Alan Coady’s Musical Blog

Like buses, synchronicity comes in threes. John Connell recently led me to an article in which Nicholas Carr asks Is Google Making Us Stupid? This Sunday, I came across Brian Appleyard’s piece in The Times, Stoooopid….why the Google generation isn’t as smart as it thinks. The next concentration-based piece I spotted, in a section called Emily’s News on the site of Scotland’s Centre for Confidence and Well-being, was entitled You may not see it, but TV is affecting children.

The last of these three articles, which deals specifically with very young children, is relatively straightforward. The previous two contain so many variables that it’s difficult to see this debate coming to an end any time soon – but it is surely a very good thing that it is taking place. My own view is that, before worrying too much about difficulty of reading lengthy articles online, a few parameters need to be set. I skim through a great deal on the net, often in the living room with the TV or radio on (sometimes both); my email & feed-reader sit open along with a correspondence-chess website. However, I consider this to be searching as opposed to reading. I would no more sit with my laptop, struggling to read an in-depth piece in a distraction-filled environment, than I would with a book. I’d retire to somewhere quieter, having set aside the time to concentrate. If that weren’t possible, I’d send the url to myself in an email, paste the text into a word processing application, or bookmark the page with del.ici.ous and read it later.

I spend more time online than many people I know and, to the best of my knowledge, my concentration is no worse than before. With books easer to track down, and reviews easier to garner online than off, I probably read more books now than at any time in my life. In school, I teach 52 lessons-per-week and don’t find myself suddenly wondering what I was saying, or who these people are in front of me. However, at 48 years old, my formative years were over long before the internet began to impact on my modus operandi. Has enough time elapsed to tell what effect, if any, has been wrought on young people’s concentration? Currently, they spend as long as I do in class; they sit in silent exam halls for as long as ever; as far as I’m aware, a football match still lasts 90 minutes….

The synchronicity was kept alive when I came to a captivating story this morning entitled The Last Channel by Italo Calvino – from an outstanding collection of stories entitled Numbers In The Dark. Without spoiling this almost Kafkaesque tale, I can reveal that the protagonist allows his habit of channel-hopping with the remote to escalate to monumental proportions. However, even he appears to be searching and not watching. If your brain is not e-addled, you may be up to reading it in parallel text.

New Lesson Support Links have been added to the menu on the right of your screen.

Slightly more than one year after the idea was mooted, I managed to visit Robert Jones class in NBHS to observe a whiteboard in action*. A Credit Maths class was tightening its grip on the law of indices. Not only was I impressed with the effortless and effective use of the many functions of the whiteboard, but also with the Activote apparatus. This handheld, wireless tool enabled the class to vote on a multiple choice answer – the results being instantly called up in bar-chart form. My first thought on seeing this was that it would encourage uncertain pupils to engage, as it seemed anonymous. I say seemed as the stats are available to the teacher, enabling him/her to see if anyone is struggling or excelling. They are, it turns out, also available to the class if they so vote.

All the observation I’ve done to date has been serendipitous and usually takes the form of over-hearing/eavesdropping while printing from a computer in a Music classroom. What I tend to notice, possibly more than content, is language – not only the words but the tune. What appears to me to be best practice involves simple language**, quietly expressed. And this seems as true of classroom management as of delivery of lesson content. And it was certainly true yesterday. Drifting individuals were swiftly spotted and nudged back on task - sotto voce; the balance of praise, encouragement and prompting felt just right.

There is no formal mechanism for instrumental instructors to engage in observation. As far as I know, there is no formal mechanism for teachers to observe one another once probationary years have passed. However, based on yesterday’s experience, I feel it to be valuable for several reasons:

• there seem to me to be more common principles than significant differences across the curriculum - any primary teacher would tell you that teaching is teaching
• when you’ve taught your own subject for some years, there is perhaps more to be learned from observing the teaching of other subjects – any inspired moments I’ve experienced in the last few years have had their origins in fields other than music
• it’s unusual to see your pupils in another learning situation and, given our in loco parentis status, this strikes me as a little odd

* What was nice about this visit was that the idea came round again after we’d played through a few mandolin and guitar tunes at lunchtime

** While the pupils were engaged in a few exercises, I took the opportunity to pick up a book I’d spotted on Robert’s desk entitled The Physics of Sailing Explained, and read a few pages of the chapter on the weather and why it exists. This impressive read was the perfect compliment to the situation – concise, unambiguous sentences in the right order. It seemed so easy you felt you could have written it yourself.

Sadly, an able pupil is moving away to another part of the UK. I was asked for a reference in order that, once there, full musical entitlement might continue. Happy to oblige, I wrote a short history of achievement and was keen to point out that a detailed musical portrait of the pupil already existed in the form of mp3 recordings of:

• solo performing
• participation in the school Guitar Group
• participation in the East Lothian Guitar Ensemble

I contacted the school concerned and arranged to send the reference electronically. The hyperlinks have been passed onto the Music Department.

I hadn’t really considered this aspect of evidence before. The benefits of such a learning space for the stationary pupil, parents and staff seem obvious. For a pupil changing schools, a portrait seems better a better way to convey information than a descritpion - and a self-portrait better still.

Got a spare 15 minutes? Would you like to take part in a national, online survey about how people listen to music? The mission of Feeling Sound Musiclab is to test how we perceive music – and also to gauge the nation’s favourite chord – the result of which will be used to commission a new piece of music.

Why not read about the project, about the staff involved or take the test?

This simple, interactive tiredness test might be an interesting thing for staff and pupils alike - courtesy of one of my favourite places to visit - The Wellcome Collection

One of the advantages of Google Reader is that it can draw your attention to something you’d otherwise have missed – such as Tom Rudolph’s Berklee Music Blog entitled Making The Most of Music Notation. To date there are seven posts – all very informative and intelligently set out with many useful hyperlinks. I’d recommend this blog – especially to those starting out in the the field of music notation technology.

In a post yesterday I referred to a program called Hyperscore but, as the central subject matter concerned a video featuring a very specific application, I didn’t dwell on the technicalities of the program. Well, the other reason is that I’ve never seen the program. However, after writing the post, I had a more detailed look at this video and looked at these particulars and I can see a place for a program like this in schools. Composition in SQA courses is certainly not the ideal setting as the program seems to be to composition what flat-pack furniture is to carpentry. However, primary or S1/S2 might prove more suitable . There are many people with an intuitive feel for how music fits together who are neither musically literate nor sufficiently proficient on an instrument to participate in the creative process – and produce some kind of finished product.

At $79 (less for site licence) it’s probably worth investigating. If only we knew someone in East Lothian familiar enough with music and IT to review it.

…to find them engaging. Berkley Astronomer, Clifford Stoll is also a computer expert who tracked down a KGB hacker. Despite this level of expertise and the attendant benefits, he disagrees with the trend of increasing the presence of computers in schools. While I can’t go along with this, I’d be interested in reading his reasons. Nevertheless, he is an extremely engaging speaker – a amalgam of Emo Philips, Albert Einstein and Phil Kay.

Anyone who is a regular on this blog may have noticed that the last few posts of the term pointed to new mp3s of pupils playing. The reason for this sudden increase in recording activity was that I received as a gift a Zoom H2 Handy Recorder. It is handy not least because it fits in the inside pocket of a suit jacket!

Previous recordings had been done on a mini disc recorder and, while the recording quality was very high, so too was the faff factor:

• record item(s) - which had to stay on the recorder until I got home, as there was no USB interface
• transfer recording(s) in real time into a wave editing program at home
• take the opportunity while there to cut out any extra run-in/run-out time, add fade-outs etc.
• convert the wav files to mp3 in iTunes - ensuring that I had set (in Preferences) the importing to mp3 and not AAC (Advanced Audio Coding - Apple’s own format) which was not, at that time, Wordpress compatible.
• post to the blog

Now, I don’t see it as my job to advertise the Zoom H2 on behalf of its makers, but I would like to flag up some benefits for the educational user:

• as soon as a recording is finished, simply plug into speakers and press play - no need to rake around looking for it - far less, return home and reformat. Pupils like to hear their work as soon as possible and this couldn’t be easier
• the recording quality is very high
• there are many choices* to allow one to offset quality of recording (sampling, bit-rate etc.) against practical factors (file size, upload time etc.)
• you can record straight to mp3 to save converting later
• where you’ve recorded to wav and then realise that you’re going to need more space on the 512 Mb SD card (provided) before you are going to have access to a computer, you can convert from wav to mp3 on the H2
• the H2 can be powered by mains (adaptor included) or battery - more suitable when restricted access to power points prevents the ideal placement of the H2 - a low battery warning appears to save you losing a great performance - I pushed this to the limit recently and was able to make many more recordings after the initial warning had appeared - although this would probably not be the behaviour of a professional journalist
• you can store recordings in one of eight folders - which helps to avoid confusion when pupils in different schools are recording the same item
• once connected to a computer, you can turn off and save battery power as the H2 is then power through the USB connection
• the H2, once connected to a computer, functions like any other external drive - this allows you, for example, to change the file names from STE 000; STE 001 etc. to something more meaningful like Mhairi - Wedding Song. These names, once applied, will then appear on the H2
• when connected by USB the H2, where preferred, can act as an external mic and record to programs such as Audacity - this may be an easier way to keep an eye on levels
• recording level is initially set by choosing one of 3 mic gain settings - and thereafter by adjusting the level numerically, while keeping an eye on the level indicators
• where it turns out that the performance was not as loud as testing suggested, you can amplify after recording - on the H2 or later
• long performances/discussions/interviews can be split into sections (which them become separate files) on the H2
• there are 3 recording modes (90 degrees for a solo player/speaker; 180 degrees for a linear ensemble/panel of speakers; surround - ideal for small, circular ensemble/class discussion etc.
• using the line-in function, you can record listen again programmes
• additional features include: guitar/bass tuner; metronome; tripod (to allow the H2 to stand on a stool, desk etc); mic stand attachment; headphones; foam protector (to reduce wind noise when recording out of doors); small canvas carrying bag (to prevent scratches on the display)
• software updates can be downloaded to the SD card and will be taken on board the next time it is inserted

There are many more features I’ve yet to explore and there are also many rival products which come in a good deal cheaper than the H2 but, if I didn’t know better, I’d say this had been designed with the educational user in mind.

* range of recording qualities

• wav44.1kHz/16bit
• wav44.1kHz/24bit
• wav48kHz/16bit
• wav48kHz/24bit
• wav96kHz/16bit
• wav96kHz/24bit
• mp3 48k; 56k; 80k; 96k; 112k; 128k; 160k; 192k; 224k; 256k; 320k;
• mp3 VBR (variable bit rate - where the sampling rate varies according to what is being played - presumably a narrower range of frequencies - including spoken word and silences - would require less information to be processed - thereby reducing file size)