My podcast, more often on a break than broadcasting every week, but the archive is hopefully still very engaging. I deal in issues affecting music in contemporary education, and advocate for a more pluralist and inclusive classroom music education.
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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, remixing, and much more. You can see all of the project websites by following links at https://bit.ly/SCMTME2020. Music in this episode was created by Lucy Devine and Larisa Neuhoff on instruments that they built!
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 Coronavirus pandemic. In the projects I talk about today, my students have developed the skills to make these kinds of recordings and videos, and will share their insights into the process as well as how they think it might be useful for music education in…
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 looking for more ideas for songwriting projects for your classes (or to learn in your own time), all four of these participants have generously shared their work and their process at their blogs, which you can access at https://bit.ly/SCMTME2020. And if you’re free this Friday…
Keep readingMusic 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 you can actually download and start using in your own teaching today, generously shared by our pre-service music education candidates. Links to all of the students’ work and reflections on the course can be found at: https://bit.ly/SCMTME2020. And if you’d like to register (it’s free)…
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 you’d like to pick up your free registration for An Evening of Inventions and Ideas, go here: https://bit.ly/InventIdeas. And if you’d like to check out ALL of the Elective Stream contents before you sign up, I’ve made a programme! https://bit.ly/SCMMTMEProg If you have questions or…
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 Linsey and the other musicians/projects I mentioned in this week’s episode, please check out: Linsey’s websiteLinsey’s YouTube channelJon MadinMal WebbOdysseus
Keep readingMusic 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 Movement, all at once! References:The Place of Music in 21st Century Education, my free 5-week online course https://www.coursera.org/learn/music-educationA video (from the above course) of Brad showing his classroom spaces https://vimeo.com/220881784
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 so that it comes before the class, often in the format of a video to watch in the same way we sometimes set readings before classes. In past iterations of the course, while students told us they enjoyed the content, they felt it was too…
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 mention lots of resources and websites in this episode, so here they all are for your delectation: My free online course (MOOC):https://www.coursera.org/learn/music-educationMy recent blog sharing all of the #SCMTME projects: http://bit.ly/SCMTME2019Pianist Lolita Emmanuel: https://sydney.academia.edu/LolitaEmmanuelDAYTiME conferences 2020: www.musicednet.com/daytimeKASM YouTube channel: http://bit.ly/KASMyoutubeSugata Mitra’s TED talk Kids can teach themselves:Sugata Mitra: Kids can…
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 plight of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians – this version is child-friendly. The Hip-Hop song in this episode is not from Ilyawe (the music for this new project is just being written!), but from another youth Hip-Hop project I’ve been working on since 2016, Odysseus :…
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 Off the Track arrangement (PDF)A printable straight train track (PDF)A printable curved train track (PDF)My original composition 6834 (PDF)My arrangement of a teeny bit of Daniel Rojas’ Hard Boiled Overture (PDF)My arrangement of the keyboard hook from Prince’s When Doves Cry (PDF)My arrangement of Clean…
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 chord-playing instruments. Tell me what you think a music teacher’s essential skills are in the comments for this podcast, at the bottom of this page. Links related to/mentioned in this episode: My Riptide sheet for all chord-playing instruments.Jeff Robin’s brilliant animations on what PBL (Project…
Keep readingMusic 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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James Humberstone 