Music Teaching 101

We have decided to use the Makey Makey rather than the Touchboard due to the two following factors:

1. The website which has step by step instructions for this type of project uses the makey makey and Scratch to develop it therefore it was easier to do the same as this rather than figuring out ourselves for the Bare Conductive Touchboard.
2. We contacted Rowena Stewart (the amazing tech pro/genius) to see if she had any ideas and she told us that she had more experience working with the Makey Makey than the Touchboard and was happy to come into uni to teach us how to use it and Scratch. SHE IS AN AMAZING HUMAN BEING.

We found an amazing link online which gave us a great starting point for designing our own Piano using supplies that are easily attainable and mostly affordable.

https://www.instructables.com/id/3-Ways-to-Build-a-Makey-Makey-Floor-Piano/

To program sounds to play when the keys were touched, we considered purchasing either a Bare Conductive Touchboard or a Makey Makey however the amazing James Humberstone was nice enough to lend us his, automatically making our project $150-$250 cheaper.

Using a very horrible whiteboard marker, we drew out a rough (almost-to-scale) design for our Large Scale Floor Piano.

This helped us decide on our list of supplies which we were able to buy at Bunnings and Jaycar:

• Thin Plywood (1500 x 750 mm)
• Foam Yoga Mat (1500 x 750 mm)
• Plug to Socket Jumper Leads (150 mm)
• Grey Duct Tape
• Black Duct Tape
• Aluminium Foil Tape

All of our supplies cost a total of $83.50. Splitting this between the two of us meant that this project became super affordable!

For the POL I have decided to team up with Rachelle Pieri (pierimusic.tech.blog) to create a larger, more awesome project.

Our original idea was to construct our own theremin and produce an accompanying website as a teachers resource kit on how to use it to teach in the classroom.

After this, we brainstormed again and thought of making a musical themed mat inspired by a Dance Dance Revolution mat.

This idea led us to our final concept of making a large scale floor piano, aka the toy that Tom Hanks made everyone want after watching the film ‘Big’.

Rowena is doing amazing things with software developing and programming in relation to music and learning!

Check her out on Twitter: @GoldenFennec

On the 29th of Novemeber, from 6pm, my entire class will be presenting major works that utilise technology for music teaching purposes & demonstrate skills that we have attained within and beyond our ‘Technology in Music Education’ class.

If you’re interested in coming to see/interact with these projects (or if you like free booze and snacks…) we would love to see you there. You can book free tickets through the con box office:

http://bit.ly/technology-in-music-ed-29-11-19

Technology, when used effectively, can greatly enhance music education and help students learn more efficiently as well as produce higher quality work.

However…

It is important to remember that intrinsic motivation is the key to all learning and the best way to achieve this is for other humans (a.k.a; teachers, parents and friends) to provide encouragement and support.

Check out this TED talk by Sugata Mitra titled “Child Driven Education”

My favourite part is where he talks about “the method of the grandmother” and the inportance of someone providing regular incentive for learning by “admiring” them and their achievements.

Wunderlist!

I love lists so much! When I think of things I have to do my mind tends to remain fixated on it until I can write it down.

Also…what’s a better feeling than ticking off tasks on a list? It can make ticking off even the smallest of tasks feel like a success.

Wunderlist enables you to make numerous lists and organise them however you like. It can connect with your calander and you can view your lists by topic or by due date.

It’s practically lists on steroids…

Tips from James Humberstone:

• Focus on the things you HAVE done, not the things you haven’t.
• Prioritise all tasks (you can use the GTD – Getting Things Done – method to assess what is most important).
• Reschedule things if you need to. Don’t try to overwork yourself!
• Spend time in Nature.
• Make sure you’re getting enough sleep.

Incredible few days of workshops! Linsey showed off his mad skills with looping and making his own instruments and also helped us make our own panpipes and foonkis!

What is a foonki you may ask?

A foonki is a membrane reed wind instrument with a similar tone colour to the bagpipes.

https://youtu.be/z1U8hP9EtYI

Sorry that this last video is sideways… Snapchat videos save this way and it sucks! This was our experimentation with how low of an instrument we could make using rubber tubing from Bunnings.

Sadly I missed the Technology in Music Education lecture this week however here are some links to some of the content they covered on music related software and hardware.

• Ableton Live: https://www.ableton.com/en/live/
• Push: https://www.ableton.com/en/push/
• Akai MPC: http://www.akaipro.com/products/mpc-series
• Maschine: https://www.native-instruments.com/en/products/maschine/production-systems/maschine/
• Headrush Loop Products: http://akaipro.com/products/legacy/e2-headrush
• Loopy: https://loopyapp.com/
• EyDyLooper: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/everyday-looper/id333298831?mt=8
• Artiphon Instrument 1: https://artiphon.com/
• Novation Launchpad: https://us.novationmusic.com/launch/launchpad
• IOS Launchpad App: https://itunes.apple.com/GB/app/novation-launchpad/id584362474?mt=8
• Numark Mixdeck: https://www.numark.com/product/mixdeck