Follow me on Twitch!

I’ve been experimenting with live video over the past weeks. I went live on Facebook with David MacDonald last Sunday to talk about tech we are using to teach music. This past Saturday I went on Twitch and tried to build an automation that would automatically log me into my virtual classes and open the apps I need to teach. The video is up on my Twitch, YouTube, and Facebook pages.

Join me for this fun experiment! Follow me on Twitch, YouTube, and Facebook using the links below to tune in to future live sessions.

"Rehearse Your Ensembles Remotely!" at the MMEA Inservice Conference this Saturday, March 5

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If you are a NAfME or MMEA member, please join Maryland at our Inservice Conference this weekend. I will be presenting a session titled Rehearse Your Ensembles Remotely! on Saturday, March 6 at 5:45 pm.

Here is the session description:

Learn the strategies and technologies to run engaging synchronous rehearsals. Engage students visually and speed up your flow using Open Broadcasting Software. Pump the sound video/music/play-along tracks directly through Zoom or Google Meet for a lag-free experience. Explore play along with resources, student reflection with Google Docs, effective camera/mic practices, and have students working collaboratively in synchronous chamber ensembles with Soundtrap! Software discussed includes: Keynote, Google Slides, Loopback, Soundsource, Farrago, AnyTune, Soundtrap, Smartmusic!

🎙 METT Episode #26 - Featuring Katie Wardrobe

Technology trainer and speaker, Katie Wardrobe, joins the show to talk about producing technology training and resources for music teachers. (And way more)

Topics include:

  • Katie's exceptional website: Midnight Music
  • Free vs. paid software
  • Teaching facing / student facing software
  • M1 and Intel Macs
  • Tools Katie uses to make content
  • Canva
  • File Management on iPad
  • Podcasting
  • Managing big projects
  • Our recent favorite tech tips, albums, and apps

Show Notes:

Katie's Home Screen

Robby's Homescreen

App of the Week:
Robby - CalZones
Katie - DaVinci Resolve

Album of the Week:
Robby - Tye Tribbett Apple Music Essentials Playlist
Katie - The Arcadian Wild | Cory Wong & Metropole Orkest

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

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

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🎬 Develop Performance Skills Remotely with Cloud Software

I have been meaning to write about "what I have been doing for online learning" since the fall.

This has proven difficult for many reasons, mostly that there is a lot I have been doing and it is all interconnected.

Generally, my planning and technology use has fallen into two categories.

  1. Tech that supports synchronous classes (via Zoom/Google Meet/etc.)

  2. Tech that supports the asynchronous work (via LMS, cloud-based and student-facing software, etc.)

Fortunately, I was invited to present at two music conferences this year, MMEA and TMEA, and each of my accepted sessions has serendipitously aligned with each of those areas.

This presentation in the video above is an overview of the asynchronous part. In other words, how I am keeping my virtual instruction focused on playing instruments solo, through student-facing tools like Noteflight, Soundtrap, Flipgrid, and a handful of iOS utility apps.

These strategies were developed while I was teaching virtually but they can just as easily be used in a hybrid or in-person teaching model. I would argue that they are just as valuable in either of those environments.

This presentation was first given at TMEA on Saturday, February 14th, 2021.

You can view the notes to this session here.

Tech Tips for Musicians and Teachers, with David MacDonald - (Facebook Live, February 21 at 5 pm EST)

I will be going on Facebook Live with composer David MacDonald on Sunday at 5 pm EST. We are going to be discussing tech that we have recently been using in our respective music teaching jobs.

Follow me on Facebook and tune in here.

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🎬 My Virtual Winter Band Concert 2021

Watch my "How to Make a Virtual Ensemble" video here.

At the end of last spring I posted three virtual ensemble videos of my Ellicott Mills Middle School students performing concert literature we would have otherwise played on a concert.

While concert literature has had a very diminished role in my teaching this school year, my students found playing this music on our Google Meets (on mute) very engaging.

Our ensembles chose to record one piece each and I edited them into the following two videos. I am very proud of their hard work this year. A majority of the students in these ensembles have only had a year or two of in-person instruction.

Credit to my amazing colleague, Nicole Sobel, who taught all of the woodwinds last semester. Usually, I teach the Concert Band and she teaches the Symphonic Band, but due to some scheduling changes to this school year, we thought it would be best for these ensembles to be broken up by instrument instead.

If you want to learn how I make these, watch the video below…

🎬 The fastest way to get music into forScore (A demo of iPad multitasking and the Files app integration with cloud services)

Sometimes I get asked the fastest way to import music into forScore on iPad. Most of my colleagues store their music in Dropbox or Google Drive so I made a video showing off how you can drag PDFs directly from one of these services into forScore by using the Files app and forScore in split-view.

Develop Performance Skills Remotely with Cloud Software (Session Notes) - TMEA 2021 | Saturday, February 13

Are you coming to my TMEA session, Develop Performance Skills Remotely with Cloud Software today? It starts at 3 pm! Here are the session notes which include links to all of the software mentioned in the presentation.

About Robby Burns

Website - robbyburns.com

Blog - Music Ed Tech Talk (musicedtechtalk.com)

Subscribe to the Music Ed Tech Talk podcast - Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS

Subscribe to my email newsletter

Buy my book - Digital Organization Tips for Music Teachers

Buy my Scale Play Along Tracks

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🎬 Tech Tips You Can Use Tomorrow

Below you can watch Tech Tips You Can Use Tomorrow, a round table of authors from the Prestissimo Series of music technology books by Oxford University Press. This presentation was given at the Texas Music Educators Association this past Wednesday.

The idea behind this video is that, like our books, you will be able to quickly spend a moment with it and take away at least one thing you could use technology for in your job tomorrow.

****You can currently use coupon code TIMEORG20 for a 20% discount off the books (including mine) at the web site (https://bit.ly/3p5HndG)

The panel was hosted my Richard McCready who you can hear more from on this recent episode of my podcast.