Blog: Catalysts & Connections

Thanks to Ted the blog system at the Music Educators Network has been completely upgraded and allows for multiple blogs to be hosted. Catalysts & Connections will be located at http://etobiasblog.musiced.net for now on.

The discussion of people creating music with computers and software is taking place among music educators, in internationally read newspapers, and in various online forums. With tools to create music becoming more and more accessible to almost anyone with computer access regardless of their music education, the question of who can and should be composing music seems to be a reoccurring one. Our field is probably at a point where the majority of music teachers recognize how composing is becoming… Read More »Students composing and sharing original music…

Track 1– Thanks to Jonathan Savage for his comment referencing some very exciting music education research on Ted’s post about Lucy Green and informal music education settings in the classroom. Track 2 – Looking for a prompt for getting your students composing? How about this idea.. Track 3 – If you are going to be working on sampling, rap music or electronic composition in your classroom, consider this interesting perspective on an important musical moment and its transformation over time.… Read More »Catalysts & Connections – A Music Education Mixtape V4

Thanks to the Music For All blog for the recent posts regarding No Child Left Behind legislation and its effect on arts programs including an editorial by a governor , a letter to the editor from a music student , an opinion piece in a newspaper from Utah, and a report from a DC education policy center. Some states are actually taking a proactive role to ensure that arts programs are not left behind.

Thanks to the riddim method for the post on this very interesting and amusing video clip that has some pretty fascinating implications for the future of performing live re-mixing. While the clip demonstrates the use of pre-existing music videos, with a little bit of imagination the (controversial) software he demonstrates can probably be used in some very interesting (and legal) ways in a music program. Imagine video taping your students performing music and then having another student use this software… Read More »Re-mixing the music video live