STEM Music Lab

New Site for STEM Music Lab Work

This is Mark Mosher, an electronic musician and music technologist.  A few years back,  I developed an "open knowledge" social musical instrument called the 9 Box. It's a method and set of templates based on off-the-shelf products Ableton Live and Percussa AudioCubes. 

This instrument has since become the basis for STEM music labs that  in Denver Adams-12 schools validating the notion that electronic music labs can be a huge benefit to STEM programs.

To this end I've created this site to serve as a repository for news, documents, links, and templates related to this project.

While the site is new, I'm working to post back-dated articles from the 9 box site that relate to the overall STEM Lab Concpet.

 Electronic Music Artist, Boulder, CO
Synthesist | Composer | Keyboardist | Performer

www.StemMusicLab.com
www.MarkMosherMusic.com
www.Modulatethis.com

 

“The Spirit of Educational Innovation” Panel at Ribbon Cutting for New STEM Launch Denver School

Back from ribbon cutting for new STEM Launch school in Denver. Super honored to have been on the “The Spirit of Educational Innovation” panel. I took this photo Chris Gdowski, Superintendent, while waiting to go on with the panel. Can you tell which seat is mine :^)

A Day with Educators and Students

I’m an advocate of electronic music in education. Yesterday was an awesome day spent with educators and students.

Guest Judge at DU

For Part 1 of my day, I was invited by Darwin Grosse to be a "guest judge" (can you say Simon Cowell?) to help evaluate final projects for his "Advanced Digital Audio Production" class at the University of Denver Digital Media Studies program http://dms.du.edu/. Man I wish there were courses like this when I was in college! Students presented some very creative ideas - and Darwin is of course awesome :^). Thanks to Darwin for inviting me. It's always great to connect with students at the University Level.

Workshop for Educators

 For Part 2 of my yesterday, I gave a 2 hour Music & Science Educators Workshop "Intro to Ableton Live as a Lab Platform for Schools" which was attended by educators ranging from K-University. In the photo we were doing a group live looping exercise with Ableton's Looper. Two teachers in attendance had built their own Theremins btw :^)

I offered an overview of Live and how controllers turn computers int into a hands-on instruments and a lab. We had some great discussions on connecting music and science curriculum with electronic music. Teachers got some hands on with Launchpad, keyboard controllers, Theremin, and AudioCubes.

I want to thank Sweetwater Sound for sponsoring the event, teacher Gregg Cannady for organizing the event, and the teachers for their curiosity and their passion for learning new things to enrich their student's lives!!!

Mark Mosher
Electronic Musician, Boulder CO
www.ModulateThis.com
www.MarkMosherMusic.com

9 Box Featured on Controllerism.com

I’m excited to report that the 9 Box Method was featured on Controllerism.com! This site was established in 2007 by artist Moldover who is the father of controllerism and an inspiration for the 9 Box.

Read the post here.

Mark Mosher
Electronic Music Artist, Boulder, CO
Official Web Site: www.MarkMosherMusic.com
Listen/Download Albums: www.MarkMosherMusic.com/music.html

A Second School in Denver Starts using 9 Box and AudioCubes as Basis for Music Lab

Ponderosa Elementary in Aurora has just become the second public school in the Denver Metro area to install the 9 Box Method as the basis for their music lab. I met with teacher Perry Shank on Tuesday to walk him through installation. In the next picture you can see a sound card, a Launchpad, the box of AudioCubes. They also included a Theremin as part of the install.

During my visit we printed the 9 Box cheat sheet and I reviewed the performance method with Perry.

Perry picked it all up very quickly and at the end of the hour he learned Ableton basics and how to MIDI map AudioCubes. He’ll continue to work with the system for a few weeks and will start to integrate it into their curriculum. More to come…

Mark Mosher
Electronic Music Artist, Boulder, CO
Official Web Site: www.MarkMosherMusic.com
Listen/Download Albums: www.MarkMosherMusic.com/music.html

9 Box and AudioCubes Featured in Metro Denver STEM School Video

I’ve been working with Dr. Gregg Cannady, music teacher at the STEM Magnet Lab School at Metro Denver over the last year. Gregg has integrated the 9 Box and AudioCubes into his music and science curriculum.

“We program the AudioCubes to let them do what we want, and that can be to kick off sound clips…It is definitely problem-based learning. It can be very high tech, if the kids are ready for that, or it can be very simple.”

“The kids can go with their phones and record something, and email me a sound clip, and I can drop it into this computer program, and we can build a composition around it. They seem to be very drawn to this technology. It somehow peeks their interest.

The school released a short film documenting the school and it’s programs. Lab is mentioned at 8:13. It’s so exciting for me to see the 9 Box being used to inspire students – especially k-6!

Watch embedded video.

Mark Mosher
Electronic Music Artist, Boulder, CO
Synthesist | Composer | Keyboardist | Performer
9box.modulatethis.com
www.MarkMosherMusic.com
www.Modulatethis.com

9 Box Install at STEM K-6 Update and Feedback - "People are freaking out.... They LOVE it"

Update
In less than a month, with only 3 visits to the school (7 hours combined) we’ve made tremendous headway with the 9 Box AudioCubes edition Install at Adams 12 STEM Magnet Lab School in the Denver metro area. Gregg (the teacher) has already started incorporating the lab into curriculum. I also want to mention that when I was planning this lab, I  added a Moog Etherwave Theremin to the mix as well. In my travels in the last year, the Theremin and the AudioCubes have instant appeal and draw people in and I thought the Theremin would be a great addition – especially for the younger students.

Feedback
Here is some feedback from Gregg on Theremin:

“You should have seen my music classes yesterday. Imagine KDG and 1st grade students playing the Theremin accompanying "Sakura" (Japanese song) with added xylophones and movement. WOW! We have only begun and everyone is excited.”

They have also started using the 9 Box with AudioCubes:

 

“AMAZING! I had several groups of 6th graders jamming, two groups of teachers and one group of 2nd grade girls....

People are freaking out.... They LOVE it.”

Awesome!

Startup Speed
In my last visit, we applied the update for MIDIBridge. Based on observations from my last visit, I also tweaked the startup procedure and modified the quick start guide. With these changes, Gregg is now able to go from booted system to making music in 4 minutes and 47 seconds!

Refills
I also taught Gregg how to build his own 9 Boxes in the last trip. We created 6 or so new 9 boxes using royalty free libraries. Below is a picture of Gregg checking the audio in a clip.

More to Come
The school couldn’t be happier. The kids are jazzed. The 9 Box framework is working well to bring music to non-technical teachers and future artists!

Mark Mosher
Electronic Music Artist, Boulder, CO
www.MarkMosherMusic.com
www.ModulateThis.com
9box.modulatethis.com

First "9 Box" AudioCubes Edition Installation Underway at Denver Area Adams 12 STEM Magnet Lab School

I’m very excited to report that the first installation of “9 Box” AudioCubes Edition is underway at a local Denver area elementary school music lab. The school, Adams 12 STEM Magnet Lab School, focuses on “Science Technology Engineering and Math” (STEM). I’m volunteering to assist Dr. Gregg Cannady who is a music teacher in the computer lab at the school with system setup and with ideas on incorporating the system into their curriculum.

In addition to the “9 Box”, we extended the lab setup to include a Novation Launchpad and a Moog Etherwave Theremin. In other words, an Ableton centric controllerism lab as a framework for a Science Technology Engineering and Math education! I think the kids are going to really learn a lot and have fun along the way!

Thanks to Bert at Percussa and Jeffrey Green at Sweetwater for making the ordering process painless for the whole rig. So tonight we unboxed everything and begin installing the all the software. All items pictured are new except for the FastTrack Pro.

We quickly got Live installed Live and drivers, and got the Kontrol 1 sound card up. We then fired up the Theremin. Below is a photo of Gregg in the lab admiring the new Theremin!

We’ll continue to configure the system and I will work with Gregg so he can quickly work the “9 Box” and the Theremin into a school project.

More as we progress…

Mark Mosher
Electronic Music Artist & Synthesist, Boulder, CO

www.markmoshermusic.com
www.modulatethis.com