Importing Garageband Creations into iMovie

The 4th graders that I have been working with are ready to import their Garageband poetry creations into iMove, which will feature their own artwork!  This tutorial will show you how to send your Garageband song to iMovie, and how to add pictures from the iPad's camera roll into your movie.

Step 1: Select Song in Garageband
We have to choose which project we want to send to iMovie. This has several steps, and I got lots of pictures to help guide you through the process.

In the "My Songs" section of Garageband, touch SELECT in the upper right hand corner, as depicted above.

A new set of icons appears in the top left.  Touch the song that you want to send to iMovie to select it.

After you have selected your movie, touch the share icon (the box with the arrow point up, out of the box) and you will see the menu picture above. Click on Open In...  

After selecting Open In...  

You will see the above window, where you are able to customize any of the information about your song before it imports into iMovie. You do not have to change anything, but the option is there. 

Click on SHARE.

After you click on Share you will see the above menu. Click on iMovie to import your song.

iMovie opens, and you need to choose where your song should go. For this project, we will choose Create New Movie. 

You can see your song in the movie -- depicted by the green. To start adding your images from the iPad camera library, select the word Photos, circled in yellow in the picture above. Then choose Camera Roll from the resulting list.

On the upper right of the above picture you can see the pictures in your camera roll. Simply touch on a picture and watch it drop into your movie!

Put all of the pictures that you wish to use into the movie in the order you wish them to appear.  Once there are multiple photos in the movie, the length the picture will be shown in the movie can be edited.  Do not try to change the size of the image until there are multiple images in the movie!

When you have your images in the movie, to adjust the length of time they are shown, highlight the image you wish to shorten or lengthen. When it is highlighted yellow, as in the above picture, touch the right side thick line and drag it closer to the left (to make it shorter) or further away (to make it longer).  Adjust the other photos in a similar manner until they are exactly the way you with to see them.

When you are finished, touch the back arrow at the top left of the screen.

This takes you to the above screen. You can do several things at this screen. Play the movie, as indicated by the triangle button with the box around it; Share the movie, as indicated by the share button - the box with the arrow pointing up and out; or Trash the movie, as indicated by the trash can.

Also from this screen you can change the name of your project. See below:

Press and hold on the title to bring up the keyboard to change the name of the movie.

At this point, your movie is finished! Congratulations!

OpenEd.io --A resource that EVERY TEACHER (or human) should know of (and use!)

I got an email over the weekend from my assistant superintendent. He frequently alerts his "tech guinea pigs" when he finds something particularly exciting. When I had the chance to look at OpenEd.io, the incredibly awesome resource that he had shared, I got lost.  I was lost in videos of amazing string quartets that I found by searching Jazz Music. I got lost learning about playing and soloing with the pentatonic scale on guitar.

Oh -- let me show you!


This is the  Quartet San Francisco playing one of my favorite Chick Corea songs: Spain. (On an unrelated (but totally awesome) note, I KNOW one of the violinists! He is originally from Maine, and  we played The Music Man together at a performance in Portland. A long time ago.)

I have never seen such a comprehensive list of music resources-- and they have videos, project ideas, for every subject you might imagine!

I now have playlists to use with my 7th grade Guitar Class:

As well as for Jazz music, for general music education, and for myself -- because there are so many things that I love!

Please-- do yourself a favor and check out OpenEd.io -- you won't regret it. You may lose a few hours in a time vortex - but it will be time well spent. If you do check it out, let me know what you find?

The 2013 A.C.T.E.M. (Association of Computer and Technology Educators of Maine) Conference

My friend and colleague, Barbara Greenstone, is a well-respected technology teacher throughout the state. She suggested that I submit a proposal for consideration to the board of the ACTEM conference. I was so excited by her suggestion, that I immediately began working on my proposal for my "iPads in Band and Chorus: Great for Portfolio AND Assessments!" session.

I nearly missed the opportunity, however, when I didn't receive the email that told me that my proposal had been accepted! Thank goodness I am one of those gmail nerds that have every account (of many) forwarded to one primary account, because I was then able to find the email on the original email server. Relief! Disaster averted!

I am happy to share with you the video from my session at the 2013 ACTEM conference, where I share my best practices using the iPad for assessments, and instruction.

Watch the video here.

The conference took place on Friday, October 11th, in Augusta, Maine.

Moxtra and eBackpack . . . together forever?

Moxtra is my go-to app for anything that needs a playing assessment.  The sharing features are above anything that Notability has to offer, and the binder creation is a great concept that gives students a lot of control when creating digital Portfolios.

Since Maine's iPad solution included eBackpack, I was excited when I finally found a way to make the two apps work together. On paper it was awesome.  The first time that I had to grade more than 100 assessments, however, I learned that though it works, the extra time it adds to the process is a significant issue.

But -- I am getting ahead of myself.  Let me explain how things worked before eBackpack.

All of my students, grades 7-12, have iPads.  They download Moxtra, a free app, from the app store.
Using camera on their iPad, they take pictures of their music, and use those pictures to create binders for each song that we are working on.

When we have a playing assessment, they click on the page in the portfolio with the picture of the song, and when they hit record and record themselves, a new page is created, with the sound file attached.  They can then share that new page with me a number of different ways.  What I have them do is email it to me, which generates a link to their page with the audio file attached, visible on the web -- which means that I can access their assessment from any device, anywhere.

My email blows up -- but, it works.

eBackpack is a really cool program that you can use to hand out digital assignments, or instructions for a physical project, and students can turn in assignments right into eBackpack.  One of the awesome "sharing features" that I mentioned about Moxtra is the ability to "copy link," which I would have students do and then paste into a note into eBackpack, thus turning in their playing assessment using eBackpack.

Having them all in one place, with the amazing sorting features is great.  I could see at a glance exactly who hadn't turned in their assignment.

However. . .   when I sat down to start listening to the assessments, the extra time eBackpack takes to re-load after every time I listen to an assessment (on the iPad app) adds up to a significant chunk of time that I simply do not have.  A select few of my students were not familiar with eBackpack, so they simply emailed me their Moxtra file.  I was so grateful they did, because I was able to see for myself how much faster the process was using it the old way.

Because I hope to be using this tool for a long time, and have many, many students, time is valuable.  I will continue to search for an alternative to my email blowing up.  But I haven't found it yet. :)

iPad for Assessment in Performing Ensembles

You may want to introduce yourself to your scanner -- the one that has been neglected for years.  You and he/she are about to become much better acquainted.

After using Notability (an amazing annotating and everything you can imagine app), I knew there must be a way that I could get the warm-up books and other music loaded onto the iPads.   My high school band is using a 25 page warm-up books, and I scanned every single page, of every single part.  But-- then the file sizes were enormous.

HOW TO MAKE BIG PDFS SMALLER IN FILE SIZE:

1. Using Preview, save it as a .gif
2. Save it again (with a different name to keep it clear) back to a .pdf    --- Doing this changed 40MB file down to about 11MB.  Much better! The quality and readability did not suffer too greatly.

HOW TO BREAK LARGE PDF DOCUMENTS INTO SECTIONS:

1. Using preview, select the pages you want in your first document.  
2. File menu - "print selected pages"
3. When the print dialog opens, click on the PDF button
4. Save the pdf as normal.

Okay--  now I had the 25 page warm-up book files, AND I had them split into three separate files, for the different sections within the book.   The task now was to determine which app would best achieve the results I am looking for.

ENTER:  MOXTRA.

This app -- wait-- it is MORE than an app, it is a full website as well -- this PLATFORM is awesome.   I had the students upload the three different sections as separate "binders" into Moxtra. (I will tell you how next.)  For example - Flute Scales, Flute Etudes, Flute Chorales.

They open their Etudes Binder, and choose the page we are working on.

See the record button in the upper right hand corner?  You guessed it.  They can record themselves, while playing.  In doing so, Moxtra is creating a new page in the binder with the recording attached.  What I have done to eliminate multiple pages of the same warm-up book (because of recording different exercises on the page) is have the students create a "Portfolio" binder, to which they move all of their playing assessments from these documents.

Before leaving this page, I have students click on the text bubble icon (bottom right hand corner) and leave a comment as to what was recorded.  Once they are done typing, clicking the text bubble again makes it go away.

To move a note to the Portfolio binder:

Click on the back arrow on the top left screen.

Now you see the entire document, including the new note that was just created with the recording.  Click on the edit button (upper right hand corner) and select that page.   A series of option appear at the top. The second on the left (looks like a document with an arrow going to the right) is the option to MOVE the page.

A menu will appear, and the options to move to an existing binder or create a new one are given.

Once the student has moved the page into the portfolio binder, they email it to me.  The THIRD icon in the picture above (a box with the arrow coming out) is "share" icon, and this is universal through most apps.  Clicking on that brings up a window of sharing options.  Email,  text message, Dropbox, etc. This sends a link to a web-visible version of the page with the recording.

Rather than emailing large files and multiple steps, I created a Dropbox account for my school band, and uploaded all of the files. I created a folder for each instrument or instrument group, and had the students log in to my dropbox account and download the files they needed, and open them on their iPad, in Moxtra.

Students were so excited about this that they asked if they could try taking pictures of their band music and uploading it into a new binder in Moxtra --- and since it meant less scanning for me, I said ABSOLUTELY!

And there you have it.

Because the iPad is so small, it can rest on the music stand with their music and capture sound (or video), and doesn't take up any extra room.  Trying to capture video with the laptops required tables, or extra chairs.   The size alone has made a huge difference.

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Other options:

Vimeo accounts:  I had students create a vimeo account for recording final summative assessments.  They record the video using the camera on the iPad, upload the video to Vimeo, and then they can email me the link, even while keeping the video completely private.

Chromatik: An up and coming music sharing platform that is doing a lot of what I am using Moxtra for. Similar features, but still quite a few bugs, which is why we are no longer using it right now.

The sharing features in Moxtra are easier than Chromatik as well.

Evernote: Many people use Evernote as their "go-to" organizing tool.  I have never used it to its full potential, so I can't rhapsodize about its awesomeness.  But I do know this: when you set up an account, Evernote gives you an email address.  I could have the students email their assessments right into my Evernote account.  But -- knowing myself, if it is in my email inbox, I can't ignore it!

Using other recording apps: This is how we used to do playing assessments, before using Moxtra.  There are so many great recording apps, but the one that we use most often is called iTalk Recorder (the free version).  It is an iPhone/iPod app, so it will not show up on your search until you click on the tab for iPhone apps.  There is a premium version, which I own, but for the students the free version is quite adequate.  There are limits to how large the recordings can be to send over email, which has made us learn to be quite creative in selecting passages to assess in this method.

*****

These are just a few of the ways that I use the iPads with my band ensembles! Please let me know if you have questions!

iPad for Music Classes - Overview

We are all waiting (impatiently) for the decision to be made regarding next years MLTI offerings.   The thought of changing technology completely with so little time to prepare is a bit frightening.  The iPad is looming as a very clear front-runner for selection, so while we wait, I decided to compile a list of what I have been using for the last year with my high school band.

Benefits of iPad:

• Instant availability to free apps: tuners, metronomes, audio recorders, video recorders
• Digital sharing and portfolio creation
• Constantly in development -- people are ALWAYS writing and improving apps
• Small, fits on music stand
• Garageband -- the new format is AWESOME!

Disadvantages for a music teacher:

• Garageband.  (Yes-- listed both as an advantage and a disadvantage.) The iPad version is nothing like the computer version.  Cool things can be done with it --  I LOVE using it.  But it is very different.  I think with exploration, the units you may have used with the computer version could be done, but in a different way.  
• Lack of physical keyboard (for typing)
• Flash -- any websites that required flash will most likely not work on the iPad. However, there are browsers that can handle flash.  And since this problem is NOT one that is going away, development is happening at a rapid pace for apps

What you are DYING TO KNOW.

Are there musical notation programs? 

YES!

iWriteMusic  is a simple notation tool. It is free, and very basic.  

NOTEFLIGHT can be used the Safari or Chrome apps on the browser, but it is still VERY glitchy.  There are many issues.  They are actively working on it though, so perhaps it will be a useable option by the time the devices are deployed.

-**** Edited -- Noteflight is much better now! They have really revamped their site to be tablet friendly.


Do kids get distracted and play games on them (or worse -- find a way around the firewall and access facebook)?

YES.  They do.  My experience has been with high school students who are incredibly savvy about knowing how to appear that they are on task, and knowing what apps to use to bypass our school filtering software.  

Does this present an overwhelming problem?  No. I use the iPads at the first part of class, and sometimes throughout class if we are recording and assessing some of the music, and after that, they place them under their chairs.   I also tell them that the transition between songs was not designed as an opportunity for them to check facebook.  They laugh and get back on task.


Best Tuner App:

InsTuner    --  LOADED with options.  Best part?  It can be transposed to the student's instrument key. Alto saxophones can see the note they are playing, instead of having to transpose quickly.

Even better?  FREE, and also works on iPod or iPhone.

***** Edited -- in the time since I have written this, the FREE version does not have all of the options, but it still my favorite free tuner and the one that I ask my students to download.

Here is a video where I explain this app to my students and the next app I mention. (Pro metronome)


Best Metronome App:

Pro Metronome  -- tap to set, change time signatures, click wheel to change from faster or slower


Fun Music Apps:
Music Studio Lite - the lite version has great piano keyboards to use,  and it is very fun to use.

Guitar!  - an EXCELLENT app!  A great alternative for my guitar class if students are sidelined from playing because of an injury.   The one thing that I love is that it requires touch both at the fret AND the string for notes which are not played on an open string, which mimics the actual playing of the guitar.

iRealB - Imagine every real book you ever owned combined with Jamey Abersold play-along cds and you have the iRealB app.  I use this every week with my jazz band practice.  It is a phenomenal tool, with a forum with helpful members who can help with questions, issues, or anything.  It is $9.99, and worth EVERY penny.  It is also available for Android platforms, though the two are separate purchases, of course, which is why I only have it on the iPad.

GarageBand - I mentioned earlier that the iPad version is not the same as the computer version.  The emphasis of the app is the creation of sound, rather than choosing already created loops.  BUT there are created loops available.  Simply make sure that you are looking at the track screen of the project, rather than the individual instrument, and the familiar "loops" loop icon appears.  If you click on the icon, a window appears where you can choose the instrument family, genre, or other descriptors.  The database is not as extensive as the computer version, but it is VERY useable!  (And I just found this feature TODAY while I was writing this post!!! Yay!!!!)
Okay--- besides finding the loops (hooray!), this app is amazing.  The smart piano, smart guitar, smart bass and smart drums make putting together a quality project a breeze.  It is a very different process, and I am still learning things every day.  But the more I use it, the more I love it.



An article about the 10 best piano apps!

Coming up--  using the iPad for assessment and portfolio building.

Using Screen-cast-o-matic to make tutorials!

We have a really cool professional development sessions based around technology every month in our district.  Last month I signed up for a session on "Flipping the Classroom" which is essentially creating videos or other types of instruction for students to view individually, so that class time no longer needs to be used for things that can be done at home.

Using screen-cast-o-matic I was able to create two video tutorials for my students. It was awesome!

What is unique about Screen-cast-o-matic (dang, typing those hyphens is aggravating.) is that it can capture a video of you while also capturing what is going on your screen.


Here is a video that I made for my high school students, showing them a couple different apps that I wanted them to download and become comfortable with.





apps for music 1


Then, when I was preparing for a substitute for my 7th grade music class, I made a video explaining the basics about GarageBand.  On this video, I forgot to turn the video camera on, and actually made a second version with the camera.  It was scary.  So I kept the one without my face in the corner.  I think it was a good decision. :)



Garageband tutorial (7th grade music)

It was really fun, and I will definitely be doing more with this in the future!!

Using blogs in the high school band setting

This summer I discovered something that really changed the way that I used my time, and allowed me to accomplish goals that I had set for myself. It is called the "3 in 30 Method."

Since it was so great for me on a personal level, I began to think about how useful it might be to high school students to help them with goal setting, and goal achieving.

I kept thinking about how we could make this work. I called a friend on staff at the high school (initials L.H.) that I knew already used blogs with her students, and I picked her brain about how she managed them in her classes.

Then I lined up the help of some of the tech savvy higher ups and we got all 33 students set up with their own blogs on blogger. We ran in to some interesting problems on the way, but persevered, and now all of the student blogs are up and running, using this "3 in 30" program that I mentioned.

The technology piece is exciting, but the real value of the assignment is watching the students take ownership of their musicianship. It is an exciting thing to watch! :)

Because we are now using the internet as a large part of the expectations in the class, even though we rarely use CLASS TIME to complete the assignments, the integration of 1 to 1 technology could NOT be coming at a better time. I was thrilled to learn that second semester, all of the students will have an internet ready device available to them.