iRealB on sale today only

iRealb app is on sale today – half off! This app creates an accompaniment based on chords that you input, or download from their forums. Lots more fun to practice with an accompaniment like this instead of just you playing by yourself!

It’s their B-Day so enjoy the savings. I believe the savings include the in app purchases – which are probably going to be very helpful! This is actually one of the reasons I have NOT purchased this app. If you are going to give me an app then give me the app – don’t make me have to purchase additional add-ons. 

Email – Gmail, Apple Mail and MailboxApp

I just have to say that I usually just use my Mail app on my laptop if I am actually using a computer to go through my email. I hardly ever use the web interface for Gmail. I just have to say that I tried using that interface of Gmail, in a web browser, tonight and I hate it! Maybe it’s just because I don’t use it often enough and I am not used to it.

My favorite way to deal with email though these days is through my iPhone first! I whip through a TON on email on a daily basis as I walk back and forth or am just sitting waiting.

I also have to say that I am looking forward to trying out the new MailboxApp coming soon! I’ve watched the videos online and read all they have to read. I like what I see. I will be trying it out and I will stick to just that one app as much as possible for a good solid week at least! But now I have to go because my son made it onto snow fest court and I get to enjoy being a Dad!

http://www.mailboxapp.com

Chromatik in the Band Room

No, no, I am not talking about the chromatic scale! I m talking about the online music website for “learning music together”. Well, that’s what THEY say on their web site! Practice, Share, Record and Collect your music online – those are the highlights of what this site is about.

What Chromatik allows us musicians to do is to put our PDF sheet music online and access it from a web browser. Once that PDF Sheet Music is online then you are able to view and practice with that acting as your sheet music instead of actual paper music. But it does get better than this! As you practice you are also able to record yourself! After recording your self you can share your recordings with other people. Another possibility is that you can create playlists of your PDF Sheet Music and share those playlists with others. So that way we can all work on that music in an online environment and give each other feedback on how we are doing. Here is the link to their information page that just so happens to have a video on it – we all like a little TV right?

Of course, since I am tech minded and always searching for new and different ways to teach and learn music, I am starting to use this web site with my band students. So here starts my journey of sharing about this process online! Look forward to more posts about this resource over the rest of this school year!

First thing I would like to share is the best method I have discovered for uploading my files to the Chromatik web site.

BACKGROUND: All of my Band Music I am digitizing slowly. Each piece we play gets scanned and stored in our digital music library. I end up with two PDF files, one for the score and another for the parts. Each file actually contains the words – “Score” or “Parts” in the filename. This makes it very simple to do a spotlight search, find the appropriate file and make use of that file.

WHAT NOT TO DO: The first things I have discovered that is a horrible, horrible situation is for me to take that PDF file with ALL the band parts and upload that file to Chromatik. when I try to access that PDF (even though it is usually only a 3-4 megabyte file) it is painfully slow to deal with online. I am not sure if it is an issue with the file size or because there are so many pages involved. Either way… don’t do it! I’m sure this situation will only improve over time.

WHAT DOES WORK: I upload each part individually as a separate PDF file. This means that I open the Parts PDF in preview, I am working on a mac here but the process and ideas are the same for windows. Then I select the flute pages and drag them out into the finder to create a new PDF with only the flute part in it. I then do the same for the Clarinet part and so on until I have a new PDF for each instrument. This is a bit of a hassle but in reality it only takes about 5-10 minutes max to drag each part out and re-name it so I know which PDF contains which instrument. Then each PDF gets added to my library in Chromatik.

TRICK: This is the part where you need to pay attention folks! Chromatik does not make it obvious as to the best practice in this process. I did discover though, by accident, that I can have ALL the different instruments show up in my Chromatik library under ONE Piece Name vs every PDF showing up and creating a VERY long list! See the screenshot below… you see that I had uploaded Five Good Natured Variations BEFORE I discovered this process. I had a whole bunch of PDF’s showing up (with the instrument as a part of the title) creating a very long list in my library (I was already DREADING having very many pieces in my library because of this issue – Management was going to be a nightmare!)

Example of each individual PDF vs All PDF’s listed under one song title

Then I discovered that all I had to do was give each part the exact same Piece Name as I uploaded them to my library and then Chromatik created a folder for me and listed all the different parts under one Piece Name! This process was a bit hit and miss though – sometimes I had to type in the Piece Name twice to get Chromatik to pick up on the fact that this was a piece that was already in my library. Once Chromatik did pick up on that fact the name of the Author automatically popped into that field. Then I had to pick which part I was uploading. Then all the parts show up in my Library as a drop down menu list under the Piece Title as you see in the above screenshot for Variation Overture.

Here is a screenshot of the uploading process – you can see that I typed in the Piece Title and then Chromatik input the Author Name (that’s why it is a darker grey)

Naming uploads

There will be more to come as I work through figuring out this web site.

I am fully behind the ideas they are working to implement here. I also realize that this is in the early stages of it’s life. That is why I am willing to overlook some of the annoying issues I have run into. Things like it NOT being obvious of how to upload music and there not being a guide that describes the process. Or the fact that I cannot re-order the playlists, the fact that I have NO idea how they figure out the order in which pieces show up in your music library after you download them and the fact that it is a bit slow at times.

The service is free! Plus is you are a school they will donate a FREE iPad2 if you implement this at your school and get 100 students to sign up! Of course one of the reasons I am using this service is because they also have an iPad app, which is also free.

ForScore helps DropBox and UnRealBook and a Band Director!

I love ForScore…. Maybe I should say that I love finding solutions to problems!

As we all know there is a limitation in iOS when using the Open In menu. Only 10 apps are allowed in there for some reason (Hopefully this changes!) This presents a problem frequently.

I email myself a PDF file for instance that needs to be saved into DropBox and I can’t do it because DropBox is not one of those ten apps in the Open Menu from the mail app. So I used ForScore as a go between… I opened the PDF into ForScore, used ForScore to rename the file and then used ForScore to upload that PDF to DropBox! Then I jump into the DropBox app and move the file into the proper folder where I want it saved to. At that time then I can jump into UnRealBook and download the file from DropBox.

It really is much faster and easier than it sounds!

Some of you may be wondering why in the world even bother with DropBox and UnRealBook. I mean come on…. I’ve got the PDF into ForScore I could just stop there and be happy! Well it’s all about flexibility and backups! If ForScore crashed and I lost all the music/drill that was in that app and I didn’t have a backup I could be in big trouble. Especially at a concert! Plus sometimes I like using ForScore and other times I like using UnRealBook – they both do certain things better. Plus if it is all on DropBox I’ve got those files backed up in the cloud, on my laptop, on my home iMac, on the school iMac and several spot

Apple TV and my Classroom

So I have an Apple TV in my Band Room now! So excited!

One issue is a bit annoying though. When I use the AppleTV 3rd gen, to mirror my iPad the picture on my screen is not the size I expected. The classroom projector displays the image but with black space around it. In other words it is not filling the screen. I thought maybe this was simply the resolution of the AppleTV and that was as big as the image was going to get. Then I put on a movie. To my surprise the image filled the entire screen! I tried a photo slide show and again the AppleTV was utilizing the entire screen!

I am running the AppleTV through the KanexATV Pro adaptor because my projector does not have a HDMI input. I do have to say that I am very happy with this adaptor. What totally blows me away is that salespeople in electronic stores have no idea about this adaptor! But that's another post later!

Now, in comparison, when I use the AirServerApp on my iMac, and mirror my iPad the image fills the entire screen. Again I at first thought that AirServerApp was doing its magic through software and that there was simply limitations in what the AppleTV was able to put out. Until I tried the movie!

So here are some pictures…. The first is the AppleTV mirroring the iPad. The next is AirServerApp mirroring the iPad. The last two are of the AppleTV showing a video and a picture show. Those two prove that the AppleTV is capable of filling the screen but for some reason doesn’t when simply mirroring the iPad.

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Online Digital Music

Check out this list of online digital print music from UCLA…..

http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/music/music-scores-sheet-music-online

Sibelius Tips to make your life easier

Not sure how much longer all of the posts on the Sibelius Blog will stay posted as I am not sure where Daniel ended up in the midst of Avid’s messing with Sibelius. Today though I was reading through looking for some information and found a few very helpful tips Daniel has posted.

Here are some links…

• Understand margins in Sibelius better
• Shortcuts to selections
• Multi-Copy - Copy dynamics into multiple staff all at once
• Change Instrument Names Plugin - This allows you to quickly change all names of any staff you want for your score.

James Humberstone has a great post on optimizing your Sibelius files for use in Scorch on your iPad. Go read the article  It’s not that you really HAVE to optimize your score for iPad but you may end up with something that is more readable.

In my own working with Sibelius I have found a few things that make my work faster…

• Don’t do things twice – like enter articulations and dynamics. Use Multi-Copy tip from above.
• Use the Re-Input Pitch tool! That way you can enter the flute part notes for example, then put all the articulations and dynamics and hairpins into the part. You then simply copy that part into the Clarinet part for any sections that use the same rhythms etc. but the pitch is different. Once copied then you use your shortcut, Shift Command I on a mac, and start typing new pitch names. This saves you a TON of time from starting from scratch.
• Learn your keyboard shortcuts! I couldn’t even tell you where some of the functions I use exist in the menu’s.
• Create your own shortcuts – I have shortcuts set up so I can insert accents, marcatos, fermatas, staccatos and dry rolls very quickly with the press of just a few keys. Anything you find yourself inputting on a constant basis should have a shortcut assigned to it!

WWDC Keynote – Random statements or planned?

When Scott from Apple was showing off SIRI enhancements is iOS6…. Do you think that it was just random that the trailer played  was from the Marvel movie, The Avengers? The quote was “War has started, and we are hopelessly outgunned!”

Guided Access Mode and Single App Mode were features that were toted as being a great way for teachers to be able to give tests on the iPad without the students going to safari and looking up the answers. Sound like a great idea but how long is it going to take me to go through a classroom set and put them all into this mode? How long does it take to get them out of that mode?

Mountain Lion upcoming AirPlay Updates

I just decided to actually watch the WWDC presentation from Apple. I followed along on the day of the event on twitter and several live feeds. (Yes, you read that correctly…. SEVERAL). I’m not sure why I did not think about what an amazing solution Apple has presented my school system with until I actually watched the video. I guess this is a prime example of why our students need to actually SEE things sometimes.

THE PROBLEM: Our auditorium is one of the best spots in our area for school to come to so we can hold PD with each other. One of the issues we ran into though was that in building this room we were very short sighted and did not wire it to allow for a presenter to stand up front with a laptop and present on the screen. I know, I know… very stupid on my part at least, not to mention all the tech guys. Of course this WAS back in 2004 when we were building the plans.

THE SOLUTION: Apple will now allow us to give the presenter a laptop and they will be able to use AirPlay to present wirelessly. If you have no idea what AirPlay is then you need to load up the video and jump to about 60 minutes into it. I have been using AirPlay on my iPhone for music since it became available. I have been using AirPlay with my iPad in class as well to project anything on my iPad to the screen in front of the class. Now my laptop will become just as useful! You do not know how much of an issue trying to come up with a solution to this problem has been over the past few years. Of course my district is a PC district so this is not a perfect solution. Plus if they are going to use MY laptop (the Bands laptop) then that means I am going to have to actually have to install PowerPoint. It also means I a had better go get an Apple TV and one of those nifty adaptors to go from HDMI to VGA.

And at only $19.99 for the update price to Mountain Lion this is going to be a no-brainer!

Music Notation App from Notion is on sale right now

Since I did just mention notation apps with Symphonix Evolution….

I saw that Notion is on sale right now for $6.99. It does take up 1.2GB of space though on your iPad and is therefore a HUGE download! But you have some awesome sounds because of that size.