AND I AM SAYING IT
Welcome to my blog. As John Cage wrote, “I have nothing to say and I am saying it”. He went on to say “… and that is poetry as I need it”. In my case, that is blogging, as I need it. In 1966, Edwin Morgan made a brilliant poem called Opening The Cage from Cage’s statement by reordering the words. You may like to reorder the words of my blog, or filter them by category. In fact, this whole website (including all of the music and resources for teaching music) is just a filtering of categories of blog posts…
Anyway, here it all is in classic blog reverse-chronological style … everything I’m thinking about education, music, technology, philosophy, pedagogy, and more …
biography blogging composerhome Composition creativity Education electric semiquaver free resources GarageBand High School hip-hop iBooks improvisation improvising introduction ipad Kenneth Froelich Mac maker maker movement MLC School Music Music education online Orff PBL Pedagogy performance Piano politics Popular Music Production research resources Sibelius songwriting song writing string orchestra students teaching composition tech technology Union Unionism writing
The Paul Grabowsky Sibelius Education Kit (from 2006)
There’s a funny story about this one. Sibelius 5 had lots of cool things to show off. A new audio engine, the Ideas Hub, support for VST and AU plug-ins, a new view in Panorama, super-easy cues and much, much more. Here in Australia Sibelius went all out and commissioned a work from composer Paul…
Keep readingSibelius 7 Music Notation Essentials (Book, no longer in print).
Because this book is no longer in print, I have made the resources and tutorial videos (which are still quite relevant to the current version of Sibelius) available here! There are plenty of second hand copies of the book available if you need one. Sibelius 7 Music Notation Essentials was the only official, Avid-endorsed course for…
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The experience of casual teachers at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music
Following on from my blog yesterday, I’m sharing the second article I prepared for @SydneyCon students before the strikes last week, so they would understand why we’re striking, and perhaps even join us on the picket line to ask for better working conditions for the teachers which we argue are better learning conditions for them.…
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Why our Conservatory students should care about the 40:40:20
This last week, I was a picket captain for the first time in my life, during the two-day #USydStrike. While I’ve decades of experience in social justice work, from marching in rallies, to picketing visiting politicians, through to my teaching and research/creative work, I only joined and became active in the National Tertiary Education Union…
Keep readingWhy should Sydney Conservatorium students support their teachers?
In this blog I’m sharing the third “explainer” that I made for @SydneyCon students about not only why NTEU members were striking last week, but also why they ought to support that strike by not crossing the picket line (or even joining us on it!). This explainer was a little more chatty… OK, so we…
Keep readingAnnouncing the #SCMTME & MTeach Extension cohorts, 2022
Yes, it’s that time of year again, when I share my students’ websites with the world! We’re 11 weeks into my course MUED4002 Technology in Music Education at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, and as usual we’ve learned lots of simple techy skills (audio and MIDI recording and editing, graphic creation, creative commons and notation…
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Αγάπη (Agapi) and other kinds of love (Music Theatre/Hip-Hop/Intercultural Art)
Premiered at the National Museum of Australia, April 2022 Concert blurb: Experience Agapi & Other Kinds of Love by renowned Greek-Australian poet and rapper Luka Lesson. Accompanied by cinematic scores and hip-hop numbers composed by Sydney Conservatorium of Music’s James Humberstone, this soulful performance will ignite your heart. Agapi & Other Kinds of Love tells the story of…
Keep readingIntroducing the #SCMTME cohort of 2021
Well, who’d’ve thunk it? I’m back again after a quiet 10 months on this blog, to introduce the next cohort in my Technology in Music Education course at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Yes I did plan some other blogs, and a 3rd series to my podcast, but Covid, eh? Anyway, no time for excuses.…
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Luka Lesson X James Humberstone, locked down 20-21
Luka and I had been working on Odysseus since 2016, but it became clear that our massive orchestral-choral-Hip-Hop-cinematic theatrical work wasn’t going to premiere through the pandemic, so we got to work remotely, through the lockdowns, on three orchestrated video-poems, written and performed by Luka, with music by me. There’s a strong theme of Social…
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Drum Programming Minus One, and The Patented Humberstone Four-Finger Technique (Text Book Chapters)
I wrote two chapters for a wonderful new music education textbook, The Music Technology Cookbook, edited by Adam Patrick Bell. The book itself has 56 chapters, some as single activities for learning music with technology, and others linked ideas to create term-long projects with your students. My chapter Drum Programming Minus One is a play on the idea…
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Empathy in the time of division (viola & electronics)
JamesHumbers · Empathy in a time of division My submission for the 2020 “Art Has To Be Contagious” installation in Tübingen, Germany, Empathy in a time of division is for electronics with solo viola and delay. [See art-has-to-be-contagious.com for more.] Live viola performed by the wonderful Connor Malanos. Please contact me if you’d like to…
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Music Zettel S2E5 – Thongaphone!
Well, five episodes in five days, and today’s episode coincides with our public presentation of learning, which you can still sign up for if you’re very quick: https://bit.ly/InventIdeas. In this episode, I look at the 5th elective stream – new pedagogies and technologies – including projects to build new social media, to build instrumental ensembles,…
Keep readingMusic Zettel S2E4 – Oh no, virtual choirs.
In this episode of Music Zettel, I look at the theme of Virtual ensembles, multi-screen mixes, and animation in recent work by my students following my Technology in Music Education course. I’m sure you’ve all been wowed by virtual choirs, orchestras, and other ensembles of people “performing together, apart” over the lockdowns due to the…
Keep readingMusic Zettel S2E3 – Songwriting, composing, & creativity
In the third Zettel of the week, I take you through a number of songwriting, composition, and other zany creative projects that our pre-service music teachers have produced in response to my Tech in Music Education course. Music included in this episode is by Kyra McMorrow, Matt O’Brien, Katrina Wu, and Emily Turner. If you’re…
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Music Zettel S2E2 – Free Resources FTW
In the second episode of this micro-season of Music Zettel, I’m looking at projects undertaken in the stream of digital resources for teaching, learning, and music making, and the related content from my Unit of Study “Technology in Music Education” at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. We’ll look at a number of digital resources that…
Keep readingMusicZettel S2E1 – The Elephant in the Room
Here I am, back with a second micro-season of MusicZettel, after abandoning the first one just when it was getting good (or was it?). Anyway, in this episode I’m going to tell you what the plan is for this short season, and for the future, as well as about a fabulous event coming Friday! If…
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Seeking Innovation as Exploration of Aesthetic (Book Chapter)
My chapter in the new book Creative Research in Music, edited by my colleagues Anna Reid, Jeanell Carrigan, and Neal Peres Da Costa, accounts for the creative research process for my 2015 release Noise Husbandry, an electro-acoustic installation at the Australian National Maritime Museum on Sydney’s Darling Harbour, performed by Ensemble Offspring. Abstract This chapter presents a…
Keep readingIntroducing the #SCMTME cohort of 2020!
That time of the year has come earlier this year, as my Technology in Music Education class at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music has moved semesters this year (and next year moves a whole year earlier in the degree, so we can tool-up our students in their second year!). This year we also welcome some…
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Nurturing Vulnerability to Develop Pedagogical Change Through MOOC Participation and Public Blogging (Book Chapter)
A chapter I wrote with Catherine Zhao and Danny Liu drawing upon data from my MOOC, The Place of Music in 21st Century Education, for the Oxford Handbook of Social Media and Music Learning, edited by Janice L. Waldron, Stephanie Horsley, and Kari K. Veblen. Abstract Despite several decades of ground-breaking achievements in music education research…
Keep readingClass, control, and classical music
Last week I was lucky enough to meet Anna Bull, the author of Class, Control, and Classical Music (Oxford University Press, 2019: Kindle | OUP). We had a great chat over a long lunch and I know her work is going to make a huge impact on my own, both research-wise and in my teaching.…
Keep readingMusic Zettel Ep. 8 – A load of Pollak
We’ve just had three wonderful days with our Maker-in-Residence, Linsey Pollak! In this episode, I reflect on the learning that went on, the Bad, the Ugly, and the Good, and we hear from my students who were involved in the residency at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. If you’d like to hear more music from…
Keep readingInspired by New Zealand’s approach to cultural diversity
A week ago I gave the keynote speech on the opening day of New Zealand’s national music education MENZA conference. I’ll write more about what I shared in a podcast later this year but I wanted to share a quick thought in a blog this morning. Before the keynote they were the usual opening bits…
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Music Zettel Ep. 7 – Teaching like a musician
In this week’s podcast, I interview Brad Fuller, director of music at Northern Beaches Christian School, about his pedagogical approach to teaching the class that I described in Episode 6, where our undergraduate pre-service Music Teachers wrestle with jamming with chord-playing instruments that are totally new to them and the philosophy of the Creative Music…
Keep readingMusic Zettel Ep. 6 – The Creative Music Movement
This episode features a “flipped learning” video that I made for Key Approaches in Music Education at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, the first year course that I mentioned in episode 2. For those wondering what “flipped learning” means, it’s when you take a part of a class that you’ve traditionally chalked-and-talked, and “flip” it…
Keep readingMusic Zettel Ep. 5 – Tech skills & industry collaboration
This week we are giving away dozens of free resources for music education and technology! I’ll be reflecting on the first 5 weeks of my Sydney Conservatorium course “Technology in Music Education”, which culminated in a media creation session with brilliant pianist Lolita Emmanuel in which the students were the film and sound crew. I…
Keep readingMusic Zettel Ep. 4 – Music Education & Social Justice
I’ve been to Alice Springs to work on a new project, Ilyawe, and in this episode I introduce the project in the context of social justice in Music Education. You can find out much more about the project at its website, www.ilyaweproject.com. There is a longer version of this podcast at https://humberstone.org/?p=1219 with more background about the…
Keep readingMusic Zettel Ep. 4 – longer version – Music Education & Social Justice
This is the longer version of Episode 4 of my podcast, Music Zettel, in which I’ve included more information about the plight of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians in contemporary Australian society for context for listeners, especially from overseas, who may not know the background. Note – I suggest you don’t listen to this…
Keep readingAlice Springs makes Zettel 4 a little late
OK, so I know you’re all madly waiting for episode of Music Zettel, my new podcast. OK well maybe not. Last week I went to Alice Springs to work on a new project for 2020. It’s pretty amazing, so I decided to rewrite the podcast content for this week to focus on it instead (it…
Keep readingLearning the ukulele diary 6: am I close?
I thought this week I should review how many chords I’ve learned, which I’m still a bit slow with chord changes on, and what I still have to go. As you may remember, we’ve asked students to learn the major, minor, and seventh chords of A, B flat, C, D, E, F, and G. So,…
Keep readingMusic Zettel Ep. 3 – Orff formula arrangements
This week’s episode is drawn from my first two lectures this semester in Composition in Music Education. We look at some of my own Orff-style arrangements and original compositions and discuss how these can be both a pedagogical and compositional model for teaching and learning. The resources I mentioned in this episode include: My Train’s…
Keep readingLearning the Uke diary 5: jamming with my band
If a picture says a thousand words, I expect this video says a million. Enjoy!
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Introducing the #SCMTME class of 2019
The Technology in Music Education class that I teach at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music has been one of the most successful I’ve run over the last 7 years. I put this down to two things – first, that the main assessment task of the course is entirely student-negotiated (i.e. what they want to learn…
Keep readingMusic Zettel Ep. 2 – Skills every music teacher needs
What are the musical skills that every classroom music teacher needs? I’ve been lucky enough to rewrite our first year #MusicEd courses this year, and I’ve focused first on the ability to teach a melody through imitation & chunking (musical definition coming up!); and in addition, this semester, on the ability to accompany songs on…
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Music Zettel Ep 1 – Introduction
The first podcast in my first ever series – Music Zettel – in which I’ll share ideas and resources from my lecture series this semester at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, in addition to content related to my free MOOC (online short course), The Place of Music in 21st Century Education.
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Learning Ukulele Diary 4 – my favourite songs with C, G, F, and Am
As mentioned in my second diary, the only difficult thing about playing the above 4 chords is the change to and from G major, which has 3 fingers down, and in positions that aren’t necessarily similar to those in the C and F major shapes. And the best way I’ve found to practice the changes to…
Keep readingLearning ukulele diary 3: video tutorials amateur, semi-pro, and published paid courses
So you’re in the dress-ups room with your daughter sitting on the throne and what comes into your mind? Yes, of course, record another Uke learning video! This is a bit rough and messy, but hopefully funny if not very educational 🙂 https://vimeo.com/351280448
Keep readingLearning ukulele diary 1: unboxing 🙂
As mentioned in my last blog post, I’ve decided to DO THE PROJECT MYSELF, FIRST! and learn a new chord-playing instrument which is what I’m asking my students to do in Key Approaches in Music Education this coming semester at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. I was in Limerick in June for the MAYDAY Colloquium (easily the most…
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Key Approaches in Music Education and completing degree accreditation for NESA/AITSL
I’m coordinating a new (for me) Unit of Study (UoS) this coming semester at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Key Approaches in Music Education. This is first year course that follows on directly from Key Ideas in Music Education. Taking over a UoS gives you chance to stamp your personality/philosophy on it. Ever since my first day…
Keep readingRemixular bells
In this unit of work you will examine how Mike Oldfield built the opening of his seminal progressive rock work Tubular Bells. By following each step as instructed below, you will rebuild the work yourself, remix it, and then compose a new piece based on the original. Simply follow the process outlined as follows. Listening Learn…
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James Humberstone 