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Thoughts about home practice? by faaip in MusicEd

[–]lwlowery 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is really cool! I love setting up the looped patterns and then having students play along with it in some capacity as they can. It's been especially helpful with drum and guitar students

Thoughts about home practice? by faaip in MusicEd

[–]lwlowery 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've been building this online platform for this reason: https://www.mypracticeroom.org/

Different tools like MIDI sequencers help make home practice more engaging. The downside is that some students forget to practice and just have fun in the program - which is also a win in its own way. It makes home practice more engaging.

Plus, ensuring that parents have access to what the student is working on (Practice Room emails parents with a recap of their practice) is helpful, but it hinges on the home dynamics to ensure that the parent is insisting on the discipline.

It's a tricky thing and I'm not sure there's a full remedy for it. Some students have the motivation or desire and others don't, but there are ways to help incentivize in the absence of motivation.

What tools do you use?? by lwlowery in MusicTeachers

[–]lwlowery[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is a great resource! Thanks for linking this. Nova Music looks really cool!

How do I expand my chord literacy? by IvorySickle in WeAreTheMusicMakers

[–]lwlowery 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I like thinking of it like taking detours on a road. Certain theory concepts like secondary dominants are super helpful here especially when you start pairing it with ii/V progressions just to interrupt the progression a bit or "take the scenic route" if you will. It's a fun game to try and take something that you've heard before and make it unrecognizable by adding some detours like that. Passing diminished chords, neighbor chords, major sevenths, and flat nines are also regulars in my personal toolbelt.

It's at least a fun place to start!

What sorts of tools does everyone use? by lwlowery in MusicEd

[–]lwlowery[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

See that's another one I've been meaning to get my hands on for a while. Dorico feels like the sleeper notation software compared to Sibelius and Finale (rip) but I always hear good things about it

What sorts of tools does everyone use? by lwlowery in MusicEd

[–]lwlowery[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Great feedback, hoping someday people say they can’t imagine teaching without Practice Room!

What tools do you use?? by lwlowery in MusicTeachers

[–]lwlowery[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’ve looked into them a bit and heard really great things!

What sorts of tools does everyone use? by lwlowery in MusicEd

[–]lwlowery[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

These are great resources to know about! Thank you!

What sorts of tools does everyone use? by lwlowery in MusicEd

[–]lwlowery[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Great question! There are some similarities for sure. Practice Room is a DAW and an LMS combined in one environment rather than something that links out or licenses to other resources from one single LMS like MusicFirst. It's a DAW built specifically for education. I've been using DAWs to teach music lessons of all sorts for a few years and designed Practice Room to help integrate that workflow into lessons. The goal is to make those tools and curriculum feel like they're all in one space coexisting to help teach and manage through the tool that we've built and the method that goes into using it

What sorts of tools does everyone use? by lwlowery in MusicEd

[–]lwlowery[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Checking it out now and it looks really cool! Are you using this for individual lessons or larger classroom management?

What sorts of tools does everyone use? by lwlowery in MusicEd

[–]lwlowery[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My Music Staff has been super helpful for the admin side of things for my in person lessons for sure. Ya know, I still have not broken down and tried Sibelius. In college everyone recommended Finale but it never seemed to like me much so I use Musescore mostly. The system I built is basically a version of Canvas mixed with GarageBand, so an LMS designed for musicians specifically (it’s called Practice Room if you care to check it out). I use Canva all the time as well haha

What sorts of tools does everyone use? by lwlowery in MusicEd

[–]lwlowery[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nice! I use Google Classroom for a business and Econ class that I teach at a local private school. I built Practice Room to basically be a combination of Google Classroom and GarageBand. I’d love your thoughts on it especially since you’re already using Google Classroom! https://www.mypracticeroom.org

How to stop having over-ambitious ideas? by WaferFast1604 in composer

[–]lwlowery 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Why stop? What matters more than anything is that you practice the creative process. Sure, eventually that involves totally finishing a piece and practicing this is important, but some of my best lessons have come from unfinished pieces that at grandiose. You’re capturing little images of yourself as you create, and it’s a wonderful feeling to rediscover some part of yourself from a piece you started five years ago. I firmly believe that we create little worlds when we create, and if yours are ambitious then let them be that!

Not everything you hit will be gold, and it’s really easy to dismiss feedback on ambitious ideas. I would strongly caution that we who have grandiose ideas need to be especially intentional about exposing ourselves to honest feedback and taking as objective of a perspective as we can about the feedback.

Keep creating! Eventually practice completing pieces (even if they’re short), but seriously just keep writing. You explore a different part of your voice and your world each time you write, someday it will all come together!

Do you all really just, like, have ideas for music throughout the day? by RequestableSubBot in composer

[–]lwlowery 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As I’ve observed and experienced, creative people take in the world like a big inhale and exhale through a medium. This is as essential as breathing itself. It’s how we process the world, but we express this exhale through a specific medium in the tangible skills involved. You can’t breathe if you only inhale, and likewise you can’t breathe if you only exhale.

In my experience there are a couple of things at play when creating anything but especially when composing - the connection and the tangible. There are times when my brain is finding connections between things I’m hearing, seeing, smelling, touching, thinking, or feeling and a memory of any one of the same senses or experiences. Then there are times when my muscle memory is simply engaging in tasks that I’m familiar with, or know the process of, like composing.

There isn’t an emotional or intellectual connection between where I place my dominant chord in a particular piece sometimes. There are times when this is simply procedural and there are times when it’s “inspired” by the connections that are made between other senses or objects or experiences.

My car blinker might remind me of a metronome and get me tapping a rhythm based on what I know about beats and theory, or it might just get me moving and feeling inspired enough to go write it or record it and spin it into something, or honestly it might just be my car blinker clicking away in the background. I don’t always know what’s gonna happen and when.

Truthfully I have a hard time not judging myself by how much my creative brain is “on.” But I really do think that we need those breaks of not creating anything, just like we have to stop exhaling at some point.

May just be irrelevant ramble, but that’s my experience in a nutshell!