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Educational Activity “Listening Competition 01”

September 20, 2017 by donbryn

Curriculum Development, State College of Florida

Created an interactive, online listening competition designed to expose the students to different types of music and encourage active listening. By making this a competition against both each other and the faculty, there is motivation to succeed, which causes more active listening to each music clip.

For this competition, students are divided into groups of 6 (randomly assigned by Canvas). One student must sign in to Google and Canvas, then open the game in their we browser on any device. A clip of music is played over the sound system, after which the group must answer a series of questions about what they heard.

Example questions are:
In which time period do you think this was composed?
What instruments do you hear?
What is the meter of this piece?
If you had to guess, what would you think the title of this piece might be?

The technology makes this a great little piece of educational material–it can be viewed on any device, and answers can be captured in real-time.

This is the first time creating one of these games and I learned that it is best to keep scores manually on the board instead of online. In the google quiz, there is no way to see the score until the very end, so if we run out of class time before the end of the quiz, we cannot see the scores.

Still, this was overall a great success.

Canvas Community Post: Time Saving Reusable Content

September 17, 2017 by donbryn

Education

Curriculum Development, State College of Florida

This is copied from my post on the Canvas Community Blog about creating dynamic syllabi in Canvas:

Overview:

A method for minimizing the work involved in copying and creating courses by reusing content using php and a database.

Time wasters:

I have 14 different courses I teach and sometimes different versions of those courses (full-term, half-term, etc). My current method includes some steps that are meant to be efficient (always open to efficiency suggestions), and some time-wasters:

Every course has a sandbox so one-off changes to not affect future semesters.
Ongoing changes are made to sandboxes at the same time I make the changes in the live course.
For adjusting dates: THIS IS THE BIGGEST TIME WASTER! We need a better method for this in Canvas.
- I use James Jones‘s google spreadsheet (see here) to adjust dates first to get approximately close to the new semester.
- I open the calendar and add holidays, in-service days et al to my personal calendar.
- I view each course in the calendar and drag/drop assignments to finalize dates.
I have an unpublished page at the top of every course called “Teacher Setup” where I keep notes of things inside the course that might need adjusted. This is usually an instruction page that includes the day of the week that assignments are due. This things are also usually highlighted so I can find them quickly.
I open every syllabus and change the SAME information in each one: term title/date, course withdrawal date, due dates for specific papers, etc.
If there are any other changes to the syllabus for that particular course at any time, I have quite a few courses to open and verify that all syllabi are the same. I also am responsible for making sure the adjuncts in my department update their syllabi to match.

This semester I decided to address the last 2 time-wasters: Syllabus editing.

A Solution:

I think quite a bit like a programmer, so I realized that I need to understand which parts of the syllabus are course-specific, which are teacher-specific, which are semester-specific, and which are college-specific.
For Example:

The semester date (Fall 2017) and withdrawal date are semester-specific.
The teacher contact information is Teacher-specific.
The course description and credit information is course-specific.
All the legal mumbo-jumbo in the bottom are college-specific.

The next step was to realize that this could all be automated if the information was contained in separate locations (like a database) and pulled together when the page was created. This just means a server-scripting language to create the page on-the-fly, so I used PHP because I’m familiar with it.

I created 3 tables:

Teachers
Courses
Semesters

I created a PHP page that requires some information to be posted with the url request. That means when you type “www.example.com”, you add a question mark and the data you want to pass to the server like so:

“?teacher=bryn&semester=F17&course=MJJ1243”

The entire url looks like this:

www.example.com?teacher=bryn&semester=F17&course=MJJ1243

Then I created a php page (you have to find a place to host this page) in which I hard-coded the college-specific information. I decided there was no need to place this in a database since this would be the same in every syllabi. If I need to update college-specific legal wording, I can change it on this page and it will change in all my syllabi.

In this php page there are then php scripts that call the information needed from the database based on the data passed in the URL. So if the url says “teacher=bryn”, the page looks in the teacher table for “bryn” and pulls out my contact info and outputs it in the html page.

The same is done for course information and dates. It took some playing with different methods to find what worked for me the best, but I ended up storing html code in the data base for each section. The php page queries the database for information and if a specific piece of information doesn’t exist for a particular course, then that section is left out of the syllabus.

The final step was to edit the syllabi to embed my php page in an iframe. iframe are not a great choice because content is hosted off-site, but unless I have more flexibility (including coding) within Canvas, this is the only choice I have. iframes are also tricky because height cannot be dynamically created so one has to guess a good height and put up with scroll bars when the page is too short or too narrow. Still, this is such a time-saver that it is worth the slight annoyance of scroll bars.

From now on, when I start a new semester I have many fewer steps:

Create a new semester in the “semesters” database with relevant dates. Takes about 30 seconds.
If there are any syllabi changes, make them in the database. Changes here will be infrequent.
If the college’s legal part of the syllabus has changed, make those changes in the php page. Again, infrequent.

Then when I copy the sandbox I only need to edit one thing: the url for the iframe in the syllabus.

I have to change:

www.example.com?teacher=bryn&semester=F17&course=MJJ1243

to this:

www.example.com?teacher=bryn&semester=S18&course=MJJ1243

That’s it. Easy-peasy, right? Saves me about an hour each semester.

I realize most teachers do not know php or mysql, or have access to php and database hosting. But for any of you who are programmers or admins, there might be some real advantages to this. Imagine if all syllabi on your campus referred to a database for the legal info. You would only have to make changes in ONE place and all syllabi across your campus would be updated. Ditto for published course descriptions or teacher contact info.

And at the very least, I hope you find this interesting.

And now if only I can think of a way to handle assignment dates. . .

Hosting local MTNA chapter for lunch and studio class

September 11, 2017 by donbryn

Education

Piano, Recruitment, Service to the Community, State College of Florida

As a community outreach and recruiting effort, I hosted the local MTA (Music Teachers Association) for a light lunch and studio class.

At 11:30, the local teachers began to arrive and were guided by students to the union for lunch. A light buffet lunch was served while socializing and discussing education and music in the area as well as national and state conferences.

After lunch, the MTA had their monthly meeting at the lunch table while students and myself went to prepare the room for the studio class.

Piano Studio class is a bi-weekly session that involves all piano majors and is an informal group lesson situation. Students play pieces or even just sections of pieces they are learning, and then discussion is opened to all students and faculty. This results in

Students gaining experience performing in front of others.
Opportunities to learn about repertoire that they might not know.
Encourage active listening.
Have teachers other than the primary teacher explain technique in a new way.
Learn about stylistic concerns in the context of real music.

This particular studio class was held during Recital Hour so that all music students would have the opportunity to observe a studio class. Since the piano department is the only department to have this class at SCF, it is an excellent opportunity for other students to see what it is, how it works, as well as to learn about the students within the keyboard department.

This class was also open to the local MTA teachers who really enjoyed the opportunity to hear our students perform pieces on which they are working. Overall, a great success and I am glad I kept it rather small this first time I did this. In the future I hope to invite more community teachers and therefore raise awareness even higher of the work we are doing here at SCF.

“Sport of Listening” Educational Activity

September 10, 2017 by donbryn

Education

Curriculum Development, State College of Florida

I created a listening competition for Recital Hour that involves teams of students listening to clips of music and then answering questions about that music. They competed against other teams, including a team of all faculty members.

Each team used a device logged in to Canvas, with an embedded Google Forms Quiz, answering the questions online with scoring automatically updated.

This outcomes from this activity were:

Higher student engagement through the use of familiar technology
Encouragement of curiosity and creativity in students
Gaining general knowledge of the subject material across a broad range of music

It was quite engaging for the students while faculty appreciated both the educational value of the exercise as well as the fact that it required listening–one of the skills this class is designed to improve in students.

Note: A lot of time was spent in preparing this quiz as all media had to be chosen, clipped, and run-through normalizing filters. Questions had to be created and entered into Google forms (linking to my own home page as host). Another almost identical quiz had to be created for the teacher version that included the media player, and each question had to be recreated in a separated quiz in order to make the teacher version easy to navigate.

Music Viva Community Outreach Recital

September 2, 2017 by donbryn

Community, Performing

Musica Viva, Piano, Piano and Flute

This casual recital with flautist Linda Bento-Rei, was for invied distinguished guests. The idea was to promote chamber music in the area, especially for an audience who might be willing and able to support the arts both influentially and financially. The setting was very casual, giving ample opportunity to meet the guests and get to know them intimately.

Program:

Rituals for Flute and Piano (August, 2014), Blaz Pucihar
Nocturne (2011), Geraldine Green
And Everything is Still (2008), Andy Scott
Salt of the Earth (2011), Andy Scott

Glenview at Pelican Bay Solo Piano Concert

August 21, 2017 by donbryn

Performing

Glenview, Piano

I performed a variety of well-liked solo piano repertoire, taking the listeners on a musical tour of Europe.

Program:

Sonata in D Major 1770-75, Haydn
invention in D Minor, Bach
Invention in A Minor, Bach
2 Spanish Dances, Granados
Mazurka in Bb, Op. 67 No. 2, Chopin
Mazura in Bb, Op. 7, No. 1, Chopin
Jardins sous la pluie, Debussy
Clair de lune, Debussy
Impromptu in Eb Minor, Schubert
Sonata in C Minor, II, III, Beethoven

Solo Piano Concert at Sarasota Bay Club

August 17, 2017 by donbryn

Performing

Piano, Sarasota Bay Club

Solo Classical Piano Concert at the Sarasota Bay Club. The concert was well-received and featured a variety of well-known and easily accessible classical pieces.

Program:

Sonata in D Major 1770-75, Haydn
invention in D Minor, Bach
Invention in A Minor, Bach
2 Spanish Dances, Granados
Mazurka in Bb, Op. 67 No. 2, Chopin
Mazura in Bb, Op. 7, No. 1, Chopin
Jardins sous la pluie, Debussy
Clair de lune, Debussy
Impromptu in Eb Minor, Schubert
Sonata in C Minor, II, III, Beethoven

Warsaw: Chopin Experience (Review)

July 26, 2017 by donbryn

Education, Travel

Chopin, Muesum, Piano, Poland, Review, Warsaw

Warsaw is a huge city. Chopin is important, but most Varsovians don’t think about him every day. Remember George Washington? He’s important to Americans, but we don’t think about him every day either.

But if you are a tourist and interested in music, then there is plenty of Chopin for you in Warsaw. You will hear Chopin in various places throughout the walk, from Chopin benches to museum entrances to drifting out of windows, and in courtyards of buildings which functions I do not know. However, your experience of Chopin will be somewhat understated and subtle and make for a rather relaxed exploration of Warsaw. I think the primary reason for this is the lack of existing artifacts from Chopin’s life. Between the Soviets and the Nazis, so much of the city was destroyed. Pretty much anything still surviving in Warsaw was saved by being snuck out to the countryside when the Nazi’s destroyed the city.

I spent half a day walking the Royal Way and Old Town, which is a main route for exploring the tourist sites in the city. With only a couple side-trips (about 2 city blocks) off this route, you can see the main Chopin sites. It was a rainy, gloomy day in Warsaw, which kept many tourists inside but made it difficult to get good photos.

If you start at the DeGaulle statue and walk North, the first stop will be the Chopin Salon, a couple blocks east of the route. This is a concert venue, so it is best to come back in the evening for a concert. Still, I stopped in to get information about tickets, concert times, etc. I was told I would not need a reservation for either night I was considering, so I was happy I didn’t have to commit in advance.

A few blocks further north is the Chopin Museum, again a couple blocks east of the route. It didn’t open until 11am, so I was an hour early. Instead of waiting I decided to stop on the way back (my apartment was very near the starting point of this route).

There are Chopin benches everywhere in the city where something Chopin-significant took place, and each plays a piece of Chopin’s music when you push a button on the bench. I found three on this walk without going out of my way. The first is in the square with the Copernicus statue. Chopin’s sister lived across the street and evidently had a substantial collection of Chopin artifacts which were destroyed at some point during Soviet rule.

Despite the drizzling rain, I took a picture of the music while it played the Revolutionary Etude. There was a cool modern design etched into the black bench; small colored cubes in a seemingly random pattern. Remember that for later. The second bench is somewhere on the way north towards the palace, playing the Nocturne in Eb. The third is in Palace Square, and I couldn’t place the piece it was playing.

Also in the Copernicus square is the Holy Cross Church where Chopin’s heart is interred.

After touring the Palace and the rest of old town, the sun finally began to beat back the clouds and I began to retrace my route south to the Chopin Museum. On the way I stopped again at some of my photo spots to get better pictures now that the sun was shining. I had to walk right past the Chopin bench in Copernicus Square and I started laughing. Now that there was no water collected on the bench, I could see that the “modern art” was really a map to all the Chopin benches! The colored squares were the locations of the benches. So of course I snapped a few more pictures.

Finally I made it back to the Chopin Museum. One of the very interesting things about this site is that if you approached from the west (which is actually above the museum), there are piano practice rooms across the street. I have no clue what building this is, but it is fascinating to approach the museum and hear all sorts of piano music conflicting as it wafts through the air. There is also a Frydryck Chopin Institute that you will pass first if you come from this direction.

The museum is a ‘palace’, which is to say a large house that would have been occupied by a fairly well-to-do family. Like virtually everything in Warsaw, it is a reconstruction and beautifully done. You will have to walk down the marble stairs past the museum to the ticket office in the courtyard below, then come back and enter the museum through the large signless wooden doors. You will feel like you are entering a secret club.

The Chopin Museum, like every music museum I have visited in Central and Eastern Europe, is more of a shrine than a museum, though much more modern and tech-savvy than any other I have seen. It it full of interactive screens, video, and audio technology and to reach the bulk of the museum on the lower two floors you will pass over clear and frosted glass catwalks and stairways as you enter an underground arched brick cellar. The space is a joy to walk through.

However, the technology is all glitz and not much content. If you know nothing about Chopin, you will not know much more after visiting the museum. If you are a fan of Chopin, you will enjoy looking through display after display of copies of manuscripts, letters, pictures, and printed books of his music. I was surprised how much of the displays were simply creating the setting for Chopin’s time, and not specifically about him.

There were a lot of pictures of him (mostly copies), pictures of family, friends, and other musicians whom Chopin knew. Even the furniture was pieces from the time period, but not Chopin-related. The lack of Chopin artifacts is understandable considering the history of Warsaw, but I would rather have an educational museum following some sort of order and teaching me about the subject. I understand this is meant to be a little more whimsical, which I appreciate. But without content, it still ends up being somewhat boring. It’s like solving a puzzle that has no solution.

The kids room was fun, with interactive games on touch screens. Upstairs is a “Musical Twister” with seven spots on the floor which play music when you step on them. Only two were working. There was an entire listening room with interactive stations that played Chopin’s music, activated by touching a book which had a projection from an overhead screen. It was a great idea, but I could not get it to react to my touches. I could only access the help and playlist screens (and yes, I tried multiple stations). I also don’t understand the cards. You are given a plastic card along with your ticket and to activate some displays, you hold your card up to the light. I thought perhaps this was to activate the appropriate language, but it seems to me it would be just as easy to push a button.

The coolest technology was the podium in front of the piano. There are three books of piano music on the side. When one of them is placed on the podium, that music plays along with a video of closeups of the hands playing. This seemed to fascinate a visitors, though it took me a minute to realize the video was part of the action because the screen was a floor higher, seen from the catwalk above.

So I did not stay long in the Chopin Museum. And I chose not to visit the Chopin statue in Park Lazienkowski, nor did I go to the Chopin Salon for a concert. Perhaps this was just because I was at the end of my European journey and was ready to go home, or because I realized that none of these places could give me a sense of familiarity with Chopin as strongly as just playing his music. Perhaps if these locations were to teach me more about his life I would have pushed myself to go, but as the locations stand, I could learn much more by googling him.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m glad to have visited these locations. I was happy to get a feel for Chopin’s time and life as opposed to some knowledge of it. I’m quite happy with my relaxed and understated Chopin tour in Warsaw.

Prague: Mozart Dinner Concert (Review)

July 11, 2017 by donbryn

Education, Travel

Czech Republic, Czechia, Mozart, Prague, Review

Mozart Dinner – Your Private Opera in Prague

There are ads all over the tourist spots and the internet for the “Mozart Dinner”. After some careful study, I thought this would be one of the better concerts to attend because it had both instrumental and vocal music, would give us dinner, and–because it wasn’t in a church–would probably have some of the best acoustics in the smaller venues.

So on Tuesday, July 11, at 8pm, we attended the Mozart Dinner in the Boccaccio Ballroom in the Grand Hotel Bohemia.

The Ballroom is located down a level or two from the street and is beautifully laid out mostly in a classical style. There is a small stage with just enough room for the string quintet, while the 2 vocal soloists have plenty of space on the floor in front of the stage. The space was wonderful for the ensemble. The music was perfectly clear and I was amazed at how much the sole contrabass could fill the room.

The food:

I’m sure it was quite good, but not really anything I wanted to eat, so while I forced myself to eat the beef tips (I think that’s what they’re called), I pretty much stuck with the wine. I was here for the music.

The music:

The concert was made up of three 20-minute segments in between dinner courses. While the musicians were quite good, I’m highly biased towards the instrumentalists. The following is simply my observations throughout the concert in no particular order.

It’s great to hear Mozart played by a small ensemble. One can hear the genius in the inner parts and the orchestration. While lines are straightforward and somewhat “simple”, they are by no means plain. Mozart was a master at little surprises hidden in every part. The instrumental music was very good and the opera arias were good–I presume.

I’m not really a fan of opera and now I remember some of the reasons. Being up close, it was obscenely obvious what weird expressions the vocalists make, unnatural mouth movements, and acting verging on pantomime.

I do find the vocal melodies interesting, but I tend to hear them as another part of the whole. Perhaps because I am not caught up in any of the drama, I find the slow pieces to be so laborious. What I like is the writing–the interplay of all the parts, including the voices. I couldn’t care less about the lyrics!

I guess it is more accurate to say I like opera music, but do not enjoy watching opera.

Now is the time I get personal and allow you to know a bit about myself. I have a short attention span. I get easily bored by music over 100 years old! I deeply respect the masters and often hear things I’ve not noticed previously, but for the most part, it’s the same harmonic language that’s been in use for hundreds of years. So when I’m getting bored or distracted I play a game. This time I made it a game to try to listen to the viola part. Since he was facing away from me, this was a particularly difficult challenge and kept me focused.

This was a wonderful concert and definitely worth the money (whether you eat the dinner or not!). The musicians were first class (I forgot to mention that 4 of the 5 reminded me of someone I know at home), and of course the compositions were all masterpieces. I highly recommend this concert over many of the others offered at small venues in Prague in the summer. This was the venue with the cleanest acoustics, though I’m sure some of the churches have more appealing ambiance. I don’t think any of them will compare with the SOUND of this ballroom for chamber music.

Prague: Dvorak Museum (Review)

July 10, 2017 by donbryn

Education, Travel

Czech Republic, Czechia, Dvorák, Museum, Prague, Review

The Dvorak museum is another sort-of shrine to another one of the most important Czech composers, this time located not in tourist central but in a more residential yet city neighborhood.

The museum is housed in a lovely villa surrounded by an umkempt yard and statuary. Evidently there was no connection between Dvorak and this villa except that he walked past it often on his way to and from home. It took three attempts to gain entry: Day one the museum was closed for filming, Day two I arrived an hour before opening (My fault). Even though there is not a historical connection to Dvorak, nor much to learn about the man himself, a visit to this villa is pleasant just for the frescos and open layout.

The museum does house Dvorak’s piano, though its unclear from the signage if the piano is only housed in this location for a short while, or if it has only recently been moved here.

There are a few other odds and ends of Dvorak’s possessions, a rather tiny toilet in the basement, an umkempt lawn with interesting (and slightly famous) statuary, and a couple out-buildings that are inaccessible to visitors.

The last little interesting tidbit was in the signage describing Dvorak’s work in the New World. The sign said the Dvorak was brought to America to help the Americans find a national voice, but that when he suggested that the voice lay in African American spirituals and Native American music, the American media protested.

I knew that Dvorak was instrumental in encouraging American composers to find their national voice, but I’m not sure that was the original motivation for bringing him to the USA to teach.

Either way, it was an interesting way to spend an hour in an interesting neighborhood in an interesting city. However, if you want to learn something about Dvorak, you would better spend your hour googling him. Of course, if you chose that method, you could sit in your chair at home instead of wandering Prague.

« Next

Z News - Classic

Educational Activity “Listening Competition 01”

Canvas Community Post: Time Saving Reusable Content

Overview:

Time wasters:

A Solution:

Hosting local MTNA chapter for lunch and studio class

“Sport of Listening” Educational Activity

Music Viva Community Outreach Recital

Program:

Glenview at Pelican Bay Solo Piano Concert

Program:

Solo Piano Concert at Sarasota Bay Club

Program:

Warsaw: Chopin Experience (Review)

Prague: Mozart Dinner Concert (Review)

Mozart Dinner – Your Private Opera in Prague

The food:

The music:

Prague: Dvorak Museum (Review)

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