I have a conversation with Lawrence Grey founder of the Young Producers Group based in Los Angeles. YPG provides curriculum, resources, and professional development for school systems and teachers who want to offer music technology courses for their students but don't know quite where to start.

Dr. Langol and I have a wide-ranging discussion about the music education program at Berklee, recent trends in music technology and education and what the future may hold.

Meaghan O’Connor-Vince teaches at Barnstable High School in Hyannis, Massachusetts. She is very active in the Massachusetts MEA and has several articles published in the Massachusetts Journal for Music Education. After being hired as an assistant band director, she was faced with having to teach a music technology course. She developed her own curriculum for her students and within a few years was teaching music technology exclusively with an expanded curriculum that included advanced music technology courses and courses on composing for hip hop, rock, and pop music. She is in demand as a speaker across the country for music education conferences and she has two instructional units published on the MusicFirst Classroom platform.

Jason Freeman is a Professor of Music at Georgia Tech and Chair of the School of Music. His artistic practice and scholarly research focus on using technology to engage diverse audiences in collaborative, experimental, and accessible musical experiences. He also develops educational interventions in K-12, university, and MOOC environments that broaden and increase engagement in STEM disciplines through authentic integrations of music and computing. His music has been performed at Carnegie Hall, exhibited at ACM SIGGRAPH, published by Universal Edition, broadcast on public radio’s Performance Today, and commissioned through support from the National Endowment for the Arts. Freeman’s wide-ranging work has attracted over $10 million in funding from sources such as the National Science Foundation, Google, and Turbulence. It has been disseminated through over 80 refereed book chapters, journal articles, and conference publications. Freeman received his B.A. in music from Yale University and his M.A. and D.M.A. in composition from Columbia University.

Chris Rickwood is a versatile and dynamic composer, with a flair for creating musical scores that capture the essence of video game worlds. With a career spanning over two decades, Rickwood has honed his craft to create immersive soundscapes that are as diverse as they are memorable. Having composed music for a wide range of titles, from the epic battles of Smite, Paladins, and Tribes: Ascend, to the whimsical landscapes of Brawlhalla, Jetpack Fighter, and Adventure Time Battle Party, Rickwood is no stranger to the challenges of game scoring. His past work also includes Madden NFL 12, Orcs Must Die! series, Ghostbusters: The Videogame, and Age of Empires Online, to name just a few. Rickwood has contributed his expertise to the game audio community as a founding member of the Game Developers Association in Georgia and by serving on the Advisory Board for the Game Audio Network Guild and the Board of Governors for the National Association of Recording Arts and Sciences.

Learn about the newly rebranded and retooled podcast and meet my new 14-year-old Production and Social Media Manager!

Which teacher has two thumbs and Grammy Award winning hip hop music producer Kenny Bartolomei spending a day with their students? ME!! I was recently introduced to Kenny “Barto” Bartolomei. Kenny won a Grammy Award for Best R&B album and a Billboard Award for the R&B/Hip Hop Album of the Year in 2006 as a part of the J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League Music team for their production of Mary J. Blige’s album “The Breakthrough.” He is also a composer, multi-instrumentalist and member of the Universal Music Publishing Group. He has worked with a virtual Who’s Who of the top Hip Hop artists of the last 25 years including: Drake, Rick Ross, 2Chainz, Young Jeezy, Nikki Menaj, DJ Khaled, Machine Gun Kelly, and many more. Barto was generous enough to spend an ENTIRE day in the middle school where I teach for our “Career Day.” This pod is audio that I recorded of his visit, some Q&A with the students, and our recording session with Barto. Enjoy!

A conversation with Composer & Video Game Sound Designer Alec Ragsdale. Alec tells me about his early musical influences and his journey to becoming the audio team lead for Hidden Leaf Games upcoming release Fangs.

After a bit of a hiatus, the MuTechTeacherTalk podcast is back! Let’s commiserate together, then share a huge pat on the back for what teachers (and students) have been through the last 2+ years. In this episode, I look back on the last two years while confidently preparing to step into the next school year, but not before taking some well-deserved time to relax and recharge. I hope that you enjoy the episode and make sure to let me know what topics you would be most interested in hearing about in future episodes.

I continue my exploration into finding the reasons behind the division between classical vs commercial music in higher education. How can teachers learn how to teach music creation with technology if there are no institutions able or willing to teach them. Pop, Rock, Hip Hop, & R&B music are distinctly American and a critical part of our history and culture yet, we don't include it as part of our "formal" music education system. If we can figure out how we got to where we are now, perhaps we can discover a way forward...

Music Technology is a fast growing content area of music education. One of the biggest challenges impeding further growth is identifying teachers who are qualified to teach these courses. Our college and university systems that provide music education degrees are general very reluctant to add a new content area to their curricula. This episode begins an examination of the history and traditions of our schools of music to find answers and perhaps solutions ato the situation.

Bam Scott has spent the last 25 years as a successful performer in Miami. FL while building his own entertainment company, Big Bam Entertainment. He has worked with some of the biggest names in the music industry and won a Latin Grammy Award for his production work with "Albita." Bam shares his struggles, success, and the grit, grind, and determination needed to make it as an independent musician, actor, producer, and talent manager.

In this episode I have a conversation with Master Sgt. William Timmons a trombonist in the United States Air Force Band, Ceremonial Brass. In addition to being a world class performer, Sgt. Timmons is also a composer, arranger, and recording engineer. We discuss how he became a musician, his early exposure to music technology, and how he uses music technology and electronic sounds as an integral part of his compositions. Sgt. Timmons also discusses his growing collection of microphones and how recording his own performances has grown into a supplemental career as a recording engineer and producer. He offers some great tips and suggestions for how to start your own home studio and the creative as well as technical aspects of recording.

This episode of MuTechTeacherTalk features an interview with Eric Wilkinson, Director of Choirs at Wando High School in Charleston, SC. Eric’s choirs have performed around the world and have been featured performers at state, regional, and national choral festivals. He was the recipient of the prestigious Miliken Family Foundation National Educator Award in 2007, and is the author of Habits of a Successful Choral Musician Published by GIA Publications. Eric shares with me his experience, like so many others, with the closing of Wando HS during the COVID 19 pandemic. We discuss the challenges that he and his students have faced during this time of remote and digital learning and some of the lessons, tricks, and resources that he has discovered to keep his students engaged and singing. A master teacher with a serious choral program demonstrates how not taking things too seriously and serving the individual needs of the students beyond making music can help your program not only survive, but thrive during this difficult time.

In this episode I have a conversation with Dr. Andy Edwards who teaches music technology at Peachtree Ridge High School in Gwinnett County Public Schools in Suwanee, GA. In addition to the traditional music technology curriculum, Dr. Edwards has created a supplemental unit focused on students manufacturing instruments such as electric guitars, acoustic guitars, guitar amps, and even building microphones. Dr. Edwards was recognized by the Give A Note Foundation in 2019 as a National Music Teacher of Excellence and the recipient of a $5000 grant sponsored by the CMA that he has used to further develop his program. In our conversation we discuss how he became involved in music and music technology, how he developed his innovative program of instrument manufacturing with his students, suggestions and tips for other teachers considering trying to start a similar projects, and more.

In this episode, I have a conversation with John Snyder. John is currently the President of Tweed Studios and Academy in Athens, GA and on the faculty at the University of Loyola in New Orleans where he has been the Chair of the Department of Music Industry Studies. Snyder has produced hundreds of recordings and CD reissues and compilations as a music and video producer. Recordings he has produced have received 32 Grammy nominations and 5 Grammys. He was recognized in 2018 by Offbeat magazine with a Lifetime Achievement in Music Education Award and was described by allmusic.com as one of the most important jazz record producers of the last 30 years. As a music producer Snyder produced records with Etta James, Dave Brubeck, Count Basie Orchestra, George Shearing, Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker, and Dizzy Gillespie among others. He has also recorded Eric Clapton, Paul Simon, Buddy Guy, Santana, Bonnie Raitt, Wynona Judd, Stevie Wonder, Gregg Allman, and Isaac Hayes, among others, on various blues, R&B, and tribute records. Snyder is also President of Artists House Foundation (http://www.artistshousemusic.org/) which was funded by Herb Alpert to help musicians and music entrepreneurs create sustainable careers. I hope that you enjoy this episode as we discuss music production, education and the importance of understanding the legal protections and entrepreneurial potential in today’s do it yourself and home studio music production.

The episode of MuTechTeacherTalk was created using the audio from a recent Facebook live broadcast that I hosted. The broadcast was in a modified Q & A format, so the interactive content from the broadcast has been edited out for the podcast version. The topics that have been included in this podcast include Goal setting and getting prepared to start the new school year, developing a philosophy of why we are teachers and what we are teaching, how to teach creativity, developing a philosophy of assessment and how to effectively assess creative work, and finally there are two segments about a few really great cloud based apps Soundtrap and Noteflight.

Data scientist, curriculum developer, and consultant with Galvanize, a leading technology education innovator, David Yakobovitch is our guest for episode 7 of MuTechTeacherTalk. How do schools and businesses get more females interested in technology courses and careers? What is artificial intelligence and machine learning? Can technology augment human creativity? How has technology impacted the way music producers and consumers create and listen to music? David and I will discuss these questions and more in this episode. David Yakobovitch is on the leading edge of edge of global data science, app and web development through coding, and technology education. In addition to his work with www.galvanize.com, he publishes the weekly HumAIn podcast (www.humainpodcast.com).

In this episode I continue my discussion with Dr. Adam Patrick Bell about the studio as an instrument for the creation of music in the music tech classroom as well as his thoughts about the creative and learning processes that take place. Dr. Bell is an Assistant Professor of Music Education in the School of Creative and Performing Arts at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada. ​His current courses include: Music and Popular Culture, Popular Music Pedagogy, and Introduction to Music Technology. His primary areas of research are: ​DIY (do-it-yourself) music making and learning in home/project studio recording, music software/instrument design impact on learning, and (dis)ability in music. In addition to numerous articles written for professional and educational journals, he has shared his research and presented professional learning sessions around the globe. He also serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Music, Technology & Education and Visions of Research in Music Education. I hope that you enjoy part three of the conversation.