Skoog Orchestra

Chuffed to have received this Skoog related press release drop into my e-mail box recently sharing developments in Lancashire. It's so good to see the dream for the Skoog as an equalising force in Orchestras and music creation being realised.

Skoog: MusicBox

Skoogmusic's latest software update (v1.4) for the Skoog has some new instruments, and finally a one-sided playing mode. Named the MusicBox, it allows you to play through pre-composed songs using a single side of the Skoog.

In some ways, this has links to the old Commodore 64 Music Maker Play-a-long albums and the Wii Music conducting game. However, the Skoog gives you more than just the ability to dictate tempo. You can add expression and choose how long the length of notes are played too.

There are a number of pre-set tunes such as the Pink Panther theme, Star Wars and various others. Hopefully in the future it will be possible to compose your own tunes (perhaps using the Skoog itself) and then play them back in MusicBox style. Huge possibilities, and a brilliant addition.

Level Playing Field (London, July 2012)

Level Playing Field is a two day event set up to showcase accessible music performance and technology. It's part of the City of London Festival's Golden Jubilee year, and plans to bring musicians of all abilities together. It runs on the 6th and 7th of July 2012.

Skoogmusic will be there with their latest developments (see the video below) as will Drake Music. Musician Clarence Adoo will be performing using mouth controlled instruments (see his Headspace page). There's mention of Eye-sound and Share Music Sweden. Basically a whole world of accessible music, performance and technology packed into two days.

Click the main picture above to see the time-table for the Level Playing Field event, and for booking details. It looks plenty exciting.

Skoog Skores

The latest free upgrade (1.30) to the Skoog musical instrument brings "Skores" to life. Within this new feature, you can select a song from a drop down menu, then play guided by a flow of coloured shapes. It works really well in practice and will help a lot of musicians who find traditional music scores far too difficult.

Excitingly, I hear rumours of a one-side to play musical Skores in the works. Can't wait to see and try that out.

Win a Black Skoog with Drake Music

Drake Music want your thoughts on how accessible formal music education is in the UK. Those taking part between now and the 2nd of November will be entered into a prize draw to win a new limited edition black Skoog.

Drake Music plans to publish the results of this consultation by the end of 2011. They will use the findings to draw up a short list of 'benchmark procedures' which will be shared with schools, colleges, exam boards and others throughout music education, to try and make formal music education more accessible for SEN/Disabled people.

Skoogtöo

"A little taster of Skoogmusic's new SMART/IWB software. A fun and engaging musical world where children are free to explore make and play. With this software and a couple of Skoogs kids can start performing,composing reviewing and evaluating their own music. Supporting flexible grouping, activities can be pupil or teacher led, so come along to the Scottish Learning Festival." via the Skoog YouTube channel.

Brett Domino on Skoog

What fun. Brett Domino and Steven Peavis, take a Skoog to cover Outcast's Hey Ya! And see Trabasack's being used with their Justin Timberlake medly. Smart.

The Skoog Reviewed

It's been a bit of a labour of love getting a review up on the Skoog, at the Accessible GameBase. It's a musical instrument that would be as at home in the musical armoury of Bjork and Aphex Twin, as in schools and homes around the world. It's fantastic fun, and with the right set-up, really easy to create nice sounding music with.

Alongside a new Electronic Soup Podcast, there's some "Dice Music Systems" for Skoog users. These give people who are unable to make clear choices a way to randomly pick a musical starting point to perform within. Roll a die, follow the rule set, roll again to select a time-length guide, then perform. Easy!

Skoog

Ben Schogler of Skoogmusic recently pointed me in the direction of this excellent video with all music on it being created by Skoog musicians.  Skoogmusic has just been launched in the USA, but more exciting for me, I'm finally going to get my hands on one to keep for a few weeks on trial with the latest software. Nice.

Skoog Developments

"[Above is] ... a short video about the Skoog and showing footage from a recent visit to Hillside school working with some of the pupils who helped to develop the Skoog technology." There's been some really exciting developments lately with the Skoog, and most are best explained by themselves over at Skoogmusic.com and at their Blog. Couldn't help but crib this though:

"...we've bundled in some fantastic bonus software that we think is really rather a lot of fun, both in and out of the classroom. Skoogmusic's unique Musical Play Technology allows you to use Skoog to gain expressive control over any pre-recorded sample or loop. Originally developed to help children to sing using their own voices, this bit of kit can do a lot more besides. Now you can be anything from an operatic soprano to a funky soul diva. Or maybe you'd prefer to talk like an animal? Blast like an angry elephant or baa like a happy sheep. It's your choice. "

Ben promises me that they'll be videos up soon of these fantastic features. I've had a tinker with the prototype of these, and found them then to be massively effective, fun, and quite unique.

Skoogmusic: SOLD OUT

I received the very fantastic news that Skoog music have all sold out. No worries, more are due in this month. On top of this, some fantastic developments appear to be just around the corner. The following taken straight from their newsletter:

"We've got big plans here at Skoogmusic. Keep an eye out for the launch of our brand new website in mid-April. Here you'll find far more detailed product information, user guides and support information, downloads and a brand spanking new skoog community forum where fellow skoog players can share and exchange lesson plans, ideas, tips, events, user files and settings, as well as recordings of own skoog compositions."

I'm also hoping to build an Accessible Music Shop in the near-ish future, where I hope to sell Skoogs too.

Skoogmusic at BETT

Skoogmusic are presently down to be exhibiting at BETT which started yesterday and runs at the London Olympia until Saturday evening. BETT is a massive show that promotes education and training technology. I'm far too indie (aka skint) to exhibit at such a show, but I highly recommend you take time to see the Skoog in action if you can get there. It is a thing of wonder.

Update: Skoog featured on the BETT 2010 Review at Teacher's TV (7m54s – 9m33s)