The Quakers Quaver

*groan* Sorry, I couldn't help the title, since my school's (decidedly non-competitive-sounding) mascot shares all but one letter with my newest supplemental music curriculum for the Lower School.

Just to clear up any misconception, our Upper School Ultimate Frisbee team just won the NC State Championship. Go Quakers!

But I digress. What I actually plan to discuss in this blog entry is Quaver's Marvelous World of Music, a highly entertaining and interactive supplemental music curriculum. It all revolves around this guy:

Meet Graham Hepburn, aka "Quaver." A pianist and flamboyant music educator, Quaver is your students' guide through each Quaver episode and the interactive website.

Oops, I Did It Again...

Disappeared from my blog, that is! I have no excuse for not finishing out last school year, but I do have a pretty good excuse for 2012-13:

"Davey Jazz"

That's right, little musician number three! David Jasper was born on April 4, but due to preterm labor (again!) I had to leave school in late January. I'm on maternity leave (mostly) for the rest of the school year.

The Fall was pretty exciting, and I'll be writing several blog entries to catch up before I start updating my iPad app lists. Here is a visual sneak preview!

Another Long Overdue Update!

Hello world! When things get busy, my blog gets neglected. Now I have way too much for one blog post, but here are a few highlights from the past two months:

• Since Winter Break, Lower School students have enjoyed playing the Boomwhackers and ukuleles, exploring musical instrument apps on the iPads (especially Isle of Tune, which is also available as an interactive website), using the interactive whiteboard to drag-and-drop notes and to play with Sibelius Groovy Music, and learning several new songs, including "What a Wonderful World," "What Can One Little Person Do," and "You Gotta Sing!"

• An enthusiastic group of Lower Schoolers sang a 3-part version of "This Little Light of Mine" at our annual Martin Luther King Day celebration.

• Each Forest and Mountain music class (3rd and 4th grade) has created a collaborative song in GarageBand. Each student came up with a melody "snippet" on their recorder or ukulele, then we combined the snippets into longer melodies, recorded them on virtual instruments, and added accompaniment. We're now adding our own recorders and ukes to the mix, but in the meantime you can have a listen:
• Mountain class 3rd-years
• Mountain class 4th-years
• Forest class 3rd-years
• Forest class 4th-years

• Lower School challenge: While creating these collaborative songs, a group of 3rd-years tried to convince me that repetition makes music boring. I have challenged them to find me a song that does not repeat ANY melody. It needs to be in a genre they might hear on the radio (not counting contemporary music hour on the classical station). They aren't allowed to write the song themselves, and it has to be a full-length song (i.e., no commercial jingles). If there's a winner, there will be a big prize!

• Middle School is nearing the end of the 2nd trimester--wow! This week is the MS play, "Inherit the Wind," which will include a performance of 4 songs by my MS Gospel Choir. It's a small group (10), but they sound awesome singing in 2 and 3-part harmony. We even have a guest fiddler! If you're local, come enjoy the show Friday or Saturday night at 7:30, or the open dress rehearsal on Wednesday.

• I can't believe I haven't already posted this, but my first Middle School Service Day with my advisee group was a blast. We made dog and cat toys and collected treats and delivered them to the fabulous Orange County Animal Shelter. Much to my advisees' delight, I (accidentally?) adopted a dog. Here is Jilly:

How could I resist that face??? 3 dogs is barely more trouble than 2...

• Last week we had a Staff Development Half-Day on the topic of technology. I led two iPad workshops focused on apps for teachers to use for themselves or in teaching, but not necessarily for students. What a blast! As always, I learned as much from the workshop participants as they learned from me. If you have an interest in iPads, check out my Prezi here, or my iPad Mega List.

I'll post some more specific updates soon, and in the meantime, have a lovely week!

NCMEA Annual Conference Links and Notes

This weekend, I attended the North Carolina Music Educators Association annual conference in Winston-Salem. In addition to attending some inspirational workshops, exploring the exhibits (and making quite a few purchases for my program), and hearing various all-state ensembles and choirs, I presented three music technology clinics as a part of NC TI:ME. Below are some notes and links from the presentations.

iPads in General Music

Here is a link to the Prezi I created for this workshop. In it, you'll find the names and prices of all the apps we discussed, and some ideas for integrating iPads into your curriculum.

Please also visit my iPad App Mega-Lists to read more about apps and see some screenshots.

Using iPads to teach a composition-based curriculum

Many of the ideas in my Prezi are for composition-based projects. I frequently write about my students' composition projects on my blog.

Using What You Have: Technology for the Imperfect Classroom

The best resources for the online music educator: the Music Educators' Personal Learning Network, and the National Association for Music Education

Two of my favorite tools for the classroom, planning, and personal use: Curio (Mac only), and Evernote (works on any platform including mobile)

For flexible, paperless lesson planning on the Mac, PC, or iPad, I use Jeff Hellman's Planbook

To keep a database of my students and their work, I use Bento

The eBeam Edge, a less expensive interactive whiteboard option

For the handy type, create your own interactive whiteboard with a Wiimote!

Portable, affordable, and durable MIDI entry keyboard: the Akai LPK 25

My favorite USB microphone for podcasting or performance: the Blue Snowball

RC Trackpad--turn your iOS device into a magic trackpad for your computer

Sibelius Groovy Music suite

Noteflight--free, web-based music notation software.

Indaba Music--free, web-based DAW, for audio recording and/or MIDI, with social networking features

Soundcloud--share audio tracks in the cloud

The Petrucci Music Library--a huge collection of public domain scores and recordings

ArtsEdge--activities and lesson plans

Ricci Adams Music Theory Net

Morton Subotnick's Creating Music site

Explore the orchestra at Play Music

I'll be putting my recorder and ukulele Keynotes online soon. In the meantime, you can check out my beginner's ukulele tutorials on YouTube.

And, finally, I must put a link to my incredible school, a magical place that encourages teachers and students to explore their passions!

Piedmont Youth and Family Orchestra

Yesterday afternoon I led my first concert as conductor of the Piedmont Youth and Family Orchestra in Chapel Hill. The orchestra has been in transition this Fall, so I just led the older orchestra in three pieces. Starting at our next rehearsal, I'll be conducting both the younger and older groups.

One of my favorite things about PYFO is that it is truly a family experience. Parents playing with us range from adult beginners to pros, showing kids that it's never too late to have fun making music! I had a blast playing violin with the younger orchestra and the advanced chamber orchestra. It was the first time I'd played my violin in public in (mumble) 18 years! 

We are looking to GROW! We have a place for string players of nearly any level, as well as a few wind players. Email me or leave a comment if you're interested. Our next performance will be on December 10 at University Mall in Chapel Hill.

Making a Sound Effects Board with an iPad

This year, I'm experimenting with putting Forest and Mountain classes (3rd and 4th grade) into semi-permanent small groups for projects. We all had a lot of fun with our first project a few weeks ago. Using a short, open-ended story and the app Soundslate, each group worked together to enhance the story with sound effects. They could use a maximum of 4 built-in sound effects, and were required to record all of the other sounds using the built-in microphone and their voices, bodies, or instruments in the music studio. Many groups chose to use no built-in sounds at all, which I loved!

Though I learned quite a bit to make this project go more smoothly the next time around, the first try was mostly a success. In addition to learning how much power sound can have over how we experience a story, I found myself facilitating conflict resolution and teaching some basic acoustics, too! In the end, this little story became everything from a comedy/adventure to violent horror. Groups delighted in surprising me with an unexpected sound or humorous twist.

Here is one board, ready for performance:

The story (okay to reproduce for educational purposes):

John and Violet were bored. It was a Saturday in October and it felt like there was nothing to do.

"Let's go for a walk," said Violet. "Maybe we'll find something interesting."

The two friends set out right away. At the end of Violet's street, they followed a dirt path into the thick woods behind her neighborhood, looking for adventure.

At first, everything seemed ordinary. Birds were chirping, squirrels chattering in the branches above them. Just as Violet was about to suggest turning around, John froze in his tracks.

"Listen," he whispered.

At first, Violet didn't hear anything but the breeze rustling the leaves. But when the breeze stopped, she heard it too. There was a strange singing in the distance, like nothing she had heard before. 

Violet felt a chill down her spine, but her curiosity got the better of her. "Come on, John, let's find it!"

John looked nervous, but he wouldn't say so. "Okay," he agreed.

The pair walked for what seemed like hours, not speaking so they could hear the strange music. Finally they reached a creek Violet had never seen before.

"Look!" cried John.

Violet followed his gaze across the creek and saw a tiny wooden house. It looked too small for an ordinary person to live in. Flowers were planted outside the little front door, and smoke came out of a chimney barely taller than Violet's shoulders. One of two windows the size of a sheet of paper was opened, and they could hear the music coming from inside.

"What do you think it is?" whispered John, but Violet didn't answer. She had already leapt across the creek and was knocking on the door.

"No!" shouted John, but it was too late. 

Busy busy busy!!

I have been neglecting my poor blog since the start of the school year. I'm even busier than usual! Here are a few updates:

• LS students have been enjoying xylophones (River and Sky), recorders (Mountain and Forest), and two iPad projects in Forest and Mountain that I'll be posting on later in more detail.
• LS Forest and Mountain classes have begun planning our big project for the year, involving the entire Lower School.... (mysterious wink)
• MS Music Rotation is getting creative with their Stomp Projects, which they'll be performing later today.
• MS Musicians' Workshop students have been composing, composing, composing! Students have worked on everything from pop songs with lyrics, to sequenced techno tracks, to an ambient concept album. Stay tuned for some audio clips!
• My MS Advisee group has set goals, sent a small tornado through my house at advisee outing, and is turning the Music House into a haunted music house for our Halloween fun.
• I have started conducting the Piedmont Youth Orchestra! More on that later, too!
• I will be presenting three technology clinics at the NC Music Educators Association conference in November. These are iPads in General Music, Using What You Have: Enhancing General Music with Technology, and Using iPads to Teach a Composition-Based Curriculum.

Blog, it's not you, it's me!