New Podcast - Episode 2 - Steel Band

I've released Glasgow HS Band Podcast - Episode 2 - The Steel Band. It's basically an advertisement for students who are now signing up for next year's classes. Take a look at it over at http://glasgowband.podomatic.com/player/web/2009-02-25T11_30_53-08_00.

Tentative Schedule for Fall 2009

I am releasing a tentative schedule for the 2009 marching band season.

August
11-14 Band Camp 9:00-5:00
17-21 Band Camp 9;00-5:00
25, 27 Rehearsal 6:00-8:00

September
8, 10 Rehearsal 6:00-8:30
11 Game vs. Pencader 7:00
15,17 Rehearsal 6:00-8:30
18 Game vs. Dover
22, 24 Rehearsal 6:00-8:30
25 Game vs. Charter
29 Rehearsal 6:00-8:30

October
1 Rehearsal 6:00-8:30
3 Game at St. Marks / USSBA Competition at Mount Pleasant
6, 8 Rehearsal 6:00-8:30
9 Game at AI DuPont
10 USSBA Delaware Valley Regional at Upper Darby HS
13,15 Rehearsal 6:00-8:30
17 Game at William Penn
20, 22 Rehearsal 6:00-8:30
23 Homecoming vs. Delcastle
25 Halloween Parade
27, 29 Rehearsal 6:00-8:30
30 Game at Newark

November
3, 5 Rehearsal 6:00-8:30
6 Game vs. Christiana
7 Regional or Chapter Championships
10, 12 Rehearsal 6:00-8:30
13 Game vs. Concord
14 TOB Regional Championship

The biggest change is the late start to band camp this year. School is starting late, August 31st this year, so band camp is a week later. It is still two weeks, it's just starting a week later than usual.

We will be seeing some new competition for the football team this year from Concord HS and Pencader Charter, but it looks like we will be saying goodbye to Archmere and our 896 rivals Middletown. I have some USSBA shows on the schedule this year, and I'm still waiting to see what things look like in TOB before putting anything of that circuit on our schedule. Of course, this is all tentative, so check back often.

GHS Band Podcast - Episode 1

This week in my Web 2.0 class we are looking at streaming media, like I had described in the previous blog postings. We are also discussing the use of podcasts in education. Together with the jazz ensemble today I made the first GHS band podcast episode. In it, the jazz ensemble plays the piece Round Midnight and I make comments to help the students listen to the performance and know what to practice to make the next time even better.

The podcast can be viewed directly at http://glasgowband.podomatic.com/player/web/2009-02-19T13_13_49-08_00. Soon, hopefully, my podcast will be available for download on iTunes if you search for the Glasgow High School Band under my direction. I'll let you know when I find out the podcast has been approved.

Uploading a Streaming Video, Take 2

I uploaded my earilier attempted video to Screencast.com to see if I have any more luck with this. Here goes:




Now it appears to have been successful. I really have no clue, though, since it's a flash file and I can't check it from my work computer. If anyone is viewing my blog please do leave a comment and tell me if this worked. I must rely on the kindness of strangers here.

Streaming Video attempt #1

I've had one heck of a time trying to get what I want from recording video from my computer. There are two things I want to do, and I can't do both from a single computer easily. I want to either record from my computer and record the audio coming out of my speakers or record from my microphone as I speak and show what's happening on the screen at the same time. Now, my Dell laptop is COMPLETELY incapable of doing the former idea. I have tried many ways, and searched the internet for help, but it seems that the sound card that came with my Dell E1505 just cannot record sound from the speakers directly to the internal microphone. I can record just fine from an external microphone, though, so that's easy.

On my school computer I can record from the speakers directly without a single problem, and I can easily hook up my microphone to record my voice, too. However, when trying to use Jing to record it, the free version only make Flash video files. Now, I love my school district; they pay me money to do band stuff. However, either they or the state of Delaware has eliminated Flash players from all computers on the system, so there is no way for me to view what I have done. So, did it work? I don't know. I will try to post what I did on here so I can view it later.

This is a video of a segment of Leaving on a Jetplane for the Glasgow Steel Band. It is being played by Finale 2007 music software and recorded by TechSmith's Jing software. If it works, I will be able to do more like this in the future where students will be able to follow along with the music and perhaps play along, too. It will help students learn their parts especially in the summer months when they are out of school for a long while.

Ok, so no luck uploading the video today. I'll try again from home if I can.

Update - 2/19/09, 9:17AM. I realize now that I was trying to upload a Flash file to blogger, and blogger doesn't accept movies in that format. That is why I was having difficulty and no success yesterday.

Candide, Debussy or something else French

I took a few days off from blogging as, well, I didn't have all that much to share. But today I had a discussion with the French teacher here about finding ways to combine topics that I can teach in history & theory of music class with her French classes. She brought up doing something in French opera or maybe something a lot earlier like the troubadours and that history in French class and I can focus on the music aspect in my class. Leonard Bernstein did an opera on Candide, Debussy is a fantastic composer, and there's a lot else out there!

So, we'll see how that goes and if anything comes of it. I'm sure it's something that the administration would LOVE to see us do, and it's something that can be put on the website for good PR. I mentioned to Madame that the Delaware Opera has dress rehearsals open to students for educational opportunities and that the Marriage of Figaro is opening in May. Now, Figaro is actually written in Italian by an Austrian composer speaking German, but the story was from France just prior to the Revolution. I think it could be really neat to have my music and band students and some of the French students go see it, though it really wouldn't be too helpful since it will be sung in Italian. It's great music; if only the kids could sit through four hours of singing and dancing in a foreign language.

That "Ah hah!" Moment

This morning we were continuing our work with Four Voice Harmony in history & theory class. We're getting into some really in depth music theory material here, so if I'm going to lose anyone in my class, now's about when it will happen. One of my students was struggling and struggling to understand how notes work on the Bass Clef and how it's different from the Treble Clef. No matter what I did, she couldn't grasp it. And now that we're on to Four Voice Harmony, we're layering even more responsibility on top of knowing Bass and Treble Clefs.

I was working with this particular student today trying to get her to figure it all out. And then, suddenly, about 10 minutes before the bell ring, that student had her "Ah Hah!" moment. She did one problem and asked if it was correct. It was. She did the next relatively quickly and, again, it was correct. Excitedly she ripped through the remaining six problems on the page, each one completely correct with no help from me. Eureka!

Sometimes I think I might actually be a good teacher.