Afternoon Ti

 I'm excited to announce that the Afternoon Ti Website is up!  All new content will be published on the website HERE .  Excited to share new content, courses, and opportunities with Afternoon Ti with you!

Afternoon Ti Podcast Season 9 Episode 174 Technology in the Music Classroom with Eoin Hughes Eoin Hughes Bio: Eoin is an Apple Distinguished Educator, Music and Geography Teacher and Digital Learning Coordinator in Ireland. His classes focus on the use of iPad to foster creativity and to enhance and transform learning experiences with his students. Contact Eoin on Twitter: @_ehughes_ I have followed Eoin Hughes on Twitter for some time now and enjoy seeing the projects he creates using GarageBand.  This summer he shared that he would be presenting a session at Festival of Learning that would teach educators how to lead students through a process of creating a cover song of a favorite piece using GarageBand.  I attended the session and loved it!  Eoin is a music and geography teacher, as well as a digital leraning coordinator at his school in Ireland.  We talk about the impact of general music education classes and walk through steps you can use to uncover a song usi...

Afternoon Ti Podcast Season 9 Episode 173 Technology in the Music Classroom with Erika Moser Erika Moser's Bio: Erika is  a graduate of Temple University’s Boyer College of Music.   She teaches music and technology at Chesterbrook Academy. Her classes focus on exploring music creatively through hands on experiences that focus on listening activities, historical context, creation, sharing and frequent adventures with the ukulele! Erika is also an Apple Distinguished Educator.  ADEs are part of a global community of education leaders recognized for doing amazing things with Apple technology in and out of the classroom.    Links -  Erika's Twitter: @techclassrocks   Apple Books by Erika Moser Ukulele Book co-authored by Erika Moser and Eoin Hughes Apps and tools mentioned: Keynote SketchItSchool  SketchaPro Adobe Spark Seesaw Garageband - Audio Recorder, Beat Sequencer Numbers Canva

Afternoon Ti Podcast Season 9 Episode 172 Pentatonic Scales with Singing There are a substantial amount of songs that use the pentatonic scale. And I love it so much.  It’s such a joy to sing pentatonic pieces.  Just makes me happy.  I’m going to share four pentatonic songs that you can sing with students as well as a few listening examples of pop and classical songs that utilize pentatonic scales.  The longer list of these songs will be shared in the blog.  It’s great for students to have examples from the music that they are familiar with so that it allows them to see that what we are teaching them happens now.  Not just in the olden days when the men with white hair who look like presidents created music, but current pop artists and people they might listen to at home use the things we are teaching them.  Makes it more relevant for them. So let’s look at the four songs that we can teach students to help them explore the pentatonic scales..  Thi...

 Afternoon Ti Season 9 Episode 171 Pentatonic Scales with Barred Instruments Here we are - pentatonic scales on barred instruments.  I’ll start by sharing about different types of borduns, also called drones.  Then we’ll talk about improvisation ideas and composition as well. When students play a pentatonic melody, there are options for what you can have the bass line play.  Borduns are the bass line of the piece.  This is what anchors the piece.  It can add interest to the piece and secure the steady beat for an ensemble. There are three main options:  Simple, Single moving, and double moving. Bordun/Drone options: Simple Drone Simple drone is the most common and uses the tonic and dominant (1st and 5th scale degrees).  There four variations of the simple drone: Simple on a steady beat with both 1 and 5 playing at the same time Simple broken - Alternating between 1 and 5 on the beat Simple level - playing 1/5 together on long bars and again on th...

 Afternoon Ti Season 9 Episode 170 Pentatonic Scales with Recorders The pentatonic scale is one of my favorite parts of elemental music teaching.  It’s easy for students to engage in improvisation and composition without fear of others hearing mistakes.  It’s easy to transpose between C, F, and G pentatonic scales on barred instruments so students can experiment with changing of tonal centers and modulating.  It’s easy on the ears when students are creating because the tones all work well together and are pleasing to our hearing.  And it’s easy to facilitate in the classroom with singing, barred instruments, and recorders.   I’m going to spend the next few episodes focused on the pentatonic scale with a particular focus on lesson ideas.  That means that this episode is all about the soprano recorder!  Today we’re spending time with recorders and I’m sharing two songs that I’ve written that use the pentatonic scale and provide opportunities fo...

 Afternoon Ti Podcast Season 9 Episode 169 Pentatonic Scales The Pentatonic Scale.  The power of five pitches. Can be created in a variety of ways to give a specific sound to the piece. Easy to manipulate home tones to create different sounds within the scale.  Can be played by the black keys on the piano.  Can be sung beautifully.  Great for improvisations and compositions.  So versatile in the classroom.  Some of the reasons I find so much joy using the pentatonic scale with students. Today we’re going to talk about pentatonic scales - what they are and how we can use them with students, in a broad sense.  Then over the next few episodes you’ll hear lesson ideas using this concept with recorders, singing, barred instruments, composition, and improvisation.  Lots of great things in store over the next few weeks! A pentatonic scale is a series of five pitches used within a musical piece.  It can be helpful to break down the word - Penta ...

Afternoon Ti Podcast Season 9 Episode 168 Take the Pressure Off I’m so hopeful for this school year.  I’m hopeful that my students will have the opportunity to make more music.  To grow in their skills.  To grow in their confidence.  To grow in their understanding and knowledge of musical concepts.  I feel a responsibility to provide an incredible music education for my students and give them the very best experience I can.  That’s a lot of pressure.  You likely feel it too. It comes from our internal desire to teach well and the external pressures and requirements from our districts and schools. Some of you are already a few weeks into the school year.  Some of you are in teacher inservice and about to begin teaching students again soon.  We’re about to encounter the start of another year that has some uncertainties because life is not back to where it was two years ago yet.  I’m hopeful that it’s going to be a better year and trying to...