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Robby Burns
David MacDonald unboxes the Odla music notation ...
David MacDonald unboxes the Odla music notation controller

Digital Organization Tips for Music Teachers, Revisited

I will be presenting a session at the NJMEA Conference this week titled Digital Organization Tips for Music Teachers. In preparation for this presentation, I have revisited this topic on my podcast with similar content to make it quickly accessible in the feed for attendees of the session.

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Show Notes:

Please don't forget to rate the show and share it with others!

Music Ed Tech Year in Review 2023, featuring Jim Frankel

Jim Frankel, Director of MusicFirst, joins the show to talk about music ed tech in 2023, MusicFirst, and AI.

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Show Notes:

  • Real Time Audio

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Muse Group acquires Hal Leonard - Scoring Notes

Big news.

The Scoring Notes blog has details and insights. Click to read their coverage below.

Muse Group acquires Hal Leonard - Scoring Notes:

Muse Group, the Limassol, Cyprus-based company which owns music and audio products such as MuseScore.com, the MuseScore music notation application, StaffPad, Ultimate Guitar, and Audacity, has acquired Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based Hal Leonard, the largest publisher of sheet music and educational books. The transaction is supported by San Francisco-based private equity firm Francisco Partners. The acquisition closed on December 1, 2023 and was announced today. Terms were undisclosed. Muse Group published a series of FAQs to address immediate questions. Keep reading here…

Holiday Gift Guide 2023, with David MacDonald

Robby and David discuss their current computing devices, favorite gift ideas, and lament the use of Microsoft Teams.  

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Show Notes:

Books

- Grading for Growth

- Critique is Creative

- unGrading

- On Music Theory

Software/Services

- Audio Hijack

- 1Password

- Things

- Farrago

- Affinity Apps - Designer / Photo / Publisher

- Musio

- Chat GPT Plus

Gadgets

- Anker 3-in-1 Cube with MagSafe

- Anker PowerCore MagGo

- Material Dock

- AirTags

- Hidrate smart water bottle and Ember smart mugs

Games

- Hori Split Pad Pro

- Super Mario Bros Wonder

- Elden Ring

- Baldur’s Gate 3

- Dave the Diver

- Steam Deck

Pens, Notebooks, Misc.

- Mark One

- Mark Two

- Mark Three

- SideKick Notepad

- Studio Neat Pen Tray

- LightDims

App of the Week:

Robby - Narwal 2

David - Sports Alerts / Fotmob

Music of the Week:

Robby - Braxton Cook: Somewhere In Between

David - Darcy James Argue: Dynamic Maximum Tension

Tech Tip of the Week:

Robby - Use things as they are designed to be used

David - LightDims  

Where to Find Us:

Robby - Blog | Book

David - Website

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New Software Updates from Apple! (iOS17, macOS Sonoma, watchOS 10), with Craig McClellan

Craig is back to discuss new iPhones, Apple Watches, and everything your Apple devices will be able to do with the new fall updates.

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Become a Patron!<script async src=“https://c6.patreon.com/becomePatronButton.bundle.js”>

Buy me a coffee

Thanks to my sponsors this month, Scale Exercise Play Along Tracks.

Show Notes:

Please don’t forget to rate the show and share it with others!

#72 - Secrets to Sustainable Careers, with Elisa Janson Jones

Elisa Janson Jones joins the show to talk about self-care, social media, and our favorite apps for being productive and healthy.

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Support Music Ed Tech Talk

Become a Patron!

Buy me a coffeeBuy me a coffee

Thanks to my sponsors this month, Scale Exercise Play Along Tracks.

Show Notes:

Please don't forget to rate the show and share it with others!

Automating the Action Button of an iPhone 15 Pro

My iPhone 15 Pro Max shipped last week. A couple of quick observations (and more on an upcoming episode of the podcast).

  • I moved up from a smaller pro phone to the Max this year for the camera improvements. I was nervous it would be far too heavy but I am surprised to say that the new titanium material makes me perceive it as lighter than my previous pro model.

  • I have missed the larger screen size.

  • The camera is very good. If you are up for an upgrade, the Pro Max is definitely the one to get this year.

  • It is a a dream to have an entirely dedicated hardware button on the side that I can customize.

The Action Button replaces the old mute switch, and while it can be used to toggle mute on and off, Apple also lets you customize it to do something else, like open the camera, turn on a flashlight, take a voice memo, or run a Shortcut.

Naturally I wanted to get the most out of this button, so I programmed it to run a Shortcut. The Shortcut I programmed it to run changes the behavior of the button based on which Focus Mode my phone is in.

Click here to download the shortcut.

The Shortcut first looks to see if my phone is upside down (which it often is in my pocket). If so, the button toggles mute off and on, like the button traditionally has done. This way, I can quickly mute it if an unwanted call comes through, by feeling the button through my pocket (though my phone us usually on silent mode).

If the phone is in any other orientation, it does the following action, based on Focus Mode:

  • Personal Focus: Opens a new note in the Drafts app

  • Work Focus: Opens a Google Doc with the school schedule

  • Private Lesson Focus: Unlocks the side door to my studio so my next student can enter

  • Sleep Focus: Toggles flashlight

  • Concert Focus: Opens camera

  • Driving Focus: Opens my garage door

And this is only the beginning! I am looking forward to all the cool automating I can do with this button.

StaffPad Autumn 2023 Update

A new update is out for StaffPad. I have been testing the app and have more to say about it on a future episode of the podcast. For now, read about the update from the StaffPad team, themselves…

Autumn 2023 Update:

It's been a while since our last update and, in the interim, we've been working hard on a lot of very interesting challenges and technologies - all designed to make writing music in StaffPad more productive and more flexible than ever.

This has resulted in some major changes under the hood, and a huge amount of R&D. I'm extremely proud of the work the team has done on this release, bringing features out of the research phase and into production use.

As always, this update is free and available in the App Store and Windows Store now. The video below gives a general overview of the update, covering composing using Piano Capture, MIDI Capture, Video Staffs, and more. Let's dive into it! Keep reading here…

The new piano capture and MIDI capture are paradigm-shifting additions to this update that offer entire new input methods. StaffPad is not my only notation tool, but what I appreciate about it is that the features the team chooses to focus on are all features that lift the burden off of me. For example, writing directly on the staff with an Apple Pencil eliminates the abstractions of menus and buttons. Recording my upright piano straight into the staff is, similarly, a concept that let’s me more directly get my thoughts our of my head and into the app, and without fussing with interfaces, USB connections, and MIDI controllers.

This update is very much worth a look and I am excited to discuss it more down the road.

Scoring Notes on Apple Updates and Notation Software Compatibility

Music notation software and macOS Sonoma [updated] - Scoring Notes:

Sure enough, last week’s downloadpalooza included iOS 17, iPadOS 17, tvOS 17, and watchOS 10, so if you haven’t stretched your bandwidth with all of those updates, by all means go grab them and treat your devices to the latest and greatest.

With all that in mind, however, the music notation software we primarily discuss here on Scoring Notes is still anchored to the desktop — albeit with healthy outposts on iPad and, to a lesser extent, iPhone — so this article will focus on what Mac users need to know about their favorite music notation software that runs on Mac, and its newest OS.

Keep reading here…

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