Smart Phones and Music Technology

I have been thinking lately of the capabilities that Smart Phones have for music- particularly my iPhone. As "millennials", we have grown up amidst the rise of technology. We became reliant on computers and the internet since we were in school, using it for research and document production. As we got older, we became reliant on our phones for communication, and now, we are reliant on our phones as connections to the world around us. I am a child of the 21st century, and my phone is my lifeline. Being that music is a huge part of my life, it is only fitting that I connect that with my Smart Phone as well!

The iPhone comes with a Voice Memo tool that allows you to record audio clips and save them to your computer. They can easily be uploaded onto iTunes as mp3 files, which is incredibly convenient when you are recording music or taking lessons and documenting your progress. The iPhone also has a video capability, which allows you to take videos that can easily be uploaded onto iPhoto or iMovie and can be linked to YouTube and other social media sites.

The iPhone also has many downloadable and free applications that are incredibly beneficial for musicians. On my iPhone, I have several of these apps. My favorite of these is my keyboard application. This app is a virtual interactive keyboard for your phone- you can scroll through registers on the piano and hear pitches, as well as record simple melodies on your phone or noodle around while you are writing music. I use this app most often when I am practicing on the go and need a starting pitch.

Another app that I use quite often is my tuner. It is very easy to navigate- all you have to do is open the app and play your instrument. The app tells you what pitch you are playing, which makes tuning easy! It works for all instruments, transposing or non-transposing. I use mine most often for my guitar, but have used it to tune a violin and a trumpet.

The Apple Store even has an iPhone version of Garage Band- the standard Macintosh recording program- that is extremely easy to use if you are familiar with the Garage Band software, and is very useful when you need to record on the go, or if you need to work on a previously recorded project.

Canvas Unit Remix

For my remix, I chose a unit plan that focuses on colors. I remixed this by adding color and music to it. Things such as feelings and elements of nature are represented through colors, and these can be represented by music. I added a video for a song by a band called The Dear Hunter. This band created an album called "The Color Spectrum" that manifests the colors of the rainbow, black, and white through different styles and genres of music. For example, blue is written in a blues style, while yellow is surf-rock. I also added an article related to a study that says that the human brain automatically associates music with color shades, and there is an article that deals with ancient connections between music and color. Overall, I believe that the remix is interesting. (Unfortunately, I could not figure out how to remix and keep the posts from the previous canvas, but I did not delete anything. All the widgets are there, but they aren't showing up.)

Access my remixed canvas here!
Access the original canvas for comparison here!

Unit Plan Canvas

My Canvas was created to supplement the lesson that I deconstructed in Interactivity #3. This unit plan takes just about two weeks to finish, and requires students to become familiar with Chinese instruments, the history of the culture, and to learn and perform a traditional Chinese song. This unit also requires students to be familiar with basic elements of music, which should be previously learned. On my canvas, I included photos of traditional Chinese instruments and orchestras, as well as several supplemental links that explain the history of Chinese music and instruments. I included a video of the song that is to be learned during the unit, as well as a video of a small Chinese musical ensemble. I also implore the students who would be viewing my canvas to think about how the music and instruments of other cultures might influence the music and instruments that they are familiar with, and I provided a brief description of the resources that were available on the canvas page. Overall, I felt that the construction of my canvas was fairly simple. I was able to navigate the site pretty easily, and am confident that my students would be able to access the resources easily. I did have trouble linking the NJCCCS to my page, and was unfortunately unable to include that link. However, it is listed in my bibliography, so the source is still accessible.