mtec 09

Keynote descriptions

Teaching Music with Technology - A concept whose time has come
Presented by:
Tom Rudolph
In his keynote address, Dr. Rudolph will review the six areas of technology as defined by TI:ME and review ways music technology can be used to enhance music education throughout the academic sequence.

Elective descriptions

Introduction to Auralia and Musition - Developing Musicianship
Presented by:
Peter Lee
Auralia and Musition are the world's leading Aural and Musicianship drilling programs. Creator Peter Lee conducts this hands-on introduction into everything that Auralia and Musition can do to improve your students' skills right across the board. Learn about strategies teachers of different age groups and private instrumental teachers are employing to engage students with Auralia and Musition and improvements in results following its integration.

Creating backing tracks and mixing live performances
Presented by:
Peter Wardrobe
In this hands-on session learn how to turn your own arrangements into great sounding backing tracks for your students' performances in just a few easy steps. Make backing tracks at faster and slower tempos for easy and challenging practice and in different keys for different vocal ranges: even learn how to take backing tracks you already have and change their speed and pitch. Next, mix your students' performances with the backing track (or with pre-existing backing tracks) and make CDs of their performances that they can take home to share with their families or use for reflection.

Creating your own aural tests with Sibelius
Presented by:
Josh Cowie
This session will give practical examples of how Sibelius can be used to set aural tests for your students. Covering simple dictation, interval and scale recognition and working up to VCE level with Aural Comprehension Melodic transcription in a four part arrangement, as well as labelling chord progressions. Make student and teacher printouts and an audio CD of questions.

Customising Auralia and Musition for your state's curriculum
Presented by:
Peter Lee
Did you know that Auralia includes mapping to many of Australia's state curricula? Just by changing one setting the gradings for the outcomes for each year of your state's syllabus will appear in each exercise. And if your state isn't yet supported or if you have your own program to accelerate learning, it's easy to customise your own content. This hands-on session shows you how to do this, as well as including in depth detail for creating class lists, setting tests and tracking your students' progress.

Starplay - Encouraging your students' regular practise feat. Tim Wilson
Presented by:
David Evans, Katie Wardrobe and Tim Wilson
Starplay is a new program that listens to your students practise and gives them feedback on how they are doing. Recordings and movies show them how to play the piece, and then they build up to performance with an accompanist or with the band or orchestral accompaniment that their part fits with. Starplay tells them if they are early or late, if their tuning is out and even if their tone could be better, while providing detailed feedback for the teacher or parent. There are hundreds of pieces ready to use with Starplay, including popular band programs and AMEB exam repertoire, or you can even import your own repertoire. In this session given by Starplay creator David Evans, performances with Starplay feature the wonderful Tim Wilson.

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How to record and master your choir
Presented by:
Andy Hagerman and Katie Wardrobe
Don't forget to bring your voice to this session! Katie Wardrobe will be teaching us a song and we'll then all act as recording engineers and producers as we learn how best to organise the choir to get a balanced sound, where to place the microphones, what kind of microphones to use, how to record the session on both a dedicated hardware recorder and on a sequencer, and some simple mastering tips and tricks to make your choir sound as good as possible. You'll even learn how to convert the recording to MP3 or burn it onto CD.

How to record and master a small ensemble (feat. Tim Wilson Trio)
Presented by:
Andy Hagerman
Making quick but clear recordings during class time is a great way to keep continual assessment of your students. Recordings of class ensembles or of other small ensembles active at your school are great tools for a student's reflections, too. In this session, see how armed only with a laptop, M- Box, headphones and inexpensive microphones you can quickly setup and record a small ensemble. Our pretend student ensemble today are actually the Tim Wilson trio, who will be warming up for the jazz lounge, so you'll have a chance to record and master some really fabulous music. This session will go right through to showing you how to break individual takes into tracks and burn a CD for students to take home.

How to record your orchestra or concert band
Presented by:
Andy Hagerman
A CD of your band, orchestra or touring ensemble is not only a great keepsake for students and their families but can be a fund-raiser too. However, going into a professional recording studio is expensive and home-style recording often just sounds amateurish. In this session, learn how to set up microphones, balance signals, run an efficient recording session and avoid common pitfalls. The guest school Orchestra will be our guinea pigs as we set up, sound check and record their performance.
You can follow the process of editing and mixing the raw recording by attending Andy's sessions in Elective 5 & 7.

The basics of mixing your small or large ensemble
Presented by:
Andy Hagerman
Until recently, the mysterious world of a mixer has seemed out of reach - who has the money for one of those big consoles? This has changed with the digital audio revolution, and mixing "in the box" has been embraced as the new standard. Still, before you can make the most of this economical alternative, you'll have to learn some basics of mixing theory, and learn how to "warm up" your digital audio. By harnessing the mixing power of the computer you'll be able to create mixes quickly, and with a few production tricks you'll be able to get the most our of your computer- based studio.

Loop-based composition
Presented by:
Peter Wardrobe and Andy Hagerman
Programs like Garageband and Acid have popularised the use of loop-based programs in schools, but is there really any pedagogical value to rearranging pre-made music? This session shows how you can teach the concepts of compositional structure, texture, timbre, contrast and more with looping software, and then looks at many ways that these projects can be expanded until the students are making most of the music themselves.

Maintaining an online music library and much more
Presented by:
Yvonne Lang
Optimoplus+ is a resource management database program for professional and non-professional performing arts organisations, university and school music/fine arts departments. This hands on demonstration of the systems will include: Cataloguing and searching print music, books and media (CDs, DVDs etc); Creating library links between print music, books and media; Creation and storage of program notes; Event centre including concert builder, event and performance histories; Instrument (and other equipment) inventory; Tracking library and equipment locations, loans, repairs and maintenance; Maintaining student information; Maintaining performance group membership and attendance records; Powerful reporting capabilities for resources, students and finances; And much more - Optimoplus+ will result in increased efficiency saving you time, effort and money!

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Podcasting, Performance and Popular Music in the Secondary Music Classroom
Presented by:
Brad Merrick
This session will unleash the many ways in which Garage Band and audio, video and presentation based software can be used to develop skills associated with the development of independent learning and self-reflection in class. Through a range of performance, composition and listening activities from secondary students and the exploration of pod-casting in class, new and innovative approaches to integrating ICT in classroom practice will be presented and explored.

Publishing songbooks and backing tracks for primary children
Presented by:
Susie Davies-Splitter
Your kids can be stars as they produce their own published song book with accompanying CD.

How to create Orff arrangements in Sibelius
Presented by:
Susie Davies-Splitter
Music for every child - learn how to write music for non melodic and melodic percussion instruments as well as speech rhymes and body percussion combined with singing and other instruments in an 'Orff' way.

Taking your Orff arrangements into Groovy Music
Presented by:
James Humberstone
Following on from Susie Davies-Splitter's earlier sessions on putting Orff arrangements into Sibelius, this sessions shows how to then take those arrangements and put them into Groovy Music, where students can rearrange them or use them as the beginnings of their own original compositions and improvisations.

Sibelius 110 (two sessions - A and B)
Presented by:
James Humberstone
This is the first level of Sibelius instruction, but useful for existing users who never read the manual (who does?!), haven't used Sibelius 5, or just want to learn the quickest way of doing everything. Covering two sessions, the 110 course includes direction in putting music into Sibelius four ways, copying and pasting, adding dynamics, articulations, phrasing, editing parts, creating web pages, setting up MIDI input and playback, burning your scores to CD and much more. Highly recommended for anyone thinking of doing the 201 course later during the conference.

Sibelius 201 (two sessions - A and B)
Presented by:
Katie Wardrobe
This advanced course in Sibelius over two sessions will turn you into a power user. It covers hundreds of time saving tips and tricks as well as hands-on examples of how to create complex scores, worksheets for the classroom and more. If there's something you've never been able to do in Sibelius you will by the end of this course.

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Sibelius 211C Advanced Formatting & MAGA exam prep (two sessions - A and B)
Presented by:
Katie Wardrobe
This course is exceptionally useful for those teachers who need to help students prepare final scores and parts for exam submission, or for individuals who want to clean up their own composition and arrangements. It is also designed to cover all of the essential information you need to know to work freelance as a professional copyist, and delegates who complete this course can opt to sit the MAGA (Music Arrangers Guild of Australia) copying exam in elective 10 (2pm day 3) to become a qualified copyist (application fee is additional). As well as general formatting tips and tricks, the course looks at copying hand written scores, writing out shorthand, and standards employed by Australian and international publishers. Prior completion of Sibelius 201 or another advanced Sibelius course is advisable.

Sibelius 211E: Worksheets (two sessions - A and B)
Presented by:
Peter Wardrobe
As this is an advanced course, completion of the Sibelius 201 course is advisable first. This course looks at the advanced level of score set-up required to make your own worksheets in Sibelius. As well as setting out scores it looks at importing graphics into Sibelius, and conversely exporting musical excerpts from Sibelius into Microsoft Word and other programs. We explore Sibelius 5's Worksheet Creator and its 1700 worksheets, as well as learning how to create your own Worksheets and Answer Sheets in the Worksheet Creator, and how to organise resources that you use into user- defined sections of the Worksheet Creator.

The very basics: from turning on the computer to setting up your first lab
Presented by:
Peter Wardrobe
This session will be run twice on the first day to give those who are beginners or inexperienced a gentle introduction to music technology. We'll look at the Windows and Mac operating systems and how to connect a MIDI keyboard, an audio interface, microphone and guitar to them. We'll learn what the difference between MIDI and audio is, and we'll look at the main kinds of ways computers are used in the music classroom and the wide range of types of software available for them. This session is entirely hands-on and taken at a slow pace and you can do it more than once if you like.

Introduction to Groovy Music for primary and middle school
Presented by:
Katie Wardrobe
Interested in incorporating technology into your primary music classes in a fun and engaging way that complements your current singing, moving and playing activities? Groovy Music is a bright, colourful, easy-to-use suite of 3 programs for primary school students, each with its own theme. In this session, we'll look at the basics of using Groovy in your music classes, incorporating both the 'Create' composition section and the step-by-step progressive musical exercises in the 'Explore' section. Groovy Music supports teachers with plenty of clear topic-related lesson plans and copyright-free resources and is designed for use by both specialist and non-specialist music teachers.

Teaching Techo Tricks in the Territory #1 Ringtone
Presented by:
Andy Mison
A practical music technology lesson such as I would present in a classroom in Darwin or Tennant Creek or in a remote bush school in Arnhem Land or the Sandover region. This is a practical and fun lesson with measurable outcomes that are proven in practice. It is designed to cover a flexible range of curriculum requirements, an integrated approach to music technology, as well as deliver enjoyable and useful skills and learning experiences. The session uses Sibelius 5.1, Reason 4, Switch/Audacity and a mobile phone. Participants could work in singularly or in pairs to start with basic or no skills and create a professional sounding ringtone plus a printed score of their ringtone.

Teaching Techo Tricks in the Territory #2 Smartboard Dance Party
Presented by:
Andy Mison
A practical music technology lesson such as I would present in a classroom in Darwin or Tennant Creek or in a remote bush school in Arnhem Land or the Sandover region. This is a practical and fun lesson with measurable outcomes that are proven in practice. This session uses a smartboard, Reason 4, Protools or Cubase sx, sound system and a stereo pair of condensers. Participants compose and produce a live performance on the fly as a group in a classroom situation. Can be burnt to CD. Great Fun!

Teaching Techo Tricks in the Territory #3 Music Video
Presented by:
Andy Mison
A practical music technology lesson such as I would present in a classroom in Darwin or Tennant Creek or in a remote bush school in Arnhem Land or the Sandover region. This is a practical and fun lesson with measurable outcomes that are proven in practice. This session uses Protools, Cubase or Garage Band, stereo pair of condenser mics, headphone amp and headphones, Instruments or Reason 4, a Video Camera, imovie or equivalent PC video editing platform. Finished product burnt to DVD.

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Creativity through breathing and posture
Presented by:
Bohdan Krowicky
When the posture is misaligned, neither the breath nor the creative impulse can flow freely. We will introduce some simple stretches and postural exercises which will allow the breath to flow with more freedom, leading to increased integration of body and mind. In this condition creativity is quite natural. We will also introduce some simple voice practices to show the connection between voice and posture.

Applications for electronic music production tools in the classroom
Presented by:
Dan West
Utilising modern production tools can open up a range of new performance and participation possibilities for students in your school music program. M-Audio’s Torq Xponent and Trigger Finger are cutting-edge performance tools that bring a new dimension of control and real time performance of audio material by students. This session will explore exiting new applications for this technology in the school music environment including: overview of M-Audio hardware and software; innovative ways to perform computer based compositions to an audience; integration of DJ performance tools into student ensembles.

Music technology electives that work at the secondary level
Presented by:
Tom Rudolph
An overview of music technology electives that can enhance the curriculum at the secondary level. Find out how some school districts in the United States doubled their enrollment offering music tech courses. Keyboard, digital audio, song writing, theory and other proven course offerings will be presented.

Paper: Closing the Gap
Presented by:
Andy Mison
Present information paper outlining applications of music technology in the NT department of Education featuring: issues facing education in the Northern Territory; overview of the NT School of Music, it’s functions, facilities and it’s leadership/consultancy and advocacy role in supporting Music Technology in Education in the NT; case studies from various teachers K-12 and events from a range of locations and situations including urban, regional and remote schools across the NT; specific applications and platforms; integrated curriculum and multimedia; IDL(distance learning); applications and benefits for Indigenous education and employment outcomes; exciting developments, possibilities and future strategies.

Encouraging your students' regular practise with Starplay feat. James Morrison
Presented by:
David Evans, Katie Wardrobe and James Morrison
Starplay is a new program that listens to your students practise and gives them feedback on how they are doing. Recordings and movies show them how to play the piece, and then they build up to performance with an accompanist or with the band or orchestral accompaniment that their part fits with. Starplay tells them if they are early or late, if their tuning is out and even if their tone could be better, while providing detailed feedback for the teacher or parent. There are hundreds of pieces ready to use with Starplay, including popular band programs and AMEB exam repertoire, or you can even import your own repertoire. In this session given by Starplay creator David Evans, performances with Starplay feature the spectacular James Morrison.

Student Composition using Sibelius 5
Presented by:
Tom Rudolph
Demonstration of effective music notation lesson plans for secondary level students designed to encourage composition skills.

Virtual Instruments - A whole new sonic world
Presented by:
Anthony Hubmayer
Get plugged into the exciting world of sound creation using a range of freeware and commercially available Instrument Plug Ins. Explore the fundamentals of sound synthesis while creating complex instruments and sound FX. A series of resources and activities will be presented that are suitable for individuals and class groups.

How to use an Interactive White Board in the primary and middle classroom
Presented by:
Marcel Pusey
This session shows how to set up an Interactive White Board and use it with useful websites on the internet, Groovy Music, Instruments, O-Generator and Sibelius and discusses strategies for involving students in the class so the Interactive White Board doesn't just become a new version of 'chalk and talk', incorporating group composition, performance and listening exercises.

The very basics of MIDI sequencing with Pro Tools
Presented by:
Andy Hagerman
In this session Andy Hagerman, Digidesign's training manager for Asia, shows you the basics of recording and editing MIDI as if you were the student. The session includes many details on how you can teach basic DAW/digital audio concepts. Pro Tools is the most popular Digital Audio Workstation in the world bar none, being used in over half the world's professional studios, yet it's very easy to learn the basics for home or classroom use too.

The computer as an instrument/medium/tool
Presented by:
Andy Mison
The computer is a versatile musical device that can be used for composition, performance, research, aural training and more. In order to make sense of these opportunities the computer presents for music making this talk will outline how the computer can act as a musical instrument, medium and tool. Practical examples of how this impacts upon better use of the computer in music education will be used to illustrate the talk.

Into the Loop: Use of live looping devices and ridiculous microphone techniques
Presented by:
Mal Webb
Mal will show you the educational possibilities of using of live looping devices (such as the Akai Headrush pedal, the Boss Loop Station and the Digitech Jam Man) and software loopers (such as Ableton Live and Fruity Loops). Vocal technique, rhythmic accuracy, harmony and arranging are just a few of the aspects of music that can be taught using a looper.

Sit the Music Arrangers Guild of Australia exam for membership
Presented by:
James Humberstone
Take this opportunity to sit the Music Arrangers Guild of Australia (MAGA) exam for copyists under the guidance of MAGA Executive Member James Humberstone. Those who take the Sibelius 211C Formatting elective are prepared perfectly to pass this exam and become an accredited copyist. For more information, visit www.magainc.org.au. Membership application fee additional, should you choose to submit, but this can be lodged any time after the course.

Scanning your music collection into Sibelius with Photoscore Ultimate
Presented by:
Katie Wardrobe
Do you have a shelf full of old scores that you'd love to arrange for your classes to play, or perhaps even to play for fun with your musical friends? With Photoscore Ultimate, you can scan scores directly into Sibelius, where you can rearrange them. For instance, take Bach chorales and instantly arrange them for brass ensemble, or take woodwind quintets and rewrite them for strings. You may even want to do something as simple as taking viola parts and rewriting them quickly in treble clef for a third violin part, or when your alto sax player doesn't turn up to band quickly transpose the part into Bb to be played by a clarinetist. There are no pre-requirements for this course although a basic knowledge of Sibelius will help you get the most out of it.

Teaching circus and music with Groovy Jungle
Presented by:
Bohdan Krowicky
We will start with a circus style warm-up, but designed for adults and non athletes – safe for all of us! Then we will continue with a series of group improvisations, with a Jungle theme. These may well include some simple pyramids and balances, if you so desire! The session will end with a demonstration of how I use Groovy Jungle in the class room.

Things to do with a Monster Gnat: technology in your Kodaly classroom
Presented by:
Jenny Gillan
In this session delegates will take on the role of a grade six class. They will learn the traditional children's song Monster Gnat and will explore the song through games and activities that lead to composition and arranging using the song as a starting point. They will listen to a recording of how a 'real' composer treated this song and gain an understanding of some common compositional techniques. They will be shown how Sibelius software and the interactive whiteboard can be used to reinforce their learning and present their arrangement as a finished project that can be performed by their class.

Remix activities and ICT music teaching pedagogy using Audacity
Presented by:
Anthony Hubmayer
Remixes are a great way of engaging the musical imagination of students. Enjoy a 'hands-on' tour of this process using the freeware audio software 'Audacity'. This workshop will present a range of teaching approaches and resources that develop technical skills in audio manipulation while focussing upon practical musical outcomes. The activities are presented as structured lesson tutorials culminating in the editing and manipulation of existing MP3 files. The activity resources are suitable for individuals as well as secondary school classes.

Putting your own repertoire into Starplay
Presented by:
David Evans and Katie Wardrobe
The earlier sessions on Starplay featured live demonstrations of StarPlay giving feedback to Tim Wilson and James Morrison on their performances, as well as the large library of repertoire available and the possibility of importing your own repertoire into Starplay. This hands-on session concentrates on the latter feature, with simple step-by-step instructions from importing a Sibelius file into Starplay, to mapping the performance to your own recording if you have one. You'll learn everything you need to know to create your own Starplay content.

Introduction to video editing
Presented by:
Soo Yu Shen
Ever wondered what video-editing is all about, or do you feel that it is simply too complex? Come join us on this special introductory elective that is catered to those who are totally new to video- editing.

Video editing with Pinnacle Studio
Presented by:
Soo Yu Shen
For those who feel that an introduction is simply not enough, do join us on this extension to our introductory session and learn more on what Pinnacle's award winning Studio software can do for you and your students.

Keynote Speakers

Thomas RudolphThomas Rudolph, Ed. D. (USA) is the current President of the Technology Institute for Music Educators (TI:ME). Read more »

James MorrisonJames Morrison is an avid user of the latest music technology and uses computers extensively in his writing, recording and performance. Read more »

Marcel PuseyMarcel Pusey (UK) co-designed O-Generator, the educational music software and established O-Music Ltd with Mark Welland. Read more »

Presenters & Trainers

A diverse group of educators and music technology trainers from Australia and around the world will present and conduct workshops and PD sessions at mtec09.

Andy Hagerman (Japan)
Mal Webb
David Evans
Tim Wilson
Peter Lee
Susie Davies-Splitter
Brad Merrick
Joshua Cowie
Yvonne Lang
Andy Mison
Andrew Brown
Dan West
Jennifer Gillan
Bohdan Krowicky
Antony Hubmayer
Soo Yu Shen
James Humberstone
Katie Wardrobe
Peter Wardrobe