SmartMusic Everywhere-- Tips For Enrollment

www.SmartMusic.com

There is more than one way to get SmartMusic.  We go with the school volume purchase plan at our school.  There is also more than one way to activate your student accounts.  I like to have kids do all this themselves, but you could activate their accounts for them (I may be the World's Worst Typist, so, NOT IT!)

After living with our SmartMusic roll-out for a couple of days, I think the easiest approach to activating an account is to start with your favorite browser, point it to www.SmartMusic.com and follow the "Redeem a Code" button.

There you will be asked to select a new account or existing account.

In classes with beginners, you talk your way through the process as new account members.  There will be a lot of questions to answer and at the end there will be a place to put in your code.

In the older classes, walk them through the existing customer route.  There will be fewer questions to answer and at the end, there is a place to put in your code.

After the code is used to activate the account, try the program.  If you used the browser to get in to activate the code, you need to start SmartMusic and login.  Login as an "Existing Customer" because once you have an account activated with a code, you are an existing customer.  (That may seem obvious to you, but with younger kids...)

This changing from the browser to SmartMusic may be where most of my kid problems are.  But, if you make them aware that you cannot do anything other than redeem the code and you have to switch to a SmartMusic app or program to do the work, the kids seem to get it.  I tell kids that you need to quit the browser and test your login in SmartMusic.

When they get into SmartMusic, those of you using the educator subscription need to have the kids "Enroll" for your class.  There is a clearly marked area for classes and a button there to enroll on the home page.  Older students may be asked to update their information as well.

My first SmartMusic Assignment this year had nothing to do with playing notes into SmartMusic.  Instead, I told kids there were going to get a grade for enrolling in class.  That did make for a flurry of activity on the deadline day, but I think that beats having problems trickle in.

I also had a couple of my very helpful older students in the practice room area (we have 5 stations for SmartMusic there) to trouble shoot for kids that were having problems.  Gave them a chance to be helpful and sped things up for the people who needed help.  I may be have a couple of future teachers here!

Last year the process for SmartMusic was install, activate and enroll for class; all done in SmartMusic.  This year the process is more like activate/renew your account and open SmartMusic (install it if you need to.)  This new approach seems more natural and easier to follow.

I know they have taken some heat for the new pricing plans, but there is something there when SmartMusic talks about the advantages for the end users when they license users and not devices.  Not having to activate the software on the end use machine is easier.  (And there is the iPad app and the ability to install SmartMusic in more than one place.....)

All of this is pretty easy to show with a IWB or projector in class and worth the time to do that.

So browser to activate the account, SmartMusic to test the login and enroll for class.  That's it in a nutshell.