Week 1: Thoughts, Notes, and Reflections

Friday, October 8, 2021 

My initial thoughts on this portion of Methods II are that it's going to be the impetus for finally getting around to being in touch with 21st century music-making technology. I graduated high school in 1996 and college in 2000. At that time, and the half-decade or so that followed, one could still easily coast by as a career musician without being technology-savvy. Even for pedagogical purposes, say a music theory test or sight-reading examples, hand-written  assignments were acceptable, as long as one had legible, presentable penmanship. One could easily find an audio engineer for recording purposes, too. 

As times changed and technology advanced, I did not keep up with it. Laziness? Commitment to the "old days" and the belief that doing it like the old days was still acceptable? Probably a combination of both. I mostly taught private lessons, music theory classes, sight-reading lessons, chamber music coaching, and a busy schedule of gigs/performing commitments. Although I knew it was long overdue to finally better incorporate technology I continued to stall.

Upon first deciding to pursue getting my certification to teach in public schools, I immediately recognized I would need to become far more technology-savvy to be an effective teacher in the 2020s - 2040s. It was a daunting realization, and I realized that I'd almost developed a phobia of adapting to modern times in this regard. 

Our first class, Tuesday, October 5, was a sigh of relief. I feel confident that with these five weeks of Methods II, I will make significant strides with understanding the basics of modern music technology and put a dent in my phobia. Likewise, with regards to Tuesday's topic of the early days of synthesizers: I was brimming with nostalgia, because my childhood was the golden age of late 70s/80s synth new-wave pop. I vividly remember when the Casio CZ synths were released, and how remarkable it was to be able to create short tracks with the same synth-sounds as the songs on the radio. I also had the cassette of Switched on Bach in middle school! And I remember well that the synth-heavy sounds of the 70s/80s became completely passé in the 90s, only to re-emerge in pop music of the past decade or so.

So I'm very excited for this portion, and already had a great time with the "Canon in D" assignment! It makes me feel less intimidated to even just doodle on a site like Soundtrap and finally make my own 70s/80s movie-music soundtrack!