Sometimes I get carried away and I can’t seem to stop myself from posting. Other times it seems there are big gaps… And, of course, if I was patient enough to post this tomorrow, it would spread things out a little… But since I’m not, I just want to take this moment to point out a feature or two on Bandcamp that I like.
1. I like the way one can be directed to a customized, tiled list of your music instead of just the most recent upload. The old way made you have to click and scroll too much and that can only lead to carpal tunnel.
Assigning an upload to each tile can be annoying (and somewhat time-consuming), but it does let you present your music in whatever way you think is most beneficial. You do, however, have to click the back button to get back to the tiles.
2. I’ve mentioned this before, but I love the customization features available in Bandcamp. I am able to really make it look like an extension of my website by changing backgrounds and so forth.
3. I love how Bandcamp lets you embed your music across several platforms. Not only that, but you can customize font and background colors, again helping you exactly match it to your site’s theme. I also like the visualizations, which can add a little flare to your example, particularly if it is a midi sample. NOTE: I am only going to use the email version of the link for this next example to see how it posts across platforms. I’ll fix it later, if necessary.
4. I like how Bandcamp lets you offer your tracks in various ways (free, set your own price, fixed price). For me, this is a little less of a concern, as I am not a band… And most of my music on Bandcamp exists for the purpose of example. To a band, however, these features are invaluable. Bandcamp allows you to download in various higher-res formats too. No low-quality MP3s here (unless you’ve tricked the system and up-converted them).
5. It doesn’t stop there. You can offer bonus downloads such as PDFs, offer physical goods and merchandise, and even provide the UPC code for your new album. Bandcamp can even use your UPC info to relay sales statistics to Nielsen SoundScan,” the company behind the Billboard charts.” You have to admit, that’s pretty cool.
6. OK, now this one is a little weird, but it’s still cool none-the-less. Ever feel the need to play Defender, but don’t own an antique Atari system? Well, you’re in luck! Bandcamp will let you play a cheesy little version of Defender with your statistics! Huh? That’s right. …With your statistics. Just click on “stats,” then on “defender” when logged into your account and let the fun begin! Well, it’s a kinda fun for a few minutes anyway…
7. Given the awesome treasure trove that Bandcamp already offers, I’m sure it does other cool things too… But now I’ve spent too much time writing about them to discover any more of them just yet.
(Oops… The server didn’t like my graphic attachment the first time I tried to post this, so I’ll just post without it and delete the previous one later. Sorry!!!)
While in the process of updating my subscription options, I realized that some of my feeds were not updating properly. The problem appears to have been related to a setting in WordPress. It was set to display 999 of my most recent posts and Feedburner evidently did not like this. As soon as I changed it to only 10, Feedburner was happy again. If you have already subscribed to the RSS feed, the address stayed the same and you shouldn’t miss any updates.
But remember, subscribing by email is the way to go. So, go ahead, it’s easy!
Also, please let me know if you have any email subscription issues or just any feedback in general. I’m always looking to improve MTT, and the best way to do that is to find out what you would like to read about.
I used to use RSS feeds to follow other blogs, and that was working out OK until I realized that I hate using RSS feeds.There were just too many, and I was really only checking a few of them regularly anyway.…Not to mention, life generally provides constant distractions, so before you know it, you’ve missed a lot of stuff that’s been posted.
So now’s your chance!Instead of just waiting around until you happen to remember to look through your RSS feeds, simply enter your email address in the sidebar on the right and click “Subscribe.”Now you can be as lazy as I am and just wait for the information to just flow your way!
Trust me it really is the best way to follow…
Besides, I know you wouldn’t want to miss out on any of the fascinating posts on Music Tech Talk.
FINAL UPDATE: Clearly, pasting from word improved things like text formatting. Text colors, for example seem to be working now. There seems to be something in particular about this post that is making Posterous insist on placing the “inline” pics at the end… If you look at previous posts, you will note that they are properly placed. I forgot to add the YouTube link for the last iteration of this post, so that was obviously not what caused the problem. If the pics place properly this time, I tried separating them with text… Other than that, there are a few challenges to overcome when posting via email, but generally it’s not too problematic. Figuring out the little quirks is half the fun.
UPDATE TO POST ATTEMPT:It was inevitable that something would not post correctly since this was a live test…In this case, the text colors did not work.Also, while the inline photos did not post as a gallery, they also did not post in the correct position within the post… That is usually not an issue.Not sure what caused that problem, but it may have been that I typed this post entirely in Thunderbird, rather than pasting from Word.Finally, adding tags within the Posterous email was NOT successful…My guess is that they only work when using the post by email feature provided by WordPress.Oh well.I guess I’ll just have to add tags manually for now.I have re-posted the same thing, but started in Word this time and pasted into Thunderbird to see if there is any difference.Below is the original content.
Unfortunately, every now and then the only way to really test a feature is to use it live. At the bottom of every post you will note that it says the post was posted by Posterous, a handy post-by-email blog utility. So far, I have been very happy with the results. It is amazingly simple, posts across multiple platforms and does so relatively consistently and intuitively. Posterous, is however, not my actual blog. Sure, I formatted it to kind of mirror my actual blog (self-hosted WordPress), but really I use it because of its email posting capabilities. It interfaces nicely with Facebook too, as a separate tab. Ironically, exponentially more people seem to read my blog via Posterous than my actual blog, but since I like the way WordPress looks and acts, I prefer WP to be my blog’s home.
Here’s an example of some generally successful formatting. This should be green, bold, italic, and centered.
Next, just by posting the LINK (much easier this way, because Posterous decides which platforms need which format), not the embedded HTML, you should see a YouTube video about some kid getting his finger bitten by his little brother with over 175 million views (why?). By link, I mean just the web address at the top of your browser. Yeah, it’s that easy.
Next, you should see some inline pics. In other words, they are just inserted into the body of the post. Some services will put multiple pics into a gallery, and just one pic inline. Posterous does this as a matter of fact. I don’t like it. Don’t worry though, if you use WordPress, the pics will still post inline, even if Posterous doesn’t.
Here are those two Pics. I’ll try to have them centered and will resize one of them by dragging. Some services will let you click on the images to see the full-size version. Others will not. Facebook will generally use them as thumbnails, which is nice.
THIS PARAGRAPH FOR FACEBOOK USER INFO ONLY: Facebook is a terribly buggy platform and will handle pics differently depending on how many there are in your post. Just one pic is great. You’ll get a thumbnail followed by a snippet of your post. More than that, and it has been posting just thumbnails with nothing else. I have to put a link in the comments below them. Strangely, those comments repeat themselves every time I post this way. I think it’s actually another Facebook bug, but in this one instance it at least saves me from having to re-type the comment. Even more strange is the fact that a fan page will post it correctly, but the regular interface will not… At least they are consistent… Follow these links to see a fan page example:Fan Page ).
TIP: When posting by email using Mozilla Thunderbird, make sure you remember to select “Rich Text” (HTML) only under “Options” before you hit send. If you forget and send the message with mixed plain and rich text, your post formatting gets all squirrelly.
Some things like emoticons (if you are into that sort of thing) are more hit-and-miss. (typed in) :-[ (pre-formatted by email client). It usually works best for me to write the post in Microsoft Word, images and all, then paste into Thunderbird (Pics, YouTube links, regular links and visual formatting).
However, there is one particularly annoying quirk that I would like to overcome.
Unfortunately, the way Posterous handles tags only works with Posterous. Everything else may post perfectly on other platforms, but none of them will have tags or categories other whatever your defaults are set to. This problem makes search engines useless unless you go back and add them in… Which, of course, wastes time and defeats the purpose of posting across multiple platforms. So, when formatting the title, the email subject is the title. This is how you format the tags in Posterous: Title of Your Post ((tag: tag, post, blog, tips, wordpress, post+by+email))
Whatever you do, DON’T FORGET THE OPENING OR CLOSING PARENTHESIS which look like this: (( )) If you do forget, your post title will include a long list of tags. Very unsightly. The thing is, if you are posting across multiple platforms, as I do, mistakes can be VERY time consuming to fix. Overall, I don’t have too many issues… This problem can be easily prevented, if you just remember to give it a quick glance before hitting send.
Making tags post on other platforms, however, is a different story… So this post will itself be a test of a work around. You can tell Posterous not to post anything beyond a pound sign followed by the word end (look for an explanation under “What Else Can Posterous Do?” I would show you of course, but then nothing else would post afterward… Annoyingly enough, I think you will see the shortcut at the bottom of this post… BEFORE that shortcut, I will put in just a couple shortcuts that WordPress recognizes to see what happens. Normally, I suppose I would put these just before the end of the post, so as not to make them too distracting, but for example I’ll put them here. Also, I’ll put a duplicate set using asterisks instead of brackets for the WordPress sites so you can still see them:
NON WORDPRESS SITES SHOULD STILL BE ABLE TO SEE THESE UNLESS CONFUSED WITH SOME OTHER KIND OF SHORTCUT, I SUPPOSE [category Blogging, internet, posted by email, reviews, websites, technology, online utilities, tips, wordpress] [tags test post, formatting, post+by+email, posterous, wordpress, tips]
DUPLICATE SET FOR WORDPRESS SITES: *category Blogging, internet, posted by email, reviews, websites, technology, online utilities, tips, wordpress* *tags test post, formatting, post+by+email, posterous, wordpress, tips*These are specifically WordPress.com shortcuts. I don’t know how the self-hosted version of WP will handle them. As I said, this is a live experiment. If you want to see if this worked, here are the appropriate links: Main Blog (self-hosted WordPress); WordPress.com Version
In case you are wondering, I post simultaneously to over 15 platforms including several blog and social networking services. Why, you ask? Because I can… And because, it’s an interesting way to try out multiple features and services at the same time. Some of them are better at getting search engine placement, others have better templates or better interfaces. Other than that, it’s just good, clean fun.
UPDATE TO POST ATTEMPT:It was inevitable that something would not post correctly since this was a live test…In this case, the text colors did not work.Also, while the inline photos did not post as a gallery, they also did not post in the correct position within the post… That is usually not an issue.Not sure what caused that problem, but it may have been that I typed this post entirely in Thunderbird, rather than pasting from Word.Finally, adding tags within the Posterous email was NOT successful…My guess is that they only work when using the post by email feature provided by WordPress.Oh well.I guess I’ll just have to add tags manually for now.I have re-posted the same thing, but started in Word this time and pasted into Thunderbird to see if there is any difference.Below is the original content.
Unfortunately, every now and then the only way to really test a feature is to use it live. At the bottom of every post you will note that it says the post was posted by Posterous, a handy post-by-email blog utility. So far, I have been very happy with the results. It is amazingly simple, posts across multiple platforms and does so relatively consistently and intuitively. Posterous, is however, not my actual blog. Sure, I formatted it to kind of mirror my actual blog (self-hosted WordPress), but really I use it because of its email posting capabilities. It interfaces nicely with Facebook too, as a separate tab. Ironically, exponentially more people seem to read my blog via Posterous than my actual blog, but since I like the way WordPress looks and acts, I prefer WP to be my blog’s home.
Here’s an example of some generally successful formatting. This should be green, bold, italic, and centered.
Next, just by posting the LINK (much easier this way, because Posterous decides which platforms need which format), not the embedded HTML, you should see a YouTube video about some kid getting his finger bitten by his little brother with over 175 million views (why?). By link, I mean just the web address at the top of your browser. Yeah, it’s that easy.
Next, you should see some inline pics. In other words, they are just inserted into the body of the post. Some services will put multiple pics into a gallery, and just one pic inline. Posterous does this as a matter of fact. I don’t like it. Don’t worry though, if you use WordPress, the pics will still post inline, even if Posterous doesn’t.
Here are those two Pics. I’ll try to have them centered and will resize one of them by dragging. Some services will let you click on the images to see the full-size version. Others will not. Facebook will generally use them as thumbnails, which is nice.
THIS PARAGRAPH FOR FACEBOOK USER INFO ONLY: Facebook is a terribly buggy platform and will handle pics differently depending on how many there are in your post. Just one pic is great. You’ll get a thumbnail followed by a snippet of your post. More than that, and it has been posting just thumbnails with nothing else. I have to put a link in the comments below them. Strangely, those comments repeat themselves every time I post this way. I think it’s actually another Facebook bug, but in this one instance it at least saves me from having to re-type the comment. Even more strange is the fact that a fan page will post it correctly, but the regular interface will not… At least they are consistent… Follow these links to see a fan page example:Fan Page ).
TIP: When posting by email using Mozilla Thunderbird, make sure you remember to select “Rich Text” (HTML) only under “Options” before you hit send. If you forget and send the message with mixed plain and rich text, your post formatting gets all squirrelly.
Some things like emoticons (if you are into that sort of thing) are more hit-and-miss. (typed in) :-[ :-\ :-* (pre-formatted by email client). It usually works best for me to write the post in Microsoft Word, images and all, then paste into Thunderbird (Pics, YouTube links, regular links and visual formatting).
However, there is one particularly annoying quirk that I would like to overcome.
Unfortunately, the way Posterous handles tags only works with Posterous. Everything else may post perfectly on other platforms, but none of them will have tags or categories other whatever your defaults are set to. This problem makes search engines useless unless you go back and add them in… Which, of course, wastes time and defeats the purpose of posting across multiple platforms. So, when formatting the title, the email subject is the title. This is how you format the tags in Posterous: Title of Your Post ((tag: tag, post, blog, tips, wordpress, post+by+email))
Whatever you do, DON’T FORGET THE OPENING OR CLOSING PARENTHESIS which look like this: (( )) If you do forget, your post title will include a long list of tags. Very unsightly. The thing is, if you are posting across multiple platforms, as I do, mistakes can be VERY time consuming to fix. Overall, I don’t have too many issues… This problem can be easily prevented, if you just remember to give it a quick glance before hitting send.
Making tags post on other platforms, however, is a different story… So this post will itself be a test of a work around. You can tell Posterous not to post anything beyond a pound sign followed by the word end (look for an explanation under “What Else Can Posterous Do?” I would show you of course, but then nothing else would post afterward… Annoyingly enough, I think you will see the shortcut at the bottom of this post… BEFORE that shortcut, I will put in just a couple shortcuts that WordPress recognizes to see what happens. Normally, I suppose I would put these just before the end of the post, so as not to make them too distracting, but for example I’ll put them here. Also, I’ll put a duplicate set using asterisks instead of brackets for the WordPress sites so you can still see them:
NON WORDPRESS SITES SHOULD STILL BE ABLE TO SEE THESE UNLESS CONFUSED WITH SOME OTHER KIND OF SHORTCUT, I SUPPOSE [category Blogging, internet, posted by email, reviews, websites, technology, online utilities, tips, wordpress] [tags test post, formatting, post+by+email, posterous, wordpress, tips]
DUPLICATE SET FOR WORDPRESS SITES: *category Blogging, internet, posted by email, reviews, websites, technology, online utilities, tips, wordpress* *tags test post, formatting, post+by+email, posterous, wordpress, tips*These are specifically WordPress.com shortcuts. I don’t know how the self-hosted version of WP will handle them. As I said, this is a live experiment. If you want to see if this worked, here are the appropriate links: Main Blog (self-hosted WordPress); WordPress.com Version
In case you are wondering, I post simultaneously to over 15 platforms including several blog and social networking services. Why, you ask? Because I can… And because, it’s an interesting way to try out multiple features and services at the same time. Some of them are better at getting search engine placement, others have better templates or better interfaces. Other than that, it’s just good, clean fun.
Unfortunately, every now and then the only way to really test a feature is to use it live. At the bottom of every post you will note that it says the post was posted by Posterous, a handy post-by-email blog utility. So far, I have been very happy with the results. It is amazingly simple, posts across multiple platforms and does so relatively consistently and intuitively. Posterous, is however, not my actual blog. Sure, I formatted it to kind of mirror my actual blog (self-hosted WordPress), but really I use it because of its email posting capabilities. It interfaces nicely with Facebook too, as a separate tab. Ironically, exponentially more people seem to read my blog via Posterous than my actual blog, but since I like the way WordPress looks and acts, I prefer WP to be my blog’s home.
Here’s an example of some generally successful formatting. This should be green, bold, italic, and centered.
Next, just by posting the LINK (much easier this way, because Posterous decides which platforms need which format), not the embedded HTML, you should see a YouTube video about some kid getting his finger bitten by his little brother with over 175 million views (why?). By link, I mean just the web address at the top of your browser. Yeah, it’s that easy.
Next, you should see some inline pics. In other words, they are just inserted into the body of the post. Some services will put multiple pics into a gallery, and just one pic inline. Posterous does this as a matter of fact. I don’t like it. Don’t worry though, if you use WordPress, the pics will still post inline, even if Posterous doesn’t.
Here are those two Pics. I’ll try to have them centered and will resize one of them by dragging. Some services will let you click on the images to see the full-size version. Others will not. Facebook will generally use them as thumbnails, which is nice.
THIS PARAGRAPH FOR FACEBOOK USER INFO ONLY: Facebook is a terribly buggy platform and will handle pics differently depending on how many there are in your post. Just one pic is great. You’ll get a thumbnail followed by a snippet of your post. More than that, and it has been posting just thumbnails with nothing else. I have to put a link in the comments below them. Strangely, those comments repeat themselves every time I post this way. I think it’s actually another Facebook bug, but in this one instance it at least saves me from having to re-type the comment. Even more strange is the fact that a fan page will post it correctly, but the regular interface will not… At least they are consistent… Follow these links to see a fan page example:Fan Page ).
TIP: When posting by email using Mozilla Thunderbird, make sure you remember to select “Rich Text” (HTML) only under “Options” before you hit send. If you forget and send the message with mixed plain and rich text, your post formatting gets all squirrelly.
Some things like emoticons (if you are into that sort of thing) are more hit-and-miss. (typed in) :-$ (pre-formatted by email client). It usually works best for me to write the post in Microsoft Word, images and all, then paste into Thunderbird (Pics, YouTube links, regular links and visual formatting).
However, there is one particularly annoying quirk that I would like to overcome.
Unfortunately, the way Posterous handles tags only works with Posterous. Everything else may post perfectly on other platforms, but none of them will have tags or categories other whatever your defaults are set to. This problem makes search engines useless unless you go back and add them in… Which, of course, wastes time and defeats the purpose of posting across multiple platforms. So, when formatting the title, the email subject is the title. This is how you format the tags in Posterous: Title of Your Post ((tag: tag, post, blog, tips, wordpress, post+by+email))
Whatever you do, DON’T FORGET THE OPENING OR CLOSING PARENTHESIS which look like this: (( )) If you do forget, your post title will include a long list of tags. Very unsightly. The thing is, if you are posting across multiple platforms, as I do, mistakes can be VERY time consuming to fix. Overall, I don’t have too many issues… This problem can be easily prevented, if you just remember to give it a quick glance before hitting send.
Making tags post on other platforms, however, is a different story… So this post will itself be a test of a work around. You can tell Posterous not to post anything beyond a pound sign followed by the word end (look for an explanation under “What Else Can Posterous Do?” I would show you of course, but then nothing else would post afterward… Annoyingly enough, I think you will see the shortcut at the bottom of this post… BEFORE that shortcut, I will put in just a couple shortcuts that WordPress recognizes to see what happens. Normally, I suppose I would put these just before the end of the post, so as not to make them too distracting, but for example I’ll put them here. Also, I’ll put a duplicate set using asterisks instead of brackets for the WordPress sites so you can still see them:
NON WORDPRESS SITES SHOULD STILL BE ABLE TO SEE THESE UNLESS CONFUSED WITH SOME OTHER KIND OF SHORTCUT, I SUPPOSE [category Blogging, internet, posted by email, reviews, websites, technology, online utilities, tips, wordpress] [tags test post, formatting, post+by+email, posterous, wordpress, tips]
DUPLICATE SET FOR WORDPRESS SITES: *category Blogging, internet, posted by email, reviews, websites, technology, online utilities, tips, wordpress* *tags test post, formatting, post+by+email, posterous, wordpress, tips*
These are specifically WordPress.com shortcuts. I don’t know how the self-hosted version of WP will handle them. As I said, this is a live experiment. If you want to see if this worked, here are the appropriate links: Main Blog (self-hosted WordPress); WordPress.com Version
In case you are wondering, I post simultaneously to over 15 platforms including several blog and social networking services. Why, you ask? Because I can… And because, it’s an interesting way to try out multiple features and services at the same time. Some of them are better at getting search engine placement, others have better templates or better interfaces. Other than that, it’s just good, clean fun.
People seem to have a lot of preconceptions about taking classes online. I was no different.
First of all, how can anyone get a “real” degree by attending class online?
Isn’t that tantamount to finding a miniature diploma in a Cracker Jack box? So, I waited and waited and searched and searched and found nothing worth considering. …At least nothing related to music. I wrote a couple of Universities and asked if they wouldn’t consider a distance program for music composition. After all, the music is always written down and can be reproduced on the other end. In many ways, it seemed like a better fit for a class at a distance than most other degrees. During my endless process of searching, I realized that unless I was an education major, I was not going to have many options available. It is limiting enough when searching for an online degree with the word “music” in the title.
It wasn’t just a degree I was looking for; it was a real education and educational experience.
I wanted to make the experience as much like being in a physical classroom as possible. I would have attended in residence, had that option been available. Fortunately, I ran across the Master of Science in Music Technology degree at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). After researching the option for a while, I determined that it was the best chance for me to get a real education in a music-related (non-ed) subject. In 2009, Forbes ranked IUPUI in the top ten universities in the midwest. The more I looked into it, the more I realized that putting music and technology together would be a perfect fit for my interests.
I love music. I love technology. Perfect.
…But this post is about the online classroom experience. So, no matter what program you choose or which school you attend, your primary concern is going to be the experience. Recently, I completed a survey from the Purdue half of IUPUI asking about some of my experiences. Overall, I rated IUPUI very high. One of the things the survey touched on was the difference in an education that offers close peer relationships and one that does not. There were a lot of questions on the subject. I suppose the best part of my undergraduate degree was the peer interaction, which is sort of expected as a music major. Now, however, I was not expecting to be performing in a bunch of ensembles, so the peer interaction was not as much of a requirement. Additionally,
taking the course online perfectly complements the concept of music, education and technology working in concert.
As a graduate student, my goals are a little different than they used to be. My primary focus is to squeeze every little bit out of this degree as possible. I want an education, and I am prepared to go to great lengths to get it. I think such an approach will take you far in any graduate program, but can prove especially beneficial when taking a course at a distance. Of the courses I have taken so far, here are a few commonalities:
1. AN ADJUSTMENT PERIOD – Initially, there is a bit of a learning curve for students and faculty. Each instructor seems to prefer a different interface for the class. Thus, students have to iron out the bugs with audio, chat and the live video stream. All of this sounds fairly complicated, but surprisingly, it’s not really. Most of it involves knowing what link to click on, what the course number is, and how to turn on your speakers. I do recommend a fast internet connection, a decent computer and at least the willingness to deal with technology. Usually, that’s not such a big issue for Music Tech students. That’s kinda why they are there in the first place.
2. VIRTUAL ATTENDANCE – The next adjustment is getting the class (and the professor) used to the idea that there are students attending class virtually. It’s a cool concept, if you think about it… People from across the country and the world attending the same class at the same time with live video & audio feeds. Naturally, the first class or two, you feel a little ignored. The professor forgets to look at the chat window and students forget to talk loud enough for the online people to hear. …BUT ENOUGH TYPING IN ALL CAPS and statements like: “HELP! THE ONLINE STUDENTS HAVE A QUESTION! SOMEONE IN CLASS PLEASE TELL THE PROFESSOR” go a long way. In no time, not only do the online students begin to integrate into the classroom environment, we begin to fully participate in discussions. On several occasions, I have been able to make the entire class laugh or introduce a new topic for discussion by just typing. Eventually, the class begins to expect full interaction from online students and someone will usually designate themselves as online liaison, monitoring our chat when other screens are up and presenting our questions if we are temporarily not being “heard.”
3. MULTI-TASKING – Once the ball is rolling, the online experience is very cool. I can fully participate in class while drinking tea in my pajamas and bunny slippers, if I wish. I can also Google anything that comes up in lecture, provide links to information, work on homework and even compose music during class. It becomes the multi-tasker’s dream. Often, I would work on a string quartet while constantly chatting in class and listening to the lecture. The thing is, you can pick up nearly 100% of the class by just listening. Visually, only 20-25% of any class requires that I look at the live stream. It is an exercise in extreme efficiency, and I love efficiency. Not to mention the fact that every class is archived. Miss a class? No problem. Just watch it at your convenience… With that being said…
CAUTION: I do NOT recommend just skipping class and watching the archived versions. Class interaction is KEY.
4. PARTICIPATION – It really is a live, interactive environment. Missing the live class is not recommended, because it is a lot harder to get your questions answered after the fact when they are out-of-context. Plus, you can get left out of a lot of decision making and planning. For example, for my last class we planned, produced and performed a graduate recital. Not being on campus, I very much wanted to participate and wished that I could have been on stage for the performance. That is an obvious downside to online classes. However, I was determined to be a part of the show and the process, so I was extra persistent and managed to get one of my pieces on the recital (Haven’t posted that recording to Bandcamp yet, but I’ll get around to it). Not only that, I arranged to have a live performer play along with the recorded part. I attempted to also have a live performer on this end stream their performance, but that part fell through. Besides recitals, I have given several live presentations in class via streaming video and a telephone. It actually works quite well. In some ways, I feel like I participate more in the classes at IUPUI than I ever did actually sitting in them at UNO.
5. HOMEWORK – Homework is always an important part of class, and there is no shortage of that. I think I have already written a short novel’s worth of papers in addition to several scores, recordings and mini-productions. I have an insatiable appetite for A+ performance and put my absolute best into every assignment. This is a polarity switch from my approach to a lot of my undergraduate degree (not counting the music-related classes), which was to get by with as little effort or attendance as possible. …But that’s because the degree deals with only what I am interested in learning. Graduate school just eliminates all those classes that I would have skipped anyway. The bottom line is, they say you get out of your degree what you put into it, and I have very high expectations for IUPUI.
I recommend setting your preconceptions about online degrees aside and just concentrate on looking for a good school. The school and the effort you are willing to put into your education will be the most important factors in determining the success or failure of your academic pursuits.
It thought about re-titling this post “Why it is Dangerous to Play with DAWs” or “Knowing Just Enough to be Dangerous” or “Don’t Try This at Home”or “How to Ruin a Perfectly Good Brass Quartet,”but since I couldn’t decide between them, I stuck with the original title.After all, this is a re-post of the very first article I wrote for Music Tech Talk, at which time, no one even knew this blog existed.Now that a few more people have run across my ramblings on various musical and technological subjects and I can post to multiple platforms all at once using (you guessed it) Posterous, I will re-introduce the first couple of articles.Besides, I doubt too many people really have time to go back and look at every article on someone’s blog archives.I know I don’t. Read more »
Securing copyright for any music, recorded, written, midi or otherwise, can be a fairly simple process when artists know the “who,” the “why’s,” the “how’s” and “how-not-to’s” involved with the process. For example, anyone who creates and original work is entitled to copyrights for that creation. However, while copyright is automatic, registering that copyright is required in order to establish an official public record. While copyright registration is a simple concept, not all methods of copyright verification are effective. It is essential to understand what does and does not work in terms of securing a copyright. Read more »
This post has been revised to reflect a better way to ensure formatting translates via Posterous. Notes on how this was accomplished are at the bottom of this post (previous version of this post demonstrates what happens if you don’t send it the way described below)… Read more »
OK, Here are the various headers that worked and didn’t work. I’m not sure if it was the length of the tags or the plus signs, but it wasn’t the parenthesis b/c the one I messed up posted with them (third posted example). I’ll try to avoid this issue in the future. Read more »
At the risk of not having a list of features to compare before I start, I’ll just shoot from the hip. We (the greater blogging collective) know this gets me into trouble…
A quote from Lorelle’s comment:
“What I expected to find was a step-by-step cost calculation of how much it costs to host your own compared to WordPress.com, feature by feature. Now, that would be interesting.” Read more »
Have you ever had that “feeling” when you turn in your big essay and it comes back all covered in red ink? Well, that’s how I feel after having read a couple of comments from Lorelle on WordPress. I wasn’t’ sure exactly how to take it at first, but realized a few things after looking over her comments carefully: Read more »
There’s a catch with everything these days, right? Well, the “free” version of Wordpress (.com) isn’t exactly free if you want to make any upgrades in the future. They don’t exactly have banners up mentioning stuff you might have to pay for down the road. I first discovered this by trying to register a domain name… It didn’t say anything about paying until the end of the process. I discovered later, however, that you can go to the “upgrades” tab to see what each product costs. Here’s a list of stuff you might not of thought about, but might end up paying for later: Read more »
Well, I decided to go ahead with the transition. I waffled for a while, but came to the conclusion that I would really enjoy learning how to work with the PHP and CSS scripts. There are some definite differences (and similarities) between the two platforms, so I’ll try to break down some of the details for you. Read more »
I decided that I wanted to give the CSS upgrade feature on Wordpress a try, because I didn’t like the size of the tiny default font… And I am interested in changing a few other things on the site in general. I managed to change the font to a reasonable size and reduce the size of the “posted by:” and date stamp text to make room for the larger titles.
I am completely experimenting with the process, so my first action was to download and save the a template of the original CSS for the theme I am currently using. I saved it to a text editor and used it for reference. When I located a line of code that I wanted to change, I pasted ONLY that line into the CSS editor in Wordpress. That way, I could always tell what I was editing, and I was fairly certain that I wouldn’t mess up anything else.
I just couldn’t stand some of the import issues I found after transferring my blog from Blogger to Wordpress, so I am in the process of fixing them. Initially, I thought I could ignore them. I discovered a few new types of problems and made my best effort to begin fixing all of them. Here are a couple issues addressed:
We’ve just learned how to open links in new tabs. Now we’ll learn how to open a new blank tab that we can paste a link into, separate from the page your working on.
HOW TO OPEN A NEW BLANK TAB IN YOUR BROWSER:
Press “ctrl” + “t” (with your browser still open, of course)
Try it. you will find a brand-new blank canvas for you to work with.
As with most helpful tips, this one is very easy, very short and very useful. I’ve noticed that a lot of people don’t now these shortcuts exist, so here is one that will definitely increase your web surfing enjoyment:
HOW TO OPEN LINKS IN A NEW TAB:
Hold down the “ctrl” key while clicking on a link.
That’s it. Now you can avoid the constant annoyance of links opening on the page you’re already viewing, cutting off music you were listening to or covering the page you weren’t quite ready to leave.
Now let’s practice: Click here using your new-found skill.
If successful, you will see there is a new tab in the background with this same post open. If not, you still be on this post, but there will be no new tab.
I like this shortcut, because it allows me to open a bunch of links I want to read AFTER I am done with the page I am on. Give it a try, you’ll like it.
As with any program you use frequently, you can eventually find something to complain about. For me, it’s the fact that pasting text into Blogger from another source, such as Microsoft Word, is a real pain, because it messes up all of the formatting you worked so hard to standardize.
Here’s how I avoid this problem:
1) Copy all the text
2) Open a blank Word page and click on “Paste Special” from the drop-down paste menu
3) VERY IMPORTANT! Click on the HTML tab in Blogger for your new post (or it’ll convert your “unformmated” text into some html mumbo-jumbo when you paste, thus formatting your unformatted text?…)
4) Paste as “Unformatted Text”
5) Add the proper formatting and make it look pretty. Don’t forget to add any links that were lost (5a) I just right click the links in the Word Doc and “Copy Hyperlink” (5b) Next I highlight the text I need linked, click the link button in Blogger and they’re back
SUMMARY: Paste unformatted text into the HTML tab for new posts.
My work is published through D. M. Gardner Music in an effort to distribute it in a more personal manner. Any music purchased directly supports the creation of new music.
I enjoy collaborating with ensembles to tailor music to their specific needs, a very rewarding experience for both composer and performer. While I sometimes find myself doing arrangements at special request, I prefer to compose completely original music. Occasionally, I will also compose original texts. I enjoy writing for many different types of ensembles and am always looking for ways to expand my horizons.
If you have questions about my work or are interested in collaborating on a new composition, please contact me directly at composer@dmgardnermusic.com. I look forward to working with you and your ensemble.
The Music of Jeff Harrington
Music that is tonal and intensely contrapuntal inspired by New Orleans and classical music traditions.
Think Denk
(the glamorous life and thoughts of a classical pianist)
Torley Lives
Excellent resource for information on music technology, software/hardware reviews and creative thinking.
My Little Disclaimer
The links on my blog exist because, at one time or another, I found them useful or interesting in some way. My linking to theses sites does not necessarily mean that I endorse their subject matter or content, and I do not want to limit my exploration of the creative aspects of music.
Other Sites & Links
Lorelle on Wordpress
Want to know something about how Wordpress works? Try looking here.
The Lost Book
This is a great find… A collectively written (and scored) story!
Blogging, Composition, D. M. Gardner, D. M. Gardner Music, Misc, Music Technology, Music-Related, New Music, Online Utilities, Posted by Email, Reviews, Software, TIPS, Technology, Utilities, Websites, internet | Music Tech Talk | 
April 9, 2010 | 
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