Monday 3/28/2011 Bicycle Built for Two

My “Bicycle Built for Two” assignment: Plus some fun computer/music history!

http://www.noteflight.com/scores/view/3e8231c80f7676eda5f26a346594695ee7bc5d07

My thoughts on Noteflight:

I found Noteflight simple to use.  A few things frustrated me until I found the right way to input them into the score.  For personal use I like MuseScore better. For classroom lessons Noteflight has real advantages because students can easily click and drag notes to the pitches they want played. I like that it is a program that does not need to be downloaded onto the computer.  I could use this in the classroom or the computer lab with my students. I found the Pieces of Eight part of the assignment to be a useful activity this week since this is a lesson that can be transferred into my classroom. I could have students from one class working on a shared piece of music, or students from other buildings in the district can work together to compose a combined work.

***I am now trying to add my section to our Pieces of Eight composition. I am finding it extremely frustrating.  I am constantly, accidentally adding and deleting things from other students.  I have resorted to composing my own “new” piece and will transfer it later.  I am now not so sure I would use this in my classroom as a combined work.  I am just hear the complaints from students now, “he/she deleted my work." I would only use this program for students to create their own personal compositions or in very small groups of students.  I also find the scrolling among all the different voices to be problematic for me. This should not be a problem as I have a very large laptop screen.  If I were at home this week I would have to resort to composing on my husband’s desktop, as it has two giant monitors hooked up, though I am not sure that would alleviate the problem since the program only seems to allow to view a few voices at a time.

 

On a slightly different note, I found it amusing that A Bicycle Built for Two was chosen for us to work on since the first computer to synthesize speech and sing with music sang this song.

You can see the original computer in this youtube link.  Daisy Bell:A Bicycle Built for Two can be heard in about min. 0.36

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebK4wX76RZ4

 

Here is a synopsis from the youtube site:

The first computer-based speech synthesis systems were created in the late 1950s, and the first complete text-to-speech system was completed in 1968. In 1961, physicist John Larry Kelly, Jr and colleague Louis Gerstman used an IBM 704 computer to synthesize speech, an event among the most prominent in the history of Bell Labs. Kelly's voice recorder synthesizer (vocoder) recreated the song "Daisy Bell", with musical accompaniment from Max Mathews. Coincidentally, Arthur C. Clarke was visiting his friend and colleague John Pierce at the Bell Labs Murray Hill facility. Clarke was so impressed by the demonstration that he used it in the climactic scene of his screenplay for his novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, where the HAL 9000 computer sings the same song as it is being put to sleep by astronaut Dave Bowman. Despite the success of purely electronic speech synthesis, research is still being conducted into mechanical speech synthesizers.

Here is HAL singing “Daisy Bell” from 2001: A Space Odyssey in his death scene. Song starts in min: 5.30 of video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85wCw3ArNhs&feature=player_embedded

 

This video puts the two together, the original machine and an image of HAL.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhxTK4qTjh0&feature=player_embedded  

Sunday 3/20/2011

Here is another “Classics for Kids Podcast.” (http://www.classicsforkids.com/) This one talks about pop music back in Mozart’s day, Janissary Music. The bass drums, triangles, and cymbals are discussed in this short clip about Turkish music. This would be nice to share when your kids are leaning about the percussion family. I’ll use it later this year when my kindergarten classes make cymbals (out of paper plates.) 

http://npr.vo.llnwd.net/kip0/_pxn=0+_pxK=10412/anon.npr-podcasts/podcast/704/510237/134676068/WVXU_134676068.mp3

Sunday 3/20/2011 (3/27/2011) PLN:3/2

Week 3: Interesting find(s) #2

While looking through the TED archives I found these two videos. 

In this little video Bobby McFerrin has the whole audience singing with very little guidance. This would be a fun lesson to do with the kids. I would imagine the kids would love to be the one who gets to “pretend” to be Bobby and hop around while the classmates follow vocally. This could allow for improv in the room.

The website description:

In this fun, 3-min performance from the World Science Festival, musician Bobby McFerrin uses the pentatonic scale to reveal one surprising result of the way our brains are wired.

 

http://www.ted.com/talks/bobby_mcferrin_hacks_your_brain_with_music.html

This video is more or the technical side of what happens in the brain during music improvisation. 

The website description:

Musician and researcher Charles Limb wondered how the brain works during musical improvisation -- so he put jazz musicians and rappers in an fMRI to find out. What he and his team found has deep implications for our understanding of creativity of all kinds.

http://www.ted.com/talks/charles_limb_your_brain_on_improv.html

 

I have used this video in the past to introduce my young students to improve. Our main stars in this clip are the very lovable Muppets. The Muppets provide much entertainment in my classroom. 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NA90IlymdZ4 

Sunday 3/20/2011 (3/27/2011) PLN:3/1

Week 3: Interesting find #1

I am a clarinetist and most woodwind instruments are pretty easy for me to teach, however, there are times then the bassoon baffles me. Here is a GREAT website dedicated to the bassoon.  The “units” were what I found to be most helpful for a beginning bassoonist.  Everything you need is at your fingertips, fingering chart, a new piece to play, and an audio clip.  The best part is that the unit can be printed as a PDF for those who may not have the technology available in the band room. There is even a video about how to assemble and disassemble the instrument! 

http://www.musicandthebassoon.org/

 

Now I need to find if there are more like this for other instruments. What a great find!

Saturday 3/19/2011

Here is a fun website.  I noticed that a program like this was used in our class within our first reading (found on page 2).  I thought I would share just in case you have never used it.  It can be used for lyrics, classroom rules, and a bunch of other things. I used my blog and made an image.  The program captures the words used most often and makes them stand out the most. MAYBE it would be helpful for papers! It could let you know what words were used often! It’s a fun program to use in class.  I used it when my kids were writing lyrics for their operas and we had the image from the website be their “CD” art.

http://www.wordle.net/

Image of my blog prior to this post:

 

Image of my blog after this post: I have customized the colors. You can see how some of the major words have changed.

Here is a website of color codes, so that you can easily customize the colors of your own image.

http://wiki.sa-mp.com/wiki/Hex_colours  
 

Thursday 3/17/2011

Useful website :)

There is one website that I go to often for the quick printable. (http://www.makingmusicfun.net/).  In this site, I can print practice charts, theory worksheets, meet the composter readings, meet the orchestra readings, and much more.  All of the information is easy to access and easy to print.  It is also something that my young students enjoy. Since the “print” option takes you to a PDF version of the worksheet, you could even “save” it and show it through your computer on the overhead projector.  In addition, there are a few games to play.

Sunday 3/13/2011 PLN:2/2

Week2: Interesting find #2!!!

Are you a percussionist?  I am not, not at all, not even a little bit.

Due to my lack of percussion skills, I had a hard time when I was teaching band.  Not anymore!  I found this super-neat website that will demonstrate a bunch of percussion skills. YAY! Here is the description from the website:

“The rudiment in each of the audio files below above at the slowest tempo marked and is played at a consistent tempo for 4 measures. The tempo is then moved up 4 beats per minute and the rudiment is repeated - eventually ending at the fastest tempo notated for the level.”

Enjoy.

http://www.vicfirth.com/education/rudiments.php

Sunday 3/13/2011 PLN:2/1

Week 2: Interesting find #1!!!

o-o-o is opera, opera, opera,

o-o-o is O. Oopperaa. Oopperaa! (From the Phonics Dance, http://teacherweb.com/OH/SylvaniaCitySchools/LTempleton/How-To-Phonics-Dance-PDF.pdf). 

This “Classics for Kids Podcasts” (http://www.classicsforkids.com/) is awesome.  This podcast is called, Classic For Kids-Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Mozart’s Operas. It tells all about different types of opera, such as “The Marriage of Figaro.”  I teach a opera unit to my 3^rd and 4^th grade classes. Somehow I manage to get my 4^th grade boys excited about opera. I usually show “what’s opera doc” and “Myth Busters,” the episode where they prove that high pitches CAN break glass (I don’t show the whole episode, only the relevant parts, since it is not rated “G”).  I will add this podcast to my lesson! 

http://podcastdownload.npr.org/anon.npr-podcasts/podcast/704/510237/134479438/WVXU_134479438.mp3?_kip_ipx=2081712682-1299963382

Saturday 3/12/2011

This is not music technology, but rather something for math.  I still thought it was worth sharing; something you can forward to the math teachers in your building.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTFEUsudhfs&feature=player_embedded

Saturday 3/12/2011

Thought I would share!

I was trolling You Tube today and found this very silly performance.  I thought everyone here may enjoy it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKCzv_gYMjo&feature=related

Tuesday 3/8/2011 PLN:1/2

Week 1: Interesting find #2!!!

The website below would bring me HOURS of fun. It is full of ear training games with quite a few exercises to choose from, ranging from solfege, notation, and intervals. Basically the program will play a note and you need to determine its relationship to the tonic. This is a fun way to train the ear and also give a visual for all of those people who are visual learners. It is also quite entertaining for the auditory learners like me.

http://www.musicalmind.org/

Tuesday 3/8/2011 PLN:1/1

Week 1: Interesting find #1!!!

Today I was looking at my Google Reader and was drawn into Classics for Kids Podcasts. (http://www.classicsforkids.com/)  I was drawn to one about Beethoven called Classics for Kids–Ludwig van Beethoven: Music that imitated inanimate objects.  This is a podcast that I could use in my classroom when I teach a composer unit or a tempo unit or even a syncopation unit.  All three topics were touched upon in this podcast.  It begins by explaining what inanimate object is being imitated (a metronome). There if a brief history about the metronome, some discussion on tempo and a comparison to a person’s heartbeat. The podcast then goes on to share other music that imitates inanimate objects, such as a clock. The fairy tale Cinderella is even mentioned.  This would be something that would capture the attention of my students and could enrich a lesson and jump-start into a new one!

http://podcastdownload.npr.org/anon.npr-podcasts/podcast/704/510237/133131773/WVXU_133131773.mp3?_kip_ipx=383248677-1299555592

Sunday 3/6/2011

Having a grand old time playing around with all the new techy-toys!

I thought I would explain the meaning behind the name of my blog.  BuffyCl is my handle for everything I use in tech-land.  It has a musical background in the creation of the name many moons ago.  When I was in fourth grade and acquired my clarinet, I decided that my instrument needed a good name.  Since it is a Buffet clarinet, she was named Buffy.  When I was in high school, and internet chatting was booming, I used buffy as my AOL handle and added that “Cl” as an abbreviation for Clarinet.  The name has nothing to do with Buffy the Vampire Slayer.    

Now to spend time designing my blog.