Alex Ruthmann’s Blog

Over the past year, senior music education majors have been taking General Music Methods I and II with Dr. Gena Greher and me at UMass Lowell. Since October of 2008 these students have spent Wednesday mornings teaching 3rd, 6th and 7th grade classes at the Bartlett Community Partnership School here in Lowell, MA. Last week one group of our students invited the 7th grade class from the Bartlett School to spend the day at UMass Lowell recording a song the class arranged in the UMass Lowell recording studio.

Students spent the morning rehearsing their arrangements and taking turns leading peer-conducted free improvisations. Once rehearsed, they spent the balance of the morning laying down the vocal tracks, classroom instrument and guitar tracks followed by the piano accompaniment.

The rehearsing and recording was facilitated by UML graduate sound recording technology major Tim Brault and UML music education majors Jo Price, Lindsey Sherman and Zach Cooper.

After the recording session, the Bartlett School students experienced a rare treat… a live lecture demonstration of vintage Edison wax cylinder recording. UML Sound Recording Technology Professor Alex Case made arrangements for Gerald Fabris, curator of the Edison National Historical Site in West Orange, NJ, to visit and present the lecture/demo. Virgin wax cylinders were flown in from the United Kingdom and UMass Lowell SRT major Brian Corey composed a piece to be used in one of six live takes directly to wax cylinder.

Each of the takes were recorded directly to wax cylinder as well as digitally in mono, stereo and surround sound mic-ing. After each take, the composer listened back to the wax cylinder performance and physically readjusted the placement of the musician’s closer or further away from the recording “horn.” We take for granted today that we can simply move a microphone to achieve a different sound. Back then you had to move the musicians!

I am told that all of the wax cylinder recordings from the session will be digitized and the audio will be posted side by side with the digital mono, stereo and surround sound versions on the Edison National Historical Site webpage in the near future. I’ll be sure to post a link when that goes live.

Click here for the article and more information about the project in the Lowell Sun.

This July, I will be teaching a week-long summer course at Central Connecticut State University entitled Podcasts, Blogs, & Wiki’s… Oh My! This summer’s course will focus on using Web 2.0 tools and Ning social networks to extend and support K-College music classes. These tools provide an easy and collaborative way to get your music program online, to create online communities of practice, and to support student assessment.

Come on out to beautiful New Britain, Connecticut. Tuition, including 2 graduate credits, is only $500!

Here’s the official blurb:

Podcasts, Wikis & Blogs—Oh My!
In this hands-on class music teachers will develop strategies to support and extend student learning with online collaborative tools such as social networks, blogs, podcasts, and wikis. These tools provide easy ways to get your music classes online integrating text, video, and audio. Strategies for using these tools to facilitate assessment, writing across the curriculum, and reflective journaling, as well as to support performing, rehearsing, practicing, and composing will be explored. Applications of these tools in settings from elementary through college will be shared and developed. Prerequisite: None. Examples of tools for both Macs and PCs will be shared. Targeted for elementary, middle, high school and college levels, general music or ensembles.

50096 MUS 536, Sec 04, 2 credits, $500
July 7-11, 1:15–5:45 pm & Thurs 7-9:30 pm

More information and registration available at http://www.ccsusmi.com/

INDIANA MUSIC EDUCATORS ASSOCIATION, JANUARY 16-19, 2008

This multimedia project was created by Northwest High School Multimedia Artists

• Sarah Beaty
• Chet Patterson
• Jeremy Pierson
• Tiarress Stokes

Under the expert supervision of Jacquie Dennis, Director of Choral Music at NWHS, with assistance from Kenneth Sallaz, ISU Music Business Major.

IMEA Technology Chair/Indiana State University:

• Dr. Alex Ruthmann

Butler University:

• Dr. Tim Brimmer, Andrew Cunningham

Special Thanks to Apple, Inc:

• Joseph Lee & Dick Hamstra

This project was created, edited and produced with four MacBooks using Apple’s iMovie, published on the internet using Apple’s iWeb.

 Podcast Video [5:46m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Well, it’s been a long, yet fun week here in New Britain, CT. We shared some great final projects last night ,and today will be spent tying up loose ends and testing out some of the ideas learned through sharing and discussing everyone’s blogs.

Links to blogs created in class:

http://ccsu06.blogspot.com/
http://amsband.blogspot.com/
http://rhs-instr.blogspot.com/
http://mrpalinsblog.blogspot.com/

Go to http://ccsusmiwiki.pbwiki.com for our class syllabus and webpage.