So, you've learned about Google's new Blob Opera. It's fun, right? This online machine-learning app is more than just a fun time filler. It has the potential to enable creativity, and can give learners the opportunity to play with the concepts of not only composition, but also arranging, blend and vowel formation, ear training, voice types and ranges, computer programming, and even theory! Here are some ideas for including Blob Opera into your lesson plans.
2020, of course, will be the year we all talk about as the year everything changed. This list of the 10 most popular blog posts on Steve's Music Room from 2020 will go down as one of the most diverse and most interesting to date. Reading through some of these titles will certainly tell a … Continue reading Top 10 Blog Posts on Steve’s Music Room for 2020
Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas and I have enjoyed doing Christmas and winter concerts with my learners... once I moved away from traditional Christmas songs. I mean, many of those have stood the test of time for a reason but they are overly religious and let's face it--if I hear "Hark, the Herald … Continue reading Winter and Christmas Concert Songs that Don’t Make Me Want to Rip My Ears Off!
Bach is the epitome of composing. His methods are the only way. Sure, he's good, but there lots of other ways to sound good, and his was only one way to sound good in the 1700s. Music learned outside of school is lesser. It's not, it's just different, and much more relevant to how music is made in society in general. Band is everything. It's not. It only really exists in schools and the military, so why would you think that? And community bands only exist because they exist in schools. Classical is a higher form of music. Nope, it's mostly just old. And prescribing classical theory to other musics is inappropriate. Popular musicians aren't real musicians. In a lot of ways they are actually better musicians in the deepest sense of the word. They all tend to be able to read some form of notation, improvise, compose, and learn by ear with relative ease.
Music teachers often understand and agree that a "good ear" is important to learning music, and helps to contribute to the overall skill of musicianship. This is why classical music programs, and many formal approaches to music education focus a portion of their time and energy on the concept of "Ear Training." However, the way … Continue reading Should we Learn by Ear Instead? Ear Training vs. Learning by Ear
