Class #1

"Welcome to Technology in Music Education. Put down your phones, turn off your computers. Let's meditate!" ~ James Humberstone

Introduction

Lol so the course is called 'Technology in Music Education' but James Humbo started the lesson with a low-key rant about how technology can be super bad and life-consuming (which I agree with wholeheartedly), which is super comforting because I was genuinely worried that I'd hate this course because I kinda hate technology. So instead... he started with a meditation session, yieewww!! That was super fun and calming. I enjoy meditation. I do it often - but a different sort of practise. Instead of doing I guess the 'Eastern meditation' practise where you empty your mind, I do Christian meditation where I still my mind and focus it on God. So I found the meditation process with James quite easy but different to how I normally do things. Anyways, knowing J Humbo isn't about the life that lets technology take control over you is comforting, and hopefully he will teach reflecting that knowledge.

Course requirements

1. 12 blog posts (one for each week) reflecting on what we learnt each lesson. James suggested we embed our work into blogs, and do further research for extra marks - so of course, that is what I will aim for and we will see how that effort pans out across semester! 2. Blog posts towards our major project - which James told us to not worry about at the moment because we will talk about it later.

3. Develop an online presence in your PLN (Personal Learning Network). This could involve engaging in Music Education streams by sharing resources and ideas. N.B. Twitter #SCMTNT

What we did in class

After meditating and running through the course requirements, we attempted to navigate SoundTrap! This was super fun. It was helpful having James just explore and teach ourselves how to use the website with only few interjections guiding us in the right direction.

After fiddling... here is what I came up with:

It sounds like super funky background music for YouTube videos.

Cool things you can do with SoundTrap:

• Use loops

• Create/edit MIDIs

• Play synth

• Create an EPIC track in whatever style you want cause there are so many loops

James told a really long story about 'Tim' to show us how using SoundTrap, and other weird sorts of technology things are actually super beneficial for learning success. Using technology to make music is STILL MAKING MUSIC! You learn things like structure, timbre, texture, and so on; and how it all works together to create a piece.

I'm looking forward to using SoundTrap with my Junior Secondary class on prac.