Technology for Music Facilitation

A technology professional development team comprised of grades 3-8. What might this look like in music education? What might a peer-to-peer coaching team look like in music classes? Technology classes? How might one facilitate this process?

"Students are highly motivated by video games as they can spend dozens of hours playing each week. What if educators could channel this motivation into composing by allowing students the opportunity to compose to old school video games? This presentation demonstrates a variety of 8-bit musical experiences that integrate technology, theory, history, composition, and performance with 8-bit video games."

"Music education has scratched the surface of integrating technology into elementary ensembles. I provide explanations and demonstrations of the potential of using various technologies to improve students' performance inside and outside the classroom. "

"In the past couple decades, instrumental education has evolved relatively very little in comparison to technology. Understanding how to augment music education through technology is vital to the growth of our field. This presentation provides some suggestions for using technology in instrumental settings to expand possibilities for both performing and teaching."

Looper is a free, four track looper that is quantized to the metronome BPM and counts that I am developing. This program can be used to create a chamber ensemble with just yourself playing each part. Please let me know about any features you would like me to add .

This website has free guides and tools (for purchase) that assist with repairing a variety of technology. If your hardware breaks, check this and other websites to see if there's a cheap fix.

Using the linked video as a sample project, you could do the following: Using media clips, students can create music that matches or alters the original intended meaning of the clips. This project could be an interdisciplinary project where some group members create the visuals while the others focus on the music (or completely co-constructed with ill-defined roles). The created visuals and audio could then be used by other groups to create the opposite (an original visual from a different group then becomes the source for creating a new audio track). The original audio/visual could then be compared with the new one.

This tracker (for windows) allows you to create chiptunes/8-bit music using software that mimics the original software used to write music on old gaming consoles. Although this might be difficult to work with, it could tie into STEM/STEAM projects.

These videos provide an example of some STEM or STEAM projects that students could work on

This website sells kits for building your own synthesizers. This could lead to great STEM or STEAM projects in a classroom.

This video demonstrates a possible project where students could take sound effects from their favorite video games and use them in a video that they created. This video does have some moments not suitable for K-12 students.

A tutorial on using Ableton to create music videos with Minecraft video clips and audio samples. This project could be done with any video game sounds as it's essentially a sampling project

A list of free chiptune vsts that can be used in a DAW to create 8-bit sounds from MIDI data.

This paid sample pack provides 27 live clips and 158 presets for retro computers and 8-bit machines. This sample pack can be used with Ableton Live when creating 8-bit projects.

This free sample pack can be used with Ableton Live to create 8-bit compositions from over 10,000 free samples.

Websites like this one can be used to explore 8-bit music that was made on the Commodore 64. "The High Voltage SID Collection (HVSC) is a freeware hobby project which organises Commodore 64 music (also known as SID music) into an archive for both musicians and fans alike. The work on the collection is done completely in the Team and contributors' spare time and is proudly one of the largest and most accurate computer music collections known."

Joy Tunes is a music video game for recorder or for piano; however, any instrument can be used with a microphone and a computer to control the characters and play the various levels created. There is a free portion of the game with the option to buy more levels. Some of the levels can develop ear training while others levels develop reading notation.

Noteflight allows you to write music online and embed the music as play along files on your website/blog. The service is free to use and does not require software to create the files (unlike Scorch and SmartMusic).

"This interactive session begins with a brief experience of making vocal music to an 8-bit video game. I then demonstrate how to create live 8-bit music using Ableton Live and a Launchpad. The session concludes with session attendees coming up and creating live 8-bit music to a live video game performance."

"This session will explore applications of video games inside and outside of the music classroom. We will explore various games, apps, and websites that allow students to engage with music through video games. Experience with video games is not required as the focus is on the unique musical affordances students can experience when engaging with music video games. Please feel free to bring an instrument, laptop, and/or tablet as we will be exploring a wide variety of uses of video games inside and outside of the music classroom."