I recently stumbled across an AI tool for English teachers called Twee that is actually really useful for any teacher - including music teachers! This multi-function AI powered tool allows you to do LOTS of different things - from lesson planning to creating assessments. While there are a ton of features that are specific to writing, vocabulary and grammar, there are some features that I think music teachers will love using. My favorite is the ability to analyze ANY video and create assessments with a variety of options. From being able to generate multiple choice to open ended questions, thi ..read more

MusicFirst partnered with an online DAW called Soundation Education right at the very start and it has been great to see the product progress over the last 12 years. Recently they have announced a new AI-powered sample generator called Gennie - and it is VERY cool. Unfortunately, it is only available in the consumer version of the product - so educators will have to wait a bit to use it with their students. It basically uses text prompts to create high-quality audio samples. Gennie creates 12-second-long musical samples based on the text prompts you type in. You can generate any type of loop ..read more

Last month, Soundtrap released a very cool feature in their online DAW called Vocal Doubler. This new feature/effect makes your vocal tracks sound much fuller and affords you the opportunity to do some pretty cool things. It essentially splits the original vocal track into twin modulated stereo signals, making it sound like there are several voices singing together in unison. Student vocal recordings are really enhanced with this tool - not by auto tuning (and of course you can do that), but by making them thicker and fuller. It’s really cool. Have a listen to these two audio examples. The fi ..read more

On a rainy day in March of 2002 in New York City, I did what so many graduate students hope to do as the final step of their educational journey. I defended my doctoral dissertation. Two months later, after some suggested minor revisions, my dissertation was published and I graduated with my Doctor of Education degree from Teachers College, Columbia University, along with some other incredible music educators. For the majority of dissertations, they then end up sitting on a shelf in the institutions’ library to hopefully get quoted in other research or serve as the foundation for further stud ..read more

On Saturday, April 27th, 2024, I will once again join the amazing faculty of the Conn Selmer Institute (CSI) at their Southeast Regional Event in Atlanta, Georgia. This event will take place on the campus of North Atlanta HS and CSI is offering an enriching full day of professional development for music educators and college students by some amazing music educators, including Dr. Tim Lautzenheiser, Richard Saucedo, Dr. Myra Rhoden, Dr. David Vandewalker, Stephen Lawrence Carroll, Travis Downs, Erin Cole Steele, and MANY more! I’ll be presenting a session titled Music Education at the Crossroa ..read more

Tomorrow night (Thursday, April 18th) at 8pm ET, I will be co-hosting a webinar through MusicFirst that is intended for any student taking the upcoming AP Music Theory exams with my good friend Tim Wilson from Rising Software. The webinar, titled "Acing Your AP Music Theory Exams" , is a wonderful resource for students preparing for their AP Music Theory exams next month, as well as their teachers. This engaging session will focus on effective strategies to identify and overcome trouble spots, solidify your understanding of key music theory concepts, and enhance your skills through targeted p ..read more

If you’ve ever struggled to create worksheets with musical examples - especially within a Google doc or other non-music software program, then you’ve probably felt the pain of taking very small screenshots, saving them as JPEGs, and then inserting them into the document using text boxes or other methods. It has always been a clunky and time consuming - until now. I found out about the Music Snippet tool from my good friends at Flat for Education. Music Snippet is an intuitive Chrome browser add-on that enhances Google Docs & Slides for music creation. It allows you to effortlessly create ..read more

Just as I was getting over the shock of how good Suno.ai is at writing songs using AI, BOOM - along comes Udio. While on the one hand I can see that songwriters and copyright holders aren’t going to like this one at all, the tech side of my brain is absolutely blown away by how powerful Udio is - and it’s only in Beta. I learned about AI in a recent article in Rolling Stone magazine titled AI-Music Arms Race: Meet Udio, the Other ChatGPT for Music, and immediately visited Udio.com - as did EVERYONE else it seems. They are currently overloaded with requests to try out their stunning music gene ..read more

In Tune Monthly is an incredible monthly online periodical that publishes interactive and streamed content eight times a year, from late September through April. Designed with middle and high school music students in mind, InTune simplifies complex music concepts for students and focuses heavily on the music and musicians that THEY listen to and enjoy. In my opinion, it is the PERFECT resource for a middle school general music class, modern band program, or any curriculum that is looking to incorporate popular music. For the past seven years, In Tune Monthly, both the Student edition and the ..read more

Last night in my Music Tech class at Montclair State University, I was showing my students some fun online music tools. One of my amazing students, Elaria, mentioned a website that she used many times called Pink Trombone. I always get excited when a student tells me about a website that I’m not familiar with, and wow am I glad that Elaria told me about this one. Pink Trombone is an interactive website created by Neil Thapen that helps you visualize and HEAR how the human voice works. This is a WONDERFUL tool for any vocal coach/choir director/choral educator. You can control all sorts of par ..read more