Setting up a sound. system for your ensemble may seem daunting at first. However, it essentially boils down to three parts: The equipment, connection, and placement. Which I shall be going through today.

Firstly equipment, I will not be advocating for any specific brand for this setup, only the general parts needed. You will need: a variety of vocal and instrumental Microphones, Sub-woofers, general use Amplifiers, smaller auxiliary Amps, and cables to connect everything together.

Secondly, connection, this is where it may become overwhelming, but all you need to keep in mind is “input and Output”. Microphones input into the mixer, and the mixer outputs to all the various amps you have set up. The mixer is the hub of all your connections. Almost everything will connect to it one way or another.

And Finally, Placement, Where you place you amps and microphones can make a big difference to the audience. For example, avoid placing sub-woofers on the stage, as the low frequency vibrations can travel into the microphones and cause auditory disruption. Placing the mixer at the front will allow you to more easily adjust the sound based off of what the audience is hearing, and placing it at the side allows the user to more easily adjust to the ensemble’s needs. Below is a handy-dandy graph I made. Each square is a possible placement area you could consider using for your set up. For clarification, General use Amps and sub-woofers make up your main blocks of speakers, and smaller amps make up the auxiliary speakers. I suggest having a set of main speakers on each side of the stage for a more complete sound.

Social media has had an ever growing influence in our daily and professional lives. With employers referencing the social media accounts of their applicants, I feel it is important to take a closer look at how social media affects us, and how to better shape our accounts for professional circles.

Looking at my own social media profiles, I can say that I am very inactive compared to the average person. In the last four years I have made only two post, one about weather and the other about a action to New York city, which is admittedly kind of boring. I feel that if I make a concentrated effort at posting appropriate content, I could allow anyone looking into my internet presence to get a more complete picture. This is not the case for everyone however. What I would suggest is removing or hiding anything you would deem remotely inappropriate on any social media platform.

learningsciences.com has a couple recommended steps you can take to improve your own personal footprint online. One of the more specific things they recommend is googling yourself regularly. I personally have difficulty doing this as there is a famous actor with my exact name, looking at you James Bond. However, this suggestion is useful as you can get a general picture of what anyone would find doing some basic research on you. Based on the information you find you can decide what parts of your online presence you need to change / remove.

So how does social media relate to music education? Simply put, your personal presence should be highly regulated. You should only be presenting the most professional version of yourself. As teacher can come under extreme scrutiny at times. Other than this, social media has many benefits for promoting your concerts, programs, events, ect. Just be sure you make it appropriate at all times.

Going through UMKC’s copyright tutorials I was exposed to some interesting perspectives on a highly debated topic.

In 1998, The Walt Disney Corporation was the major influencer in pushing to extend the copyright protection laws at the time. Moving the the time work is under copyright from “Life + 50 yrs” to “Life + 70 yrs”. This was mainly done to protect their copyright on Mickey Mouse, which was near copyright expiration.

With such a long copyright protection are there still pieces of music you can copy? Sure! Copyright is given to any product that can be reasonably considered “Fixed in a tangible medium of expression” Meaning you can technically copy the improv piano solo performed at a jazz bar last week, SO LONG AS IT WASN’T BEING RECORDED! Obviously, you can copy music published before 1924, as its copyright has expired.

So is it fair? Personally, I think it should be shortened. copyright lasting as long as the creators life is completely reasonable. However, going past that too far, say 50 -70 years, seems to me to only be a “cash grab” by those left in possession of the copyright. This overly long copyright protection prevents new creations of art, music, and literature to expand upon previous works that may have inspired the artist. The history of western music is heavily based in building on the old and borrowing ideas from the previous generation of composers. With an overly protective copyright system, like the one we have, the potential for new exciting music diminishes.

Technology is advancing at an ever growing pace. Implementing certain devices, such as tablets, into a music classroom could be highly beneficial. I believe in the hands of an educator implementing tablets into your lesson structure is almost essential. However, In the hands of students, it could result in the students not fully engaging in the lesson and focusing more on the tablet itself. A teacher using a tablet, or similar piece of technology, has a variety of applications, pun intended, in the classroom. For example, Jim Phillips, a writer for NAFME, suggests using the camera on your device to instantly receive feedback after a run-through of a section.
“It seems a bit obvious, but have you used the video camera to record your group and play it back to them? Immediate response. Don’t record a whole piece, just a passage.” Beyond this you can use the tablet: as a tuner, a reference for fingerings, share files with students, and as a simple metronome. In all cases, there’s an app for that.

Music education has traditionally been taught in physical analogue methods, with little technology incorporated into its instruction. However, with how fast technology is advancing, it would be foolish not to. There are many ways a music educator could take advantage of the plethora of apps, software, and even hardware. The article from ED Tech titled “Tech in the Music Classroom Creates Efficiencies, Improves Accessibility” states “technology is also quite useful. Just as any other teacher might use data to track student progress…” As the section suggests, teachers could use programs to keep track of student progress. For example, programs such as Action Tab helps students learn to play guitar, and can allow teachers to interface with their software and see their students’ progress. There is also a wide varieties of useful apps on app stores that can help students with: tuning, composition, recording progress, ect… The thoughtful integration of technology into the classroom could be beneficial to many educators who have not yet done so.

Thanks for visiting my brand new Blog!