I was trying to think of some technology tools that I have used in the past to teach music, and I came across "Smart Music." Some of you may be familiar with Smart Music. I first used it during one of my student teaching placements. Smart Music is a computer program designed for students to help with practicing. It does so much to help the student. It has a variety of levels of exercises, and has a huge library of repertoire for each instrument so the student can hear a solo piece they are working on. Let's say we are talking about a clarinet student working on a clarinet and piano piece. The student may choose to play through the piece, or sections of it, along with the clarinet. He or she can eliminate the piano part so they can listen to their accuracy with their instrument. In the same respect, the student is also able to eliminate the clarinet part and play along only with the piano part. This is great for many things, one of them being ensemble. Especially when you are teaching in a school with a ton of students and limited one-on-one teacher/student time, this is a wonderful tool.
Another thing I particularly love about this program for the students is that the student has control over the tempo. The program also will respond to mistakes by marking what was wrong in which measure. This is great to train the student, because the student can go back and listen to the correct way, and then the way they played it.
The teacher I was working with at this particular placement used Smart Music for student homework. Especially around competition times such as NYSSMA and All-County, he would have students do specific things with Smart Music, and then the student would burn their recorded progress on to a cd or simply email it to the teacher. That is another wonderful thing about this program because the student can not only listen back to themselves, but within that practice time where the teacher could not interact with the student, the teacher could still listen to it afterwards and help the student out with things. I think this is a very productive way to handle the inconvenience of time and student to teacher ratio that so often interferes with teachers being able to give individual attention to students.
I think this is a great program to use with your students if you are teaching music, especially in a middle school and high school. It engages the students and makes practicing a little more fun. It gives feedback when there may be no one around to do so, and it is very interactive. I think this is something that would have helped a lot of students stick with playing had it been around while I was a younger student.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Monday, November 3, 2008
YouTube and iTunes
I have just recently realized how YouTube and iTunes have been such important tools to me as a musician. I have used these over the past few years by myself, in groups, and even in my lessons.
When I am working on a piece, it is very helpful to hear many different interpretations of it in order to help me determine how I want to play it. On iTunes, I can look up the piece and hear a snippet of it to decide if I want to buy it for 99 cents, and on YouTube I can look up videos of people playing it. I really like the amount of results you get on YouTube because there is a variety of ability, and a lot of diversity. (Just the other day I watched an 8-year-old prodigy playing a piece I am working on...!) YouTube is also really helpful because I can SEE the performer. This can help me to compare/contrast performance etiquette, posture, movement, etc. My flute teacher whips out his iPod touch every week in our lesson to show me something on YouTube, and it is really so helpful. They have all the famous flutists, new and old, playing everything you can imagine. This helps with so much...breathing, position of shoulders, mouth/embouchure, air in the cheeks...and so much more. My teacher can just touch his iPod and bring up anything he needs to make a point while he is teaching me. I not only learn WHAT to do, but I learn HOW and WHY and WHO did it and how it worked for them. It's really a wonderful learning tool and it has helped so much. You can also view a number of masterclasses on YouTube, which I look through from time to time. I can't stress how helpful this has been!
Just this week iTunes has helped me a ton on a new piece I am learning. It is a newer piece that hasn't been played too much. It is very difficult, not only because it contains a lot of modern techniques, but because the fingerings are mostly incorrect and not clearly marked. It is very frustrating because not only can I tell that the composer is not a flute player, but I can also tell that he did not take the time or initiative to collaborate with a flutist while writing it. So I downloaded it on iTunes, and I can hear the pitches of the modern techniques for which the composer incorrectly labeled fingerings. From there, I can hear what the composer wanted to hear, and I can fool around with my fingers to find which fingering produces the correct pitch that I hear. Without the recording, I don't know how I would have ever figured that out, because it is a newer piece and I couldn't find any recordings without using iTunes.
It is really incredible that we have such great tools right at our fingertips, and that they are free or inexpensive. These tools are a big help in our growth as musicians, and I hope that everyone is taking advantage of them.
When I am working on a piece, it is very helpful to hear many different interpretations of it in order to help me determine how I want to play it. On iTunes, I can look up the piece and hear a snippet of it to decide if I want to buy it for 99 cents, and on YouTube I can look up videos of people playing it. I really like the amount of results you get on YouTube because there is a variety of ability, and a lot of diversity. (Just the other day I watched an 8-year-old prodigy playing a piece I am working on...!) YouTube is also really helpful because I can SEE the performer. This can help me to compare/contrast performance etiquette, posture, movement, etc. My flute teacher whips out his iPod touch every week in our lesson to show me something on YouTube, and it is really so helpful. They have all the famous flutists, new and old, playing everything you can imagine. This helps with so much...breathing, position of shoulders, mouth/embouchure, air in the cheeks...and so much more. My teacher can just touch his iPod and bring up anything he needs to make a point while he is teaching me. I not only learn WHAT to do, but I learn HOW and WHY and WHO did it and how it worked for them. It's really a wonderful learning tool and it has helped so much. You can also view a number of masterclasses on YouTube, which I look through from time to time. I can't stress how helpful this has been!
Just this week iTunes has helped me a ton on a new piece I am learning. It is a newer piece that hasn't been played too much. It is very difficult, not only because it contains a lot of modern techniques, but because the fingerings are mostly incorrect and not clearly marked. It is very frustrating because not only can I tell that the composer is not a flute player, but I can also tell that he did not take the time or initiative to collaborate with a flutist while writing it. So I downloaded it on iTunes, and I can hear the pitches of the modern techniques for which the composer incorrectly labeled fingerings. From there, I can hear what the composer wanted to hear, and I can fool around with my fingers to find which fingering produces the correct pitch that I hear. Without the recording, I don't know how I would have ever figured that out, because it is a newer piece and I couldn't find any recordings without using iTunes.
It is really incredible that we have such great tools right at our fingertips, and that they are free or inexpensive. These tools are a big help in our growth as musicians, and I hope that everyone is taking advantage of them.
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