March 11, 2024

Making Music in the Classroom with Online Sequencer

Making Music in the Classroom with Online Sequencer
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Season 6

It's time to crank some tunes! This week we talk about an awesome music tool! OnlineSequencer.net is an incredible free online tool that allows anyone to create their own music masterpieces! With access to a huge range of virtual instruments, from classic pianos and guitars to synthesizers, drums, and beyond, students can arrange loops, adjust tempos, and experiment with different sounds and textures using the easy-to-navigate interface.


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Transcript
Shanna Martin:

Thanks for listening to the Tech Tools for Teachers

Shanna Martin:

podcast, where each week we talk about a free Piece or two of technology

Shanna Martin:

that you can use in your classroom.

Shanna Martin:

I'm your host, Shanna Martin.

Shanna Martin:

I'm a middle school teacher, technology and instructional coach for my district.

Fuzz Martin:

And I'm her producer and husband, Fuzz Martin.

Fuzz Martin:

I don't have a pun this week, but I just have to say that I,

Fuzz Martin:

uh, I'm warning you in advance.

Fuzz Martin:

I am going to be distracted by this tool, which I have only played with for about

Fuzz Martin:

three minutes and I love it dearly, so.

Fuzz Martin:

Just, uh, just wanted to say

Shanna Martin:

happy episode one 78,

Fuzz Martin:

happy episode one 78,

Music:

uh, buckle up kids.

Music:

So,

Shanna Martin:

yeah, so can't wait for all what's going to happen now.

Shanna Martin:

So, uh, It's a sunny day in Wisconsin and it's freezing outside.

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Yep.

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And this week, it's been a busy week and I've been supporting a

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lot of stuff and having some great conversations with different teachers.

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And I was at camp last week and I got to talk to a bunch of teachers there.

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Anyway, so it's been in my brain for a while now.

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As I've been talking to more and more music teachers, new music teachers,

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music teachers have been teaching for 20 plus years, fresh out of college music

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teachers and their mentors and music education has changed a lot over time.

Shanna Martin:

It depends on the district you're in.

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It depends on the funding you have and it, some teachers focus on music

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theory and some focus on performance and there's different standards.

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There's all these different pieces.

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And so I appreciate hearing all of the different viewpoints is really, I

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mean, music is an art and there's a way to create music and be a part of it.

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And it's so good for our kids.

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And so I was just, I've been putzing around with some music tools because

Shanna Martin:

I love to share, like, I understand when you're in band and you have

Shanna Martin:

live performance, you know, all these pieces, but sometimes there's a sub

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in the room or sometimes you want kids to practice creating their own music.

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And so while this week's.

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Tool is music focused.

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It really can be used in any classroom and it's a fun one I will preface this one

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probably middle school high school because there's a lot of Little pieces to it.

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You could definitely have elementary kids like test this one out on the smart board

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and see what you come up with But there's just a lot of like little intricate pieces

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I would suggest headphones for this one.

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As you can tell, Buzz is already totally engaged in this and not paying attention

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to me at all because he is making music.

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Um, so it's really fun and it's engaging and right off the bat, you can use it.

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So that's what I love about this tool is you can just share this with your kids

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and they can start creating instantly.

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It is free.

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And it is fun.

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So it is called online sequencer.

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net, so just O N L I N E S E Q U E N C E R dot net.

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Online sequencer.

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Oh my goodness.

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So it is straightforward.

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Music creation.

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So you get your soundboard basically, and there's lots of different pieces to it.

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So you can title it, but in your title, there's a little pencil for drawing.

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When you're drawing, that's when you're creating the music, there's a select

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all button, there's an erase button, and then you have your instrument and

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you can choose your instruments and layer the sound, which is really cool.

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So if you start like with, let's talk the grand piano.

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On the left hand side, it's going to give you the different,

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all of the different letters.

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So, you know, ABCD, EFG, so you can see like what piano key would be playing.

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It's also helpful if you read across the bottom of the screen, that it will

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tell you, like, you can be writing music in C major, or you can write music in.

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G major or F sharp minor, or you can pick and choose, which is great to

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have a key guide on there, especially for kids as they're learning music and

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making sure they're applying like their knowledge and learning new things.

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And you can make adjustments to what you want your grid to look

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like and the time signature.

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So if you want four, four time versus two, four time, which also great lesson in

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music and teaching our kids those things.

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And there is an option to add an audio track, which I thought was really cool.

Shanna Martin:

Oh, cool.

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In the end though, when you go to save it, Cause you can save and

Shanna Martin:

export these MP3s, which is fantastic.

Shanna Martin:

It will not save the audio track.

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Which is helpful because then like, you're not plagiarizing

Shanna Martin:

anybody else's songs or music.

Shanna Martin:

So the audio can be there as like, like to guide your sequence, but it will

Shanna Martin:

not save and transcribe into your song.

Shanna Martin:

So that's just something to note, but that's very helpful to put

Shanna Martin:

that audio sequence in there.

Shanna Martin:

So, and then you just.

Shanna Martin:

Layer your music, you start playing your keys, and then you can add, all

Shanna Martin:

right, I got some grand piano in there.

Shanna Martin:

I'm going to shift over to my electric drum kit, and then on the left hand

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side it'll change so then I can see like what instrument I'm going to be playing.

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Am I playing a cymbal?

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Am I playing a low tom?

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Am I playing a kick drum?

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Because we love a good kick drum.

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You can build that into there and you just layer your different instruments.

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You can layer your different instruments in to your music.

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So then I'm going to like put some electric guitar in there.

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It loads the electric guitar.

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I'm going to play that into my song and it loads into different,

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they're different colors.

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So you can see.

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Across your screen.

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It's also super helpful if you're back along the top, there's like the little

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cloud, which is your save button.

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But if you look at like the square ish one, it gives you full screen because

Shanna Martin:

there are ads on this site, so it gets rid of those ads while you're creating

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your music and you can see a full screen.

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You've got all the different instruments there and you can

Shanna Martin:

just create and create, create.

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And when you feel good about it.

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I don't right now, but I'm going to hit play anyway.

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There's a little triangle up plan, left, left hand side of the screen.

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And it will play your song for you so you can create and play.

Shanna Martin:

And I found, cause I actually made a little link to like a drum.

Shanna Martin:

I prefer percussion when you're laying out the drum piece, like it's kept playing

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and you can add in while it's playing.

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So you can like hear it and add in your instruments and what you want.

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For your, like your drum beats and stuff in the background.

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And you can build a whole song together all within the space.

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And there's a little erase button.

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So if you don't like it, you can highlight and just erase what you had before.

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You can constantly play back and add and layer your music into there to

Shanna Martin:

like, learn about the different notes.

Shanna Martin:

And like, as you pointed out how the different things sound, it's really cool.

Shanna Martin:

They have a little spot that says like show options and you can lock

Shanna Martin:

different instruments or unlock different instruments, depending on what you

Shanna Martin:

want to loud, like within your song creation, you can copy over parts.

Shanna Martin:

You can copy and paste.

Shanna Martin:

Um, how you doing over there?

Shanna Martin:

I'm fine.

Shanna Martin:

How are you?

Shanna Martin:

Great.

Shanna Martin:

Um, and there's just so many cool ways to create and build.

Shanna Martin:

Songs and music and understand even like just how percussion works.

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And it's kind of cool.

Shanna Martin:

Cause when you're, when you're putting in prescription instruments, even

Shanna Martin:

within, like, if I choose what I picked before the electric drum kit, it's not

Shanna Martin:

just the drum it's going to give me.

Shanna Martin:

So it will give me the symbols.

Shanna Martin:

It will give me those.

Shanna Martin:

I love phone all the different, like, it's not just one instrument, which is

Shanna Martin:

kind of cool, like it gives you everything and you can build on that sound.

Shanna Martin:

In the background.

Fuzz Martin:

There are tons of tools that you can play on here.

Fuzz Martin:

I mean, instruments that you can play eight different, seven different

Fuzz Martin:

pianos, five different drum kits.

Fuzz Martin:

Actually, there's more than that.

Fuzz Martin:

There's MIDI drums and there's classic drums.

Fuzz Martin:

They've got.

Fuzz Martin:

Guitars, just, I don't know,

Shanna Martin:

15 of them.

Shanna Martin:

Yep.

Shanna Martin:

They've orchestra instruments.

Shanna Martin:

So you can go from French horn to trombone to concert harp.

Shanna Martin:

Yep.

Shanna Martin:

That's really cool.

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To the church organ.

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So it's, there's just so many cool ways to create it.

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Like, it's just very straightforward.

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You can create all your songs and like build in your lines of music.

Shanna Martin:

And then when you're done.

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You click the little cloud to save.

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And what's cool is it gives you a link directly to the sequence.

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So you can just copy the URL and you could email it to anybody.

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So you can just share it out with people so that they can hear what you've created.

Shanna Martin:

So if you have students make something and you just want them to

Shanna Martin:

drop it into your Google classroom.

Shanna Martin:

I like that you keep startling yourself.

Shanna Martin:

Like you keep like playing things like, what am I playing now?

Shanna Martin:

Um, but you can save the sequence and have kids drop that URL right

Shanna Martin:

into your Google classrooms.

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They can show you and they can share with their friends and

Shanna Martin:

they can create different songs.

Shanna Martin:

And if you want to go beyond that, when you have the little cloud.

Shanna Martin:

Once you've saved, there's also a little arrow next to there and you

Shanna Martin:

can import as an MP3, export as a WAV file or a MIDI file, and you

Shanna Martin:

can save and copy and share out.

Shanna Martin:

That's how I discovered my, when I went to save my MP3, my Apple

Shanna Martin:

music opened up and I found the MP3.

Fuzz Martin:

Commercial from back when I was on the radio and

Fuzz Martin:

I'm like, Hey, I need a voice.

Fuzz Martin:

Yeah.

Fuzz Martin:

And I read the Dodge County, Wisconsin firefighters picnic.

Shanna Martin:

I did good for you.

Shanna Martin:

From like 2000, 2011.

Shanna Martin:

That was my first, like on mic real experience.

Shanna Martin:

Yeah.

Fuzz Martin:

I need that.

Fuzz Martin:

You need to send that to me,

Music:

use it to

Shanna Martin:

promote the Dodge County fireman's fireman's

Shanna Martin:

put it in my collection of.

Fuzz Martin:

old sounds, old

Shanna Martin:

timey sounds.

Shanna Martin:

But yeah, so like there are so many cool ways to save and have kids create

Shanna Martin:

music and share it, which I love and it's just easy and they can, they can

Shanna Martin:

connect with music and create sounds, which would be really great if they.

Shanna Martin:

Are, you know, building sound pieces into their videos and all kinds

Shanna Martin:

of stuff that they can create.

Shanna Martin:

Um, it's cool.

Shanna Martin:

I, a few, I guess, teacher things to point out with this, as you

Shanna Martin:

continue to push buttons, clearly.

Shanna Martin:

Earbuds or headphones would be really helpful with this.

Shanna Martin:

Because

Fuzz Martin:

not the kid with ADHD,

Shanna Martin:

Um, that's you.

Shanna Martin:

It's fine.

Shanna Martin:

It's um, sequences members.

Shanna Martin:

So there is a chat to be aware of.

Shanna Martin:

I mean, you'd have to like click into the chat, Julie, do anything, but

Shanna Martin:

it's be aware that there is a chat that is not like censored by anything.

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So just, there's a chat there.

Shanna Martin:

Um, and then there's like a forum of.

Shanna Martin:

Other people posting their music and things like that.

Shanna Martin:

So just be aware that that's in there.

Shanna Martin:

But if you stick with online sequencer and have them go full screen, you

Shanna Martin:

should be okay with that and just let students know, like, obviously like be

Shanna Martin:

responsible and check what you need to, but it's really just a very cool tool.

Fuzz Martin:

This is a video game music one that was built by somebody else.

Fuzz Martin:

So

Shanna Martin:

pretty cool.

Shanna Martin:

Yeah.

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Like you can really just create cool music.

Shanna Martin:

There's just so much flexibility and all of that.

Shanna Martin:

Somebody

Fuzz Martin:

created that this morning is

Shanna Martin:

yeah.

Shanna Martin:

Just because some other teacher doing a music.

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Clearly they're more talented.

Shanna Martin:

It's a teacher's

Fuzz Martin:

husband who stumbled upon online sequencer.

Fuzz Martin:

Yes.

Fuzz Martin:

Not a single thing of work was done after that.

Shanna Martin:

But it really is.

Shanna Martin:

It's just a very cool way to be, you know, playing around with music and

Shanna Martin:

using all of those different tools and music instruments and, um, timing pieces.

Shanna Martin:

And it's a very cool way to create.

Shanna Martin:

So on that note, this is definitely not one that you wrote.

Fuzz Martin:

No, this is not one.

Fuzz Martin:

This is Stolz auf Deutschland by a username, William Gorsuch.

Fuzz Martin:

Yeah.

Fuzz Martin:

Wow.

Fuzz Martin:

It's cool.

Fuzz Martin:

I like it.

Fuzz Martin:

Online sequencer.

Fuzz Martin:

net.

Shanna Martin:

Yeah.

Shanna Martin:

Check it out, check it out.

Shanna Martin:

And even if you're not sure about using it with your students, like, check it out.

Shanna Martin:

Like, it's a very cool, just a cool site

Fuzz Martin:

to play around with.

Fuzz Martin:

Yeah, definitely a good way to visualize the music and, you know,

Fuzz Martin:

taking notes from quarter notes and sixteenth notes and see how it changes

Fuzz Martin:

the grid and all of that, the tempo.

Fuzz Martin:

They've got a metronome, all that stuff.

Shanna Martin:

It's really cool.

Shanna Martin:

It's very cool.

Shanna Martin:

So there you go.

Shanna Martin:

Online sequencer.

Shanna Martin:

Check it out.

Shanna Martin:

Great tool.

Shanna Martin:

Shanna.

Shanna Martin:

Thanks.

Shanna Martin:

Thanks for tuning in.

Shanna Martin:

This has been the tech tools for teachers podcast.

Shanna Martin:

If you ever have any questions, you can find me on the app formerly known as

Shanna Martin:

Twitter, smart and WI, or you can visit threads or you can visit me on Facebook.

Shanna Martin:

If you ever want to get more information, thanks to the technology discussed in

Shanna Martin:

this episode, you can visit smartinwi.Com.

Shanna Martin:

If you'd like to support the show, please consider buying me a coffee or two.

Shanna Martin:

Visit buymeacoffee.

Shanna Martin:

com slash smartinwi or visit smartinwi.Com and click on that

Shanna Martin:

cute little purple coffee cup.

Shanna Martin:

Your donations help keep the show going.

Shanna Martin:

New episodes each week.

Shanna Martin:

Thanks for listening.

Shanna Martin:

Go educate and innovate.

Fuzz Martin:

The ideas and opinions expressed in this podcast and the Smart

Fuzz Martin:

In WI website are those of the author, Shanna Martin, and not of her employer.

Fuzz Martin:

Prior to using any of the technologies discussed on this podcast, please

Fuzz Martin:

consult with your employer regulations.

Fuzz Martin:

This podcast offers no guarantee that these tools will work for you

Fuzz Martin:

as described, but we hope that.

Fuzz Martin:

And we'll talk to you next time, right here on the tech tools for teachers

Music:

podcast.

Shanna Martin:

Join the 113th Dodge County firefighters celebration hosted

Shanna Martin:

by the Iron Ridge fire department.

Shanna Martin:

Today, there's a co ed volleyball tournament, a horseshoe tournament.