METT 91 – Theresa Returns!

Happy New Year!

In this episode of Music Ed Tech Talk, Robby sits down with Theresa Hoover to discuss AI guidance in music education, creativity in the classroom, task management for educators, and what’s new in their professional lives. Topics include NAfME guidance on AI, next-gen Siri, automation workflows, and listener questions about sustaining creativity in a distracted world.

Support Music Ed Tech Talk

Show Notes & Links

Intro & Community

  • 00:00:00 — Hello and welcome
  • 00:00:30 — Thanks to new Patreon supporter, Drew Ross

News, Blogs, and AI Updates

AI Guidance in Music Education

  • 00:16:15 — Released guidance in the music education world
  • Yamaha: AI in the Music Classroom
  • NAfME: Guiding Principles, Frameworks, and Applications for AI in Music Education
    • Classroom policy framing
    • Alignment language for administrators
    • Practical classroom use cases
  • Moises AI Studio — AI-generated, tempo- and harmony-aware accompaniment stems for student compositions and arranging

Higher Ed & Classroom Practice

  • 00:24:15 — What is emerging from Theresa’s undergraduate classes?

Automation Station

Ask METT

  • 00:32:21 — Listener question from Kate Bateman
  • How do you manage teaching creativity and having opinions about music in a world where kids won’t concentrate on anything for longer than a minute?
  • Reference: Drive by Daniel Pink
  • 00:41:51 — What is music for for kids?

What’s Up With Theresa

  • 00:45:18 — New job update
  • Wrapping up the doctorate
  • 00:52:08 — Is it finally time for forScore and an Apple Pencil?

What’s Up With Robby

  • 01:00:14 — New OS and first impressions of Apple Vision Pro
  • The “wow factor” is actually wow

Music Picks

  • 01:13:38
  • Robby: The New Tango — Gary Burton & Astor Piazzolla
  • Theresa: Afterglow — Saint Motel (Oct. 2025)

Wrap-Up

Chapters

  • 00:00:00 — Welcome & Intro
  • 00:00:30 — Patreon Shout-Out
  • 00:01:23 — COPPA, FERPA, and Blogs
  • 00:10:30 — What’s New in AI
  • 00:16:15 — AI Guidance in Music Education
  • 00:24:15 — Undergraduate Teaching Insights
  • 00:26:34 — Automation Station
  • 00:32:21 — Ask METT
  • 00:41:51 — What Is Music For?
  • 00:45:18 — What’s Up With Theresa
  • 00:52:08 — forScore & Apple Pencil
  • 01:00:14 — What’s Up With Robby
  • 01:13:38 — Music Picks
  • 01:20:20 — Final Q&A & Farewell

Where to Find Us

TI:ME Welcomes Three New Board Members

TI:ME Welcomes Three New Board Members:

TI:ME is pleased to announce the appointment of three outstanding educators to their Board of Directors: Robby Burns, Gillian Kellar, and Kevin Longwill. Each brings unique and complimentary musicianship, instructional experience, and technological leadership that strengthens TI:ME’s mission to support meaningful, forward-thinking integration of technology in music education.

Happy to be working with TI:ME in this capacity.

METT 90 – New Hardware! Lockscreens! Homescreens! Tech Workflows! with Jaye Mateyko

New podcast episode! Jaye Mateyko, editor of the show, joins to talk all about how we are utilizing our lockscreens and home creens for maximum productivity. Robby shares some recent ways he is using technology in the classroom.

Show Notes:

00:00:00 Cold Open Cold Open: Marvel Slop & Anniversary Release of TMNT

Holiday Curtain Lights https://twinkly.com/

A small diversion into…bars!
Aloha Bars https://aloha.com/
David Protein Bars https://davidprotein.com/

00:10:10 Brand (clap) New (clap) Apple (clap) Products
Robby: New AirPods, New iPhone, New Watch
Pro 17: Used as computer-away-from-desk, really good pictures
Apple Watch Ultra: Much more computery. Stacked with
information. Alarm for when to end classes, water, and more!
Working on myself using my watch!

Jaye: New iPhone
Sweet Baby Air – becoming computer-away-from-desk

Tech in Schools: Digital Cameras on the Rise
Check in and Track Places https://swarmapp.com/
Fantastical Calendar https://apps.apple.com/us/app/fantastical-calendar/id718043190

00:28:03 Lock Screens/Home Screens
Jaye wants to customize MORE!

Referenced Throughout: The Demon Dogs

Agile Tortoise https://agiletortoise.com/
Drafts
Simple Scan
Taking Notes with Draft, ft. Greg Pierce https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/taking-notes-with-drafts-featuring-greg-pierce-season/id1078105776?i=1000411001646

Marco Polo https://www.marcopolo.me/
Focus Friend https://apps.apple.com/us/app/focus-friend-by-hank-green/id6742278016
One Sec https://one-sec.app/

00:47:20 Robby teachers Jaye how to use new buttons! First, Camera!
00:49:04 Action Button
00:51:08 Control Center

00:53:30 Liquid Glass
00:54.53 Three Quick Workflows (put him on the clock folks)
Notion https://www.notion.com/
01:08:33 Music Picks!
Robby: D’Angelo, rest in peace ❤
Dilla Time https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilla_Time
Jaye: IAM – L’école du micro d’argent https://open.spotify.com/album/3atPIVCVIIgak6KeB1ANnK?si=vpaAN3RmSkSHcw-V38zheA
Jaye’s Buddy: https://www.raminamirarjomand.com/

The Craft Thanksgiving release is nuts.

Craft’s Thanksgiving release is a substantial one. Posted to their subreddit on ThursdayAttachment.png…

A few things that stand out:

• API/MCP integration. This is the big one. I’ve already linked my Craft workspace to ChatGPT via MCP, and it has really interesting potential. The chatbot inside Craft is also very powerful, and it’s fascinating to have it tell me things about my notes and act upon them. The API will allow it to talk to a ton of other apps in my lineup. I can’t wait to experiment with it more.

• Whiteboard improvements. I haven’t been using Whiteboards much, but these improvements make me want to give them a try.

• Improved tabs. Tabs have been a big pain for me on Mac, but having them appear vertically in the sidebar is a small change that dramatically improves usability.

My main issue with Craft is still the speed of the Mac app, which is sluggish. Putting more stuff in it is surely not the answer, but it’s going to be hard not to with this update.

Great music and video apps on sale

Marcos Tanaka’s apps are currently on sale. They’re all clever, tightly focused, and each one uniquely solves a specific problem without unnecessary complexity.

Play is my favorite: a “watch later” app for web video. I use it kind of like how I use Readwise Reader as a “read later” tool for written content. I like to queue up videos throughout the day and then watch them on my Apple TV at night, when I am in a mode more appropriate for long term video.

Several of his apps are music-focused as well. MusicBox, MusicHarbor, and MusicSmart are all worthy additions to a music educator’s collection.

METT Podcast Episode #87 – School Music License, with Brenna C. Horn-Cronin

In this episode, Brenna C. Horn-Cronin, Executive General Manager at School Music License, joins us to discuss how the service empowers music educators to navigate performance licensing ethically and efficiently. We cover administrative advocacy, the future of licensing in education, pricing structures, and more.

Listen here! or in your favorite podcast player…

Subscribe to the Podcast in…

Apple Podcasts | Overcast | Castro | Spotify | RSS

Show Notes and Links

School Music License Resources
– School Music License Website
– News and Announcements
– Options & Prices
– Email: info@schoolmusiclicense.com
– Promo Code: TechTalk10 – 10% off your first purchase!

Referenced Podcast
– The Brass Junkies Podcast

Chapters

00:00:00 – School Music License Overview
00:06:20 – Working for and with teachers, and calming the fears of “gotchas”
00:08:27 – How the service has positively affected teachers
00:12:10 – What’s coming next?
00:13:35 – Pricing Tiers
00:16:20 – Administrative Advocacy
00:17:58 – Small Scale Licenses
00:20:40 – The importance of educating educators and keeping up with technology
00:22:00 – Visions for other areas of Music Education
00:30:10 – BREAK! Podcasting About Podcasting
00:35:10 – Encouraging LESS technology use (during performances) – how and why
00:42:45 – School Culture and giving credit where credit is due

Subscribe to the Blog…

RSS | Email Newsletter

Support Music Ed Tech Talk

Become a Patron on Patreon
Buy Me a Coffee

Where to Find Us

Robby – robbyburns.com
Will – willkuhn.com

Apple Report Card, with Will Kuhn

Check out the latest episode of Music Ed Tech Talk.

Websites are back! Robby redid his blog and Stream Deck setups. The Metallica concert in Vision Pro is awesome. AI tools for musicians have always been useful, and we do some music picks. Big topic: Will and I grade Apple.

Subscribe to the Blog…

RSS | Email Newsletter

Subscribe to the Podcast in…

Apple Podcasts | Overcast | Castro | Spotify | RSS

Support Music Ed Tech Talk

Become a Patron!

Buy me a coffee

Chapters

00:00:28 – Thanks again, Molly!

00:00:52 – RobbyBurns.com, WordPress!

00:03:48 – Blog Highlights & Websites Are Back

00:13:19 – Ableton Updates

00:17:50 – Yamaha SEQTRAK

00:19:35 – Vision Pro + Metallica

00:24:36 – AI Tools for Musicians

00:34:03 – Automation Corner

00:43:15 – Apple Report Card

00:58:37 – Music Picks and Media Recs

Show Notes

Intro

Thanks to our supporters and a special shoutout to Molly.

News and Mini Topics

AI

Automation Corner

Big Topics

Music Picks

Where to Find Us

Please don’t forget to rate the show and share it with others!

Sessions | Audio Unit (AU) Plug-in Host for Studio and Stage

This a pretty cool tool I was recently turned on to. I’m looking forward to giving it a try.

Sessions | Audio Unit (AU) Plug-in Host for Studio and Stage:

Sessions is a performance-oriented plug-in host that puts all your virtual instruments and effects at your fingertips. With powerful features and a streamlined workflow, musicians can enjoy ultimate freedom to explore, create, play and perform without a DAW.
Keep reading here…

From the Creators of Shortcuts, Sky Extends AI Integration and Automation to Your Entire Mac – MacStories

All I can say is “wow!” It’s rare and thrilling to see an app that quickly demonstrates how immediately it could transform the way I use my computer.

This is, to me, a demonstration of where learning language models should fit into computing.

From the Creators of Shortcuts, Sky Extends AI Integration and Automation to Your Entire Mac – MacStories:

For the past two weeks, I’ve been able to use Sky, the new app from the people behind Shortcuts who left Apple two years ago. As soon as I saw a demo, I felt the same way I did about Editorial, Workflow, and Shortcuts: I knew Sky was going to fundamentally change how I think about my macOS workflow and the role of automation in my everyday tasks.
Keep reading here…

harmony-cloud-app — Stefon Harris

Edit: I have been informed that this page is very old and that the iOS version of this app has been out since 2015 and has not received updates since. Hard to recommend a 10 dollar app with that in mind.

—

A colleague turned me on to Harmony Cloud earlier in the month. It’s a new ear training tool from vibraphonist Stefon Harris, and it seems really neat.

I attended a masterclass featuring Stefon Harris back in the early 2000s, and something I distinctly remember about his teaching was how well he could communicate complex harmonic ideas in jazz through much more musical and emotive language. For example, he described the sound of a dominant chord with a b9 and 13 in it was like “a warm hug” or “rocking a baby to sleep.” He perfectly bridged the complexity of improv with concepts any listener can relate to. I’m really curious to see how his musicianship and teaching skill translate into this app.

harmony-cloud-app — Stefon Harris:

Harmony Cloud™ helps you hear, practice, and create music in ways you never thought possible. Harmony Cloud™ is a revolutionary step forward in the world of ear training, created by world-renowned jazz musician and educator Stefon Harris. The app is designed to help serious musicians at all levels expand their understanding of harmony, feel music on a deeper level, and fearlessly explore the world of improvisation. Its underlying (patent-pending) algorithm stitches together chords you select into an unending source of unpredictable, yet musical, chord progressions. Try our Beta Version today! Be on the lookout for an official iOS release coming soon!
Keep reading here…