Had no idea that METT guest, Ethan Hein, had written this cool page for Ableton's website. It is worth checking out.
Many producers struggle with music theory. In this module, we make concepts like chords and scales intuitive using the MIDI keyboard, Push, and Live’s MIDI devices.
I use the app Dice by PCalc to simulate the rolling of various dice while playing tabletop and role playing games. It is good fun, but not something I have used in the classroom. Ehler has the very cool idea of using it for assigning scales. You could use these similarly for any kind of classroom need where you have to randomize an order of something (and make it fun).
You can check out the app here and read Ehler's post below, which includes a link to download the scale dice into the Dice app.
Scale Dice by Way of Dice by PCalc – Ehler
I’ve known many directors over time to use “scale dice” to help students practice their major scales with an element of randomness. In Iowa, this is a useful preparation for All-State auditions, but it can be a handy thing to do in sectionals and small-group lessons too. Dice by PCalc has support for custom dice, and these wind up looking great.
Currently, the app supports six distinct dice designs on screen at a time (so it would be easy and practical to have six different students at once get assigned a scale with a single roll)
You can configure these dice yourself, but I’ll save you the work by sharing my “custom dice” export here.
Ever since NPR started putting these playlists on Apple Music and Spotify, I haven't been compiling them. I guess there was some value in that process, because I almost forgot to check out the list this year!
Read more, and find music streaming links below.
The 50 Best Albums Of 2022 (50-41) : NPR
A year like this one makes hand-wringing about the death of the album seem silly (if anything we should be concerned about the single). Musicians gave us experiences in 2022. Immersive, ambitious, focused, sprawling, explosive, swerving albums expressed their power in any number of ways: Vibes to make summer stretch on into the year's cold months. Bottomless layers of invention. History lessons that sparkled like the best party you could imagine. There were too many great albums to count, let alone narrow down to a round number. But here are 50 that made us feel awe, ache or adoration, selected and ranked by the contributors, public radio partners and staff of NPR Music. (Oh, and we also ranked the 100 Best Songs of 2022.)
I do a lot of automation. I have always felt like the tools for automating basic computer productivity are more vast and varied than those for the more advanced creative professional software.
Pro Tools has a new update, and while I have not used it in many years, I took note of this particular addition, which will allow third parties to create their own scripting tools, which could improve and streamline cumbersome workflows in the DAW.
It would be very cool to see some other DAWs do something like this. I wonder, often, why Logic Pro and Final Cut Pro do not have any support for Shortcuts, Apple's new and cross-platform system for automation. Shortcuts has eliminated countless hours of work and stress from my email, calendar, writing, and task workflows. Why should their creative pro software be any different?
What's New in Pro Tools - Avid Technology:
Scripting SDK
The Pro Tools 2022.12 software release includes support for a new Scripting SDK (software development kit) that enables high-end facilities and application developers for scripting Pro Tools to help automate repetitive tasks and create whole new workflows. This new free Pro Tools Scripting SDK provides developers with everything they need to get up and running.
Frequent Music Ed Tech Talk guest and pal David MacDonald was recently on my Holiday Gift Guide episode of the show and mentioned the book Critique Is Creative, a book about Liz Lerman's Critical Response Process.
From the book's description page:
Devised by choreographer Liz Lerman in 1990, Critical Response Process® (CRP) is an internationally recognized method for giving and getting feedback on creative works in progress. In this first in-depth study of CRP, Lerman and her long-term collaborator John Borstel describe in detail the four-step process, its origins and principles. The book also includes essays on CRP from a wide range of contributors. With insight, ingenuity, and the occasional challenge, these practitioners shed light on the applications and variations of CRP in the contexts of art, education, and community life. Critique Is Creative examines the challenges we face in an era of reckoning and how CRP can aid in change-making of various kinds.
David and I got to talk about this process when he recently visited me while presenting on this very subject at the Teaching Composition Symposium at UMBC.
I really liked the idea of a methodical approach to providing more empathetic and consistent feedback to students, with detachment from emotion and ego. I picked up a copy and am eagerly reading for ideas I can integrate into my own teaching practices.
I encourage you to read David's blog post about the book which includes the text of his presentation.
This is the text of a presentation I gave at the inaugural Teaching Composition Symposium at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County on 21 October 2022. I’m told presentations were video-recorded, so I’ll update this post later with that recording.
I’m sure you’ve had the experience of getting feedback on a composition that was well-meaning, but ultimately unhelpful. Even someone telling you how great your music was or how much they loved it is often frustrating because it’s hard to know what they heard that made them love it. Feedback that your music was mind-blowing and that your music was stomach-turning are equally unhelpful, because without more information, it’s impossible to learn something from this feedback.
In this presentation, I’ll talk about some of the common limitations of informal, unstructured feedback like this; and I’ll describe how I have used Liz Lerman’s Critical Response Process (CRP) to better support and motivate composers in my studio, and how you might implement it in yours.
In my previous experiences with critique sessions in studio classes, I found that the feedback offered usually said a lot more about the person offering it than it did about the music they were nominally responding to. Rather than suggesting how the composer might have written a work differently, this feedback often seems to answer the question “How would this piece have gone if I had written it, rather than you.” While I do think there should be space for composers to respectfully challenge one another’s creative intent, it is worth starting by identifying what that intent was to begin with. A better feedback system should assume that each composer in the room has a different set of musical goals and experiences.
MuseScore 4 has been released. This is exciting news, particularly for many of my students who need more composing power than a web app but are limited by the expensive costs of the professional options.
You can download MuseScore 4 for free here. I also recommend you read David MacDonald's Scoring Notes review by clicking the link below.
Long-awaited MuseScore 4 release brings major improvements to engraving and audio - Scoring Notes:
Today’s release of MuseScore 4 is a major update and quite possibly the most significant one in the open-source application’s history since the release of MuseScore 1.0 in 2011. It includes major improvements to the user interface, layout, engraving, and playback features.
MuseScore 4 is delivered via a hub which installs both the MuseScore scoring application and the orchestral plug-in Muse Sounds, The MuseScore application can be downloaded separately, as well.
Not coincidentally, this is also the first major version of of MuseScore to be released under the product leadership of Martin Keary (Tantacrul). Coming nearly two years after the last MuseScore update (3.6) and nearly four years after the release of MuseScore 3, Martin told Scoring Notes today that, “I’ve worked on a lot of complex creation software and this is the largest release I’ve ever put out,” including the launch of Paint 3D and a variety of PS3 games.
It is the best feeling to be invited on to a podcast that I already consider to be one of my favorites.
I was recently a guest on The Omni Show Podcast, a show dedicated to the OmniGroup’s award-winning products, many of which I have written about here (and also here).
I had so much fun talking with Andrew about using OmniFocus to manage my tasks, OmniGraffle to design ensemble seating charts, and OmniOutliner to outline everything (including lessons, curriculum, books, and presentations).
You can listen below and see a transcript of the entire conversation here:
If you like hearing me talk about OmniFocus, you can also catch me on Learn OmniFocus where I go into more detail about managing tasks:
I have so much admiration for anyone throwing all of their composing creativity into writing music for young musicians.
Ivan Trevino is doing just that with his new collection of pieces for young percussionists. Read more below. My favorite title in the collection is Cool Kids Play The Glockenspiel.
MUSIC FOR THE YOUNG PERCUSSIONIST – Ivan Trevino
MUSIC FOR THE YOUNG PERCUSSIONIST (2022) was commissioned by The Juilliard School for Juilliard’s Music Advancement Program. The collection features 12 short pieces for snare, mallets, timpani, and multi-aux, and was written with the early – late high school percussionist in mind. In my experience, the music that young musicians experience and study can have a profound impact on their relationship with music. Rather than writing these pieces as a step towards conservatory, I wrote them as a step towards enrichment, with hooks and beats that might resonate with young musicians. While each piece focuses on specific musical and technical concepts, they were also written through the lens of a songwriter who enjoys writing tunes. I hope this spirit rings true for performers of this music.
Some interesting changes coming to FileMaker, including a new name, and most notably, a freemium version!
I have talked at length about using FileMaker and relational databases to assess mastery-based learning in the band environment. Listen to the embedded podcast episode below for more.
I updated podcast listeners on how I am revamping this workflow and building it upon PKM software in another recent episode about building a second brain. I hope to go into more detail about this here later in the school year.
Read about the updates to FileMaker below.
Claris’s Plans for FileMaker Bode Well for Individual Users - TidBITS
The more important change for longtime individual FileMaker users is that there will be a freemium version of Claris Pro with free access to Claris Studio (and presumably Claris Go). Its only restriction is that databases created with the freemium version are restricted to a single user—but there are no size or time constraints. The apps are also free for professional developers, who will pay a single, as-yet-unspecified Claris Platform licensing fee only when they wish to deploy a solution to additional users. Since Claris is wholly owned by Apple, deployment could even mean putting an app on the Mac App Store. Those with existing licenses can continue to rely on them but won’t get access to Claris Studio without switching to a Claris Platform subscription.
Andy Bliss is a brilliant musician who knows how to use his tech tools to work through an idea. I loved this recent blog post of his. It is all about structuring practice methodically. Be sure to click the link and read the entire post. (He turned out a really neat MindNode mindmap in the process of thinking this idea through.)
Practicing Mindmap — Andy Bliss
Practicing is very much an iceberg-meme situation; much of the work is underwater and in preparation phases — before we are ever in the room with the instrument.
Fall always represents a return to this methodology for me. My primary goal with my first year university students is to establish practice habits - a healthy balance, great strategies, and supportive, compounding methods for growth.
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