Catalysts & Connections - Evan Tobias

 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 […]

I was interested to read about Roger Bourland’s approaches to teaching music theory and making it more meaningful to his students. One of the approaches that stood out as a great idea was having the students bring music they are working on to his class to analyze. This makes so much sense! What types of […]

“I want to be a musician and a DJ” Students involved in the Digital Youth Project offered by the University of Chicago recorded a podcast discussing their favorite rappers as well as their own participation in music. Take a look and listen to some of their work in their gallery.
Why not […]

Drew McManus over at Adaptistration has been evaluating orchestra websites based on a list of criteria that includes education as a sub-category. Starting with the post on Sept. 18th there are several very informative entries related to these evaluations. Some orchestra websites can serve as great resources in the classroom. Many of my students, […]

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, […]

Whether in a car on a long trip or a surgery room, the conversation of what music should be listened to is a common one. Whether you are an anesthesiologist or a driver, deciding on music that works for the majority of people present can be a tricky task.  These conversations might spark some debate […]

I’ve always enjoyed having my students compare various arrangements of the same piece, discussing style and various musical elements that are similar and different. Over at the riddimmethod, wayneandwax gives an interesting example of tracking the development of different versions of a piece of music. Focusing on the various versions of “Solomon linda’s “mbubeâ€? […]

I have written before about the use of iconic notation in composing with computer software. In having students listen to and analyze music it can be very helpful for them to use iconic notation to help them focus on various details in the music. This online video of Bach’s’ Toccata and […]

Track 1- Thanks to Jonathan Savage for his comment referencing some very exciting music education research on Ted’s post about Lucy Green and informal music education settings in the classroom.
Track 2 - Looking for a prompt for getting your students composing? How about this idea..
Track 3 - If you are going to be working on […]

Thanks to David Wolf for the link to Soundtransit! While some people play music from around the world for their students, it is probably less common to have field recordings for our students to listen to of actual everyday sounds from spaces and places around the world. After taking a sound journey across the […]