Wk 3 Comment #2

Ricks Original Comment
I have thoroughly enjoyed the book “Art of Possibility” by Roz and Ben Zander. I would like to discuss chapters five through eight,but I'll mostly talk about chapters five and six because they were my favorite. There is a great story in chapter 5 about American orchestra going to play with a Cuban orchestra in Cuba. I have not only had personal experience with teaching music from other cultures to students, but have also performed in choruses that have had difficulty learning complex ethnic rhythms. I love that the conductor told the orchestra players/students “Your job is to teach these rhythms to your stand partner.” This not only made the students responsible for teaching the music but also made the students responsible for whether they would perform the concert or not. This usually becomes a great learning experience for everyone involved.

I of course love music, and the music section in this book brings back so many memories for me. I have many fond memories of sitting in the dorms at the Conservatory or in the practice rooms listening to the various instrument players complain about who got first chair or second chair and how they are better player than all of them. All I can think of was how lucky they were to play in the orchestra because I would only play in chamber music. Does it really matter where you sit because the audience really only hears each section, strings, brass, woodwinds, and percussion not first chair, second chair, third chair. I wish I could read them this quote from a youth orchestra student to the classically trained conservatory musician. “… I have the force of personality to power the section from where ever I sit and I believe that I led that concert from the 11th chair”

Francine's Comment
Yes Rick!  I like that section too about the stand partner teaching the other person the music and it worked! I was really surprised by this. What an amazing story!  I may try to this with my singers this year!  Hopefully they will understand the concept and be able to make it work.  Also the 11th chair violin player who had never played from that standpoint, realizing that her worth as a musician comes forth from any chair. What an eye opener.  Leading from any chair.  My favorite two chapters were five and six as well, that must be a musician thing, but maybe not!  LOL!

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I too was wondering what this class was going to have us doing in month 11. I am glad that we are looking at Copyright issues and laws as well as Fair Use and Creative Commons policies.  Having an edge on this information has helped me gained knowledge that will assist me when I am having these discussions with my learners on the high school level.  I hope that I will be able to persuade my learners to check the copyright status of music and videos before they opt to download media to their iPods and Mp3's.  High school students sometimes feel that they are above the law especially if they think that they can get away with doing something like downloading videos and music to CD's and giving them to their friends.  My goal this year is to show videos like those that Joe has shared with us in this class with the propensity of convincing them to do the research BEFORE they download and share.  I feel that the "Fair Use" and "Creative Commons" policies need to be taught on the secondary level beginning with Middle school aged learners.  I plan to share this with my supervisor and principal this year.

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Drawing That Explains Copyright Law 

Posted July 18, 2007, in Baseball, Copyright Law, Drawings, Erik's Favorites, How To, MIT by @ErikJHeels (permalink: http://erikjheels.com/803.html)

Wk 1 Comments #2

Stephania Vereen Posted.....

In watching the videos on Copyright, I must say I was pleasantly surprised to see the video A Fair(y) Use.  I previously taught a research class and at the beginning of each marking period, I showed this video to my classes so that they can constantly be reminded about copyright.  The class was mainly project based learning and I learned the hard way about copyright when one of my students made a video using clips from a news broadcast and was challenged by fair use and they could not submit it to a contest.  It was an excellent project on top of that.  My classes worked closely with our librarian to also learn more about fair use and copyright to protect their creative work in my class.

The documentary Good Copy/Bad Copy was truly enlightening particularly at then end.  I was not aware of the prevalence of remixing in Brazil and how much those who seemingly don’t have much take time and effort to create such amazing hybrids of music.  I see kids these days doing the same things though.  Taking the technology and equipment that is available to them and doing things that are so advanced that it is downright amazing.  Larry Lessing's TED Talk about remixing culture led me to think about the questions: Are we really comfortable stifling that level or creativity?  Or do we need to find some healthy balance to encourage our future leaders and artists to flex their creative muscle?

Lastly, the clip about "Eye on the Fair Use Prize"  really pushed my concern regarding lost historical accounts.  I've always felt that what is captured in history will be how the future views the past.  Our perspective of the Greek Era or the Romans or even the missing accounts of African tribes and cultures prior to slavery comes from historical accounts and documents that are left for the future.  What we choose to omit only paints a partial view of all that really occur and is that really fair to those who must piece together a picture of our today?  I guess in some things, copyright can be a blessing and a curse.

Resources:

http://web.me.com/edm613/m11/wk1-reading1.html

http://web.me.com/edm613/m11/wk1-reading2.html

http://web.me.com/edm613/m11/wk1-reading3.html

 

Francine's Comment to Stephania! 

Stephania you made an excellent point about the historical accounts or video footage being out of circulation regarding the Civil Rights Movement. In addition, the future depends on our history. ALL history should be told according to the actual events that occurred so that future generations will have a solid foundation of what occurred and the what resulted as the solution to those events. Partial pictures are being painted and the truth is not always conveyed the way that is should especially to our young learners who in some instances are clueless to how the Civil Rights movement is affecting their ability to go to any institution of higher learning in the world and it is allowing nations of color to prevail in places where we never thought we would be.  I am speaking of all colors not just African Americans.  

Wk1 Comment #1

Copyright “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly” 

by Richard Stemple

Copyright has always been a great discussion in my music classes. All my middle school students to high school students have heard me talk about copyright laws and issues. I always found this especially interesting when I was teaching in a Catholic school were stealing is a sin. Well according to some of my students stealing copyrighted music from the Internet was only a small sin. I always enjoyed talking about copyright with middle school students end up because at this point they have all composed their own music or have written their own stories. Student students seem to have a problem in using copyrighted material from people that they don't know or from people they thought already had a ton of money so would matter if they obtain the song illegally. However they were very protective of their own music. Students were always divided that artist should always get compensation for their work while others said it's free advertising and they'll make their money in other ways. Some students felt differently when it came to their work, however some still felt it was okay to get music for free off the Internet.

Professor Joe Bustillos explained some great points in his presentation. I love the explanation of the 10 myths about copyright. I also enjoyed listening to Nathan from the expert Village, I was not aware that improvisation is not copyrighted unless it is recorded. That will be an interesting twist for my students in the future. It was interesting to also find out about Bridgeport vs Dimension films. I think the film answered many questions but also left some unanswered questions for the music educator. One example is copyright for the composer is for the lifetime +70 years but for Corporation is 100 years. This law becomes fuzzy when the composer has been dead for over 100 years yet the performance and recording are 71 years old. There are no living relatives and the corporation is claiming ownership. I believe this may still be up for debate, however I do believe I read somewhere if it is a recent recording then that Corporation owns the copyright. Here are some examples of music that I believe would qualify as public domain Robert Johnson performing Robert Johnson. Robert Johnson has been dead for over 80 years and had no relatives so his original recordings should be public domain. Another example would be Pablo Casals recordings of the Bach cello suites. Bach has been dead well over 100 years and Pablo has been dead over 80 years. I recommend everyone to listen to them if they get a chance Robert Johnson is one of the early creators of the Blues guitar genre and Pablo Casals played the best interpretations of the Bach cello suite ever. Here is a recording of Robert Johnson performing one of his most famous and memorable songs Sweet Home Chicago, enjoy.  

Fair use is very interesting, and could open the door to many different types of recording. I understand you can use recordings for teaching, the news, parity, or critical commentary. I also understand that there are certain conditions, the nature, the amount of the recording used, and its commercial effect however, those are all very ambiguous and can be interpreted in many different ways. My recommendations to everyone is use public domain music or video, or just create your own original work.  






Francine's Comment to Richard

Hi Richard!
Great posts on Wk1 readings and videos!  I agree with you on the copyright time line.  
You cited one example about the fact that copyright for composers are for a lifetime +70 years but for Corporations it is 100 years. I agree with you in regard to this law!  Much of the music from Western Civilization should be in Public Domain status, however because of the new time-frame copyright now last more than a lifetime.  You are so right when you say that "there are no living relatives and the corporation is still claiming ownership. So is this the case if we want to use samples from Bach, Beethoven, Debussy and Tchaikovsky and others in our media content?