Free Music Download Sites

Youtube videos with music are simply more interesting to watch.  Music adds a lot of emotion and excitement, sets the mood.  However, youtube recognizes copyrighted music and  issues warnings if you use the music in your videos and podcasts.  Avoid this by using FREE music found at these sites: (copied in part from source)

 

Freeplay Music is a user-friendly downloadable music site where music is sorted by genre.  There is a search function, but since most of this music is labeled by genre, searching for a specific title is rather pointless.  I used this site most when adding music to youtube.


Jamendo is a source of free and legal music downloads. The music on Jamendo comes from the artists who upload it themselves. While not all of the music is licensed for re-use, there is a substantial collection of music labeled with a Creative Commons license.

The Free Music Archive provides free, high-quality, music in a wide range of genres.  Anyone can download music from FMA for use in podcasts, videos, and other digital presentation formats. The music collections can be searched by genre or by curator.

PodSafe Audio is good place to locate and download free music for multimedia presentations.PodSafe Audio is a community of musicians who create music and share it for the purpose of fair-use in podcasts.

Sound Bible is a resource for finding and downloading free sound clips, sound effects, and sound bites. You can find sounds for use in podcasts, videos, slideshows, or other multimedia creations.

8notes.com has sheet music and downloadable drum riffs and mp3's.  Not a huge selection (and quite random what you may find here), but you can find some gems here too.

Incompetech is a royalty-free music download site with almost no structure to it.  However, you can find some pretty cool music here, if you don't mind scrolling down one huge page.  You might be able to find some music by the genre/feel you are looking for using Ctrl + F to open the 'find-on-page window.

Note-Worthy Screen Capture Sites/Apps

Screen Capture/Sharing - Web Based

1. Screencast-o-Matic
2. Jing
3. Snaggy
4. ScreenLeap
5. Join Me
6. Screenr
7. Quick Screen Share
8. Bounce
9. Aviary
10. ShowMeWhat'sWrong
11. Awesome Screenshot (Chrome/Firefox/Safari)
12. Screen Draw (Firefox Add-On)

Screen Capture Image:

1. Gyazo (Windows only, download-able .exe)
2. Skitch (Mac only download)

Screen Capture Video:

1. Snagit
2. Quicktime 10 Player Tutorial (found on new macbooks)

Rather than making my own copied version of 7 great screen capture sites on this blog, I'll just give you the direct link to the blog entry found at the Free Technology for Teachers site.  Clicky HERE to see the article!

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/09/7-good-screen-capture-tools-for.html

Here is my simple list of links: (Taken from HERE)

Windows 8 & New Macs: No Love for DVD

DVD Playback/Burning No Longer Supported

The future according to Apple/Windows is in the cloud, not those house-cluttering DVD's/CD's/Blue-Ray discs.

Windows 8 will launch without DVD playback (Article)

"I cannot find iDVD on my new mac" (Apple Support Thread)

Why is there no iDVD on my new Mac? (highlights from this post)

Apple insists that the entire world has access to fast broadband (and are prepared to pay for the considerable bandwidth usage) and wants to distribute home movies to friends and relatives via download (iCloud, YouTube, Facebook, whatever) rather than mailing them a DVD. The fact that in reality not all users do, has so far had no effect on this policy.

Whilst Macs with a Superdrive continue to be able to burn video DVDs, the software for so doing, iDVD, is no longer included in the iLife bundle that comes with OS 10.7 Lion (which also omitted iWeb) or will come with OS 10.8 Mountain Lion. And it is no longer included in the iLife 11 from the online Apple Store:http://www.apple.com/ilife/. Your only solution is to look on Amazon or eBay and try to get an older version that includes iDVD 7, i.e. iLife version 9 onwards. You should also do this if you plan to buy a new Mac anytime soon, as stocks of iLife that include iDVD will not be available for ever.

And if you think Microsoft are any better, their new Windows 8 operating system will not play DVDs, or burn them, unless customers buy an extra upgrade, the company has announced: http://www.gizmag.com/windows-8-no-dvd-playback/22443/

In other words, computer manufacturers have declared optical media as dead, long before consumers are ready to stop using them, which is fine as long as they offered us a choice, but they won’t even do that. Flexibility and intuitive use of a computer seems to be a thing of the past.

When I received my new MacBook a few months back, I was very excited about the possibilities of video editing using iMovie.  When I was done with the first edit, I was rather frustrated trying to find iDVD.... then more so when I discovered that it was not included.  Especially since iDVD is my preferred DVD burning software.

It seems like the push to cloud-based storage is not something we will all have to do, regardless of financial situations, and weather we want it or not.

Walmart is anticipating this, and is trying to lead the charge to get everyone in on the conversion process:

So what are your thoughts on this?  Leave comments below.

Google Hangout > Skype

Why doesn't google make a huge deal out of hangout??  Google hangout is what Skype wishes it was.  Or, what I wish it was.  Google hangout is what conferencing sites should be.  It is the next evolution in video chat and conferencing.

Watch this vid:

...not sure why this video doesn't showcase the most awesome aspect - incorporation of google docs!

Google Hangout Pros:

1.  Free video chat with up to 10 participants.  Newest update to Skype has a group setting but costs some green.

2.  More intuitive interface. (after you figure out how to get into hangout, everything else is easy)

3.  Screen sharing in hangout.  Give someone a tutorial in real time (computer inept parents for example!)  Share what you are doing on your computer screen with others.

4.  Youtube video sharing!  Let's all watch the same movie together.  Imagine the educational possibilities.  Plus, cats or whatever is currently trending.

5.  Minimal setup and maintenance requirements! All you need is a browser and some sort of laptop/desktop camera.  Most laptops have these built in nowadays.

6.  Silly special effects.  Not necessary, but a lot of fun to put on a pirate's hat and beard, etc...

7.  Google docs built in to cooperatively work on docs together.  This is probably the most impressive feature, especially if you are accustomed to using docs with other teachers.

The cons to google hangout:

1.  Google + account is needed to use (if you want to set up / initiate your own hangout or  if you are among the few who don't already have one)  However, to join someone else's hangout, they merely need to invite you.  I was invited via a popup window while checking my gmail w/out google + account activated.

2. A computer/laptop w/camera needed.  There is no tablet/smartphone app that I know of that uses hangout....yet.

In conclusion, get a google + account and try this.  It is worth your time to check out.

Outstanding Video Game Music +Medal of Honor Top 10

Now that summer is truly here (school's out!) I have taken on a project I've been completely enjoying... and I'm only in the research stage.  I'm going to arrange a marching show for the HS band of all old-school classic video game music.

In no particular order, here is the list of tunes to include in the show medley:

Click on title to listen:

Super Mario Theme

Legend of Zelda: Overworld

Tetris

Mario World Overworld Theme

Duck Tales – The Moon

Star Fox Corneria Theme

Mega Man 2 - Dr Wily Skull Castle

While researching which tunes to include, I came across some other outstanding music from my video-game laden childhood/young adult life which brought back many great memories as well.  One of which, was my love specifically for the music from the "Medal of Honor" series.  If you are not familiar with this music, you need to be.  It should be required listening for everyone, regardless of their personal thoughts on video games.

So here it is, my top 10 list of music from the Medal of Honor video games.

Click title to listen:

#1 Medal of Honor - Main Theme

#2 Medal of Honor Underground - Labyrinth of the Minotaur

#3 Medal of Honor Frontline – Manor House Rally

#4 Medal of Honor Pacific Assault - Main Theme

#5 Medal of Honor - Merker's Salt Mine

#6 Medal of Honor Underground - The Battle Of Monte Cassino

#7 Medal of Honor European Assault – Dogs of War

#8 Medal of Honor Frontline – Sturmgeist’s Armored Train

#9 Medal of Honor Fronline – After the drop

#10 Medal of Honor Allied Assault – Main Theme

Quickly! Drum Assigner

If you have 9 percussionists or less in your ensemble, this program is FANTASTIC for assigning parts to players.  It is called Quickly! Drum Assigner and is available for free at bandworld.org.  The online video tutorials that come with it make the learning time super quick.  However, you may find them to be unnecessary since the program is rather intuitive and easy to figure out on your own.  This software is great for bands where percussionists don't always play the same parts on each tune.

Click this image to see a larger version of the screenshot:

Quickly! Drum Assigner Screenshot

The free version comes with a small amount of pre-loaded percussion tunes, and if you pay the $20 discounted price, you can get about 1,400+ tunes added to the database.  I found that entry of the music was so quick, it was almost just as easy to put them in myself however.

My main criticism of the software is that it does not accomodate any ensembles with over 9 percussionists.  Every one of my ensembles have over 9 players, so this makes the software obsolete for my use.  I've lost hope that there will ever be an update to accomodate more than 9 players, but who knows.

Bacon, Nyan, Fale.

Pointless Post: How to turn any website into Bacon, Nyon, or Fale.

Click HERE to Bacon-ize your site
example: http://bacolicio.us/http://www.peta.org/

Click HERE to Nyan-ize any website
example: http://nyanit.com/bandroomtech.blogspot.com/

Click HERE to Fale (fail) any website
example: http://fale.ca/http://bandroomtech.blogspot.com/

Finale Songbook App for iPad + Dropbox Hint

Finale has released it's first iPad app, Finale Songbook!

Although it is pretty minimal in it's functionality now, hopefully it will continue to evolve just as forScore has evolved over time.  Specifically the integration of Dropbox would be nice, since currently Songbook requires an old school connection to iTunes, OR, you can open the finale .mus file using this workaround:

From within  Dropbox, locate the .mus file you want to open in Songbook.  

Click on the file, then in the upper right corner, find the open in.... icon.  Select the Songbook icon, and you are good to go - no connection to your computer needed. (you will need to have the file in  Dropbox however)