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Project Ideas

Building instruments & music technology…..

Have you ever seen some of the interesting projects students work on in their technology (once known as “shop” ) classes and wished you could collaborate with those teachers to come up with a project that would combine music, technology and a little electrical engineering? Some students who like to work with electronics might want to try a little circuit bending. Other students might want to make their own electric guitar out of say, an IKEA table or construct high… Read More »Building instruments & music technology…..

Beatboxing flutists in your school?

There’s a good chance that your students have seen the beatboxing flutist on youtube. Have any of them tried this out? If not why not have them give it a try? Perhaps this could be an entry point to explore many different kinds of extended techniques which could lead to some interesting additions to the types of playing happening in your school!  

The next generation of concert notes?

Besides being a great resource for information on music and composers, the Online Conservatory (a project of Northeastern University and the Boston Symphony Orchestra) serves as a possible model for the next generation of concert notes. While many music teaches have their students work on concert notes for programs, the use of multimedia resources could add an interesting dimension to your program. Why not have students analyze the music they are performing, do some research and then create an audio… Read More »The next generation of concert notes?

Pre-mixing Rjd2

 Pre-Mixing Rjd2 I’m a big fan of musicians allowing people to remix their music. Hip Hop musician Rjd2 is currently allowing people to pre-mix his music. Unlike a remix in which one works on a piece of music already created, Rjd2 has provided people with samples from a track yet to be released and inviting people to create their own music from the samples. Rather than providing loops he has provided samples as hits. It will be interesting to see… Read More »Pre-mixing Rjd2

Pitch Shifting Pop Songs….

Both digital and analog pitch shifting have been used for years by musicians to alter the sound of original musical material. Be it Ross Bagdasarian’s recordings of “The Chipmunks” , DJs using pitch shifting on a turntable to speed up or slow down a record in order to make it sync up with another record, or someone composing on a computer using digital pitch shifting software, the technique is widely used across musical genres. One recent application of pitch shifting… Read More »Pitch Shifting Pop Songs….