Keeping Up with Pop Culture in the Classroom

I was in a convention once when a fellow speaker was talking to future educators and he made the comment "For those of you out there who do not watch Glee or American Idol...you should start catching up. All the kids talk about is Glee this and A.I. that."
If you want to be able to communicate with your students you need to stay up to date with pop culture. I have listed a few links below of websites that offer music news in the pop culture world. I strongly recommend that you screen the articles before looking at them depending on the type of school in which you teach.There are so many available for us to subscribe. I hope these few links help in giving you ideas for classroom activities or just simply keeping up with the pop culture times.
Billboard News
Live Daily Access
Prefix Online
The Owl Mag
Rolling Stone News

This Day in Music

ThisDayinMusic is a fun website that offers information about specific happenings in music each and every day. For example: Today April 27th in 1957, In a rare appearance outside the United States, Elvis Presley performed at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, Canada where he wore his full gold lamé suit for the last time.
It is mostly pop culture but it is fun for students and educators to see some highlights throughout the decades.

VOXOS: Epic Virtual Choirs

VOXOS: Epic Virtual Choirs is a program by Cinesamples. It is a virtual choir instrument for professionals, containing a full epic choir, boys choir, and soloists. It houses an fantastic and user friendly phrase builder mixed with a realistic and powerful true legato sound produced by the software. I love this software!

JamStudio

Jamstudio.com is a simple and fun way to instantly create a song. You can create music beats, mix, and save your music all for free online. Easy backing tracks, karaoke songs, soundtracks and demo music can be made within minutes. For a very small fee you can upgrade for more options. A great resource for amateurs, pros, teachers, and everyone!

Music Conspiracy Theories

People have and always will be obsessed by stories. Some of the most influential are those dealing with conspiracy and fears. I have found a few interesting articles that I would like to share with you. Take them as you will; be it a grain of salt or an adult beverage. Either way, the articles and videos are entertaining; along the lines of watching movies like National Treasure. Enjoy.
Illuminati in Popular Culture
Lady Gaga, The Illuminati Puppet
Blog about Illuminati and Popular Music
from the LA Times- Conspiracy Music Industry and the Illuminati

Music Biz Quick Peek

The following three articles are a great resource for a quick peek into the world of music business. The first article discusses briefly what it is like to be a music intern, the second article has a few good examples of alternative roads for a musician besides the standard record label, and the final article has a fair amount of information on musical careers. They are short reads and offer a good amount of real life information.
Life of a Music Intern
An Outsider Gets a Peek Behind the Scenes of the Music Industry's Mindset: Optimism into Denial
Music Career Profiles- Music Industry Job Descriptions

Solo Musician Self-Help

Hey Folks,

Most musicians have performed solo works at some point; be it at a pub, recital hall, or community event. Many solo musicians are constrained to their instrument and perhaps their vocals as their entire presentation. Nowadays, technology has given solo musicians a huge stride in the direction of full band live sound from their finger tips and pedal boards. The following articles offer different ideas for solo musicians to explore devices such as DAW packs for recording and playblack and different gear that can be used in live performance settings.
I Want to Perform My Solo Music Project Live
The Solo Musician's Tool Box
PreSonus Computer Recording Basics

Autism Miracle

 This video is very moving! Carly is an autistic child who has discovered her voice with the help of technology. She spent majority of her young life trapped inside her own body until one day she typed "hurt" and "help". Since then, Carly has opened up to her family and the world with the use of her laptop. She communicates eloquently via e-mail, chatrooms, and blogs. This makes me wonder how many others out there may be just as bright and only need some technological assistance to show their intelligence; a new Mozart using Finale in the future perhaps?!

MIDI Classroom Set-Ups

Greetings! This week has focused solely on MIDI and its ins and outs; pun intended :-).  It is not a simple task to understand all the jargon thrown around by techies and at times you just want to toss your hands in the air and say "just let me play around with it." Well, in my opinion that is one of the best ways to learn.
Teachers should utilize a MIDI set-up of some sort in their classroom. Even if it is just one synth going to a sequencer, it is a valuable tool for students to at least see being used. I have included below a few simple articles that discusses classroom set-ups for MIDI devices and also a short video of an everyday person explaining MIDI and its functionality. I hope this helps any confusion that still may be out there and don't be afraid to push a button or turn a knob; you can always reset the default settings.

http://www.ehow.com/how_5331488_set-up-general-music-classroom.html 
http://www.noteworthysoftware.com/composer/classroom/midistudio.htm
http://www.schools.ash.org.au/ealthelp/midi.htm
http://www.ehow.co.uk/video_4956238_setting-up-midi-connections-daisy.html (video)

Choir and Internet

I try to stay on top of music technology and intellectual music as often as possible. I have completely overlooked this fantastic concept of Eric Whitacre's virtual choir. In the link there is a quick article from the Technology in the Arts webpage and it discusses how Whitacre called out to the world for online submissions to create a virtual choir. He has seen success in his efforts and is continuing to make more videos which I am hoping to be part of the next one. I absolutely love his music and if you are unfamiliar with it I will give you a few links to enjoy.
Leonardo Dreams of his Flying Machine
Cloudburst 
Sleep

There is also instrumental music that is performing virtual symphonies; such as the Youtube Symphony.

Life without music would Bb. Now passing the cheesy music joke, it is very true. If you read through the comments and see the faces of the participants in the videos, it is amazing just how much life is in the eyes of the people involved.

Charles Limb: Your brain on improv

Scientist Charles Limb wondered how the brain works during musical improvisation. He studied jazz musicians and rappers and discovered that there are strong implications for our understanding of creativity. This is a very intriguing and fascinating study; please take the time to really let this video sink in.

Her Dr. Said she would never sing again

This is a story of medical amazement where operatic soprano Charity Tillemann-Dick tells her experience of surviving a double lung transplant and her spirit of happiness which was fueled by her will to sing.

37 cello parts, 1 man, and A LOT of time

Ethan Winer spent hundreds of hours working on this video. He is playing 37 separate parts including the percussion on his cello. The graphics are a little cheesy and the piece does get a bit repetitive, however, I truly appreciate the time and effort Mr. Winer put into his song.  

Click on the image to begin playing the video.

Wii Music

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29127548/ns/technology_and_science-games/

This is a dated article but it discusses how teachers are incorporating technology programs that are user friendly to anyone of nearly any age. It gives opinions and practice methods of teachers who use Wii Music to aid in their classrooms.

Songsmith in the Classroom

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNPAWCRnTg0

Frank Machos, music teacher at the High School of the Future in Philadelphia, PA is using software called Songsmith developed by Microsoft to teach the fundamentals of music theory and inspires students to write their own music.

Always Something

There surely is always something else out there. A new gadget or gizmo; a new program or webpage. It is the endless flow of information.