Batteries not included

‘It’s a poor sort of memory that only works backwards,’ the Queen remarked.
‘What sort of things do you remember best?’ Alice ventured to ask.
Lewis Carroll
Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There

The Queen goes on to remember the future punishment of the King’s messenger. Further discussion continues what would happen if the messenger was punished but then didn’t commit the crime. The Red Queen insists that the messenger would be improved if he were punished without committing the crime because punishment improves people. I know that the next thoughts will be heretical, especially at this time of year, but - here goes: every time we purchase technology we are punished because we do not know what the future holds. Formats will change, new computers will be more powerful and smaller.

That’s right. Mr. Technology is revealed to be wearing no clothes. All of the newest and best converging technology in the world cannot respond with the same sensitivity as a seven year old singing with her classmates. No matter how much RAM you have, how many virtual instruments, how many gigabytes of hard drive you can access your computer still only ‘knows’ one thing; is voltage present at some location or not. Even more worryingly if there is no electricity, it can’t even make that decision because without electricity, as far as we can tell, it is unconscious.

So as you leave catalogs open with advertisements circled or casually mention that it “...would be fun to have a digital camera to show Grandma what the new school looks like...” remember that our memory only works backwards. Cast your mind back...

The smallest child in your choir came up to you after the holiday performance and apologised. In all the excitement, they had forgotten the words and stopped singing. You went to her house for the holidays for the first time; the scarf was incredibly tight around your neck, the wind was cold as you walked up the drive to the door and as you stepped through the door the warmth of room fogged your glasses and you tripped on the boots on the mat and fell flat on your face, crushing the flowers you were carrying. What were the sounds, the colours, the smells?

Somehow, the right words were said, the correct thing done, care was given and that smoothed the way and made things right again. The warmth, concern and love all flowed and somewhere in your memory the event was lodged. What will take you back to those special places - a smell, a piece of music, an image, the weather? What do you see and hear when you are ‘there’ again? We have powers that scientists are only beginning to understand. Some can hear a pitch and give it a name; others hear music and see colours while others see colours and hear music. The gifts we posses are limitless and open to the future. Technology is only a tool that we use to capture a moment and externally store it. It is the internalisation of that moment that makes it timeless.

So as we hint towards the things that will create the images and sounds that may externally start a memory, let us look within ourselves. Let us rejoice in our humanity and give thanks for all of the love that has brought us to this place; the love that holds us together in this place; and the faith in the love that will lead us into the future. We must always be aware that the gift of our love will create the sounds and experiences that may live on in the memories of others long after we have gone. And unlike computers, many of us have had our most precious memories created without electricity.

Standing in the darkened church, the minister lit his candle from the one candle on the altar and passed it, first to the ushers, then to the choir. He began to sing and the choir and congregation joined in. As the light and sound grew and grew, the flame was passed down the row of seats. My father passed the flame to my mother, and she passed it on to me and as our candles were lit, we joined the singing. Sometimes even now as I light a candle, especially at this time of year, I can see the glow reflected in my parents faces and hear these words and sounds echoing in my memory;

Yet in thy dark streets shineth, the everlasting light.
The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.

Originally posted on the AMIS web site December, 2002

Dreams and Hopes

“Seeking perfection, we see what our dreams and hopes might look like. We realize they come as a gift through no power of our own, and if we lose them, isn’t that almost worse than never having had them in the first place?”
Roger Ebert, (1942-2013), his last review of “To the Wonder”

In spite of the weather here in England, the end of school is in sight. No ends of lyrics have addressed this event. Whether you subscribe to Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out” or The Happenings' “See You In September” or even Frank Sinatra’s “My Way”, the closing of the school year evokes mixed memories. Your mission, should you choose to accept Mr. Phelps, is composed of three parts:

Reflect: There are a lot of questions you can ask – it might be tough going. Søren Kierkegaard remarked, “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” Remember the goals you set for yourself at the beginning of the year? Reflection shouldn’t beat you with your own rods. Take a good look, a realistic look and judge how you are doing. Did you the meet them easily or were you frustrated in not achieving the goal? Can you set better goal for next year? Can you set more challenging goals next year? Can you set more realistic goals for you student and your self?

Re-create: Go wild. Explore. Travel. Paint. Dance. Read. Sketch. Take photographs. Whatever you do to re-create that joyful self. Be creative. Compose. Arrange. Sing. Play. Master that particular nasty spot in the piece that you’ve always wanted to play or sing.  No more attendance, fire drills, telling offs and dressing down. Refresh your spirit.

Re-juvenate: Wait a minute – doesn’t re-create mean the same thing? There’s a sting in the tail. Literally take another shot a being “youthful” and learn a new skill from the start. It is very hard to learn something ab initio. Learn a new instrument. Learn a skill. Learn a piece of technology. Learn a new sport. Get your perspective aligned with your students. Try a different style of performance on your principal instrument. Try bluegrass instead of baroque; art songs instead of jazz.  Experience the thrill of conquering new heights and challenges. Chaucer said, “And gladly wolde he lerne, and gladly teche.”  Try your “inner student” on for size.

Teaching, like baseball, has its sages. I leave you with the immortal words of Yogi Berra, “Ninety percent of this game is half mental.”

Remember the three steps of your mission and have fun! See you next year!

Oh, the humanity...

“User Interface affects everything Humans interact with. Even other humans. Simplicity, clarity, elegance: chase these ‘til you’re exhausted.”

—	Andy Inathko

Happy New Year - officially. Well, in the Western world, where Gregory's calendar reigns supreme. I write this as the Julian calendar reached Christmas. What a marvellous world - not knowing when the year ends, let alone what year it is! I always take the first day of school as my New Year's commencement, greeting one and all with, "Happy New Year!". 

(Get on with it, Ed.)

Right. Andy Ihnatko is one of my favourite "go to" guys for interesting tech writing. He has been around side the days of the Apple II. Younger readers, look it up - the young Steves had a revolutionary product before 1984. Or 2007. Or 2010. "Simplicity, clarity, elegance…" - brings to mind "Sunday in the Park with George" with the Sondheim dictum, "Order, design, composition, tension, balance, harmony."

Apple is renowned for attention to detail, and no where is so obvious as the user interface. Many of you are unwrapping iPads and iPhones and wondering where to start. Jobs famously said, "If you see a stylus or a task manager, 'they blew it'." Apple designed the interface mimicking the keyboard, but limited space on the device put paid to the original design. Here are the "tricks" to make typing as easy at q,w,e. I mean, 1 2 3!

Today's Tip: Keyboard Tricks for your iPad and iPhone

When using the on-screen keyboard, press and hold down keys to reveal alternatives to the character that appears. 

Press and hold the "a" key to have your choice of ã, å, ā, à, a, á, â, ä, and æ. Works for capitals as well. 

Press and hold the " key and have your pick of «  „  ”  “  ».

Press and hold the "£" key to display ₩, €, $, ¢, ¥. 

Go on - press and hold all the keys to see what pops up.

Rather than switching to the number keyboard and then switching back to the letter keyboard, tap and hold the "123" key, then drag it to a number to select it. When you lift your finger from the number, the letter keyboard will appear again.

Double-tap the space bar to end your sentences with a period and a space. 

In your Home Screen, tap 'Settings' the 'General' and then 'Keyboard' and set up International Keyboards, including Chinese, Japanese, Arabic and even Emoji! Then a tap on the 'Globe' key enables you to change keyboards. 

Tricks for your iPad only.

Press and hold the 'hide keyboard' at the bottom right of your  keyboard and 'Unlock' and 'Split' buttons appear. 'Unlock' moves the bar off the bottom of the screen and 'Split' enables you to do 'thumb typing'.  Adjust the keyboard position by lightly touching the 'Hide Keyboard' key and dragging it up or down. Press and hold  'Hide Keyboard' again to dock, split, merge or dock and merge. 

You have to change habits to work in a tablet environment. The cloud forces a limit to how much you can take along with you. Go with the flow. Use you music player on your phone, pad or netbook with a severely limited playlist. You have a stand-alone music player for that. Use the camera on your phone for the "bread and butter" shots - sync to Dropbox or iCloud or one of the dedicated sites like Smugmug or Flickr. You'll be amazed at the resolution that you have at your disposal and camera apps are, literally, .99 pence. Try some out! 

I'm going to close here with thoughts that are appropriate for commencing on a journey, for teaching is a life-long journey of discovery.

“May you reflect upon the positive aspects of the past, plan and hope for the future, but most of all, realize that we have to live and adapt most readily in the present.”

and

“None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.”

—	Henry David Thoreau

Keep on experimenting!

Rick Hein

It all starts out with an idea...

You don't get taken with the colors of paints that you've got. You've got to narrow it down. It's great to have all the possibilities, but it all starts with an idea.

To sit there and hope something will happen is like dumping 400 gallons of paint on the floor and hoping a picture is going to emerge. It doesn't work that way.

Michael Nesmith
Wired News

Who is this visionary popular artist, some of you might be saying. Those of you who have studied American popular culture or were teenagers between 1966 and 1969 will recognise him immediately. He was the Monkee with the woolly hat. Since those early days, he has been credited with inventing MTV, spearheading the country rock genre, and writing one of the first online novels.

The genesis of this inventing spirit may become a little clearer when you learn that his mother invented Liquid Paper™. She was divorced, down to her last dime and mortgaged the house to go into production. Little Michael and his friends packed the boxes and delivered the product on their bicycles. He came from a family of innovators and people willing to risk everything on what they believe.

Daniel Barenboim, in the Reith Lectures for the BBC, claims that the musical journey is not the result of the movement from A to G. Rather it is the journey from silence to A that is the heart of the musical journey. You've heard it before in this space: great art is born of restraint. Here are two musicians from wildly different genres adding their voices to the argument.

One of my composition teachers gave the assignment to write a piece, less than three minutes, using only one note. It could be used in any octave, but only that one note. By constraining the melodic and harmonic content, we were forced to explore rhythm, repetition, variation and dynamics. This stretched our compositions into a new path. We had to "think different" to solve the problem. Whilst the pieces weren't masterworks, when we played them at the next lesson we were all amazed at the variety of compositions that appeared.

When we are using our new sequencers, whether they be Garageband, Logic, Amadeus, or whatever the newest latest tool is, we must remember that in order to learn to use the tool, we must structure the approach with appropriate restraints in order to allow invention to take place. In using today's loop based sequencers, one of the key skills is editing. How can you take the material presented and modify it to fit your needs? Add notes? Subtract notes? Transpose? The wise teacher amongst us then asks the student to explain why they made that choice. The answers may in the first instance be, "Because it sounds better." The educator in you won't let that answer stand. You'll look for a way in to see what the student is thinking.

As you follow the curve of the year keep thinking differently and looking for new creative approaches for your students. Look for the ways of getting them to own the music and the music making process. If you have the access to technology, create some "wacky" composition projects. Who knows – great beauty and a deeper understanding of music may be born from your constraints.

So You Want To Be A Rock And Roll Star?

"It encourages kids not to learn, that's the trouble. It makes less and less people dedicated to really get down and learn an instrument".

Bill Wyman, former bass player for the Rolling Stones

"It irritates me having watched my kids do it. If they spend as much time practising the guitar as learning how to press the buttons, they'd be damn good by now".

Nick Mason, Pink Floyd
both quoted in The Guardian, 8 September 2009

Two masters of their instruments air their views on the “Guitar Hero” phenomenon. From reports from my students, it appears the more real guitar or drums you can play, the more you have to “unlearn” to play the game. I have to admit, I’m sure like many of you, I played the beta version of “Guitar Hero”. That was the version where you actually learned to play the instruments then formed a band and played for tribal gatherings then known as sock-hops or dances.

Back in the dark ages in junior high I was in a band formed in the wake of the British Invasion that rehearsed in my basement. As I had been taking organ and tuba lessons for three years already, it was down to me to learn the songs in order to teach them to the rest of the band. I expanded my studies to include electric bass guitar and then transferred them to the upright bass to begin playing in the orchestra. So there I was from an early age listening to records, playing along, writing a variety of charts for my colleagues and co-conspirators. As at least three of us in the band, up to six in one incarnation, were also in the choir we were pretty good at vocal stylings and could cover not only songs by Chuck Berry and the Beatles, but also songs by such luminaries as the Beach Boys, the Cryan’ Shames and The Association.

So I suppose my innocent teen age pursuits shaped and fed my already fairly large interest in music. In our house music was something that happened the same way that you ate dinner in the evening. My father played trumpet and organ and my mother and her twin sister sang in a duet act, both performed at least semi-professionally in the Chicago area. As a result of my extra rock band training, neither ear training nor melodic dictation ever proved to be difficult in any of my courses. Similarly, class piano improvisation requirements where not as trying as they were to many. That early “Rock Band” game began as “do what they did” and turned eventually into “take the structures they used and develop a unique variation that is yours”.

I continued to play and sing in a variety of ensembles in High School. My band director needed a keyboard player for a lounge/club gig and asked if I could play a Hammond B3. As it turned out, I could and I then embarked on a career in the lounges and clubs of the south side playing standards, learning yet another style and set of performance theories and rules. This pattern continued through university and beyond.

With the growth of the Internet and the many tablature and lyrics sites that now exist, the technology has lifted some of the repetition out of transcribing songs and arrangements from contemporary popular music. Our students can now see their heroes performing on YouTube and concert videos. There are digital recorders built in to many hand held devices. Digital playback devices exist that allow songs to be slowed down without changing the pitch so students can play along with soloists. Students who have the music fire lit in them can find many avenues to stoke the flames. According to Alex Rigopulos, co-founder of the firm which created the Rock Band series, “We’re constantly hearing from fans who were inspired by Rock Band to start studying a real instrument.”

Mozart created his musical dice game to pass the time making music. Xenakis recorded burning charcoal to create a piece for the Brussels World’s Fair. The artists of musique concrète sliced reel-to-reel tapes into “samples” and distorted them and stitched them together or overdubbed them to create music. Today our students drag loops and beats to create songs, record and manipulate original sounds and source sounds in samplers. Algorithmic composition and “chance music” are now accepted compositional techniques. Our students make music in many ways, appreciate music in many ways and share their musical talents in a variety of ways.

Perhaps that is all the “Guitar Hero” is - another way that students socialise through, participate in, and express themselves with music. I am sure that we as teachers would hope that once the “Guitar Hero” game is conquered, all of our students would quickly resume the life-long game that they have undertaken; making music an essential part of their lives as intelligent consumers, enlightened critics and expressive performers and creators.