Music Ed Tech Talk Episode #46 – Featuring Christopher Bill, from Classical Trombone

Christopher Bill joins the show to talk about the musicianship, hardware, software, and creative process behind his viral YouTube channel, Classical Trombone.

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Show Notes:

App of the Week

Robby – Keyboard Maestro

Christopher – Flic

Music of the Week

Robby – My Bluegrass Heart – Béla Fleck

Christopher – Don’t Lose Sight – Song by Lawrence | Dirty Loops – Rollercoaster | How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful – Florence and the Machine

Tech Tip of the Week

Robby – NFC stickers

Christopher – OVOU Business Card

Where to Find Us:

Robby – Twitter | Blog | Book

Christopher – Twitter) | Website | YouTube

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

The Music Ed Tech Talk Holiday Gift Guide, featuring Dr. David MacDonald

David MacDonald joins Robby to share their favorite books, hardware, apps, services, and musical gift ideas.

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Show Notes:

Books

Hardware

More Hardware

Software

Services

Misc

Music of the Week

Robby – Sarah Jarosz

David – Sister Rosetta Tharpe

Tech Tip of the Week

Robby – Focus Modes

David – CopyChar.cc

Where to Find Us:

Robby – Twitter | Blog | Book

David – Twitter | Website | Blog

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

METT Episode 44 – Rehearsal Tech

Check out the latest episode of Music Ed Tech Talk!

Dr. Peter Perry joins the show to talk about the software and hardware we use in rehearsals, his book Technology Tips for Ensemble Directors, and our recent favorite music, apps, and tech tips.

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Show Notes:

Music of the Week

Robby – Astor Piazzolla and Gary Burton – The New Tango

Peter – Tony Benett and Lady Gaga – Love for Sale)

App of the Week:

Robby – Craft

Peter – Izotope RX9

Where to Find Us:

Robby – Twitter | Blog | Book

Peter – Twitter | Website

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

🎙 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!

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🎙 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)

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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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🎙 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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METT Episode #23 – Rogue Amoeba Audio Apps, with Paul Kafasis

Paul Kafasis, CEO of Rogue Amoeba, joins Robby to talk about the stellar audio apps they make and how Robby is using them in the music classroom both before and during COVID.

Show Notes:

Rogue Amoeba Website: Macaudio.com

Robby’s Scale Exercise Play-Along Tracks
Stream Deck

Rogue Amoeba Apps:

Audio Hijack
Loopback
Sound Source
Piezo
Farrago
Fission
Airfoil
Ultimate Podcast Bundle
Educator Discount and Volume Pricing

My blog post on Audio Hijack
My blog post on Loopback

Mimeo Photos Extension for the Mac | Make premium printed photo projects right on your Mac

Acorn | Full Featured Photo Editor for the Mac

App of the Week:
Robby – Pixelmator Pro
Paul – Tot

Album of the Week:
Robby – Charlie XCX | How I’m Feeling Now
Paul – The Colour and the Shape | Foo Fighters

Where to Find Us:
Robby – Twitter | Blog | Book
Paul – Twitter | Website

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

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Introducing My “Scale Exercise Play-Along Tracks With Trap Beats” – Available Now on My New Online Store!

I am announcing a new section of this website. A STORE! Starting today, I will be selling digital products and services I have created for musicians and music teachers. Check it out here!

First up is a collection of Scale Exercise Play-Along Tracks with Trap Beats underneath them.

You bet there’s a promotional video.

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Here is the product description from the sale page:

This collection contains over 70 major scale play-along tracks for your ensemble.

Each track includes a tuning drone playing the tonic with a scale overtop in just intonation so that you can reinforce flawless intonation, tone production, and blend amongst your students. Every exercise includes a count-off and a trap beat underneath to engage your students while reinforcing slower playing and subdividing!

The audio-only version of this package includes mp3 files of the following recordings in all twelve major keys, at 70bpm.

  • Whole note scale

  • Half note scale

  • Quarter note scale

  • Eighth note scale

  • Scale Exercise in Thirds

  • Mini-Scale with Arpeggio

Also included:

  • Remington at three different speeds! Perfect for playing underneath many of the exercises that come from popular band methods.

The premium version of this product includes the audio tracks above in addition to the Logic Pro and GarageBand stems so you can edit every element of the tracks, including speed, pitch, and instrumentation.

These are perfect for running through your Zoom/Google Meet/Virtual Classroom to keep kids playing as much as possible.

I have been using tracks like these with my band students for years now and they LOVE them. The trap beat resonates with them. Its popularity in hip hop music aside, there is something compelling about them, musically. The backbeat on three, combined with the busy hi-hat activity, helps kids subdivide slower tempos and keeps them motivated to practice stuff like long tones and scales. The strong 808 baseline asserts the beat while adding fun syncopation.

It was essential to me that the drones were in just intonation because I teach my students to hear and adjust to the beats that result when unison pitches and diatonic intervals are in/out of tune. The Yamaha Harmony Director was definitely the tool for the job. Here’s a really brief blog post I shared earlier this month about the process if you want to take a stab at making something like this.

You can alternatively do this process using the (excellent) Tonal Energy Tuner App, a MIDI keyboard, and GarageBand on iOS. I wrote about that here. I prefer the Tonal Energy experience, but the Yamaha’s hardware keys made it easier to “perform” the drones and allowed me to create in Logic Pro, which I am more proficient in.

The original concept for this was very ambitious initially, and I simplified the vision a ton to help myself “ship it.” I have seen music teachers asking for something like this on social media a lot lately, and it seemed like time to do the work. I am happy with how they turned out and I hope to create more of these down the road in varying style, tempo, and exercise patterns.

A few notes:

  1. Due to file upload limitations on Squarespace, buying the stems directs you to download a text file instead of the audio files. The text file contains a link to a third-party hosting source. A little inelegant, I know, but setting up a Squarespace store was otherwise the most comfortable choice.
  2. These are incredibly effective for engaging synchronous ensemble rehearsals. No, we still can’t play at once, but running rehearsal tracks through your Google Meet or Zoom call while students are muted is a great way to keep them playing. These tracks are slow enough that I have had success having groups of 3-6 unmute while playing along, and it is not total chaos. Between these, my Solfege Bingo tracks, and The Breathing Gym DVD, we can be synchronously active for more than 80 percent of each class. I get the audio to route directly through to the call using Loopback.
  3. Many of these tracks, particularly the scale exercise in thirds, mini-scale, and Remington tracks, pair perfectly with a multitude of examples in the Foundation for Superior Performance band method books series. I did not title them as such because the book and my project are in no way connected. I bring it up here because I know those exercises are ubiquitous in band rehearsals, and it’s for this reason, many directors have their students purchase those books.
  4. I made the arrangements of these tracks simple to keep the appeal as wide-reaching and flexible as possible. My hope is that people who really want to change the style, edit the beat, change the speed, or any other kind of alternation, will buy the version that comes with the GarageBand and Logic stems. Tip: If you want to use software instruments to create your own accompaniment, and want them to be justly in tune with my tracks, Logic Pro has support for tuning systems. That means that if you mute my trap beat and add your own samba tracks, you can have the instruments play in the key area you select instead of their usual equal tempered tuning.