At Long Last: The 2020 Student Mixtape

Better late than never! After resolving a technical snag I was unaware of, our end-of-the-year songs from LAST year are finally being published. We used the DAW BandLab.com and a loose rubric centered around creating a lo-fi study beat. This was a special batch of songs for me because of the pandemic and the way…

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At-Home Learning: Using Google Effectively

With so many homebound students, and so many trying distance learning for the first time it can be a real challenge. However, there are tools and tricks you can use to make the whole things easier. Most people I know use Gmail just fine, but actually all the programs in the Google Suite are powerful…

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Roll-a-Song: An Introduction into Digital Composition

A quick, fun, and engaging activity to help your students enter the world of digital music. This 1 hour lesson is tech-centric but relies on entirely free to use programs. It covers key vocab like melody, harmony, and rhythm then transitions into a dice rolling random composition tool that has your students effortlessly making multi-voiced…

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Pop Music Production: An Overview

One of the biggest areas I get questions about from other arts teachers is digital music. It is simultaneously one of the most desired areas and one of the most intimidating. However, with a little practice anyone can produce great original work using these tools. These lessons and materials can be used as individual activities…

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GoFundMe – Sountrap Edu Accounts

This year I’d like to elevate my 21st Century Music elective by purchasing a Soundtrap Educational plan. It’s only $249 and will benefit over 140 middle school students with dozens of tools and hundreds of thousands of musical samples. Please visit my GoFundMe to make a donation! 

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Chrome Music Lab : Boomwhacker Compositions

Combining two of my students’ favorite things: Boomwhackers and Chrome Music Lab this fun activity was a huge hit with my 3rd and 4th grade classes. Students can compose, revise, and listen to their own original song. Once ready students practice and perform their piece for the class. This fun activity checked off so many…

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8-bit Music: Original Compositions

We take a look at the history of video game music and how it was made. There is a surprisingly robust history around this topic, spanning from it’s origins to its influence on popular music today. The limitations of the early hardware meant it had to be composed in 3 or 4 tracks making it…

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Podcasting: Content & Themes

As part of middle school electives I am currently running a course on podcasting. Beyond the technical proficiency required, the most important part of podcasting would be content. Generating topic, ideas, and themes is essential. We spent the last few periods running through the gamut of brainstorming activities to think of what is important to not just the audience, but…

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K-pop Listening Lesson

K-pop (abbreviation of Korean popular music or Korean pop; (케이팝) is a music genre originating in South Korea, characterized by a wide variety of audio-visual elements. Although it includes all genres of “popular music” within South Korea, the term is often used in a narrower sense to describe a modern form of South Korean pop music (kpop) drawing inspiration from…

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Google Expeditions

Google brought the world into our school as part of the Google Expedition AR program. Each class took an augmented reality field trip to an exotic location like the International Space Station, or Ancient Rome. Students were able to learn and interact as they physically walked around experiencing these locations in augmented reality (AR). An amazing…

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