For the past 4 days, I have been out in Las Vegas to attend 3 nights of Dead & Company’s residency at The Sphere titled Dead Forever. My flight home is delayed, so I thought I would write down some thoughts while they are still fresh in my mind. As a LONG time Deadhead, I was really looking forward to experiencing this music in this amazing new venue. I splurged for the 3-night VIP pass and sat in Section 108. Without a doubt, this set of 3 shows was the BEST live concert experience I have ever had (and I’ve been to HUNDREDS of shows). The venue elevates the concert experience into a whole new level. What follows is my quick review.

At the CSI Southeast event in Atlanta last month, I had the pleasure of sitting in on a session delivered by Dr. David Eccles titled The Inclusive Orchestra: Strategies for Identifying and Programming Great Music of Composers from Underrepresented Voices. The focus of the session was on how string teachers could find and program literature from underrepresented populations of composers. Eccles reflected on his own musical upbringing and the predominance of white male composers as the only music that is often performed by string orchestras. While that is changing more and more recently, it needs to be something that music educators consider when they are programming - especially when the student population that sits in front of the teacher is also becoming more diverse. One of the many resources that Dr. Eccles showed the attendees was the Institute for Compose Diversity. It is a perfect way to search for and program music from a diverse population of composers.

Recently, my friend Dan Massoth reached out to me to ask if I had heard of a wonderful podcast called Song Exploder. It reminded me of what a fabulous resource it might be for any music educator who incorporates popular music into their curriculum. The podcast is hosted by Hrishekesh Hirway and is absolutely wonderful. Song Exploder is a podcast where musicians take apart their songs, and piece by piece, tell the story of how they were made. Each episode is produced and edited by host and creator Hrishikesh Hirway in Los Angeles. Using the individual stems from each recording that is featured on the podcast, Hirway asks artists to discuss the various songwriting decisions that went into creating their work. His guests cover a WIDE variety of genres, including The Flaming Lips, Green Day, Billie Eilish, U2, Metallica, Laufey, Lorde, Natalie Merchant, The Roots, Noah Kahan, and more. Here’s the full list of episodes.

Late last week, my good friend and colleague, Robin Hodson, sent me a link to a video that features a conversation between Ted Gioia and Rick Beato on the impact of AI on the music industry. Normally I look to see how long the video is before deciding to watch it, and at just over 90 minutes, I waited until this past Sunday to watch it. All I have to say is that ANYONE interested in the impact of AI on the music industry - not really anything to do with music education but the much larger music industry - stop what you are doing and watch this video now. Rich Beato is one of my favorite music-related YouTubers, and this interview with futurist and author Ted Gioia is the clearest explanation that I have heard about how AI is effecting music creators, record labels, streaming platforms, and consumers. It is simply must see TV.

I am SO incredibly proud to announce that over the past year we have been putting together something truly special - our brand new Modern Band Bundle. This new offering, exclusively from MusicFirst, provides everything a music teacher might need to either start up a modern band program at their school OR an existing modern band program. Beginning this August, we will offer this new bundle which includes incredible new content and resources, from some of the BEST partners in the industry, including School of Rock, Music Will, the Drum Channel and so much more! In addition to these existing resources, we have hired some of the most forward-thinking music educators in the space to write new courses and content - including Dr. Steve Holley, Steve Giddings, Dr. Ethan Hein, and Mike Packer. In addition, we will offer a BUNCH of resources from Music Will - the organization formerly known as Little Kids Rock. Music Will is the premiere organization in the popular music education space, and we are very excited to be partnering with them. We will also be adding some new sites to our Resource tab, including Teach Rock, Ultimate Guitar, as well as InTune Monthly, YouDJ, Shed The Music, MusicEDU, and more!

I was recently asked to become a member of the NAfME Task Force on AI in Music Education. I am truly honored to serve on this new committee with some of the brightest minds in music education and technology. The goal of the committee is to provide resources and guidance on how music educators should address the fast growing integration of AI powered tools in schools around the world. The task force is looking closely at the latest advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI), and the potential to significantly transform the landscape of music education. As new technology becomes integrated into school systems, it’s important for educators to understand the potential impact for their students and their classrooms. NAfME will continue monitoring developments in AI technology and provide our members with the latest information on AI policy, regulation, and its application for teaching and creating music. NAfME has issued a SURVEY for members to take that covers a wide variety of topics, concerns, and considerations.

I’ve been on vacation this past week, and a LOT has happened while I’ve been gone. The first HUGE news that was announced was from one of MusicFirst’s partners - Sight Reading Factory. Founder and CEO Don Crafton, took to Facebook Live this past Thursday night to announce that the most beloved sight reading tool available has added the single most requested feature by teachers - ASSESSMENT! For the past 10 years, SRF has cranked out amazing sight reading materials for individual musicians and ensembles using their unique AI composition algorithm that allows teachers to create highly customized sight reading examples for their students. The one thing that it has been missing is the ability to assess the results of the students efforts. There’s a long story behind why, but all of that is behind us now. Teachers can finally assign their students unlimited sight reading examples, and SRF will auto grade their results. Hallelujah!

This online course on AI (artificial intelligence) is intended for all K-12 music educators who have an interest in the impact that AI and related technologies will have on the music industry, and music education. There will be five “live” class sessions using Zoom – each approximately two hours in length. Registration will be open for the duration of the course and all classes will be recorded to allow for asynchronous participation.

With the vast proliferation of AI-assisted tools cropping up over the past few months, one has caught my attention in particular. It’s called Magic School, and it just crossed the 2 million user mark - quite impressive. They currently have over 2,500 school districts signed up and it’s not surprising given the sheer number of AI-assisted productivity tools that they have made available. While these tools aren’t specifically targeted towards music educators, almost ALL of them have very cool uses in the music classroom. Here’s a short YouTube video overview that provides a look at several of these tools.

Whenever I am asked to identify examples of the best technology integrations in music education - the top of my list is always Music-COMP - formerly the Vermont MIDI Project. The COMP part stands for Composition Online Mentoring Program. The organization was started back in 1995 by Sandi MacLeod and Anne Hamilton as a way to teach students in grades 3-12 in Vermont how to compose original music. The original program had teachers sending MIDI files of student work to a composer who would then provide feedback via email. In the nearly 30 years since then, the program has flourished and I am a HUGE fan. Students no longer have to reside in Vermont to participate in the program. If you have a young composer in your school, you should DEFINITELY consider signing them up for mentoring. Tomorrow night, Tuesday, April 30th, you can livestream the concert free of charge, and I highly recommend tuning in.

I’m currently sitting in the United Club at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport ready to head home after a fantastic day at the CSI Southeast event, hosted on the mind-blowing campus of North Atlanta High School - a former HQ for IBM. The folks at Conn Selmer really know how to put on a great PD event (Erin Cole Steele & Beth Horton), and I was honored to once again present a session for the Music Administrators Collaborative - headed up by my good friend Rick Ghinelli. I was joined by my good friend and colleague from MusicFirst, Robin Hodson. I presented a session titled Music Education at the Crossroads: The Impact of AI & Technology. I have posted the slide deck HERE if you’d like to grab it. I was able to attend some stellar sessions by the amazing CSI faculty, and catch up with my good friends from the music education industry as well. This event marks the end of the conference season for me, and I head home after a LONG and intense travel schedule to enjoy about 6 weeks off the road for work. While I always enjoy spreading the word about MusicFirst and music technology, it’s also nice to spend a good stretch of time with my family.

I recently stumbled across an AI tool for English teachers called Twee that is actually really useful for any teacher - including music teachers! This multi-function AI powered tool allows you to do LOTS of different things - from lesson planning to creating assessments. While there are a ton of features that are specific to writing, vocabulary and grammar, there are some features that I think music teachers will love using. My favorite is the ability to analyze ANY video and create assessments with a variety of options. From being able to generate multiple choice to open ended questions, this is a time saver and I recommend checking it out to see whether you might be able to use it with your students. Here are a number of examples of how I think it could be used with any music program.

MusicFirst partnered with an online DAW called Soundation Education right at the very start and it has been great to see the product progress over the last 12 years. Recently they have announced a new AI-powered sample generator called Gennie - and it is VERY cool. Unfortunately, it is only available in the consumer version of the product - so educators will have to wait a bit to use it with their students. It basically uses text prompts to create high-quality audio samples. Gennie creates 12-second-long musical samples based on the text prompts you type in. You can generate any type of loop you want - drum loops, bass lines, melodies, chords, and more, across a wide range of genres and styles. You’ll get even better results if you include the genre, tempo, instrumentation, and the mood you are looking for in your prompt. Here is a quick overview video of Gennie:

Last month, Soundtrap released a very cool feature in their online DAW called Vocal Doubler. This new feature/effect makes your vocal tracks sound much fuller and affords you the opportunity to do some pretty cool things. It essentially splits the original vocal track into twin modulated stereo signals, making it sound like there are several voices singing together in unison. Student vocal recordings are really enhanced with this tool - not by auto tuning (and of course you can do that), but by making them thicker and fuller. It’s really cool. Have a listen to these two audio examples. The first track is without the Vocal Doubler - and the second one is what it sounds like when you add it.

On a rainy day in March of 2002 in New York City, I did what so many graduate students hope to do as the final step of their educational journey. I defended my doctoral dissertation. Two months later, after some suggested minor revisions, my dissertation was published and I graduated with my Doctor of Education degree from Teachers College, Columbia University, along with some other incredible music educators. For the majority of dissertations, they then end up sitting on a shelf in the institutions’ library to hopefully get quoted in other research or serve as the foundation for further study. But for many, after years of diligent research, thinking and writing, the fate of the research that defines doctoral students often simply gathers dust - a necessary step to get the doctoral hood. For me, I have had the incredible fortune of turning all of that work - now 22 years old - into a product that is now used by millions of teachers and students around the world. It’s called the MusicFirst Classroom.

On Saturday, April 27th, 2024, I will once again join the amazing faculty of the Conn Selmer Institute (CSI) at their Southeast Regional Event in Atlanta, Georgia. This event will take place on the campus of North Atlanta HS and CSI is offering an enriching full day of professional development for music educators and college students by some amazing music educators, including Dr. Tim Lautzenheiser, Richard Saucedo, Dr. Myra Rhoden, Dr. David Vandewalker, Stephen Lawrence Carroll, Travis Downs, Erin Cole Steele, and MANY more! I’ll be presenting a session titled Music Education at the Crossroads: The Impact of AI and Technology to the Music Administrators track. The fee for the full day of PD is only $99 and you can register right now to ensure your spot! Lunch will be provided for all attendees.

Tomorrow night (Thursday, April 18th) at 8pm ET, I will be co-hosting a webinar through MusicFirst that is intended for any student taking the upcoming AP Music Theory exams with my good friend Tim Wilson from Rising Software. The webinar, titled "Acing Your AP Music Theory Exams" , is a wonderful resource for students preparing for their AP Music Theory exams next month, as well as their teachers. This engaging session will focus on effective strategies to identify and overcome trouble spots, solidify your understanding of key music theory concepts, and enhance your skills through targeted practice of exam questions. Whether you're a student aiming for a high score or a teacher looking to support your students effectively, this webinar will provide valuable insights and tools to ensure success on the exam.

If you’ve ever struggled to create worksheets with musical examples - especially within a Google doc or other non-music software program, then you’ve probably felt the pain of taking very small screenshots, saving them as JPEGs, and then inserting them into the document using text boxes or other methods. It has always been a clunky and time consuming - until now. I found out about the Music Snippet tool from my good friends at Flat for Education. Music Snippet is an intuitive Chrome browser add-on that enhances Google Docs & Slides for music creation. It allows you to effortlessly create and tweak an unlimited number of music snippets—perfect for adding to your music theory assignments, creating lesson plan materials, and sparking creativity among your students.

Just as I was getting over the shock of how good Suno.ai is at writing songs using AI, BOOM - along comes Udio. While on the one hand I can see that songwriters and copyright holders aren’t going to like this one at all, the tech side of my brain is absolutely blown away by how powerful Udio is - and it’s only in Beta. I learned about AI in a recent article in Rolling Stone magazine titled AI-Music Arms Race: Meet Udio, the Other ChatGPT for Music, and immediately visited Udio.com - as did EVERYONE else it seems. They are currently overloaded with requests to try out their stunning music generator, and I had to get on the waiting list to try it out. As soon as I woke up this morning I visited the site again, and to my surprise, I was IN! What follows is my reaction to this new tool, as well as some of the songs that Udio wrote for me based on my text prompts.

In Tune Monthly is an incredible monthly online periodical that publishes interactive and streamed content eight times a year, from late September through April. Designed with middle and high school music students in mind, InTune simplifies complex music concepts for students and focuses heavily on the music and musicians that THEY listen to and enjoy. In my opinion, it is the PERFECT resource for a middle school general music class, modern band program, or any curriculum that is looking to incorporate popular music. For the past seven years, In Tune Monthly, both the Student edition and the Teacher edition, has been an included Resource in the MusicFirst Classroom.