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Robby Burns
David MacDonald unboxes the Odla music notation ...
David MacDonald unboxes the Odla music notation controller

3 Things I Started Doing with My Band Class During COVID That I Will Do Every Year From Now On

It seems plausible that some people subscribe to this blog and do not follow me on Twitter, so allow me to expand this recent Tweet thread into a lazy blog post.

Thread: a few things I am doing in my band teaching this year, that I previously didn't have the time or resources to organize, but COVID forced my hand. (I will definitely be doing each of these every school year from now on)...

A chart designed by my colleague Ben Denne. By thinking critically about music that will challenge, but not overwhelm them, students pick their select their own, grade appropriate, solo music.

A chart designed by my colleague Ben Denne. By thinking critically about music that will challenge, but not overwhelm them, students pick their select their own, grade appropriate, solo music.

  1. Solo prep: by asking colleagues for rep ideas across all instruments, I created a resource in my LMS that guides students through a process of selecting appropriate solo rep for our district Festival and then registering for it. Student enrollment is up over 300 percent this year.

  2. Composition: students LOVE writing short themes and ostinato patterns in Noteflight After recording their comps, they will make unique band arrangements out of each other’s recordings in Soundtrap by dragging them on top of one another and splicing/editing them, like loops. Inspiration for this idea and supporting materials provided by Alex Shapiro and can be found here.

  3. Recording: having my students record video performances is not new. But having them record in a DAW, with respect to measure number, beat placement, and a metronome has been huge for our understanding of rhythm and form. Also it requires them to practice way more.

And then there are 100 new things I can do in my general music class simply by having access to a notation editor and DAW. I don't have enough time to detail them now but here is one example:

As much fun as I have grinding in Final Cut Pro, I do NOT see virtual band videos becoming a thing beyond this school year. It was fun while it lasted. Here's last year's WW Quintet:

Are any of these ideas worth writing about in more detail? Let me know on social media or by heading over to my Contact page.

DMV Percussion Academy - Find your rhythm at the best percussion workshop around!

Thanks to my sponsor this week, DMV Percussion Academy, a summer percussion workshop in Maryland.

The workshop is for students grade 6 through 12. Students experience clinics, masterclasses, personal coaching, and college/career advice by the region’s top performers and educators. Students will also present a percussion ensemble concert at the end of the year.

The clinician list is full of local and national all-stars! Be sure to check it out and follow the program on social media @DMVPercussion

“Find your rhythm at the best percussion workshop around! We hit different!”
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🎙 forScore for the Mac, featuring David MacDonald (Music Ed Tech Talk #31)

Robby and David talk about forScore for the Mac and its new syncing feature. But also, lots of music theory.

Also included:

  • Loop-based music theory

  • GoodNotes for the Mac

  • Transcribe Apps

  • Lots of music apps and utility apps

  • Tech podcasts we like

  • Music YouTubers we like

  • Our favorite music, tech tips, and albums of the week

Show Notes:

App of the Week: 

Robby - Soro for Sonos
David MacDonald - Diagrams

Album of the Week:

Robby - Lettuce - Elevate
David MacDonald - Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society - Brooklyn Babylon 

Where to Find Us:

Robby - Twitter | Blog | Book
David MacDonald - Twitter | Website

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

Subscribe to Music Ed Tech Talk:

Subscribe to the Blog

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

➡️ Develop Performance Skills With Cloud Software

*The following post first appeared on the NAfME Blog on April 19th, 2021.

Over the past year of remote and hybrid instruction, teachers have reimagined the tools, assignments, and methods that best engage their students. The need to engage my band students from a distance has challenged me to depend on cloud-based tools that still foster the development of their performance skills. The features of these cloud tools allow me to engage students in new ways by introducing interactive projects, collaboration with peers, and automated grading.

The ideas below will be featured in my presentation at the NAfME Eastern Division Conference this weekend. Register here to join me and the many exceptional presenters who will be sharing their ideas.

What is Cloud Software

Cloud software is a buzzword in the technology industry that is used to describe apps that run in a web browser. Examples of cloud-based music software include BandLab, Soundtrap, Noteflight, MusicFirst, and Flat for Education, to name a few. Because these offerings are web-based, they can run on nearly any computer with a web browser, as long as you have an internet connection. For this reason, they are more widely accessible to all students and can be integrated into an LMS (learning management software) like Canvas, Blackboard, and Google Classroom.

Here are some practical ideas for assignments in a performing ensemble using cloud software.

Noteflight

Noteflight is a music notation tool that runs on the web. In recent years, Noteflight has expanded to offer Noteflight Learn, which allows teachers to take Noteflight content and assign it to students in their class, much like an LMS. In the past year, Noteflight has added a feature called SoundCheck which can take these assigned Noteflight scores, and assess student performance for note/rhythm/pitch accuracy.

The line beneath the staff represents the pitch and note accuracy of the performance.

Students can play these scores, practice to them at any speed, and loop tricky sections. When they are done recording themselves, Noteflight provides an accuracy score and a line beneath the notes which indicates pitch and note inaccuracies by the counter and color of the line.

Changing the tempo in SoundCheck

You can make any Noteflight score into a Soundcheck-enabled assignment. If the score is linked to an assignment in your LMS, the student score will automatically go into your grade book. Because computers are not perfect, I prefer to go back and listen to my students who don't receive good scores on assignments, to make sure I agree with the automatic grade.

Generally, is better at assessing note accuracy than pitch, so I tend to use SoundCheck as a first step to ensuring students are prepared for their music. Finer qualities in the music like tone and articulation are best left to video assessments with more comprehensive rubrics.

Getting Existing Music Into Soundcheck

If you have music that outside of Noteflight that you want to turn into an assessment, some apps can help. I use an app called Sheet Music Scanner on my iPad to take pictures of paper sheet music and turn them into XML files. XML is a file format that can pass notation projects from one notation editor to another. Once the XML version is saved to my device, I can import it into Noteflight and then assign it to my students.

Notation editors like Sibelius and Dorico can export to XML. If you have already created a score in a professional editor, it is easy to turn into an assignment.

Sheet Music Scanner can take sheet music and turn it into an XML or audio file.

Sheet Music Scanner files can be played back, tempo adjusted, and exported to a variety of useful file formats.

Flipgrid

If your LMS does not have a video recording feature built-in, you might want to check out Flipgrid. My LMS has a video feature, and I still use Flipgrid because it makes video recording whimsical and fun. The Flipgrid interface puts an active circle around your face when you have submitted a recent video (like an Instagram story). Students can add filters, emoji, text, and other effects to their final videos. Students can watch each other's videos, and leave video responses. It is like a mini social network for your class, with lots of control over the privacy settings.

Flipgrid also integrates into LMS software, so you can use it as an alternative to the basic video recorder if you wish.

Flipgrid videos can feature engaging effects, emoji, and filters. Student submissions appear with a colorful ring around their face like an Instagram story.

Soundtrap

Soundtrap is a web-based DAW (digital audio workstation). I have heard it described as "if Google Docs and GarageBand had a baby." This is because it looks and functions like GarageBand, but runs on the web. Like Google's apps, it is also collaborative. This means that you can have two or more students editing the same project at the same time while discussing their progress in a chat.

Soundtrap is great for producing beats, songwriting, and all of the things you would expect to do with access to limitless software instruments, samples, and pre-made loops. But what I use it for in the band room is to teach chamber music.

If I have a flute trio, for example, I can provide the music to my students and then invite them all to a Soundtrap project. Each student can create their audio track and record their part to the metronome. They can all be doing this simultaneously. Once they click save, they can play it back and hear what they sound like alongside one another in a somewhat real-time experience.

This template provides students with a play-along track, and a separate track for each part. The pre-recorded tracks were performed by a high schooler to model notes/rhythms/tone for my students. The reference tracks can be independently toggled on and off. Before saving, my students toggle everything off except their own performances.

A fun alternative to this is to give a small ensemble piece to a single student and have them overdub themselves playing each part. This can help them to better understand how the varying parts fit together and complement one another. In cases like this, I have reached out to the local high school and asked for student volunteers to play all of the parts to a metronome. I then take all of the high schooler's recordings and add them as tracks in a Soundtrap template so that my students can toggle each part on and off for reference while they are recording.

You can see an example of this around the 20-minute mark in the video below.

Conclusion

These cloud-based assignments empower all students to participate in engaged music-making, alone and in groups. Nailing down the accuracy with a metronome will do wonders for their sense of timing and internal pulse. With recording assignments in Noteflight and Soundtrap, my students will do numerous takes until they get it just right! I cannot speak highly enough of these tools, and I certainly plan to use the assignment ideas above even when we return to a fully in-person learning environment.

If a video of this process is more your speed, you can watch how some of it works below. I also have a podcast version of this post available here.

🎬 Creating a Song Remix Project for Your Music Class using Soundtrap and Neural Mix Pro

UPDATE: I talk about this project on the latest episode of my podcast, as well as two other Soundtrap project ideas. Listen and subscribe below.

Last week I mused on Twitter about the subject of teaching harmony to middle school students.

In the opening Tweet of that thread, I shared a project idea for my middle school General Music II class and provided a sample of student work. Be sure to read the whole thread for more context.

Here is a brief description of how I set that up.

If I don’t have the track, I use Downie or ViDL to download it from YouTube as an mp3.

For the vocal track, I am using Neural Mix Pro, which allows you to import any song and separate the voice, drums, and other accompaniment parts separately from one another. The results aren’t perfect, but they are beyond acceptable for a project like this.

Neural Mix Pro.

Neural Mix Pro.

Once I turn down the drums/accompaniment, I export the resulting sound as a new file on my computer. On export, Neural Mix will tell you the key and BPM of the exported track. If the song is something awkward like 83.6 BPM, you can tell it to export at something sane like, 84 BPM and Neural Mix will adjust the final file accordingly.

Neural Mix isn’t cheap. It’s 50 dollars. But it does the job quickly and reliably while offering the user good control over the results. If you do not have access to something like this, there are tons of places you can find isolated vocal stems, like for example, the reddit community r/IsolatedVocals

In Soundtrap, I set the project up using my district’s LMS, Canvas. If you are using an LMS, you should be able to create an assignment and have it link out to Soundtrap as an “external tool.” If you can do this, you can create a template in Soundtrap that will already be set up for your students when they click the link.

CleanShot 2021-04-18 at 12.44.39@2x.png

When I set up this template, I set the project’s key and tempo to match that of my exported file from Neural Mix. I drag the vocal-only track I exported from Neural Mix from my desktop into Soundtrap and it automatically makes a new audio track for me. Once the vocal track is imported, I have to slide it around left and right until the first measure of the song lands precisely on beat one. If the vocal part has an introduction or pickup note, you will need to consider that and make sure to tell your students that the loop accompaniment starts on a different measure than one.

Set your project key and tempo to match the song.

Set your project key and tempo to match the song.

Once this is set up correctly, save the results. When choosing Soundtrap as the external tool for your LMS assignment, a mini Soundtrap shows up within your LMS (or at least it does in Canvas), and you can navigate to your pre-made template. Having the tempo and key preset for them ensures that the loops all sound mostly decent. It is still possible to wreak chaos, but it is enough structure that some of the loops will end up sounding pleasant.

There is a video at the top of this post covering everything I just explained. Hope it helps.

➡️ Apps to Help with Time Management and Planning (NAfME Blog)

This blog post originally appeared on the blog for the National Association for Music Educators (nafme.org) on April 6, 2021.

In "Digital Organization Tools for Music Educators," I detailed apps that can help you plan large goals, turn them into actionable projects, and reflect on your progress.

Next, I'd like to talk about apps to help you manage your time and save your ideas digitally.

Put Only Hard Commitments in Your Calendar

Managing your time is a key part of being a music educator. Sometimes it feels like we have more responsibilities than there is actually time in the day to complete.

In "Digital Organization Tools for Music Educators," I recommend apps to help you wrangle your to-do list. Now I would like to recommend some apps and tips for managing the events on your calendar.

If your calendar needs are simple, I recommend you go no further than Google. It runs entirely in a web browser but can also be used in combination with your calendar app of choice. My music team uses a Google Calendar to publish all of our classes, sectionals, concerts, and events. This allows us to edit this data right from our calendar apps on our phones and computers, while also publishing them to a website for parents to view.

Google CalendarGoogle Calendar works perfectly fine for most needs. It is available to anyone for free on the web and has a functional mobile app on most smartphone platforms.

Microsoft Outlook and the Apple Calendars, despite being created by big tech companies, are actually capable of showing you a calendar from any service (Google included). My personal calendars are in iCloud, and our school uses Exchange. I can log into my iCloud, Google, and Exchange calendars all from within the same app to see everything I am committed to.

Apple calendarApple Calendar and Microsoft Outlook are two of the most widely used calendar apps on desktop and mobile operating systems. Either of them can handle calendars from Google, iCloud, or Exchange accounts and show them all alongside one another.

daily tasks

Tip!—Avoid putting tasks in your calendar. Tasks have due dates, but they rarely need to be worked on at a specific time. I find that putting tasks in my calendar adds lots of noise and I eventually just end up ignoring all of it. If you want to stay sane, put only time-based appointments on your calendar. You can make an appointment with yourself to tackle a big task, but try to avoid putting things like "print concert programs" and "design seating chart" alongside events with concrete start and end times.

If you want more power out of your calendars, I recommend you check out Fantastical. (Currently iOS and Mac only. Android users can check out SolCalendar). Here are my favorite features:

natural languageNatural language input is not only fast, but you can set a keyboard shortcut on your computer to invoke a mini-calendar for quickly adding events.

  • Natural language input: Typing "Choir Rehearsal tomorrow at 7 pm @2032 Beaverton Road /Work" will add an event called Choir Rehearsal to your calendar at the designated time and location. The "/Work" will put on the "Work" calendar.
  • Calendar Sets: I subscribe to my school and school district's master calendar to better plan after-school rehearsals, concerts, and space use. I subscribe to these calendars in Fantastical, but I have them toggled off by default. I created a Calendar Set called "All" that turns on the chaos and shows me every single calendar I have at once. Many things overlap, but it enables me to be informed as I plan without needing to visit my district's website.
  • Conference Call Detection: Fantastical also has built-in Zoom and Google Meet integration. If it detects a meeting URL in the calendar event, it adds a one-touch button to the event which will launch you right into the meeting. calendar zoom link to help time managementThis event was shared with me and has a Zoom call URL associated with it. Fantastical automatically added the Zoom icon so that I can click on it to immediately enter the call. FantasticalFantastical integrates with all of these services.

A handful of Fantastical's features are free, and some of the more advanced features are paid.

Other great calendar apps:

Quickly Clip Ideas from Everywhere

There is much to say about note apps. The one feature I see least utilized by busy teachers is the clipper. A clipper is a tool that runs in the Share Sheet of your phone or as a web extension. Clippers are perfect for "saving it for later." A good one can handle mixed media including photos, websites, emails, text notes, files, and more. Here are my favorite apps that have easy ways to capture data for later:

  • Evernote: Known for being cross-platform and having a free tier. Its web extension can grab almost anything from the web and clip it to your notebook in a neatly formatted article view that is text searchable. EvernoteThe Evernote web clipper can be installed as an extension or from the share-sheet on mobile devices. You can choose how it will save the content, and even categorize it with tags and a memo before clipping.

  • Microsoft OneNote: Similar features to Evernote. It's free if your district has Office 365. Plays nice with the rest of the Office Suite.

  • Apple Notes: Apple Notes has caught up with most of the major features of competing note apps. From almost anywhere on an iOS or Mac device, press the Share button to save something to Apple Notes. Almost any type of media can be clipped.
  • Drafts: Drafts is text-only, but I prefer it for my note-taking because I can capture quickly and then easily send the text out to other apps once I have decided where it belongs.

  • Google Keep: Leverages all smart AI features and integration with Google Services that you would expect. Google KeepGoogle Keep is simple, but it provides plenty of features. Notes can be turned into reminders, Google Docs, or shared with others.

  • Instapaper: Primarily for saving web content like news articles. It strips out the ads, buttons, and other chrome, so you get an experience less like reading a website and more like reading a newspaper.

Of these apps, Evernote is most able to handle whatever kind of data you throw at it. Because it's available on the web, it's easy to share your data with others and even get your data out and into another app, if you choose to.

Instapaper snipping tool

Before and after a website has been parsed by Instapaper's clipper.

Tip!—In the same way I try to avoid putting tasks on my calendar, I also try to avoid clipping things I want to check out later to my to-do list. It clutters things up. I put only actionable tasks on my task list. If it doesn't have a verb ("email Jacklyn choir rosters for 2021–22," "tune the bass drum," "draft grant proposal"), save it to a note instead.

no clippings or to-do lists

🎙Apps for Research and Remembering, with David MacDonald

Composer and teacher, David MacDonald, returns for a discussion about the apps we use for notes, research, writing, and clipping data to find later.

Other topics:

  • What kinds of work goes in which kinds of apps
  • Digital research tools
  • Kindle Paperwhite
  • Streaming / virtual teaching tools
  • Music theory YouTubers
  • Zooming in to your Mac screen
  • Quickly taking a screenshot with the Apple Pencil
  • Our favorite music and apps of the week

Show Notes:

App of the Week: Robby - Stream Deck Mobile App David MacDonald - Reincubate Camo & FiLMiC Pro

Album of the Week: Robby - Owane | Yolo EP Vol. 1 David MacDonald - Scary Pockets YouTube channel

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

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

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Subscribe to the Podcast in...

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🎙Music Ed Tech Talk Episode #29 - Develop Performance Skills with Cloud Software

🎙 METT Episode #28 - Rehearse Your Ensembles Remotely

Robby explains the software, hardware, and teaching strategies he uses to run engaging and effective music rehearsals in a remote or hybrid environment.

This information was presented earlier this month at the Maryland Music Educators Association conference. The notes and links below are from the session notes of that presentation.

Learn More From Me About Technology

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 here

Buy my book, Digital Organization Tips for Music Teachers, here

Buy my Scale Play Along Tracks here

Abstract

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!

Broadcasting Software

Audio Routing

Making Play Along Tracks

Visual Presentation

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Subscribe to the Podcast in...
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🎙 Music Ed Tech Talk #27 - Catching Up With Shawna Longo, with Shawna Longo

Shawna Longo joins the show to talk about our hybrid teaching gear, social emotional learning, cloud-based music tools, and our favorite apps/albums/tech tips of the week.

Topics include:

  • COVID hybrid teaching strategies
  • Teaching hardware (on a cart!)
  • Teaching performance virtually
  • social emotional learning
  • music tools in the cloud
  • the Canvas mastery grade book

Show Notes:

Tech Tips of the Week:
Robby - Command+K (or Control+K) will create a hyperlink
Shawna - Mute All for Google Meet | Use AirPod mic as input in Google Meet

App of the Week:
Robby - TIDAL Shawna - Scannable

Album of the Week:
Robby - Future Nostalgia - Dua Lipa Shawna - Happiness Begins - The Jonas Brothers

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

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

Subscribe to Music Ed Tech Talk:

Subscribe to the Blog

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

Find Robby elsewhere on the web