Online music collaboration tools

I just love articles that include phrases like, “The only limit is the teacher’s imagination!” According to last week’s eSchool News article, “Music education moves online: Web 2.0 technologies, broadband access fuel extension of music education beyond:”

Using eJamming Studio 1.5, musicians can plug their MIDI-enabled digital instruments–keyboards, guitars, bass guitars, drum kits, and wind controllers–into their computers’ USB port and connect and play with up to seven other musicians in real time…The software allows musicians to play music together in real time…Using the software, a teacher can connect with up to seven students on an eJamming “stage” using a typical DSL or cable internet connection. eJamming includes built-in Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology and has a sound library containing different instrument sounds. These sounds use MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface), a sound-specification protocol that enables exchanges of musical information between synthesizers and computers, to ensure that if one student plays a harp sound from his or her computer, the other students on that eJamming stage will hear exactly the same sound.

In addition to eJamming, the article also mentions WorkshopLive, which also offers “keyboard, bass, or guitar lessons via a high-speed internet connection” and “In the Chair”— touted as “The web 2.0 of music.” According to a Nov 9th press release:

In the Chair is music software which allows students and aspiring musicians to practice with professional bands and orchestras. A fully immersive experience, students see and hear the musicians as they play together using their own instruments.

How amazing! These possibilities for learning and creative collaboration with web 2.0 tools are really mindblowing. Of course when it comes to education, one of the biggest fears of teachers is that they will be replaced by technology. The title of the November 9th Wired article “Web 2.0 Replaces Music Teachers” may provide more fuel for that fire, but I think the fear may be unwarranted. Teachers who fear CHANGE are in trouble, but those who embrace learning and new opportunities should be enthused with these new tools and possibilities. According to the Wired article:

In the Chair CEO David Evans observed correctly that the application turns music practice into something closer to a video game. He also announced a new web component that lets composers and teachers alter, remix or collaborate on each other’s uploaded sheet music.

This sounds like CCMixter meets Elluminate. Thanks to Julie Duffield for the original link to the eSchool News article!

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• Academic Journal Paywalls are Educationally Counter-Productive and WRONG – 2012
• Pocketbook Tablets and Commoditization of Touch Technologies – 2010
• Join us on Classroom 2.0 Live Talking K12Online09 Saturday – 2009
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• Reflections about old jails, land appraisal, and high speed infrastructure in Cottonwood Falls, Kansas – 2008
• Thoughts about educational change inspired by videos and blog conversations – 2007
• A workshop first – 2006
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