Wednesday, April 17, 2013
My NYU masters thesis is a drum programming tutorial system for beginner musicians. It uses a novel circular interface for displaying the drum patterns. This presentation explains the project’s goals, motivations and scholarly background. If you prefer, see it on Slideshare.
Also filed in Autobio, Interfaces, Music, Software
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Tagged ableton, dance, drum machines, drumming, electronica, hip-hop, looping, midi, music notation, nyu, propellerhead, thesis, visualization
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Wednesday, March 27, 2013
For those of you curious about what I’m up to in grad school, this is the big thing. Pardon the stilted language, but, you know, academia. See the slideshow! Title The Drum Loop: a Self-Guided Tutorial System for Programming Dance Rhythms Introduction Dance music production software has never been more accessible. However, even “beginner-oriented” programs [...]
Also filed in Autobio, Interfaces, Music, Software, Video Games
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Tagged dance, design, drumming, hip-hop, interface, looping, nyu, programming, thesis, visualization
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Computers have revolutionized the composition, production and recording of music. However, they have not yet revolutionized music education. While a great deal of educational software exists, it mostly follows traditional teaching paradigms, offering ear training, flash cards and the like. Meanwhile, nearly all popular music is produced in part or in whole with software, yet [...]
Also filed in Interfaces, Music, Software, Technology
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Tagged algorithmic composition, classical, Composition, computers, dance, dj, figure, garageband, guitar, Hardware, hip-hop, Improvisation, interfaces, ipad, keybs, logic, looping, midi, morton subotnick, Music, music teaching, nyu, pro tools, propellerhead, reason, skeuomorphism, Software, synths, visualization
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Check out this presentation I gave at the December 2012 Advanced Ableton User Meetup at Tekserve, hosted by Hank Shocklee of Public Enemy. I speak about how useful Ableton Live is as a music teaching tool, using Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” as an example. Very shortly after I concluded my talk, my wife went into labor [...]
Also filed in Autobio, Interfaces, Music, Software, Technology
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Tagged ableton, gnarls barkley, hank shocklee, interfaces, midi, music teaching, visualization
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Thursday, November 1, 2012
Matthew D. Thibeault. Wisdom for Music Education From the Recording Studio. General Music Today, 20 October 2011. Stuart Wise, Janinka Greenwood and Niki Davis. Teachers’ Use of Digital Technology in Secondary Music Education: Illustrations of Changing Classrooms. British Journal of Music Education, Volume 28, Issue 2, July 2011, pp 117 - 134. Digital recording studios [...]
Also filed in Composition, Music, Recording, Software
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Tagged brian eno, Composition, education, Improvisation, Music, music notation, music teaching, nyu, psychology, Recording, Sampling, school, teaching, technomusicology
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Thursday, October 18, 2012
On November 1st, I’ll be presenting strategies for using Ableton as a music teaching tool at the Ableton Advanced Users Meetup sponsored by Shocklee Interactive and Tekserve. The lineup also includes AfroDJMac, Brian Jackson, Ben Casey, Thomas Piper, DVS and DJ Juice E. Be there!
Saturday, October 6, 2012
I love music grad school and am finding it extremely valuable, except for one part: the music theory requirement. In order to get my degree, I have to attain mastery of Western tonal harmony of the common practice era. I am not happy about it. This requirement requires a lot mastery of a lot of [...]
Also filed in Autobio, Music, Politics
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Tagged america, classical, harmony, history, learning, music teaching, Music Theory, Politics, rhythm
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Update: see a more formal draft of my thesis proposal. For my NYU masters thesis in Music Technology, I’m designing a beginner-oriented music learning app for the iPad and similar devices. It will approach music the way I wish I had been taught it, and the way I’ve been teaching it to my private students. [...]
Also filed in Composition, Interfaces, Music, Software
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Tagged dance, drumming, electronica, fun, linkedin, music teaching, nyu, rhythm, sequencing, thesis
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As I contemplate my masters thesis, I’m looking for good examples of beginner-centric musical user interface design. Propellerhead’s new Figure app has been a source of inspiration for me. It’s mostly wonderful, and even its design flaws are instructive. I have a long history with Propellerhead’s software, beginning with Rebirth in 1998. I’ve made a [...]
Also filed in Composition, Interfaces, Software
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Tagged beginners, design, drumming, electronica, figure, graphics, hipsters, interfaces, ios, linkedin, music teaching, propellerhead, reason, rebirth, retro, skeuomorphism, synths, touch, visualization
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Saville, Kirt. Strategies for Using Repetition as a Powerful Teaching Tool. Music Educators Journal, 2011 98: 69 When a student brings a recorded song to me that they want to learn, the first thing I do is load it into Ableton and mark off the different sections with a simple color-coding scheme: blue for verses, [...]
Also filed in Sampling, Software
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Tagged ableton, attention, chunking, flow, linkedin, looping, memory, nyu, teaching, transcribe
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