I wanted to show you guys some music media online that can help yourself or anyone who has the inspiration to create their own music. Since I have been discussing the younger age group, I'd figure I would tell you about some online sites that an individual could use or it can be used in a classroom. So if you know someone who can read and write music and may want to begin to write their own, check out noteflight.com. Noteflight is a simple application for just about anyone to use. If you're in your early stages of sight reading or already have the know how. Here you can create, view, listen and even print your work. Noteflight is not only available on computers but you can access Noteflight on a smartphone or tablet so you can use it inside or outside of a classroom. Noteflight can be purchased for studio or classroom access. This can give students and teachers a '"learning by doing" experience in a classroom setting. Noteflight builds a private, secure, online K-12 community for instruction and learning, separate from the Noteflight.com site. (noteflight.com/info/learn_more_k12). You can use Noteflight as a sight reading piece, if you know how to play an instrument. If you don't want to sign up for an account on Noteflight, a demo is available for you. Just click on "Try a Live Demo" and it will take you to a template of scores to choose from. A MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) adapter is available on Noteflight for Mac and Windows users.
If you prefer to hand write your sheet music, you can go to blanksheetmusic.net to print out your own blank sheets. There is an option to add clefs, time and key signature. These can be a good source for a music theory class. To anyone who is being introduced to music writing, these can be a good practice start.
If Noteflight seems to complicated for you, incredibox.com is another type of application that is easy to use. Since we all have heard music in our lives on way or another, here is a way to put sounds together and create something that has already done the hard part for you. Here all you have to do is, Drag, Drop and Listen. You have the options of beats, melody, the chorus or a couple others like effects and voices. Place the illustrated human beatbox guys in any order you would like to make a composition. You can share your composition with your friends. The compositions are available by downloading but there is a fee. There is the option to share the composition via email. Once you send someone an email of your composition they the can open it by clicking "see the composition" and check out what you have done. This is easy and fun for anyone. So if you have kids that want to check it out, just be advised not to let them download it, unless you are willing to pay a small fee. By the way it's 69 euros.
What I have explained so far is more a the composition part of music in applications. So what about an instrument lesson? I myself know how to play the saxophone. I began learning when I was in the 5th grade, with the help of having the physicality of a human being right next to me. Now days there are videos on YouTube.com to try and teach someone how to play any type of instrument from the guitar to the oboe. The list goes on. If you know how to play an instrument but have a hard time keeping tempo while practicing, there are many different metronome sites to help out.
So these are just a few things online that can be a helping hand in music education. There are plenty more but I don't want to bore you too much.
A lot of music marketed to children these days are promoted by acts such as Hannah Montana the Jonas Brothers. Some others may include One Republic, Selena Gomez and even Justin Bieber. These groups have grown among the U.S. younger generation. "The increasing availability of portable media devices, along with the widespread installation of Internet terminals in schools and educators' turn toward corporate produced "edutainment" for lessons, has reconfigured schools as central sites of children's media consumption." (Bickford, Tyler. Childrens's Music MP3 Players, and Expressive Practices at a Vermont Elementary School: Media Consumption as Social Organization among Schoolchildren. Diss. Columbia University. 2011)
Kids that have the access to use digital media learn to structure music innovations.
Now I'm going to shift things in another direction but with the use of digital media. Below is an interview that was recorded with an M-Audio Microtrack. Here I sat with three fellow, up and coming engineers. Mike a singer/songwriter, Jade an instrumentalist, talks about playing the drums, Alex a beginner on the guitar and myself. Listen as we talk about our experiences and interests.
Until next time my readers.
Wow this is some pretty neat stuff. I'm really into the composition of songs and I've always wanted to get better at reading music. In fact, I might go to hell for admitting this, but the last time I went to church I spent the entire time looking at the gospel book where all the songs are and just practiced reading music instead of paying attention to what was going on during the church thing... Anyway I think I'll use some of these sites to further my ability to read and write music on lead sheets and stuff.
ReplyDeleteYes Mo, this is good information. I have recently been inspired to learn sheet music as well. These sites you listed will definitely come in handy. Keep that knowledge coming.
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