<p>Guidelines for getting going with teaching and assessing the “Beats Recreation” task for NCEA 1.1 – “Use Music Skills in a Music Style”. For me, one of the most exciting aspects of the new NCEA is the freedom to teach a variety of music skills that are being closely dictated by the requirements of assessment. [&hellip;]</p>

<p>I have to start with an apology for this ‘click-baity’ title. As much as possible I don’t try to differentiate my students between those that are ‘techy’ and those that are not. Or even worse… the tech vs classical kids. I truly believe that incorporating a variety of tools such as recording software, MIDI sequencing, [&hellip;]</p>

<p>As I write this New Zealand has been plunged into another mini lockdown. Auckland schools are closed for seven days, and the rest of the country is back to gatherings of no more than 100 people. While these lockdowns are frustrating, I believe most New Zealanders are willing to go through these short and sharp [&hellip;]</p>

<p>I have spent a lot of time trying to find free composition and mixing software for my students. While audio software has never been cheaper (Logic Pro is only around $250 which is a bargain considering I paid over $1000 for it when I first got it&#8230; and even then it was worth every cent), [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Over the last week and a half in New Zealand we have been on a nationwide shutdown. All non-essential services, businesses and schools have been shut down, with only supermarkets, pharmacies and the health services remaining functioning in our country. State schools had their holidays brought forward two weeks but many Independent schools like St [&hellip;]</p>

<p>A lot of teachers in New Zealand and around the world this past week are grappling with how to deliver courses online. At Learning Ideas we have a lot of resources for Songwriting, Music Technology, Ear Training and Music Theory that are &#8216;flipped&#8217; resources, they have videos and workbooks that show your students much of [&hellip;]</p>

<p>I feel very honoured to be one of the keynote presenters at the Music Education New Zealand conference in October. How do I create personalised programmes? How do students have intrinsic motivation so that they work hard for the love of music, not for assessment credits? What are the best technology and tools for my [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Music teachers are busy.  I don&#8217;t need to go into all the reasons why&#8230; just take my word for it! So it is a shame that music teachers, who should be engaging with their creative sides as much as possible, are often so caught up with admin and managing a large number of classes and [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Teaching composition to New Zealand high school students has changed hugely over the last 10-15 years.  Around 2005 many schools across the country embraced the Sibelius (or Encore) notation application as a way of notating student compositions. However, this quite quickly became what students considered to be composition.  They couldn&#8217;t really &#8216;do&#8217; composition apart from Sibelius.  [&hellip;]</p>

<p>In July I was very fortunate to attend and present at the Apple Distinguished Educators Institute in Berlin.  This was a gathering of just under 400 teachers from around the world who actively push the boundaries to develop innovative teaching techniques. This is my second Institute and like the first, it was one of the [&hellip;]</p>

<p>At my school, St Andrew&#8217;s College, we&#8217;ve got one of the best Music Technology programmes in New Zealand.  We have a world class studio.  Students are making albums in which they compose, perform and record all their own material.  But the thing is&#8230; I&#8217;ve just had the insight that I&#8217;ve never really had a strategy for [&hellip;]</p>

<p>For New Zealand High School teachers here are the details of some Professional Development workshops I&#8217;m running.  Please register your interest by emailing sales@learningideas.co.nz Tuesday 12 April &#8211; Incorporating Music Technology into your Music Department Cost: free (this day is funded by the Heads of Independent Secondary Schools Trust so is only available to teachers [&hellip;]</p>

<p>Having a music department that gets great results academically and in performance is built upon the culture that is established amongst the students and staff.  It is something I constantly struggle with, trying to get it right for all our (25!) music groups. The title of this blog post is a bit misleading because there [&hellip;]</p>

<p>In a given week I wear a few different hats.  I&#8217;m a teacher, a head of department managing a large staff, a resource developer for Learning Ideas, a moderator of other teachers work for NZQA and a developer of exemplars for NZQA.  Somewhere in there I also run workshops in Music Technology for other teachers. [&hellip;]</p>

<p>For me, the greatest issue in NZ High School Music Education is how do we get more schools teaching Music Technology &#8211; i.e. using MIDI and audio (microphones, DAW&#8217;s, interfaces, etc) to produce music.  While I&#8217;m a huge believer in teaching reading music and notation (in my professional career most of the work I got was because [&hellip;]</p>

<p>At the moment there are many people involved with the #28daysofwriting and I&#8217;m full of admiration for them! I&#8217;m struggling to keep up with one blog post per week. To be fair in my defence in the last week I have just setup a full music block and recording studio after the completion of our [&hellip;]</p>

<p>A few weeks ago I wrote a blog post saying why I think Presonus Studio One Free is the best DAW (recording software) for high school teachers and students to use. Well&#8230; such is the ever-changing nature of technology that I&#8217;m having to possibly change my mind. In the last few hours at NAMM Avid [&hellip;]</p>

<p>In my last blog post I demonstrated a good starting point for teaching students how to mix. After six weeks or so of having my students mixing using only faders, panning and EQ (on a few projects) I then start to discuss the overall picture of the mix process.  Advanced students would be required to [&hellip;]</p>

<p>There are many guides to mixing all over the internet, YouTube, Amazon, etc &#8211; it can all be a little overwhelming if you&#8217;re a high school teacher wanting to do music technology/recording/mixing with your students.  Where do you start? Well, if you have the time, in my opinion the best resource is the book Mixing [&hellip;]</p>

<p>In New Zealand we now have the wonderful opportunity to teach recording and mixing skills to high school students.  We have Unit Standards that allow us to assess and provide credits towards a course of work in the area of Performing Arts Technology and Music Technology. However, these Unit Standards only tell us the ‘outcomes’, [&hellip;]</p>