Quick SmartMusic Tip

I am always looking for ways to make it easier for my kids to use SmartMusic.  I also believe that kids should be gently prodded to use this powerful tool whenever possible.

This week's problematic observation was that students only use SmartMusic if there was a SmartMusic assignment.  

To help with that limited use idea, you could give out a huge number of assignments.  But that makes tons of work for you evaluating the assignments.  

We spent some time talking about what SmartMusic does for you.   Talk about the support for rhythm and fingering SmartMusic supplies and mention that practicing something wrong repeatedly isn't helpful for learning.  Don't forget to remind them it is more fun as well! 

I also found a place to make the method book more prominent!  Yes, "Method Books" is one of the choices in the left hand side "My Library" column.  But there is also a way to make it show up as a big picture on the right side of the student home page.  To do this go into your teacher home page and add your method book to your class and it will show up on the student's home page whenever they log in.  A visual (and much bigger) hint.  Hopefully, your kids will pick up on it.

You know, I bet the next million dollar idea is the electronic method book.  Runs on your favorite pad like device.  Then there is this little icon right next to the line that says "SmartMusic this?"  With the near impending doom of paper printed texts, this pad may be the way we distribute what we tradtionally put on paper.  Why not make SmartMusic more of a part of the text than the text part of SmartMusic?

SmartMusic 2012 is out!

http://www.smartmusic.com/

SmartMusic 2012 is out!

If you have a current subscription it is available for you to use right now.  Just visit the web site and do the download/update thing.  If you are new, I believe that you may download it and try some samples before purchasing.  I think that if you try it you will want it.

The group of musicians with the biggest news with this version are the singers and others who need to polish their sight singing skills.  2012 supports voices.  This may be the version that has been waited for the longest!

Four sight singing books, an exercise book and SmartMusic's own vocal exercises are currently supported.  Hopefully, this is just the start of what could be an avalanche of literature.  This is a good start for what might be the biggest group of musicians that can benefit from the SmartMusic magic.

I have tried it out and it does work with my tired old summer tenor voice and the instrumental mic that I had laying around the house.  If I were going to do a lot of singing I would get the "Garth B" look-a-like kit with the mic that fits over my head.  SmartMusic's accuracy is boosted by having the mic in a consistent place.

I tried the sight-singing exercises that came from SmartMusic and there is something there for every level of student.  You can find what you need to work on in a hurry with this program.  This is a tool I wish I had for my college sight-singing courses.  I could have used a lot more patient practice with feedback on these important skills.

The interesting thing is that you are trying to beat the machine.  This is great "place" to be teaching and there is research to back it up.  Just look-up Serious Games on Google (or Amazon for a book on the topic) to see what I mean.

If you are looking for opportunities to encourage independence in your young singers, this is it.  haven't used SmartMusic before?  Prepare to be the coach giving advice on how get it right to beat the machine.

All musicians (Instrumentalist and Vocalists) can now benefit from SmartMusic.  I encourage you to add this to your program.

IWB and Score Study

I have always been looking for new ways to share and communicate what is in the score with my band students.  In the past this was usually accomplished with lots of descriptions about what is the main melody and what is background supporting that melody.

Great for the auditory learners.  What about the people that would benefit from some visual help?  Wouldn't it be great to do some score analysis with the kids looking over your shoulder?

The office copier here doubles as a scanner, so it really is no big deal to "Scan to PDF" the score for projection on my new IWB.  Throw in the ability to use a virtual highlighter on the score, the ability to zoom into a part to take a closer look and you have a winner.  You can even write in the counting without making a huge mess of  your original.  (I work with beginners, your group may be too advanced for the counting thing.)

Who knows, maybe you will be helping a future conductor learn the craft of score study...

New SmartMusic (Is it 2011 already?)

Good news.  SmartMusic 2011 is out!

This is a major update.  So if you are an old hand at SmartMusic and use it at school, you may want to get this before school starts!

You can download it at http://www.smartmusic.com/Support/Updates.aspx .

The big improvement with this version is the new "look" or interface.  Previous versions of SmartMusic gave you the feeling that you were working in two or three different programs.  You got your assignment on one page and then went to the player/recorder that had a whole different look to do the actual work.  The new version has a more unified feel, more like a well-done web site.  Features and tools are easier to find and use.  A lot of time and thought went into this new version.

There is no longer a choice about play and record...you now just start a "Take." Each take is saved until you hit "Done" and leave the project.  It is much easier to review takes.  You can mark takes to be saved so when you log out and log in again, the "keepers" are still there.  This makes it far easier to find your previous work than previous versions of SmartMusic.  Changing the transport/recording controls will eliminate some of the problems my kids were running into with hitting the wrong button.  Now it is all recorded and easy to find.

You are never too far away from the tuner or the looping tools.  Wow!  These tools were available in SmartMusic before, but you had to jump through a bazillion screens to get there.

Previously, I didn't spend a lot of time teaching kids how to set-up loops for practicing the hard parts.  Now, with that feature front and center, I had better!  This is a very useful feature that has been made much easier to find.  On the longer pieces, students will be working more efficiently by working on the things that need work... Not working on the whole piece to figure out a few problem measures.

The tuner seems easier to read.  Is it bigger?  You still get the old "match the needle" or the "linear" looks to the tuners.  Did you ever wish your kids could spend some extended time with a tuner?  Now everyone can have one.

This is a major update... not just MakeMusic changing the date and saying that there is an update.

Expect the new look to help your students. I am.   I was going to put in a few screen shots, but running SmartMusic and taking them doesn't work on my computer set-up.  I would normally be very concerned about how I am going to do hand-outs for my students, but I know that I will be showing the videos from the SmartMusic web site in class and I am sure MakeMusic will be doing their usual excellent supporting materials to go with the program.  Not to worry.

I have just started scratching the surface of the SmartMusic Grade Book.  Most of the big improvements I've discovered so far are on the student-performer side.  I think the ability to send EXACTLY the assignment you want your students to do is the magic of the grade book.  If you are using SmartMusic with students, I would recommend you do the educator package so you can take advantage of the ability to use the web to send and receive assignments.  SmartMusic and the Grade Book are subscription based programs, so make it part of your yearly budget.  I wouldn't skimp on the Grade Book; it makes life so much easier.

I really am excited about the possibilities this fall with the new SmartMusic 2011!  If you aren't a user, maybe you should take a look.