Podcasting Audiobooks

I wasn't aware that there has been a movement by podcasters to record and podcast audiobooks of literature in the public domain. This was brought to my attention when Brenda Dayne emailed me asking permission to use one of my recordings from Haydn's Piano Sonata in E-flat Major in her podcast of Edith Wharton's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Age of Innocence. Brenda had heard my recordings that I posted up on the Podsafe Music Network. She also informed me that when she is done podcasting The Age of Innocence, she will then add it to LibriVox.

Librivox is a website/podcast that provides free audiobooks from the public domain. I think this is an excellent service that they provide to the public. I think the possibilities for musicians (particularly Classical musicians) to have a new medium where they can collaborate with the storytellers of audiobooks is exciting. It's also a great way to familiarize listeners with Classical music pieces when it's presented in conjunction with these Classic novels.

Podshow PDN {podshow-26e6e26b529d7ffcaded51806865fe8a}

GP3 Forum

The GP3 Forum stands for Group Piano/Piano Pedagogy Forum. This year's GP3 Forum will be held in our own backyard of the University of Oklahoma on August 3-5, 2006. It is a relatively small conference when compared to MTNA. However, it is more focused on topics directly related to piano pedagogy and group piano.

This will the third time that this forum takes place. It will be the first time that I attend. I originally wasn't sure if I was going to be around during those dates because of the move, but it looks like I won't be moving until right after this GP3 Forum. I'm excited about it because it will be a perfect opportunity to receive and share some tips with fellow pedagogy and group piano teachers from around the country. I think it will really help energize me with fresh new ideas as I take up my new responsibilities at Stephen F. Austin State University.

If you plan on going, make sure you register before June 15 as that's when the early-bird registration fee expires. You can register online at http://www.gp3forum.org.

Hope to see you there!

How to Play Trouble by Coldplay on Piano

By popular demand, here's another video podcast piano lesson on how to play the song "Trouble" by Coldplay. I also answer email and comments from the first Coldplay piano lesson podcast.

If you find the lesson helpful, below you will find links to buy recordings and sheet music for the song "Trouble" from iTunes and musicnotes.com. Buying music from these links will donate a small portion of the sales to me, your friendly-neighborhood piano teacher!

Buy Coldplay's Trouble from iTunes for $0.99

Buy the music video of Coldplay's Trouble from iTunes $1.99

Click here to buy the Coldplay Parachutes music book which contains "Trouble" from musicnotes.com

Click here to buy the Coldplay Parachutes digital sheet music which contains "Trouble from musicnotes.com

These links were made through LinkShare.
I think I prefer to use this because I have more control over what is displayed and only show products that are related to the podcast and endorsed by me.

HughSung.com and a new job

I'm happy to welcome Hugh Sung from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia as a subscriber to the Piano Podcast!

I came across his blog/podcast recently and discovered we shared similar interests in technology, music, and podcasting. I was particularly flattered by his comments in a recent post that he made where he stated that I was added to his podcast playlist and how much he enjoyed the group piano video podcast episode with Julie Knerr.

Hugh invited me to be interviewed on his podcast in the future through the magic of audio chat software (likely going to use the Gizmo Project application).

I probably won't be able to do anything with that until June as I'm tied up with an online course that I'm teaching for the University of Oklahoma intersession these next few weeks. Plus, I'm happy to officially announce that I accepted a job with the music school at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas! I'll be Coordinator of Class Piano and Piano Pedagogy. Needless to say that I'm excited and grateful for this opportunity. So if you're looking to major in music and piano or piano pedagogy, then consider Stephen F. Austin State University! Maybe I'll see you in class!

Hugh also obliged me by putting his pin in my Frappr map. So if you haven't added your pin yet, go ahead and add it today!

MTNA Podcast Presentation 4 - Video Podcasting

Wow! It took over a month, but we've finally reached the end of my MTNA presentation on podcasting. In this last part, I cover video podcasting in music education, talk about copyright issues, and the alternative of using "podsafe" music from the Podsafe Music Network.

I hope that viewers and attendees found this presentation to be helpful and informational. My main goal was to inspire other musicians and music teachers to start their own podcasts. If I was successful in this endeavor, I would be happy to hear your story and share it with others.

Duration: 14:02
File Size: 59.9 MB
File Format: MPEG-4 Video Podcast (.m4v)

Update: I'm putting the YouTube playlist of all 4 parts of this presentation on podcasting in this blog entry, so that it ties everything nicely together!

Random Access

Yesterday I had my first multiple-person video iChat conference with Shana Kirk and George Litterst...sort of. As you can tell from the photo here, we weren't successful getting George's video working for some reason. Shana suspected that it was a Comcast problem or the fact that George has so many shareware and freeware programs on his computers! Nonetheless, George was still able to connect with us in voice and spirit. It was neat how George was at home in Massachusetts, I was at school in Oklahoma, and Shana was at a hotel room in California.

The reason that we "got together" was that it was agreed that we would all be contributing to the "Random Access" column in American Music Teacher Magazine. George has been writing the column for the past 5 or 6 years which appears three times a year in American Music Teacher (AMT). Shana and I are now on board with what I suppose is the new "Random Access Team". For those of you not familiar with Random Access in AMT, it is a column devoted to technology-related topics in music education. Hopefully if any subscribers to this magazine are reading this, they will email me, Shana, or George to give some feedback or a wishlist on music technology topics that they want covered. We threw around some good ideas during our video iChat yesterday, so it should be an exciting experience to say the least.

Next time will be the conclusion of the MTNA Podcast Presentation series. The last part covers video podcasting in music education.

A special hello to all the people who put their pin on my Frappr Map during the month of April: Matt from Tennessee, Robert from the Netherlands, Philip from Germany, Andy from Pennsylvania, Mark from Chicago, Charmaine in Milwaukee, Jon from Wisconsin, Sono from Mexico City, Karlo from Calgary, Natalie from Kansas, Glen from Georgia, and Rafael from Massachusetts.

MTNA Podcast Presentation 3 - GarageBand Demo

This was probably the most interesting part of my podcast presentation from MTNA. Part 3 covers how to record audio and enhanced audio podcasts in GarageBand 3. I also discuss other applications for PC and Mac for recording podcasts. I was most appreciative of the lively audience's participation in this segment.

The next video podcast will be the conclusion of this MTNA series. After that, I'm hoping to get to some more online lessons along the lines of the Coldplay-Clocks episode. I've been receiving a lot of emails from viewers who had some special requests, and I will try to accommodate the requests as best as I can! Keep the emails coming!

Duration: 13:39
File Size: 79.8 MB
File Format: MPEG-4 Video Podcast (.m4v)

MTNA Podcast Presentation 2

This is Part Two of my presentation on podcasting from the 2006 MTNA National Conference in Austin, TX. I cover how to listen to and subscribe to podcasts through iTunes and other resources. I also discuss educational uses of podcasting.

By the way, we now have TEN people who put their pin on my Frappr map. Thanks to all the guys (and 1 gal!) who put their pin in. If you haven't put in a pin, make me feel special and add yourself to the map!

Duration: 14:09
File Size: 80.9 MB (Sorry, another big one!)
File Format: MPEG-4 Video Podcast (.m4v)