Groups > Music Technology

Hi everyone,
So glad I found this site ,(thanks to my Irish colleague here in Indonesia)
I am from the Philippines working here as a music teacher.
This is a great help for us music teachers to get update with the technology.
I am also in the process of pursuing further musical growth by studying different softwares for audio and visual presentation..

thanks
JAY

Hello all,

Have recently been lucky enough to install 16 iMacs in my music room and am getting through my first year of delivering the NCFE Music Technology course. Eventually, I'll produce some resources and upload here.

Ian

Hi,
I am just wondering, is Music Tech a seperate subject in the UK based Music education model? I teach Music to 11 - 18year olds and within that we do a basic Music Tech course on notation mainly with some Adobe Audition.
Steve

Go for Macs if possible. I've had so many headaches with PCs and the programmes seem to be much more accessible and run smoother on macs. (A level teacher for over 15 yrs)

Hi everyone

My name is Mark and I am a music technology lecturer at Leicester College; i have developed a free music education website at www.musicproducerxxx.com and am looking for music technology/music lecturers to post video tutorials onto the site - it's all free to access and I hope that it will be one of the largest digital repositories of music education videos in the world. So if you have any videos that you have made please register with the site and upload!

Mark

Hi people,
I am an NQT who will be teaching A Level Music (OCR and AQA) as well as BTec in the near future.
The Music Technology facilities could do with an update and I am in the process of ordering new software and computer equipment.
Does anyone have an opinion on the merits of PCs vs Macs?
Schools i have taught in generally use Macs with Protools, Logic, Garageband and Reason, though PCs are cheaper and from my experience offer semi-professional programs which are just as good (Acid Pro, Reason, Cubase).
I would appreciate anyone with experience in this matter to offer their opinion...
Thanks in advance.

Hi,
I teach on a BTEC music practice course and we have managed to incorporate some music tech units in the spec for those who don't play an instrument. I teach 16 to 19 year olds at Hayes Community Campus. A few of my learners have problems with numbers and generally song structures. Part of the lessons i teach concentrate on analysing some song, and cutting them in a sequencer so that they can visualise the structures better.

I have done an exercise called the "Human Sequencer" where we draw a four bar grid on the floor with tape. Each students then had to place themselves on the grid so that they would reflect the image given by a matrix (like in Logic) In other words, three studnets would be the bass drums, others, the snare and they had to place themselves at different positions ( BD 1 on 1.1.1 , SN on 1.2.1 or off beat etc...) There was a conductor as well, the conductor was walking alongside the grid triggering his fellow co learners as he passed by. Each student depending on Their voice would sing out like a bass drum or a snare drum or hats when the conductor's arms (acting like a cursor on the timeline) would pass in fromt of them.

The exercise went down really well and gave a chance for the less able students to compare how we divide music in time and how the subdivisions(16th note ) really relate together.

Anyone out there would have some creative ways of teaching sequencing or more generally the concept behind it.
Many Thanks
G

I need to find what accreditation is required in order to teach music technology in prisons. I am a sound designer and have extensive experience working with Cubase, Sound Forge and other software. Also, I recently acquired a teaching award from City & Guilds, but not sure what else I need. Could you help? Thank you for your time

Bobby

Thanks for your reply re: Access to Music, I'll have a look their site and see what is available.

Keith

I was recently teaching in a school using NCFE units and I wasn' that impressed with them. They only offer up to a Level 2 and like you said, are designed for under 16's...

I would recommend highly that you contact Access to Music (http://www.accesstomusic.co.uk) and have a look at their units. They offer up units in Music Tech at levels 1,2 and 3 as well as units in music performance. The units are more practical based and are accepted by a wide variety of other institutions if your students wish to progress. The level 3 qualification will allow access to HE for example.

bobby

Hiya, I was reading your comments about teaching in a prison and the NCFE stuff. I used to teach adult learners who were definately 19+ at South East Essex College. So I'm sure NCFE can sort a course out for you. Regarding the 10 week time length, that can be got round by the number of guided learning hours. From what I rememeber, they stipulated something like 30 hours per unit and 5 units were required. Therefore a total of 150 teaching hours, divide by 10 (for weeks) and you would have to tell the prison you can do it, but you would need at least 15 hours teaching time for the students, hope that makes sense. Please do check the official hours required, I'm sure it could be got round if the prison are really keen to offer a course. Andy

hello...my name is david oneill..i am a music instructor at the brand new corby business acadamy in corby northants...i teach on apple mac with garage band and a program called reason...i also teach real instruments and organise and run an after school rock acadamy with over 45 students attending every wednesday which is great for any after school club...we have beginners to able players and have formed 2 full rock bands ...i invite young local bands in to do music workshops and play a few tunes to inspire the students ....with garage band , and real sounds we are currently trying for air time at the local radio station......we also are starting community based workshops for people who would never have the chance to take part in music...i would also like teacher tv to air a program about the sucess of this club which i have blueprinted and could be perfromed any where...is there anyone else who does this kind of project who would like to share good practice...i have made my mistakes and am in a possition to help others....

Dear all, I am a graduate frm the university of herfordshire in Commercial music Technology who has kind of lost his way in the world. Graduating two years ago, i decided to try live a little a rent out my own place, with refusal to move home. little did i know i then got into the vicious circle of trying to hold onto any job i got (none music related) just so that i could pay the bills. I have finally come to my senses, im moving home. after years of goofing around i have decided to try and get into teaching music technology to AS/A level students. however all leads to doing a pgce and in Music. what i want to ask to anyone who is kind enough to shed some light on this, is that do i have to do a pgce in music to become a music technology teacher? I would prefer to be teaching 16-18yrs so is there any sort if direct way of getting there?

any information would be greatly appreciated!

Chee

GREAT news from you brother



______________________
Belford High School

Hi my name is Keith Hurley, I live in Milton Keynes (UK) and my background is as an award winning DJ/Producer/Turntablist. I have been asked to deliver a Music Technology course in 2 prisons in the Aylesbury/Buckinghamshire area.

Equipment wise I have:

Prison 1 -

1x PC (with Delta LT1010 soundcard) running Steinberg Cubase 4 & Audacity
2x Apple iMac running Steinberg Cubase 4& Audacity
1x Apple MacBookPro running Steinberg Cubase 4 & Audacity
1x M-Audio USB MIDI Controller Keyboard
3x Korg microKONTROL USB MIDI Controller Keyboard

The Mac's have the advantage of having Garageband pre-installed with the OS X operating system too!

Prison 2 -

2x Apple MacBook Pro running Steinberg Cubase 4
1x Sony VAIO Laptop running Steinberg Cubase 4
1x Rock Laptop running Steingberg Cubase 4
3x M-Audio Oxygen 8 v2 USB MIDI Controller Keyboard

I would like from this forum to get advice on courses that I can offer. For education classes to be offered in offender institutes the courses must be accredited by a recognised awarding body. I have looked at the NCFE courses but the only short course that is suitable (Introductory Award in Music Technology) states that is is for pre-16 learners however I will need a short course (10 weeks maximum) that I can deliver to age 19+.

Any ideas on short accredited Music Technology courses please?

You sound just perfect for the role!

Hi Bob

My name is Freddie Pritchard and I have just finnished my A-Levels and I got ACC, one C in music tech. I am looking to study Popular music studies @ Goldsmiths and I need ABC, so I am nearly there. The school where I took my A Levels had a RUBISH music tech departmen, me being one of the only students so I am looking for a helpfull experenced to teacher to help me prepare to re-take during Oct, Nov and Dec. I am currently working as a runner in a recording studio in Soho so I will be looking for a lesson or two a week in the afternoon. I am living in west london but I am happy to comute anywhere in london. It is a possibility that I could re-take one of my courseworks as my MIDI exam was ok. I am only 15 marks or so off the be grade so making one peice of coursework better over the next few months would be great, so that I could re-submit it in jan,

I would love it if you or any other teachers on this site would get back to me as this does require imidiate attention,

My email is fred_pritchard_@hotmail.co.uk

I would pay you whatever fee you ask for (If reasonable)

Freddie

MS PowerPoint sometimes.

Interactive data projector (requires SW)

Camtasia - records and publishes what happens on the screen. Brilliant.

Tried using a piece of 'noise level' SW.

Electronic Teachers Chronicle - maybe just for Aus, but it keeps heaps of data in an Access database.

Lots of Teacher Tube and some teacher TV stuff.

Scans of hard copies into PDF's.

Great topic.

Dave

Western Australia

Thank you or your introduction.
I am an aging instrumental teacher but keen to use technology to enhance my sessions which range from teaching whole classes of KS 2 children (Wider Opportunities programme)
So far I have used
a Sony mini disc player/recorder which provides good recordings
a video camera useful fo session evaluation

recently I have bought a fostex MR8HD digital multi tracker. I am just getting into using it and already have founs it a useful tool for mixing recordings and then ssending them over to my lap top computer which has Wavelab to make a final edit before converting into mp3 files or burning on to cds.

I use SIbelius (currently Sibelius 4) for composing pieces. I can also conert scores into tiffs for ease of displaying on Powerpoint for presentation to classes.I can also produce wav files from Sibelius to use as back ground to the powerpoint presentations. Despite having the garritan personal orchestra ; I am still not impressed by the brass and string sounds. Please could you help me resolve this?
Cheers,
kernowmuse

The first question for the group I'd like to ask is "What software do you use in your class...and why?"
This is not a software slagging thread, I just want to create a discussion on why you use certain software in the classroom...

Some possible reasons:
1) This is what you learnt on yourself
2) This is what the school had when I started teaching there
3) The music education consultant recommended it
4) Saw it in a magazine/trade paper
5) Recommended by a colleague
6) Students asked for it

The software(s) I prefer to use for teaching are FL Studio, Cubase, Hammerhead, Acid and Audacity.

FL Studio: easy to use interface and is just as deep as Cubase and Logic once you get into it. Producer Edition records audio.
Many people have it and it's an extremely reasonable price. (especially for educational discounts.)
Unfortunately many people slate this software because of it's ease of use. I don't think they've bothered to "look under the hood" to see how deep this particular program is.

Cubase: low learning curve to teach professional sequencing and audio recording. Good price for educational use. Newest version adds built in samples- ideal for MIDI file playback. Lots of free VSTi's and effects available to supplement the sound sources it comes with.

Hammerhead: Freeware drum machine that contains single hits and loops of audio, one of the best for introducing step sequencing concepts.
Very creative tool and useful in teaching situations where there are few or no audio loops for students to access.

Acid: amazingly easy to use program for timestretching and arranging audio (basically a paint program for audio). Newer versions can use VSTi's and MIDI as well. Records audio and has effects busses.
I find this program great for working with remixing and mash-ups... the learning curve is very very low (as opposed to Ableton Live which I think has a cluttered unintuitive interface, personally). I have used this program with children as young as 9.

Audacity: Freeware hard disk editor. Just as useful as Wavelab, Sound Forge or Audition but is absolutely free...ideal for low budgets (and can be given to students to allow them to work at home)

What do YOU use???

bobby

Hi. I'm the Group Leader for this new forum and would like to welcome everyone and introduce myself.
My name is bobby demers and I presently teach Music Technology Level 2 and 3 at Kensington and Chelsea College, as well as for CM Ltd (formerly Community Music) and the A-team Arts in Tower Hamlets. I am an active musician and technologist, with drums being my main instrument but I also play percussion, bass, keyboards and guitar.
I am originally from Canada but live and work in London (since 1988).
I started teaching when I was 16 in Secondary School, showing the younger drummers rudiments and kit techniques. The drummer ethos of sharing information with each other is very strong in my approach to teaching.

I have been working with Music Tech since about 1983 when I came across my first drum machines (Linn 9000 and EMU Emulator) during recording sessions with a band I played for at the time. I realised there and then that if I didn't get my head around this new-fangled gear, I would soon be out of a gig!
Wasn't long before I was investigating building my own drum triggers for my acoustic set to play the keyboard and drum sounds from the MIDI equipment I had purchased, a Yamaha RX5 drum machine and a DX9 keyboard. I spent countless hours figuring out this MIDI thing so I could get my drum machine to play bass lines from the keyboard. As a matter of fact, many technology musicians/teachers I've come across over the years have started the same way.

Cut to 1994 and I graduate from the Music Tutor Training Course(MTTC)at Community Music which was on Farringdon Road at the time. I fully expected to be teaching drums and rhythm work to groups of kids in different educational environments when I entered the world of professional teaching. Lo and Behold, I was asked if I could teach MIDI and sequencing to young adults as CM was going start to offer this as a course.
Remember, back in those days there were NO music tech courses as such and I remember all the problems we had trying to get the course accredited. No one was ready for this type of program yet! We approached OCN London and wrote our own course with their advice and experience, so that our students could get decent accreditation.
The teaching I did was originally with 4 students at a time, using a drum machine, a hardware sequencer (the Alesis MMT-8), a keyboard and an Akai S-950 sampler. Atari ST's using Cubase were used with a separate group of 4 (with a different teacher) and entered everyone's teaching curriculum the following year.
Every 5 years the course was rewritten and took in the different changes that were happening technologically.
By the third run of the course all the students were on individual PC's using Cubase, FL Studio, Adobe Audition, Hammerhead and various instrument plug-ins and effects. The workstations were equipped with a keyboard and a hardware mixer to facilitate recording and the learning experience.

I was with CM for 14 years and worked with a vast array of students and teachers in many different educational situations and with many different age groups, both voluntary and statutory. PC/Macs, hardware, software, training teachers to work with music tech, training internal IT depts. to deal with the specific problems thrown up by music IT and consulting with primary and secondary schools in what would work best for them. I've also built and repaired/upgraded many PC's for schools and CM's teaching studio.

I'm presently teaching the Level 3 Access to Music course at KCC using G5 Imacs with Logic+Audacity and the Level 2's using PC's spec'ed with Cubase/Reason/Audacity. I'm also teaching the recording modules to both levels.

Hopefully this large body of work and experience will assist with running this group and getting people to share good practice and ideas for working with music technology in an educational environment.
I look forward to hearing peoples ideas on how they approach using the technology and I think we should always be open to new and interesting ideas to give the students the best experience and create the music they want to make :) (as well as fulfilling the requirements from the different accrediting bodies!)

bobby demers