the middle of the room? Why not synthesize a synthesizer?
(*=don’t really exist)
Topics: Classroom, Comments, Musings, Resources | No Comments »
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