By: Celine Aenlle-Rocha,
on 9/8/2015
When you’re a musician, you’re constantly passing between the private and the public spheres. Practicing by yourself in a soundproof room is a private activity. Playing an audition is a public act. Reading a score silently is private; releasing a CD is public.
The post In praise of SoundCloud appeared first on OUPblog.
By: Dianna Dilworth,
on 4/14/2015
Writers can now add an audiobook or a soundtrack to their eBooks published on the online writing community Wattpad. Wattpad has partnered with SoundCloud to integrate the audio platform into its app.
The new feature allows users to add audio files to their Wattpad stories. Users can create their own clips, or choose available audio from the SoundCloud library.
“Audio clips can bring stories to life. Wattpad writers can use sound effects to add impact to a story, narrate an excerpt, or share a playlist to entertain their readers in a new way,” statedd Tarun Sachdeva, head of product at Wattpad. “The integration of SoundCloud into Wattpad’s Android app means a richer storytelling experience for millions of people around the world.”
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By: Carmela Martino and 5 other authors,
on 4/21/2014
Hi Everyone,
This month, we've been having a great time celebrating our BlogiVERSEary by sharing audio and video clips of the TeachingAuthors reciting some of our favorite poems. If you missed any of them, here are the links one more time, in the order posted:
By: VictoriaD,
on 4/17/2014
Many music students have difficulty finding new venues in which to perform. A lot of the time it’s because we let our school schedule our performances for us. We’ll start the semester and circle the dates on the calendars that include our concerts and recitals, and that will be it. That’s fine, and can keep you pretty busy, but I’m here to tell you to get out there and plan on your own. You’ll become much more confident and even perform better at your concerts once you get a few smaller gigs under your belt. Here’s a few tips to help you along the way:
Don’t let nerves get in the way of gigging
You’ve likely heard this from countless professors, teachers, friends, and family members, but everyone experiences nervousness. It’s the result of our animal instincts, our fight or flight response, and it’s natural. The solution is simply to gain experience. Think of each instance of nervousness as a new chance to conquer and control the sensation. After enough repetitions, nervousness will no longer seem like such a big deal, just an expected and regular part of performance. Nerves will probably never go completely away, but by the time you get to a huge concert you’ll be getting used to it.
Develop your personal brand
Whether you like it or not, self-advertising, or creating your own brand, has become more and more doable thanks to the Internet. Read up on creating a web presence. Unless you’re famous, you’re going to need to market your talents. Sites like BandCamp and SoundCloud tend to be synonymous with popular music, but this trend is slowly changing. In fact, many classical musicians are uploading recordings of their gigs to SoundCloud.
On top of the benefits of a clean, easy to navigate repository of gig recordings, having a SoundCloud is like having a deluxe portfolio. What do I mean by “deluxe”? Well, it’s like having a resume with a built in audience of employers ready to look at it 24/7. And SoundCloud isn’t just a social network; it’s a social network of people who actively create and/or listen to music.
Think outside the box when looking for gigs
But where can you look for gigs? At first glance you’re at a slight disadvantage from all the rock bands that can play cover shows at bars or parties. Somehow playing solo clarinet music at the local bar just isn’t going to go over well. So, here are a few places you may not have thought of:
1. University events
Keep tabs on ongoing events at your university. Many students and faculty would love to have their events spiced up with some “sophisticated” music. There are plenty of fundraisers and galas that are always looking for entertainment. It even gives them a bragging point to have a student performing and could lead to more donations for the school.
2. Elementary schools
Music education is an important aspect of many children’s lives, and choosing an instrument to pick up can be quite a meaningful decision, even if it may seem superfluous to us at the time. Check with local elementary schools to find out when they start their students off in band and orchestra programs. They may very well be looking for people to come in and explain and play their instruments to students. You never know when you could be the one to inspire the next great performer.
Children from Kaneohe Elementary School clap to the beat of one of the many jazzy songs the US Marine Corps Forces Pacific Party Band played during their performance as part of the Music in the Schools program. Photo in the public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
3. Retirement communities
Playing at a retirement community may not be very glamorous, but it will leave you with experience and the feeling that you’ve done a good service. One of the most rewarding times of my musical career was playing at a nursing home. A deaf woman rolled her wheelchair up to my marimba and put her hand on the side to feel the vibrations. Seeing her smile is something I will never forget. To me, this small gig was right up there with playing in Orchestra Hall in Chicago.
4. Play for small businesses and company functions
A gig at a barber shop didn’t give me a huge audience, but it’s not always the size that matters. Through it I was able to meet some people from a mattress store called Dr. Snooze, and eventually led to me getting to play at one of their open houses. I met several more people through it that led to even more performance opportunities, including corporate retreats and even a wedding. I can also use them as a reference when telling others about my music. It’s amazing how one “little” gig can turn into so much more.
5. Play on the street
Now you should look into the legality of this strategy before pursuing it, but playing in the street (even for no money) can be an incredible source of publicity. Who knows who might be looking? It also helps to strategically pick your location so that people who might be more likely to need musicians may listen. Another idea you could try would be to upload recordings of your performances to YouTube to be able to show them to others.
Finnish bluegrass buskers in Helsinki, Finland. June 2006. Photo by Cory Doctorow from London, UK. Creative Commons License via Wikimedia Commons.
All of these ideas will give you some great experience and help you become a better musician. And when you come to the bigger events, you’ll be well prepared.
Scott Huntington is a percussionist specializing in marimba. He’s also a writer, reporter and blogger. He lives in Pennsylvania with his wife and son and does Internet marketing for WebpageFX in Harrisburg. Scott strives to play music whenever and wherever possible. Follow him on Twitter at @SMHuntington.
Oxford Music Online is the gateway offering users the ability to access and cross-search multiple music reference resources in one location. With Grove Music Online as its cornerstone, Oxford Music Online also contains The Oxford Companion to Music, The Oxford Dictionary of Music, and The Encyclopedia of Popular Music.
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The post Creative ways to perform your music: tips for music students appeared first on OUPblog.
By: Carmela Martino and 5 other authors,
on 4/14/2014
"My poem is My Shadow,” I bravely began, and Miss Atmore stopped me, cold, mid-sentence.
By: Carmela Martino and 5 other authors,
on 4/7/2014
A HUGE thank you to Mary Lee, who blogs at A Year of Reading, for coining the word "blogiVERSEary" when she commented on April's post announcing our celebration and giveaway.
BlogiVERSEary is the perfect word to describe our theme this year. (Wish I'd thought of it when I created our Fifth Blogiversary logo!) Since our blog's anniversary falls during National Poetry Month, we thought it would be fitting for each of us to share a favorite poem, à la this year's Chicago Poetry Foundation's edition of the Favorite Poem Project. Esther is the one who brought the Favorite Poem Project to our attention, so I'll let her talk more about it when she posts. Meanwhile, if you're a teacher or parent, you may want to go ahead and check out their poetry lesson plans and other resources (after you're finished reading here, of course!).
By: Alice,
on 3/14/2014
Stories are powerful ways to bring the voice and ideas of marginalized people into endeavors to restore justice and enact change. Beginning in the early 1990s, I started using oral history to bring the stories and experiences of abused women into efforts to make policy changes in New York City. Trained and supported by colleagues at Columbia Center for Oral History and Hunter College’s Puerto Rican Studies Department, I was able to pioneer the use of oral history to leverage social change.
In 2007, I became an Ashoka Fellow and had the space to organize my ideas and experiences about oral history, story gathering, and participatory practices into a set of teachable methods and strategies. This resulted in the creation of Threshold Collaborative, an organization that uses stories as a catalyst for change. Our methods aim to deepen empathy and ignite action in order to build more just, caring, and healthy communities. Working with justice organizations around the country, we help design and implement ways to do that through engaged story work.
This is why when a colleague who runs a youth leadership organization in Pennsylvania wanted to share the ideas and voices of the area’s marginalized youth, we helped to create a school-based story-sharing initiative called A Picture is Worth…. This project came to fruition after the New York Times gave Reading, PA the “unwelcome distinction” of having the highest poverty rate of any American city. Reading also suffered from elevated high school dropout numbers and extraordinarily low college degree rates.
Threshold went to the I-LEAD Charter High School in Reading, which offers poor and immigrant youth another chance to succeed. After spending time at the school — meeting and talking with teachers, parents and learners — we brainstormed a project that would incorporate the personal stories of 22 learners into an initiative to help them learn about themselves, their peers, and their larger community. Audio story gathering and sharing were at the core of this work. The idea was to support them in identifying their vision and values, link them with their peers, and thereby align them with positive change going on in Reading.
With the support of I-LEAD, assistance from the administrators and teachers, the talent of a fabulous photographer Janice Levy, and of course, the participation of the students, Threshold was able to launch an in-school curricular literacy class, which revolved around story gathering and sharing. The project uses writing, audio stories and photography to create powerful interactive narratives of students, highlighting their unique yet unifying experiences. A Picture is Worth… also provides an associated curriculum in literacy for high school students. The project fosters acquisition of real-world knowledge and skills, and encourages young learners to become more engaged in personal and scholastic growth, by combining personal stories with academic standards.
We also gathered and edited the stories of all 22 learners and have linked them with the wonderful photos done by Levy. You can find these powerful voices and images on our Soundcloud page. Here is one of the photos and stories:
Now, we are growing this project to be able to share it with schools and other youth leadership programs around the country. Through our book, curriculum and training program, we hope to inspire youth justice programs to see how young people can contribute to positive change through the power of their stories.
More information about the project can be found at apictureisworth.org, as well as on Facebook.
Alisa Del Tufo has worked to support justice and to strengthen empathy throughout her life. Raising over 80 million dollars, she founded three game changing organizations: Sanctuary for Families, CONNECT, and Threshold Collaborative. In the early 1990s, Del Tufo pioneered the use of oral history and community engagement to build grassroots change around the issues of family, and intimate violence. Her innovations have been recognized through a Revson, Rockefeller, and Ashoka Fellowship.
The Oral History Review, published by the Oral History Association, is the U.S. journal of record for the theory and practice of oral history. Its primary mission is to explore the nature and significance of oral history and advance understanding of the field among scholars, educators, practitioners, and the general public. Follow them on Twitter at @oralhistreview, like them on Facebook, add them to your circles on Google Plus, follow them on Tumblr, listen to them on Soundcloud, or follow the latest Oral History Review posts on the OUPblog via email or RSS to preview, learn, connect, discover, and study oral history.
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The post Threshold Collaborative: a lesson in engaged story work appeared first on OUPblog.
By: Julia Callaway,
on 3/4/2014
Amores was Ovid’s first complete work of poetry, and is one of his most famous. The poems in Amores document the shifting passions and emotions of a narrator who shares Ovid’s name, and who is in love with a woman he calls Corinna. She is of a higher class and therefore unattainable, but the poems show the progression from infatuation to love to affair to loss. In these excerpts, we see two sides of the affair — a declaration of love, and a hot afternoon spent with Corinna. Our poet here is Jane Alison, author of Change Me: Stories of Sexual Transformation from Ovid, a new translation of Ovid’s love poetry.
Amores 1.3
It’s only fair: the girl who snared me should love me, too,
or keep me in love forever.
Oh, I want too much: if she’ll just endure my love,
Venus will have granted my prayers.
Please take me. I’d be your slave year after long year.
Please take me. I know how to love true.
I might not be graced with a grand family name,
only knight-blood runs in my veins,
my acres might not need ploughs ad infinitum,
my parents count pennies, are tight—
but I’ve got Apollo, the Muses, and Bacchus,
and Amor, who sent me your way,
plus true fidelity, unimpeachable habits,
barest candor, blushingest shame.
I don’t chase lots of girls—I’m no bounder in love.
Trust me: you’ll be mine forever.
I want to live with you each year the Fates spin me
and die with you there to mourn.
Give me yourself—a subject perfect for poems—
they’ll spring up, adorning their source.
Poems made Io (horrified heifer-girl) famous,
plus that girl led on by a “swan”
and the one who set sail on a make-believe bull,
his lilting horn tight in her fist.
We too will be famous, sung all over the world:
my name bound forever to yours.
Amores 1.5
Scorching hot, and the day had drifted past noon;
I spread out on my bed to rest.
Some slats of the windows were open, some shut,
the light as if in a forest
or like the sinking sun’s cool glow at dusk
or when night wanes, but dawn’s not come.
It was the sort of light that nervous girls love,
their shyness hoping for shadows.
And oh—in slips Corinna, her thin dress unsashed,
hair rivering down her pale neck,
just as lovely Sameramis would steal into a bedroom,
they say, or Lais, so loved by men.
I pulled at her dress, so scant its loss barely showed,
but still she struggled to keep it.
Though she struggled a bit, she did not want to win:
undone by herself, she gave in.
When she stood before me, her dress on the floor,
her body did not have a flaw.
Such shoulders I saw and touched—oh, such arms.
The form of her breast firm in my palm,
and below that firm fullness a belly so smooth—
her long shapely sides, her young thighs!
Why list one by one? I saw nothing not splendid
and clasped her close to me, bare.
Who can’t guess the rest? And then we lay languid.
Oh, for more middays just so.
Jane Alison is author of Change Me: Stories of Sexual Transformation from Ovid. Her previous works on Ovid include her first novel, The Love-Artist (2001) and a song-cycle entitled XENIA (with composer Thomas Sleeper, 2010). Her other books include a memoir, The Sisters Antipodes (2009), and two novels, Natives and Exotics (2005) and The Marriage of the Sea (2003). She is currently Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Virginia.
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The post “You’ll be mine forever”: A reading of Ovid’s Amores appeared first on OUPblog.
By: Tonia Allen Gould,
on 10/8/2013
Promotional Product Marketing for Samuel T. Moore of Corte Magore. Mood Magnets.
A friend of mine suggested I re-write a previous post I made here on my blog. We had much dialogue about marketing and publicizing a book. He told me that very few people understand that, while a major a coup, publishing a book is winning only half the battle. He suggested I write about what I have been doing, specifically, to get the word out about my picture book app, Samuel T. Moore of Corte Magore, particularly since I’ve taken a somewhat unique, albeit varied approach, in such a short time. Given my almost twenty years of marketing experience, owning at running a promotional marketing company, Tagsource, perhaps I do have something to contribute in helping others on marketing and brand messaging a children’s picture book. I don’t know. But believe me, even with my professional background in marketing, even I’m still feeling my way. All that said, in just three months, I do feel I’ve made significant progress, and hopefully you can benefit from my experiences. So what did I do?
I hired a Publicity Agency:
I knew that I needed to get the word out exponentially, and to the masses, and the best way to do that was for me to hire a publicity agency, right off the bat. After thorough research, I selected Smith Publicity, a global publicity firm, and contracted with them on an initial, six-week publicity campaign. Special thanks to Lauren Covello, Publicist, at Smith Publicity for her work on publicizing, Samuel T. Moore of Corte Magore. With the help of Smith Publicity, I’m happy to announce we are off to a great start! During and even after the campaign, Smith delivered some interesting results. The most notable: InformationWeek asked me to be a contributing, bi-monthly writer covering the educational and mobility segments on their online digital publication. As a busy executive, I have to look at the investment of time and weigh the ROI on the writing obligation. For me, this was a no-brainer. InformationWeek is one of the world’s largest information technology publications. They have over 220,000 subscribers and receive something like 2.4 unique visitors to their website each month. My profile picture and bio will be positioned on their website with each article I write, which will link back to my businesses and my book. Publicity turned marketing. I like it. Not to mention, this “writing gig” is a major bio booster.
In addition, Smith Publicity lined-up numerous radio and print article interviews for me. iMedia interviewed me about approaching technology use for children. Recently, I wrote a bi-line article for Today’s Parent, “Coming Soon to an Electronic Device Near You.” Today’s Parent boasts a readership of over 100,000 site visitors a month, and the article included a blurb about me and the book. I have also enjoyed being on various talk radio programs. I really enjoyed this particular radio interview on Tots and Technology on IMI Tech Talk with Tom D’Auria. (Move ahead to about the twelve-minute mark to bypass all the tech news at the start of the show.) I am in the process of putting all my radio interviews up on SoundCloud, so stay tuned for links to all of those. This interview with Derrell Connor on 620 WTMJ Wisconsin Talks was another one of my favorites, if you haven’t heard it yet. In addition, I’ve been interviewed on the Kim Pagano Show, Manchester University’s radio program, and several other programs throughout the country and Canada. The goal is, with each interview, people will act and download my book.
I Collaborated with Connected and Celebritized People Who Helped Me Produce My Book:
Aristo Media, the publicity agency who represents Robby Armstrong, the Nashville star who wrote and produced my book app’s original Americana-style musical score, pressed news about Robby’s involvement with Samuel T. Moore of Corte Magore. That press release went out to many country radio news outlets, and the release has cropped up all over the web! It was pretty neat to see Samuel T. Moore of Corte Magore mentioned on a CMT site! Country Pulse also wrote up a nice story called, “Catch a Rising Star,” about Robby and mentioned his collaboration on my book. You can read about Robby on his website, here. In addition to Robby Armstrong, I selected Mr. Steve McCoy, a renowned radio broadcaster to narrate the book. Steve boasts a huge fan base and has a lot of clout in the world of broadcasting. Mr. Doug Lawrence and Mark Ceccarelli, both notorious, original storyboard directors for SpongeBob SquarePants, co-illustrated my book. When I produced my book, I knew that each of these unique collaborators would have vast networks of their own. I wanted to cast my personal net out as far as it reached through my own network, but I knew that having networked, connected people working on my book would do nothing but bring more recognition to my project.
Something Interesting Happened, I Became Perceived as a Bit of an Expert:
All the above results made me considered to be somewhat of a tech expert. Recently, I was asked to write a bi-line article on app development : http://www.beginningiosdev.com/app-case-studies/children-book-app. Circle back to the radio interview on Tots and Technology, being interviewed for the iMedia article on kids and technology and how much is too much, and then being asked to write on mobility topics for InformationWeek. It’s all connected, and an outcome I wasn’t expecting.
I Put My Experiences to Work:
I’m a marketing entrepreneur, a conversationalist and a networker, and I put all that experience to work for me. I set up a Facebook page where I dialogue with my fans, and tweet about my book and experiences via @toniaallengould. I converted my existing blog to an author’s page and changed the domain to www.toniaallengould.com. There, I continuously press new articles about my road to publishing and authorship.
I’m in the throes of being scheduled to speak at an elementary school that has recently moved to an iPad only curriculum, and really do hope to start working with children on writing and going after their dreams, and will invite the press to be there whenever I have a speaking engagement. I can’t wait to spend more time in the classroom with kids engaging them about reading!
Through marketing efforts, the book made it to the 2nd Best App in the App of the Week Contest at iHeartThisApp. This is a parent/teacher/peer voting opportunity and you can help by voting anytime for the book by clicking the link above. Sam also reached the Top 100 Books in the App Store list for iPad, which in my elated and humble opinion is a major feat, given the legions of books out there! Today we are #100! Oh what it would be like to reach #1!
Even better, Samuel T. Moore of Corte Magore just got a 5-Star Video Review at Give Me Apps where also the reviewer mentions the great functionality and the collaborative efforts that went into the book. At one point in the review, he describes the animation as “something that almost looks like a Hollywood movie!” Here’s their Blog Review as well. Right after the review, Best Preschool Books, put Sam on their list! That’s some really great news and hopefully will continue to help me reach my target demographic, children ages 4-8.
Hard Work:
As you can see, I have a lot of great things in the works after just three months since my book app went live in the App Store on iTunes. Writing a book is one thing, getting it published is another, and marketing and publicizing a book is still another. I can honestly say—it’s all hard work. I can’t tell you if I’m doing it right. I can only firmly say, at this juncture, that I’m laying down some important groundwork.
P.S. I’m Still Marketing:
If you don’t have an iPad, and want to hear the book, you can download the full, narrated book with music here. If you do have an iPad, you can download my book in the App Store at iTunes. Next up? I hope to have a hard copy, conventionally printed book published in 2014.
By: Jason Boog,
on 7/27/2012
For your weekend reading pleasure, here are our top stories of the week, including self-published bestsellers, Jack Daniel’s cease-and-desist and The Hunger Games flowchart (embedded above)
Click here to sign up for GalleyCat’s daily email newsletter, getting all our publishing stories, book deal news, videos, podcasts, interviews, and writing advice in one place.
1. Hunger Games Flowchart
2. Self-Published Bestseller List
2. The Dark Knight Rises Spoilers Released
3. SoundCloud Advice for Writers
4. Encyclopedia Brown Author Donald J. Sobol Has Died
5. The Lost History of Fifty Shades of Grey
6. Jack Daniel’s Sends Author ‘Most Polite Cease & Desist Ever Written’
7. Free Samples of the 2012 Man Booker Longlist
8. How a Charles Dickens Novel Inspired The Dark Knight Rises
9. The Writer Magazine to Go on Hiatus After 125 Years
10. Cracked Looking for Writers
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
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By: Jason Boog,
on 7/17/2012
SoundCloud has built a sprawling network of streaming podcasts, audiobooks and music online–an easy way for writers to share audio content on websites, Facebook, Twitter or any other social networking site.
On today’s edition of the Morning Media Menu, we interviewed SoundCloud community fellow Evan Tenenbaum and collected advice for writers looking to use the audio platform. If you want to explore the network, check out the Books section or the Audiobooks section over at SoundCloud.
We’ve embedded the complete interview below, but here’s an excerpt: “We’ve seen a lot of publishing companies embed the audio on their site. When you are embedding audio on your own site and folks are going there specifically to find that content, I’d recommend longer pieces–maybe a chapter or even a chapter and a half, leaving it at a cliff-hanger.”
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
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