Amy M. Burns

Elementary Music Technology and Integration

Amy M. Burns has taught PreK-grade 4 general music for over 25 years at Far Hills Country Day School (FH) (https://www.fhcds.org/). She also teaches grade 5 instrument class, directs the FH Philharmonic, is the Performing Arts Department Manager, and teaches privately in the after-school conservatory after being the director for over 20 years. She has authored four books and numerous articles on how to integrate tech into the elementary music classroom. She has presented many sessions on the topic, including four keynote addresses in TX, IN, St. Maarten, and AU. She is the recipient of the 2005 Technology in Music Education (TI:ME) Teacher of the Year, the 2016 New Jersey Music Educators Association (NJMEA) Master Music Teacher, the 2016 Governor’s Leader in Arts Education, and the 2017 NJ Nonpublic School Teacher of the Year Awards. Her most recent publication, Using Technology with Elementary Music Approaches (2020), published by Oxford University Press (OUP) is available from OUP and Amazon. Burns is also the Community Coordinator for Midnight Music (MMC) at https://midnightmusic.com/, the General Music Chair for NJMEA Board of Directors, and the Elementary Music Consultant for MusicFirst (https://www.musicfirst.com/), a company built by music educators for music educators, dedicated to helping music teachers and their students make the most of technology in the classroom.

Want to turn down the volume on those vocals in a vocal track? Here’s your guide to dialing it back!

December 10, 2024  /  Amy M. Burns


Recently, I came across a discussion in one of the elementary music education groups about whether it's acceptable for students to perform with a vocal accompaniment track instead of an instrumental one. The response ultimately depends on the teacher, as each educational context is distinct, and instructors should choose what best supports their students.

One effective compromise is to lower the volume of the lyrics on the accompaniment track. A couple of decades ago, achieving this would have required expensive equipment and technical expertise. However, nowadays, it's possible to accomplish this easily with a free, web-based tool, and I opted for moises.ai.

Here's what I did after logging in with my Google Account:

  • Uploaded the mp3 file.

  • Selected the basic multi-track separation option and clicked submit.

  • Moises.ai added it to my song files.

  • I clicked on the file, and Moises.ai analyzed and separated the tracks.

  • I adjusted the volume of the Vocals track so it was quieter but still audible.

  • Finally, I clicked Export, and voilà! I had a new file ready for the concert.

Be sure to check out the quick tutorial video below to see how it's done!

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