Technology for Music Education "O generator"

Let me introduce another cool program that you can use with your iPhone and iPad.

O-Generator (http://www.o-­‐music.tv/) is built around a unique type of 16-step, circular pattern sequencer. It is very sophisticated and advanced program that has three different versions of Acoustic, Urban, and Dance. Dots are arranged in four concentric rings of 16 dots each. One full circuit represents a measure of 4/4 time so that students can assign different items as detailed as sixteenth notes. The tempo can be adjusted, and the volume level of each ring can be set independently as well. Once students are done with their projects, the work can be exported to audio file so that students can incorporate their work into other music productions. The program only offers up to four track and rings of 16 dots cannot be changed. O-­Generator is available for both PC and Mac and now available on apple store for iPhone, iPod and iPad!! How exciting!

Technology for Music Education "Groovy Music"

New era has come!

I'm a huge fan of technology. Let me quickly introduce Groovy Music (http://www.sibelius.com/products/groovy/index.html)

Groovy Music series have three different programs depending on age group. Groovy Shapes for ages five and older, Groovy Jungle for ages seven and older, and Groovy City for ages 9 and older. Each Groovy program has two different modes: Create and Explore. The explore mode includes 12 explore areas that students can learn about 12 different musical concepts of tone colors, loud and soft, music words, music symbols, long and short, beat, fast and slow, sounds and the beat, up and down, high and low, steps and leaps, and making music. After exploring musical elements, students will be able to manipulate the Create mode. Each mode has a little bit different environments and items. In the Create mode, students can create their own music by dragging items onto the screen, and then playing the piece back, and editing it. Students also can see the actual notation of the items. The screen of the Create mode includes bar lines that represent duration, rhythm, melody, arpeggios, chords, tempo, and tone color. Students can drag and drop these elements onto the work screen, and these are snapped to scale to assist the child in organizing the music composition.

Review "Audacity"

I found a great great software that can be used for free and easy, simple, and powerful.

Audacity is a audio editing software which allows you to record, edit, and mix any kind of sound clips. It is open-source with excellent features and supporting for 32-bit. I've been using Logic pro and Pro tools for a long time. Although it is very professional with high functionality, it is not user-friendly. A lot of functions and features are hidden so that makes people hard. Moreover, it is very heavy to run on your computer. Audacity is a very light program and the performance of most functions is quick. Also presets of many features are pretty decent so that you don't really have to do much by yourself. Even though it doesn't offer advanced effects or features, its usability exceeds expectation of free-software.

Trinity Arts Project "iMovie"

Editing using iMovie

I recorded interviews with my iPhone and had to import videos from my phone. I used a mac pre-installed program called "Image Capture" to import movies. After importing movies, I dragged files to iMovie and started to edit. I connected each interviews without transition effects, but added cross dissolve effect between different sections. I used Cloud effect at the beginning of each question and wrote the questions as well, and I had to adjust time length depending on the length of videos. After that, I added Scrolling Credits preset and edited name.

After editing videos, I inserted audio file from iTunes. I selected the music from the list and drag into the screen of iMovie. I did fade-in/fade-out effect and adjusted volume. It was very easy to change volume, you just drag line up or down. you also can mark the point using pen tool.

Trinity Arts Project "Interview"

As part of our group project, I decided to interview some of my classmates at New York University, my students at PS 150, Tribeca Learning Center, and Professor Nancy Shankman.

1. What is music? Can you say just one word for music? 
Music is

It could be either very challenging or easy question. I asked this question to my classmates at NYU studying music education and many people answered that music is

Expression
Culture
Life
Fun
Exploration
Abstract
Awesome

 2. Why do you like music?

I asked my students at PS 150 where I doing my student teaching. I interviewed three children, one in Pre-K, one in Kindergarten, and one in 2nd grade. It was very adorable when Zoe (she is a kindergartener) told me that she likes music because she wants to be a rockstar when she grow up.

3. Why music is important for education?

I interview Nancy Shankman who is a professor at Music education department of New York University. She answered with pure heart and passion toward music education. Thank you so much Nancy!