Having never attempted to do this I decided to use this question as the starting point and thought…well is it possible? What is that we do when we perform as a class?We prepare, learn, practice, listen, revise, correct, rehearse, perform sections, evaluate, etc. etc… So then how do we do this on GarageBand? Well, a thought experiment can be a dangerous thing…especially in my head. I had a fully kitted out suite with drum kits, interfaces, turntables, electric instruments, mics, controllers, pads, pods and players.OK great…but how realistic was this – cloud cuckoo land methinks. First response from attendees would probably be “It’s alright for you with all this gear but in my school…..” I’m all for diversity, choice and variety resourcing but I accept that some departments just don’t have this luxury – what if GarageBand was all we had?

So began the experiment to see if we could construct a performance just from the materials given to us by GarageBand which was musical and which allowed every performer to participate fully in the experience as they are able – press play, sit back and listen was not an option. I started again by constructing two scenarios one of which is here and the second of which will be in my next post.

Firstly I imagined a classroom with only one mac – seriously back to basics. Assuming that in this case getting round 30 students with one computer is a logistical impossibility could we have them perform at once and use the software to enhance the experience. I started from the principle that a live performance should start from nothing and build up to something. Singing multiple parts of a round or partner song as a whole group and using GarageBand to build up the parts might work. This may be helpful to students who were just starting out into the world of singing in harmony. A kind of first stage before even rounds. The teacher could focus on singing one part at once and then when all parts were established (digitally) then students could focus in on their line in the recording.

In my software trials I discovered that a little bit of time was needed to switch between tracks in order to stop and start the recording without interrupting the flow of the song. I also discovered that GarageBand does not like to start and stop recording on the fly and despite changing a bunch of settings could not get rid of a section of silence (about 1 second) each time I pressed record. I realised that this could be all but hidden by inserting a link section that makes a feature of rests (dum rest rest dum | dum rest rest rest)  between each verse. By setting up the link section at the start and end of the song, leaving space between for the verse in between and setting the loop function to keep jumping back I was ready to go.  (With a different sequencer you can get round the need for this stage).

The performance goes like this: Loop – record singing of verse 1 – loop loop – record singing of verse 2 (verse 1 played by GarageBand) – loop loop – record singing of verse 3 (verses 1 and 2 played back by GarageBand) loop loop…etc. In fact you can have as many verses as you like and each time the texture builds. In extension you could even start to mute tracks out and so create different ‘backing’ performances. The great thing is though that the backing track is actually taken from the performance itself. Truly performing with GarageBand.

Here is my suggested session plan:

Planning:

• Option to rehearse each part before the ‘performance’
• Make up link section (to happen twice between parts)

Record link section:

• ‘Engineer’ records link
• ‘Director’ directs link

Preparation:

• Duplicate link so that it is at the start and the end
• ‘Engineer’ presets loop to full length of piece.
• Prepare tracks for each part of the piece

Performance:

• Engineer starts recording track 1
• Director starts part 1 performance
• **Engineer moves active track to next at end of section (during link section = tricky)

Engineer continues by recording track 1

• Director starts part 1 performance
• **Engineer moves active track to next at end of section  (during link section = tricky)
• —Press record button, select next track, press record button (while playing)

Extentions:

• Add ostinatos over your performances
• Improvise over the top of the performance
• Get students to improvise
• Call and response over the top of the performance

By the way – if you don’t have a mac you can do this just as well with a sequencer on windows or Linux.

I have been attempting to draw some conclusions about 21st century music teaching and what is in store for those of us who continue to pursue the musical amidst tightening controls (both financial, structural and knuckle-headed). So it’s been a pretty depressing day as I wrestle with how to deal with the structure of a schooling system which is antithetical to what I believe music is about. I’m for collaboration not competition, so in a system that pits school against school in the name of progress and attainment I sometimes wonder how the truly musical can survive.

In my undergraduate days cutting my teeth on John Blackings work, I remember how liberating it was to realise the close connection between societies, culture and music-making; each forms, informs, and reforms the other. So, being a quietly non-conformist part of this broad church we call ‘education’ I love how technology is offering new worlds that we can explore as musicians. If we can stay ahead of the clearly defined target police long enough to allow a little exploration once in a while than maybe…just maybe we can see something living once in a while.

But I also worry about how many new environments are closed off by policy which restricts the many using the excuse of the excesses of the few? – Let’s call this the ‘Don’t touch that pencil you might stab somebody’ approach. (Yes I mean you apple 30% app store racket, closed system, no flash…or maybe we should talk school networks ‘what do you mean talking to students in America…aren’t they supposed to be playing a piece or something…you can’t do that you’ll clog up the internet..can’t you just sing something instead’). If new opportunities continue to be locked down before we can even try them out then I think I may ditch it all and just become a locksmith.

Still, I think that what matters is people not systems and while there are folks around willing to say (metaphorically) ‘stuff it let’s make some music’ …maybe we stand a chance.

I think I have mixed up a bunch of issues in this post…but I make no apology…these are the ‘thoughts left over’ that needed pinning somewhere before I email off the real article (I might rename my site flotsam and jetsam). Vent over – I will let you know when it comes out.

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When I was a student in school I spent a LOT of time doing music – bands, choirs, orchestras, small groups, composing, rehearsing, listening…. This carried on at university and then I started teaching. While I continued ‘doing’ music in school my focus slowly shifted from playing to directing as a teacher and alongside this, the pressure for tangible outcomes also increased – higher exam results, new pieces, more ensembles, more concerts… Slowly, over a period of time, the ‘doing’ of music shifted away from playing the notes myself towards enabling others to play or sing those notes. And so I lost my connection with some great works.

This realisation set me thinking – while I agree with Small’s notion of musicking as all activities related to the activity of music making, I have now to admit that I think enabling others to perform music can draw one away from the most central aspect of the activity of music. If you like – there are degrees of connectedness and it is not enough to ‘be musical’ if you don’t continue to gravitate towards the central activity of doing music (playing). Music is constantly changing and shifting as new ideas emerge, old thoughts re-emerge, conventions are revised and imaginings drift away. So maybe if we rely on old experiences or posture about what is worthy of our regard then we may find ourselves drifting further and further away from that in music which connects us positively to others.

I ask myself – what did I loose when I stopped making the time to play these great pieces? For me it was that part of myself that loves to be part of ‘a community’ who gathered together to create something meaningful. Not for profit, not to impress or get extra marks but to be a part of a group of people who collaborate to make the world more beautiful.

I am, at the moment, working on a set of lessons that will help to introduce teachers to the possibilities of technology with very few resources – a couple of mics, amps and a multitrack from the 80s. This has been a challenge because I now take the presence of some digital resources somewhat for granted. Alongside this, I have been wrestling with a question that has been put to me on several occasions over the past few weeks in different ways – what can this technology do for teachers? And I must admit that at times I have been far from satisfied with my ability to answer this question satisfactorily. This has caused me to turn once again to the question that drives much of my thinking and writing and work in this field….exactly what are we trying to achieve by promoting the use of use of technology in music classroom?

For me it is the same answer – to be part of a community who work together to create something of beauty that may help to inspire some small change for the better. And I think that I have been struggling with this question because I don’t like the implication that the resources you employ are ‘doing it for you’. In they same way that it took my re-engagement with some aspects of my musical heritage to rediscover its importance for me, I think the real question is not what technology can do for you but what can you do with it? Maybe the first question can only be in hindsight.

When students are presented with closed or strongly controlled composing exercises they can be forced into a particular pattern of working that may seriously limit the potential for learning. Likewise, if we allow the technology to dictate the terms of reference for our classroom activities do we not force ourselves into a similar constrained world? Why not ask instead – How do we turn limited digital resources into an opportunity to create something really significant? …Now I’m engaged….

But I think this is something we can only address in our own context, by playing ourselves as learners in a learning community and with our own colleagues and students. As a friend recently said – “as dynamic droplets of water in a raging river”.

I bring this up because for a while now I have been intrigued about the number of different locations for resources on music technology and education. I look at a large number of blogs regularly and each has a good number of comments, resources and things of interest for the music educator. As well as this, I have my own database of things that I use, some of which I have shared on this blog. Add to this the huge number of great resources that are suggested by the growing number of music ed tech voices on twitter and I am increasingly aware that the sheer vastness of the locations for information which are not easily ‘searchable’ may be starting to pose a problem for the class teacher who doesn’t have the time to spend ages looking.

So, I have started a Zotero group in the hope that we may be able to find a way to help each other in coordinating the huge wealth of resources we collectively hold. If you already use Zotero then you may be well aware of the groups and this may provide a new and easy way of sharing. If you don’t’ have Zotero then once you have downloaded and set up Zotero the group can be added to your library through your free online Zotero account.

The group name is “Music Technology and Education” and I have set it up as public, open membership so that everyone can see and edit the resources.

If you think this may be useful to you and others then please spread the word and we can start sharing resources in this quick and easy way.

Group name: “Music Technology and Education”

Link: https://www.zotero.org/groups/music_technology_and_education

For a quick introduction to Zotero see below:

After running a course last week on AFL I though I would post some resources which I found helpful here. The course was designed not to give answers but to encourage reflection so that you can find your own. I think that if you understand why the different bits of the recipe are needed then you are more likely to know how you can tweak it to suit your tastes (thanks for that one Beth). PowerPoint slides are online courtesy of Slideshare.net. See below for the resources.

• AFL_principles
• ASF booklet English
• beyond_the black_box
• blackbox
• Developing whole-school assessment March 2009

NB Remember also:

• AFL and Teaching in Secondary Schools (Fautley & Savage, 2008)
• Assessment in Music Education (Fautley, 2010)