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Playdough piano?

Week 8

Today was one of the most interesting lessons I've ever had. Today focused on project-based learning and James brought some guests that have learnt how to program devices that can emit musical notes. In class, we opened up a program the Girls Programming Network made and we were taught to do some coding in order to play the 'playdough piano'. I never knew that you can use something like playdough to produce musical notes. It was really interesting to me. This was a really complicated topic for me because I've never learnt how to code or create anything as genius as this. I don't plan to do programming or coding in music as it is far from my skill level however this lesson is a good exemplar of project-based learning that students love and it opened my mind to hands-on music education and how important it is for not only children but for everyone because I found that everyone in the class including myself really enjoyed the lesson. Creating intriguing and interactive lessons like today encourages music participation in a classroom which may be a big problem in teaching especially when music is set mandatory for students, there will be students that may not enjoy music as a subject. Therin creating highly interactive lessons may improve music student participation.

Technology in Music Education: Text

Ableton!

Week 7

I am quite familiar with Ableton as it is one of the main DAW I use. Matt taught me so many new things about Ableton that I didn't even know existed because I would use Ableton to record a more live recording rather than using midi and the loops and samples Matt has taught us this lesson. With the loops Matt showed us I thought that Ableton would be an ideal program to use when doing a live looping performance which is something I have done before but I used a loop pedal that was very limiting because the loops pedal does not come with a click so I remember when I did try to loop using this device timing would be a big issue. With Ableton I found that it's way easier since everything is not only set out audibly but it is also set out visually and since it is a digital audio workstation, you can play a click track. I plan to use Ableton in a classroom as the loop feature can teach kids about harmony in a fun technological way.

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Technology in Music Education: Text

Synthesis and drum programming

week 6

I've only used a synth to play the piano as the synthesisers I've used had that piano option and I've always wondered what all the knobs on the synthesisers do. So today's lesson introduced me to the functions of a synthesiser. I learned that any sound from the synthesisers pretty much can be manipulated and controlled through controls and functions like attack, sustain, delay, decay and release. Learning this helped me understand how synthesisers work and I plan to use this knowledge if I end up producing a song using a synthesiser.


I'm not very much of a drummer myself so learning about drum programming is really useful for my production skills as I can easily produce a beat without having to actually play the drums. 

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Exploring this topic through Soundtrap inspired me to maybe produce a song on Soundtrap for my project as this software is easily accessible and includes really nifty features like the ADSR control pannel on their synthesisers as well as drum programming. 

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psssst! check my blog page on this website to see my process on my project for TME.

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Technology in Music Education: Text

Notation softwares!

week 4

For today's lesson we had a look at different notation softwares and what is ideal for a classroom. We had a look at the software Flat which is a free music notation website. I quite like the software's features. I found that it does the decent job of notating music electronically. The limiting thing I found about the software is that in comparison to the main notating software I use which is Sibelius, Flat does not have as many shortcuts or keybinds Sibelius has which does make notating music more tedious. Other than that, for a free software for students to use it has good instrument sound quality, the playback can play dynamics and accents notated in the music which in my past experience of using Flat in 2017 in my high school, they did not have these features. So seeing this updated has good potential for a music class. Here is a recording of what I notated during class

Technology in Music Education: Text

Creating a music video

Week 3

This week we grouped up with some classmates to create a music video. James provided us with awesome filming equipment including a camera, lighting and a sound mixer. My classmate Josephine and I decided to do an acoustic cover of Taylor Swift's Love Story for our group to film and for ourselves to edit later on in the course. I am quite familiar with recording music videos as I have done so in the past which you can see on this website on the about me page so I was not a stranger to filming music videos. The task we did today however was quite different to the music videos I've done in the past in terms of working around technical issues as we did face a technical issue of the sound mixer picking up me pressing down the sustain pedal on the piano loudly. To work around this I just had to take caution when pressing the sustain pedal so it doesn't make a loud, prominent noise that will be picked up from the sound mixer. Whereas if it was in the studios I've recorded live music videos in, they just have to turn some knobs on the soundboard to cancel out issues like this. I also have a habit of pulling away from the mic too much in louder vocal parts. My classmate pointed this out and I worked around it by taking caution in those louder sections, making sure I don't pull back too much or else the sound mixer won't be able to pick up what I was singing. Working around technical issues like these I find trains the collaboration with the technician aspect that I never got to experience in the music videos I've filmed in the past.

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Technology in Music Education: Text

Getting techy

Week 2

Today we learnt about the technical side of audio recording including what an audio interface is, how microphones work, different types of mics and what are signal flows and gain structure. I am quite familiar with these topics as in my course I got to complete the Sound and Recording Fundamentals unit which introduced me to the techy side of sound recording. Today's topic did refresh my memory of the topics covered in a fun and practical way as we were to create a podcast explaining USB audio interfaces, connecting a microphone, signal flow and gain structure, dynamic, usb and condenser mics and audio effects. Here is a video capturing our podcast: 

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If the video does not work click here

Technology in Music Education: Text

Learning to loop

Week 1

Unfortunately, I was unable to attend today’s class due to an NSW public transport issue. However, I had the luxury to watch the class through zoom. In today’s class, James introduced us to looping in Garageband. I did my loops on Ableton since I did not have Garageband. I've always been behind the mic most of the time when it comes to producing rather than behind the screen doing all the cool looping, sampling, synthesising, mixing and all the things producers do when creating music on a DAW. I felt that this lesson encouraged me to look further into working in DAWs because why not? I sing and I write and being able to have some knowledge on how to produce things would come in handy in my career. I feel like one thing that sets me back from exploring the world of producing is that I don't have the resources I'd like to have like a midi keyboard or a high-quality audio interface and a high-quality recording mic but learning about looping today made me realise that there is ways to work around not having a midi keyboard because when I was scrolling through the loops and the samples Ableton includes, I realised that I can play the piano without having to actually play the piano. As Ableton includes a lot of samples of piano chord progressions and the piano playing notes and chords.

Technology in Music Education: Text
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