Choir Teachers

PS22 Chorus - ABC NiteLine Interview

2009-06-16T08:47:00.001-07:00

If you don't think Music Education is important then watch this and then reconsider. :)

This Is My Kind Of Cheesy!

2009-05-20T14:31:00.000-07:00

What do you think? Will it take off? I like it but I am a music teacher :)

End Of The Year Reflections

2009-05-18T18:37:00.000-07:00

Well I fell off the end of the earth well at least the blogging world. For most experienced music teachers I am sure they are well accustomed to the end of the year hecticness. This being only my second year I am still figuring out how much stuff I can and should plan. Is it easier to plan more because there are more opportunities or because you are more willing to show off a more experienced group.

In my first year I did a musical review with my choirs and a movie review with my bands. These were both fairly easy endeavors to tackle. Basically we prepared for them like we would any concert and then a couple days before we did a couple of dress rehearsals and the show was a success. Then we h

Image via Wikipedia

ad our final concert at the end of the year. So basically we had 3 performances in our spring semester.

This year feeling more brave after gaining you know "so much" experience I decided I should try a few more things in the spring semester. I think at first I felt like my kids needed to be challenged more and that they were getting bored with such a light load and thus I was loosing students and discipline was even slipping. Then it became a learning experience for me where I wanted to see what exactly I could do.

My plan for this years Spring Semester was to do a musical and a music tour. Too much? Go big or go home right?

Well lucky for me I believe I have some of the very best students to work with. The problem with deciding to do both of these things in one semester was that I decided late. In fact I don't think I officially committed myself until right before Christmas.

We decided on Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and I found a script to do auditions with before

Image via Wikipedia

we even ordered it so that I could give the leads a jump on memorizing there lines over the Christmas break.

When we got back from break we started rehearsals. I had many great people from the community pull through and help me out in amazing ways. Being the only music teacher in my district there is no way I could have pulled this off without a ton of community support which we had.

While all of these preparations were going on we had to start fund raising for our MusicTtour that was happening 3 weeks after our production closed. Luckily AZ has tax Credits which helped us a lot and great principal who paid for all of our Musical including costumes so that everything we profited at the door we could turn around and use on our trip. This proved to be essential. We also hosted a Jon Schmidt concert to help raise money and sold Discount Cards. In the end about 2 days before we left we were able to scrounge up the final money we needed for our tour.

Jon Schmidt via last.fm

When I say tour I don't mean anything extravagant just a trip to Mesa, AZ where we watched Singing In The Rain at the Broadway Palms Dinner Theater, worked with Dr. Glenn Bennett at Mesa Community College, performed at an assisted living center and a mall, went to Golfland where we played minature golf, go carts, and laser tag, and swam in the pool at the resort we stayed in. Overall a great experience and one that I think will do wonders for recruitment.

By the time we were done with these two major events my kids were exhausted and uplifted. I had many great and encouraging talks witht the stud

Cover via Amazon

ents about how they realized how hard they worked to get ready for these things and how they also realised that this kind of hard work and preperation was neccessary for a successful event and most importantly how much fun it was when we could be proud of what we were doing.

Is this not one of the most important aspects of Music Education. If all kids and even adults could learn that one lesson do you think we would have such a sense of entitlement today. Personally I don't.

Well this last week we finally had our last concert of the year and I have to say in my to two years it was hands down our best concert performance wise. Every group showed remarkable and even noticable improvment from my fist year and the beginning of this year. The kids all had a great time and were proud of what they accomplished.

While I will admit that it is laughable to think that after two years we have made it, I know we still have a long way to go but I am glad to see that in my opinion we are headed in the right direction.

Now to make year three as memorable as years one and two. I have ideas on how I need to start now to assure that this happens but I will save this for a later post.

Congrats Graduating Class of 2009 you will be missed!

Playing For Change: Song Around the World "Stand By Me"

2009-05-03T07:49:00.001-07:00

Most youtube videos are funny but occasionally you come across a great inspiring video. This is one of those must see videos! And what better promotion for music education.

LOVE STORY (Taylor Swift) meets VIVA LA VIDA (Coldplay) - Piano/Cello - by Jon Schmidt

2009-04-16T13:33:00.001-07:00

We saw this live when he came to Joseph City it was one of my favorite songs of the night! We were even his first large audience that he played it for :) Pretty cool I thought. Check it out and even spread it along!

Tax Break For Teachers

2009-02-03T10:39:00.001-08:00

Image via Wikipedia

Thomas L. Friedman wrote recently in the NY Times an interesting article about ways to stimulate the economy.

For those of you who are not familiar with Friedman he is most recently famous for his book "The World Is Flat" where he talks about outsourcing and how this leveling the playing field world wide. Very interesting book which I highly recommend.

In this article he say's "My wife teaches public school in Montgomery County, Md., where more and more teachers can’t afford to buy homes near the schools where they teach, and now have long, dirty commutes from distant suburbs. One of the smartest stimulus moves we could make would be to eliminate federal income taxes on all public schoolteachers so more talented people would choose these careers."

So might view this as a shot against teachers not being good enough as they are and so we need to recruit better teachers. I don't believe this is what he is really saying especially since he leads with his wife being a teacher but we have all seen quality teachers leave the profession becuase they were lured into more lucrative career options.

I believe most teachers are in this profession for the right reasons but sometimes finances make it hard to stay put. I think the tax break might be a good idea to help make life a little easier and Friedman may be right this is a better stimulus then giving free money to banks or the Auto Industry.

Here is his closing statement:
"Sure, we’ll waste some money doing that. That will happen with bridges, too. But a bridge is just a bridge. Once it’s up, it stops stimulating. A student who normally would not be interested in science but gets stimulated by a better teacher or more exposure to a lab, or a scientist who gets the funding for new research, is potentially the next Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. They create good jobs for years. Perhaps more bridges can bail us out of a depression, but only more Bills and Steves can bail us into prosperity."

Songsmith

2009-01-08T18:09:00.000-08:00

So I saw this video today promoting a new product, Songsmith, from Microsoft and while I have to admit at first I thought it was a joke. It looks a lot like something that is produced on the onion.

No it's not a bad musical either, even though it alludes to its aspirations to make the world a musical.

What do you think does this help us as music educators or does it make students lazy?

Personally if the songs are really as bad as these videos seem then I don't think we have a lot to worry about. But I am curious what everyone thinks.

http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/projects/songsmith/index.html

Goals

2009-01-07T18:26:00.000-08:00

Today in one of my choirs we had a goal setting day and this is what one of my students put on the board as we set our goals. We came up with the goals together as a class so that we were all on board from the start. Here is what we came up with. Most of you probably won't appreciate it as much as I do.

Notice the first goal... Have Fun :) haha

So I had to define FUN :)

Which led to one of my favorite quotes from my Dad.

The Next Goal... Respect
Who say's the pianist never gets any respect :) I'm so proud of my students.

That's right respect all around :)

I always tell my students that if they don't like a song then to keep it to themselves because they don't have the right to take away permission for someone else to like it.

Cause when we work together we got the right stuff.
Go Wonder Pets!

Ultimate Unity... They even want to go to the hospital with us when Alli has the baby.

Not sure they quite got the right message on this one.
I tried to explain how singers are actors too.

You like the rewards and consequences list?
My personal favorite... Public Humiliation.

I like the attachment to the reward of a brownie party.

We got a least one Dictator statement in :)

And by the end of the day this was our final product. I love my students. :)

Jon Schmidt

2009-01-05T17:45:00.001-08:00

I just got the final word that we are officially bringing Jon Schmidt to perform in our little community. For those of you who don't know who he is, Jon Schmidt is a piano player but not your average piano player. He is a true entertainer. I have many young nieces and nephews who love to watch him perform and after leaving they are always inspired to practice their piano.

He is coming in for a very good rate which is going to allow us to sale tickets to help fund our music tour this year. If you haven't had the chance to see him in concert or even hear his music I highly recommend that you look into it.

Animoto

2009-01-03T12:48:00.000-08:00

For those of you who have not yet discovered the greatness that is Animoto well now is your time, They are offering free memberships to educators. http://education.animoto.com/

Animoto is in their own words "the end of slideshows".

All you do is upload the pics you want for a slide show and pick a song to set it to and it does the rest.

Here is an example video I made earlier today:

http://education.animoto.com/

Twitter

2009-01-03T11:17:00.000-08:00

Image via CrunchBaseSo one of the things I am committed to doing this year is seeing what all the twitter fuss is about. So far so good - My username is kgard - Add me :)

I think this can be another great place to find other music educators and share ideas and resources with one another.

Here is a resource to help us find other Music Educators who are on twitter -
http://twittgroups.com/group/musiced

Official List of the 100 Music Education Bloggers

2009-01-02T17:23:00.000-08:00

It is an Honor to be a part of this list. Please visit them today, congratulate them, and learn from what they have to offer as they do from each other and others like them.

THE OFFICIAL LIST OF THE 100 MUSIC EDUCATION BLOGGER CAMPAIGN 2008-2009:

http://www.mustech.net
Dr. Joseph M. Pisano- MusTech.net
http://digitalmusiceducator.wordpress.com
Owen Bradley -The Digital Music Educator
http://etobiasblog.musiced.net
Evan Tobias- Catalysts & Connections
http://musiced.about.com/
Espie Estrella -About Music Education
http://jamesfrankel.musiced.net/
Dr. James Frankel- Music Technology in Education
http://weblog.siba.fi/msalavuo
Dr. Miikka Salavuo- Music Education, Technology & Social Media
http://pwhitfield.edublogs.org
Pete Whitfield- e-Learning for Music
http://www.musicedmagic.com
Chad Criswell- Music Ed. Magic
http://jsavage.org.uk/
Dr. Jonathan Savage- Jonathan Savage
http://musictechforme.com/
V. Keith Mason- Music Tech. for Me.
http://tjweller.wordpress.com
Travis J. Weller- Composing Like Mad
http://mystro2b.edublogs.org/
Ken Pendergrass- Music is Not for Insects
http://www.soyouwanttoteach.com/
Joel- So You Want to Teach
http://stengel99.wordpress.com/
Steve Engel- Music Ed. Lounge
http://fsharpbflat.wordpress.com/
Linda Granite- Bb, F#
http://doublebassblog.org
Jason Heath- Double Bass Blog
http://musicisfree.ning.com/
Robert Brannan- The Music is Free
http://dvzmix.wordpress.com/
Deborah Valdivia-Zwolinski- DVZ’s Mix
http://choirteachers.blogspot.com/
Kyle Gardner- Choir Teachers
http://www.pauldraper.org
Paul Draper- Draper’s Blogspot
http://johnwilborn.wordpress.com
John Wilborn- John Wilborn’s Weblog
http://iknowithink.blogspot.com
Leo Park- I Know…I Think
http://gluedtothestring.blogspot.com
Stan Haskins- Glued to the String
http://musicedtech.wordpress.com
Barbara Freedman- Music Ed. Tech.
http://tomrudolph.berkleemusicblogs.com
Dr. Tom Rudolph- Make the Most of Notation Software
http://teachingthewirechoir.com/
Dale Lewis- Teaching the “Wire Choir”
http://docandry.edublogs.org
Dr. Kevin Andry-Dr. Andry’s Band Blog
http://sperham.wordpress.com
Steffany Perham- Perham’s Prattlings
http://alexruthmann.com
Alex Ruthmann- Alex Ruthmann’s Blog
http://www.beatechie.com/
Carol Broos- Be A Techie:)
http://musicanthology.org
Geejay Arrioloa and Jeffrey Langlois -Music Anthology
http://southiowamusiced.blogspot.com/
Michael Compton -Southern Iowa Music Education Network
http://qachsband.edublogs.org/
Eric Wright- QACHS’s Band Blog
http://alleyjazz13.wordpress.com/
Alison Hulihan- Marching Music
http://rogerwhaley.blogspot.com
Roger Whaley -The BandEd ToolShed
http://mgrondin.edublogs.org
Martha Grondin-Artful, Tuneful, Beatful
http://percussioneducationonline.com
Kevin Tuck -Percussion Education Online
http://www.musicteachersblog.com
Janice Tuck -The Music Teacher’s Blog
http://bnceducation.blogspot.com
Steve Raybould, Kriston Feldpausch -Band and Chorus PMS/PJHS
http://musicedshare.wordpress.com
Kyle Krstolic -Music Education Share
http://musicedforall.blogspot.com
Dan Leeman -Music Education for All
http://amymburns.musiced.net
Amy Burns -Elementary Music/Music Technology
http://www.music.erinnwrobel.com
Erinn Wrobel - Notes From The Mitten
http://dougbutchy.wordpress.com
Doug Butchy - Confessions of a Band Director
http://studiobeemusic.com/mutech
Rich Blenkinsopp - Studiobee Music
http://musicmiddleschoolandweb20.blogspot.com/
Susan Hurst - Music, Middle School and Web 2.0
http://www.kirki.co.uk
Dr. Phil Kirkman -Music Education and Technology Blog
http://tufsdblogs.org/winze
Ann Winze- WI Orchestra
http://thirddivision.org
David DeVoto - Third Division
http://collaborativepiano.blogspot.com
Dr. Chris Foley - The Collaborative Piano Blog
http://bandguys.wordpress.com
Matthew Pelandina and Mike Lewis - The BandGuys’ blog
http://tanbur.wordpress.com
David French -The Music Education Blogspot
http://musicteachers911.blogspot.com
Larry Marra -Music Teachers 911
http://www.pianoteacherblog.com
Rebecca Brown -Piano Teacher’s Retreat
http://wordtogo.wordpress.com
Steve Mugglin -Creativity and Songwriting in Music Education
http://totalmusiceducation.blogspot.com
Greg Albing -Total Music Education
http://teachingmusicbs.com
Ben Baker -Teaching Music
http://susanadavis.blogspot.com/
Susan Davis -Music Technology Musings
http://www.howtopractise.com (yes it’s a “s”, it’s an English spelling)
Mike Saville - How To Practise
http://www.free2create.com/blog
Valerie Kampmeier - Free 2 Create
http://musicmattersblog.com
Natalie Wickham - Music Matters Blog
http://theresawhite.edublogs.org
Theresa White - Education In Music
http://africlassical.blogspot.com
William Zick - Africlassical
http://discoverlearnplay.blogspot.com
Eugene Cantera - Discover, Learn, Play (MusickED.com’s Blog)
http://mstrismusic.com
Ms. Tris - MsTrisMusic.com
http://www.learn-theory-music.com/learn-theory-music-blog.html
Julian Partridge - Learn Theory Music Blog
http://www.guitarticles.net
Tennyson Williams - Guitar Articles.Net
http://creativekidmusic.wordpress.com
Dan Thompson -Creative Kid Music
http://educacionmusical.blogspot.com
Oscar - Educacion Musical - Music Education (Our first, in Spanish, ME Blog!)
http://rizzrazz.vox.com/
Dr. Eric Rasmussen - Rizz’s Blog
http://reband.wordpress.com
Mr. ReBand
http://www.techtempo.com
Brenda Muench - Tech. Tempo
http://www.thomasjwestmusic.com/blog.htm
Thomas J. West
http://musictech4ed.edublogs.org
Andrew Spang -MusicTech4Ed
Click this link. (A very log blog URL…)
Jon Ensminger -Pedaplus
http://techtoysandtunes.blogspot.com
Richard McCready - Tech Toys and Tunes
http://downpressup.wordpress.com
Derek -Downpressup
http://listenlearnmusic.com
Rachel Rambach - Listen and Learn
http://jazzworks.wordpress.com
Allan Perkins - Jazz Works
http://msgallant.edublogs.org
Alexandra Gallant - The Misadventures of a First Year Music Teacher
http://www.acousticpath.com/blog
Cameron Grant - Acoustic Path
http://musicteachercafe.viviti.com/
Scott Ashby - Music Teacher’s Cafe
http://www.frogstoryrecords.com/player_journal.html
Stever Carter - Frog Story Records/Player’s Journal
http://thirdstream.musiced.net
Cary Stewart - Third-Stream Music Education
http://michiganstatepianopedagogy.blogspot.com
Derek Polischuk - Michigan State Piano Pedagogy
http://fromthevoiceof.blogspot.com
Elizabeth McDonald -From the Voice of…
http://urbanmusiceducation.org
Sarah Johnston -Urban Music Education
http://musiced.jasoncrews.net/
Jason Crews - Music Education Resource Blog
http://www.classicalguitarblog.net
Christopher - Classical Guitar Blog
http://willie42.globalteacher.org.au/
Andrew- Split Three Ways
http://mjsheetmusictips.blogspot.com/
Marilyn Johnson - MJ’s Music Teaching Tips
http://www.musicteachershelper.com/blog/
Brandon Pearce - Music Teacher’s Helper Blog
http://jeane-metroyo.blogspot.com
Jeane Goforth - Scrollworks and Metropolitian Youth Orchestras
http://www.oparp.blogspot.com
Dr. Robert Phillips - The Opinionated Arpgeggist
http://www.wikyblog.com/CynthiaWunsch
Cynthia Wunsch - The Unlikely Entrepreneur (Click the Blog Tab)
http://mineoladrama.blogspot.com
Joe Owens - MHS Theater
http://andyzweibel.com
Andy Zweibel - Music Musings and Other Randoms…
http://musicschoolsbc.blogspot.com/
Stephen Robb - Music Schools BC
http://paulbailey.us
Paul Bailey - Paul Bailey’s Blog
http://edubuzz.org/blogs/alancoady/
Alan Coady - Alan Coady’s Musical Blog

http://mustech.net/2009/01/01/a-bold-new-year-the-official-list

What The Future Holds

2009-01-02T15:22:00.000-08:00

I ran across this the other day and while I am sure many of you may have already seen it I still think it is worth posting. I have discussed manytimes with my mother who is now in her 70's about how the world has changed so much from when she was in school but for the most part schools are the same. Its something to think about.

Youtube

2008-12-19T14:11:00.000-08:00

So as I have been working on my school website lately I have tried to make it more interesting for the kids to come to. I try to put really valuble tools and information on the site but if I cant get the kids their in the first place it doesn't do much good. I have put a few videos up on youtube of past performances but in doing this I have began to wonder wether or not I should. In my opinion it is a great tool and a wonderful resource but I fear some parents might not like it even though there are absolutly no names attached to the videos and frankly I think you would have to be looking for the video to even find it. I am curious what others think about this topic.

Here is one of the videos I have posted

When Personal And School Life Cross

2008-10-20T06:57:00.001-07:00

My wife and I are in the stage of life where we are making decisions for at least the next few years of our life. Now that I am in my second year of teaching and I like the school that I am in. We have decided to settle in and start our family.

While doing this we have decided to purchase a house which has raised a few questions about where we should live.

Being that I teach in a very small school in a very small town personal life and school life is very easy to cross. Right now live in another small town about ten miles away and that has really helped me to keep these two lives some what more separated.
Here are some of the pros and cons got each that we have thought of.

Pros of living where I teach:
Live close to work.
Get to know students outside of school.
Future children live in same town that I teach in.
Get to know community members and other teachers better.

Cons to living where I teach:
People have too easy acces to bring work into every other aspect of my life.
I am Mr. Gardner in everything I do.

Student Teaching

2008-09-01T17:21:00.000-07:00

So in my second week I decided I am severely lacking in the planning department and decided that it is time to apply at least one thing that I learned while student teaching.

A Simple Tool Really

By drawing a small square on the white-board for each class and writing on there before each class what I need to accomplish I am more likely to get more accomplished.

Get More Accomplished

So for the last couple weeks I have done this and so far its working. I am not perfect on getting the boxes filled before each class and I can see the difference in each class depending on whether I do it or not.

Week One - Year Two

2008-08-19T19:58:00.000-07:00

Week One

Week one of life as a second year teacher has come and gone.

I've Changed

I've changed, I'm already a lot more productive in one week than I was all year as a first year teacher. I'm more friendly with other teachers and I understand better how how administration and everything works. With this new found pro-activeness, I have been a lot busier as well. I have taken up some added responsibilities which are my own fault. I volunteered.

I Volunteered

I am coaching seventh grade football this year and I am on the varsity scout team in addition to my already hectic music schedule.

First Day Of School

For the first day of school we had to take care of rules and expectations. I changed all my first day handouts this year. I found these great music Websites of other schools and stole from each to come up with my own.

Horizon High School - Choir Program

Red Mountain High School Directory

HHS Choir Room

The biggest change was to my grading policy, I added an "A" project for each quarter.

They Can Choose

I really like this because it allows students to actually get involved in making the music program better. But, it also allows them to choose They can choose if they want an "A" and what they are willing do to get it. The best part is its all on their own time frame.

Didn't Waste Time

I didn't waste any time getting started with performing in the music department either. I heard from some friends of mine that there was going to be a talents how in the local old west days celebration that was severely lacking in contestants. I decided that my top audition choir could put together a song in just one week or 4 days to be exact. So on Tuesday I gave them a new song to learn and two days later on Thursday we choreographed half and on Friday the other half.

Am I Nuts?

In my mind it was a good idea because it gave them a chance to get started right away and not waste a lot of time trying to get the wheels turning at the beginning of the year. They are always more motivated when a performance is looming. Also it was a really easy number with really easy choreography so it worked really well as a confidence builder. You should have heard the kids brag to their friends that they could be performance ready in a week. I might add that infact they did very well and it was looking like my crazy idea just might work after all.

Suprises, Always Surprises

The night before we are to perform I find out the wedding that I am supposed to DJ for (did I mention I DJ on the Side:) is actually starting 2 hours earlier then originally planned. This conflicts directly with our Old West days performance.

My Beautiful, Amazing, Talented Wife

*Cue Super Hero Music. My Beautiful, amazing, talented wife comes to the rescue as she is fast learning is a full time job. She a little reluctantly covers for me at the old west days while I head off to DJ the wedding. About the time I know their performance should start I get a call from my wife explaining that a few of the students decided that instead of doing the choreography they would just stand and sing the song. This would have been fine except for it's a pretty simple song which can be boring without the simple choreography to accompany it. Simple + Simple = Not Boring right? I think I learned that in college. :) So I tell her no they can do it

Simple + Simple = Not Boring

So a few of the more popular students took it upon themselves to persuade everybody else not to do the choreography. So needless to say I was kind of disappointed with the kids because they knew the choreography but decided not to do it anyway. Overall I still fill it was a good experience for the kids and would probaby do it again given the same set of circumstances. And in the end I even let the kids count it as their "A" Project for this quarter so now everyone is happy and we have all learned a few things.

Ready or Not...

2008-08-10T10:07:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow students come back.

Here I begin year two as a music teacher. In many ways I feel more prepared than last year and yet I still feel unprepared.

My goal this year with this Blog is to make it more real. At the conclusion of every week I want to journal what we have accomplished and where we have fallen short. I fear doing this because I am really allowing myself to be very vulnerable but at the same time isn't that what music is all about?

So while I invite you in a very personal way to step inside my music program this year I also ask that you not judge me or my teaching style. Be patient with me while I am still learning what works for me and what doesn't, remember I am only a second year teacher. I am always open for constructive criticism and to be honest I will need lots of comments to help motivate me to regularly post.

So if you are interested in reading a BLOG like this please comment and let me know.

How to Find Images for Posts

2008-07-15T02:26:00.000-07:00

Published by Katy Castro Jun 23, 2008

Throughout the blogosphere we’ve all noted several times that images are used in a lot of blog posts and there are equally as many posts mentioning that we should use images within posts. Including my own post, 13 Ways to Grab Attention.

But finding the right images to use can be difficult when you’re conscious of copyright laws and what is considered fair use.

So with this post, I’ll detail for you 4 ways to find images that you can use within your blog posts. But do keep in mind that with these sources, you need to consider the terms in which you use them.

123 Royalty Free

This is by far one of my favorite places to get images for posts. There’s a huge variety of images to choose from including a great selection of free images that are perfect for blog posts. Of course there’s also the ability to purchase stock credits that will enable you to pick up different size images and use them for other purposes.

iStockphoto

iStock is a slightly more expensive means for getting images. However they do have really awesome quality images for blog designs as well as a free photograph per week and a free vector image per month. So just registering for a membership will enable you to pick up some free stuff!

Flickr

With Flickr you can search for images to use for your blog posts based on the type of license the photographer attaches to the images. And all of the images that you’ll find are free but make sure that you credit the photographer of the images you do use with a link back to their Flickr account.

Google Image Search

Using Google is slightly more complicated as you’ll need to figure out the license of the images you do find. However a lot of the images that do come up are from blogs which makes it easier if the blogger has given proper credit to the original photographer.

These methods have been so effective for me in finding the right images to use that they’re all the sources that I have. There hasn’t been a single case yet where I couldn’t find the right image to use for any number of blog posts and niche blogs. So have a look.

Do you have any sources for blog images that you can share with us?

(Via ImBloggingThat)

Piano Wizard gives gift of music without a stern teacher

2008-07-14T02:25:00.000-07:00

Posted Apr. 24, ’08, 2:15 PM PT by David Dahlquist

Category | Software

Until not so long ago, the best way to learn an instrument was to buy or rent the real thing, and then commit to regular lessons from a real life teacher. Things have changed, especially for piano, as a full size MIDI keyboard can run you less than $100 these days. Combine that with a cool program like Music Wizard Group’s Piano Wizard, and you can get yourself on the path to the concert hall for a fraction of what it used to cost.

Piano Wizard is a customizable and complex piano program that can take you from beginner to pro through a series of exercises and games. They even include stickers to put on your keys to help remember which key is what. The program earned a 4 star rating at MacNN, so if you’re an aspiring keyboardist / pianist but don’t have the scrilla to lay down for weekly lessons, this could be an effective, fun way to hone your skill.

(Via MacUser)

The Importance of ‘Pause Points’ On Your Blog

2008-07-13T02:23:00.000-07:00

Written on July 1st, 2008 at 12:07 am by Darren Rowse

Over the last week I’ve run some Crazy Egg heat map tracking on two posts on Digital Photography School (both of which got to the front page of Digg and got a lot of traffic) that both highlight to me a very simple method of increasing the number of pages that people view when they visit your blog.

Let me illustrate with a screen capture of the heat map from my post - How to Avoid Camera Shake:

What you’re looking at above is the ‘hottest’ zone on the post. It is the most clicked upon part of the page. This section of the page was clicked on just under 2000 times over the duration of this test. The full page had just under 6000 clicks.

What stands out for me is that the section of the page you’re viewing above is a long way from the top of the post. While the general rule is that people click more on links at the tops of posts - this section of the page is only viewable once you’ve hit ‘page down’ 7 times!

The first two links in the section are links to my subscription page and a byline link to the author of the post - but the other five are all internal links to other articles on the blog. This means 1800 or so of the visitors to this page viewed at least one other page on the blog.

The ‘Further Reading on Camera Shake’ links were ones that I manually added to the post and the ‘Read more posts like ‘How to….’ links were automated links generated with a WP Plugin.

Lets look at another example

In this test (on a post on ‘Jowling‘) I’m showing you the same section of the page. This time I had to hit ‘page down’ 5 times to get to it. Again it’s low on the page and again I’ve got the automated links as well as two others in the ‘A Couple of other things….’ section.

Once again - this is the hottest part of the page in terms of clicks with around 1600 clicks (all internal) out of 6500 clicks on the full page.

Why do readers click links so far down the page?

It might seem a little odd that links so far down a page would be clicked on at such a high rate - but the reason that it happens is quite logical. These points on the page are what I call ‘pause points’. They are parts of a page where readers pause and make a decision on what to do next.

These sections are all at the end of articles - a point where readers end one activity and look to do another one. Many readers simply hit ‘back’ at this point or head to Google to search for something else - however when you give them something else to do or read you have a decent chance of convincing them to stay on your site.

Other Things to Do at Pause Points

There are of course other things that you can do in these ‘pause points’ on a blog including:

Advertising - this is a ‘hot zone’ in terms of CPC ads
Affiliate Programs - I don’t find they convert as well as CPC ads here but they can work
Social Bookmarking - many bloggers run social bookmark buttons in this spot to encourage readers to vote for the post
Subscription Invitations - this is a great place to get conversions from first time readers to subscribe to your blog

Really any key conversion goals that you want to achieve can work in a ‘Pause Point’ - although when you put too many options in that point for readers you probably dilute the conversion rate. What else do you put in ‘pause points’?

(Via ProBlogger)

Rockola: experiment with your music mood

2008-07-12T02:20:00.000-07:00

Written on June 29, 2008 – 9:00 am

Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief

Summer in the City by Joe Cocker, Coldplay’s Clocks, and Loser by Beck are essentially all purple songs, they’re just from different decades - according to Rockola.fm. This Spanish site gives the whole “music to suit your mood”-thing a new boost by combining several factors we’ve seen separately on other sites before. It combines the color factor from Guitarati, the year factor from Yamelo, and the similar artists factor from Last.fm.

So you start by clicking somewhere in the colorful circle, or by typing in your favorite artist. Your semi-personal radio station then starts blasting away. Don’t worry about making the wrong start, as you can always correct Rockola by giving a thumbs up or down for a certain song. Along the way, Rockola will learn about your taste. I personally hate it when an algorithm claims that it can determine what my music taste is, I don’t even know what I like myself. But hey, maybe this promise does work for you.

It’s recommended to sign up, as this gives you access to a tagging feature, unlimited listening time and a share option. Well, thank you but no thanks, Rockola is a fun way to explore new songs, but I don’t see it becoming my main source for new music. For that, I stay close to an old friend, owned by CBS.

(Via The Next Web)

Keep Rocking: 30+ Sites for Free & Legal Music

2008-07-11T02:13:00.000-07:00

Keep Rocking: 30+ Sites for Free & Legal Music

June 30, 2008

Sean P. Aune

Downloading illegal music has become a hot topic on the Web. So much so that it’s easy to forget about the plethora of sites dedicated to free, legal music. We’ve put together a list of 30+ sites that will keep your MP3 player playing until your batteries are completely drained.

Whether you’re into pop, jazz, metal or classical, there’s something here for everyone. Let us know which are your favorites.

Amazon MP3 Store - The vast majority of the music at Amazon is for sale, but they do have a rotation of free tracks available for download.

AmieStreet.com - Focused on promoting new and independent music, their downloads range from free to $0.98 as they grow in popularity.

Archive.org - An enormous collection of public domain music, expired copyright tracks, as well as some free contemporary music.

ArtistServer.com - It started off as a resource for independent electronic musicians, but is now open to all. All tracks can be downloaded for free.

BeSonic.com - Offers over 13,000 free tracks from mostly European acts.

BetterPropaganda.com - A music webzine covering hundreds of music labels, and offering thousands of free & legal songs for you to download.

CCMixter.org - a site dedicated to music that you can download to remix and post your results, all under the Creative Commons license.

Download.com - Most people think CNet’s Download.com is just about software, but they also have tens of thousands of free MP3s you can download from new as well as up and coming bands.

Epitonic.com - A large selection of free tracks from smaller record companies that are free to download with larger releases available for purchase.

EZ-Tracks.com - Offers over 30,000 legal downloads that are managed through a partnership with the labels. Starts you off with credit for 101 free upon registering.

FreeAlbums.blogsome.com - A blog that posts reviews of complete albums that are available for free downloads from numerous sources.

GarageBand.com - Independent bands can upload their music, then have it rated by users, as well as downloaded for free.

Imeem.com - Features streaming music from all of the major labels as well as numerous smaller companies, with numerous free downloadable tracks.

ItsFreeDownloads.com - Finding the free downloads on iTunes can be a chore, this site does the work for you and lets you know what’s free each week.

Jamendo.com - Artists upload their albums under Creative Commons, allowing new listeners to discover their work. Although free, there is the opportunity to donate to the performers of your choice.

Last.fm - While most people know Last.fm for its streaming and social aspects, they offer a weekly chart of downloadable free mp3s.

LegalTorrents.com - Proving that not all BitTorrent activity is illegal, LegalTorrents is filled with completely legal material.

Live Music Archive - Part of Archive.org, features thousands of live performances by smaller bands as well as the likes of the Grateful Dead and Jason Mraz.

MetalHordes.com - A band promotion site focusing on various forms of heavy metal, and allowing bands to upload mp3s users can download for free.

MP3.com - Besides their paid section, MP3.com does offer a large selection of free tracks from acts small and large alike.

MP3.com.au - Focusing on Australian bands, mp3.com.au offers a repository for bands to upload their music for people to download and try for free.

MP34U - Works in conjunction with Muzic.com, this site finds sources of free music & legal music from all over the Web.

MP3Raid.com - Searches multiple sources to bring you approximately a million free song downloads.

Muzic.com - A sister site to MP34U, wherein the artists upload their tracks themselves, and muzic.com helps them promote their work.

Purevolume.com - Allows independent musicians to set up profiles for themselves, stream their music and gives them the option of enabling their work for free downloads.

Ruckus.com - Ruckus provides free music to people with .edu email addresses, and requires you to renew your licenses for DRM once a year.

SoundClick.com - Offering a mixture of signed and unsigned artists the opportunity to set up profile pages and either stream their music or offer it up for free downloads.

SpiralFrog.com - Major release albums and tracks available for the price of just watching some advertisements.

Stereogum.com - Daily free mp3s from various artists, as well as rotating free albums.

TuneShout.com - A site for independent artists to promote themselves. Artists can upload tracks either for free or at a user cost of $0.89.

We7.com - We7 offers mp3 downloads for free, but they do have advertisements attached to them. If you want them without the ads, they do offer a paid alternative.

(Via Mashable)

8 Good Reasons to Be a Lousy Musician

2008-07-10T02:16:00.000-07:00

June 30th, 2008 in Featured, Lifestyle

I’m a crappy guitarist. In the 20 years that I’ve been playing, I can’t once remember playing scales, and I’ve never sat down to "practice". I still have trouble with F-chords, I have awful right-hand technique, and my tempo has been known to swing from too fast to too slow without ever hitting "just right".

I wouldn’t give it up for the world.

See, I realized a long time ago that I wasn’t going to be a Famous Rock Star, or even a semi-locally-famous folky. That dream I have where Ronnie’s down for the count and I have to fill in on-stage with the Rolling Stones — and we’re going on in 5 minutes! — would always be just a dream (thankfully).

That realization freed me to stop trying to be cool and to just enjoy playing, and to this day my guitar is the one thing I own that I would consider going into a burning building for. Playing guitar has stopped being something I do for everyone else (even if they weren’t listening) and has become one of the few things I do simply for the sheer enjoyment of it.

You, too, should be a lousy musician

Everyone should have at least one thing in their life that they do for no other reason than that they enjoy it. As it turns out, though, it’s harder to do things for their own sake than it would seem! Collectors dream about the Big Find that will make them rich, writers dream of the best selling novel that will get them on Oprah, crafters and handy types think about how much money they’re saving on gifts and household necessities — and musicians dream about their big break with the Rolling Stones.

To be able to revel in an activity that you’re not all that good at and that you don’t care that you’re not all that good at, to strive for and embrace mediocrity in some area of our lives, that’s a hard thing for a lot of us to do.

But it’s worth it. Here are eight things I get out of being a crappy guitarist:

C) There’s no pressure.

If i never get even the tiniest bit better than I am right now, it won’t matter. Nobody’s life, freedom, or even happiness depends on how well (or poorly) I play "Rocky Raccoon". Whether I improve or don’t improve is totally irrelevant to anything or anyone but me.

D) It creates a social bond between myself and others.

I’ve met thousands of other crappy guitarists over the course of my life, and a few great ones. Being a guitarist myself creates a connection between us, gives us something to talk about. Guitarists are always giving each other little gifts — showing each other how to play a tricky part of a song, teaching each other new chords or new ways to make old chords, sharing licks and riffs with each other.

And, of course, non-musicians are always interested in the fact that I play. It gives them something to talk to me about (apparently my knowledge of early Cold War government sponsorship of social scientific research doesn’t give them much to hold onto!) and, of course, it is mildly entertaining for them to hear me play.

E) It creates a social bond between other people.

I carried an acoustic guitar with me all over Europe for a year, keeping it under my bed in hostel after hostel, carting it in it’s heavy reinforced case from town to town on busses and trains, dragging it through the streets of Paris, Prague, Budapest, and Amsterdam. And I’m glad I did.

Not just because playing in hostels and on park benches helped me make friends, but because it helped the people around me make friends. Once a roomful of travelers have sung "American Pie" at the top of their lungs together (badly), the ice is pretty much broken. People start interacting, because nothing can make them feel any more self-conscious.

F) I get immediate gratification.

I pick up a guitar, finger a chord, and strum, and music comes out. What could be more rewarding? I play, music happens. Instantly.

And if I try something tricky, I can hear on the spot whether it worked or not. If I’m trying to figure out a song, I’ll try all manner of different things, until suddenly I hit the strings a few times and the song I’m trying to learn starts coming out.

G) I’ve developed a new appreciation of music.

Because I’m always listening to music with an ear towards learning how to play it, I’ve become adept at working out how the different pieces fit together, and what makes each of them work, apart and together.

Aside from the increased formal appreciation of usic, I’ve also become much more appreciative of the work that a musician has to do to make a song work. Songs I might have — heck, did — totally dismissed at one point I listen to quite seriously today, because I know how difficult it is to make even a bad song.

A) Playing music creates mindfulness.

Guitar playing is, for me, a kind of meditation. There have been too many time to count when, looking for a moment’s distraction, I’ve ended up playing for hours. When you’re playing, your attention is (usually) focused entirely on the here and now, the unfolding of notes and chords into melodies and, ultimately, songs. This kind of mindfulness means I’m living entirely in the present, even if just for a few moments — a skill that most of us, with our crazy lives and hectic schedules, have a hard time cultivating.

B) It’s relaxing.

Just listening to music is often enough to help ease the stress of our day-to-day lives; making music is a thousand times more effective (as long as you’re not worrying about how you’ll deal with your groupies after you’ve broken big on MTV). The combination of mindfulness and almost willful mediocrity lets me ease up on myself and just be for a little while, clearing my head and soothing the tensions that build up over the course of the day.

C) It’s just for me.

Finally, playing music is something that I do solely because it makes me happy. While I can and do share my playing with others, in the end I play for entirely selfish reasons: because I feel like it.

What are you lousy at?

I think everyone should be lousy at something they love. What do you do that you simply don’t care if you ever get any better at it, that you do just because it pleases you to do it? Let us know!

(Via LifeHack)

To Musical Or Not To Musical

2008-07-09T01:57:00.000-07:00

That is the question.

I took a job where musicals were a yearly tradition and didn't do a musical...

In my defense I was a first year teacher teaching 10 classes

2 4th Grade General Music Classes
5th Grade Band
6th Grade Band
Jr High Choir
Jr High Band
High School Concert Band
High School Jazz Band
High School Choir
High School Audition Choir

Something had to go and I chose the biggest thing... The Musical

Year Two

I might have worked out a way to pull off a musical this year.

In the past the used to have only one choir at the High School. Then the year before I got there the teacher split the choir into a General Choir and an Audition Choir.

See the Problem Yet?

With two seperate classes rehersals have to take place after school unless you could some how perfectly cast the scenes by class. Not happening.

You may say well then do after school rehersals thats not so bad. Well it is when over half of the studnets in the school are also the star athletes in the school.

So you have sports practices then play practice when do students do homework or sleep?

Short Answer? They don't

Not enough anyway. Teachers complained of studnets falling asleep in class and class work serverly lagging.

I could go on but I will suffice it to say that this pattern doesn't work, at least not in my district.

FFwd to this year.

We still have two seperate choirs. Audition and General Choir but....

The Audition Choir meets in a zero hour before school time slot and...

Everyone in Auditon Choir is required to be in the General Choir as well. This means that everyone is - back in one class - at the same time - during school.

Problem Solved?

Does this allow me to teach 10 classes and yet add a Musical back into the "tradition"?

Stay tuned and well find out together this year. :)