Student's Respond to All Types of Music!

            As I began chapter five in Music Learning Today, I really enjoyed the opening story about Elizabeth and her difficulties inspiring the general music class to be interested in music. When I first started teaching I also felt lost about how to keep the students interested in playing their instruments. Much like Elizabeth in the text, I started off by force-feeding the students songs from the method book. Many of the students enjoyed the method book music, but several students did not enjoy playing, as they called it, “lame” or “corny” music. I was a new teacher and I was desperate not to lose numbers in the band program in my first year. I asked other teachers in the district what they tried to help with this problem and they suggested I ask the students what types of music they enjoy. Most of the students enjoyed pop or rap music. In 2011, one of the top pop songs was “Dynamite” by Tao Cruiz. It is a catchy song with simple notes and rhythms. I found an easy arrangement of this piece and the students went crazy over it! They absolutely loved this song and when we performed it at the concert, the entire audience was singing along and gave the band a cheering standing ovation. It was one of my most proud moments as a teacher and also something I don’t think those students or I will never forget.

            How students respond to music depends on many aspects such as family background, favorite type of music, exposure to different genres of music and so on. I know many of my students listen to music on a daily basis through their smart phones or ipods. Most of my students enjoy pop, rap, R&B, and gospel, however if I mention a famous composer such as Chopin, Haydn, or even Bach most students do not have any idea who I am talking about. YouTube has been a fantastic resource for me to be able to introduce students to famous composers. For example, one of the most popular songs among the students in the method book is an excerpt from Haydn’s Surprise Symphony. With YouTube I can just look this piece up and instantly play it for my students, and my students enjoy hearing the “real” version of a song they are learning.

Also with YouTube I have been able to look up videos about certain musical techniques that I want to demonstrate to the students. A student asked me about vibrato on a violin once, so I looked up a video on how to produce vibrato on a violin and showed it to the class. I really liked the assignment this week about making our own tutorials. I chose to demonstrate how to assemble a clarinet, which would be an early lesson in my beginning band class. After submitting my tutorial, I thought about how easy it would be to make these tutorials for every instrument, then instruct the students to watch them as part of their homework assignment. This would help students remember how to assemble instruments, or perform other tasks, while they were practicing at home and aren’t able to ask me questions.

Spotify is another resource to look up almost any piece or composer and create a play list to share with your students. Unfortunately for me, I found out this week while attempting to work on my Spotify project that Spotify is among the list of restricted websites on my school’s network. I cannot access certain websites at my schools due to restrictions for children, and Spotify is part of the restricted websites. I am assuming this is because music with explicit language is on this website and the schools do not want students accessing this during school hours.

I was happy to see the textbook discuss the importance of understanding music in order for it to be appreciated. I have always tried to make sure that all the students know how to read their music and learn the notes of the staff. So many students get away with not knowing how to read their music because their teacher just writes the letters above all the notes. This is a practice that I try to use as little as possible, and mainly with students with special needs that participate in band. Just this little amount of theory can increase a students understanding of even basic pieces of music. The text mentions games and apps that use music theory, and I would be very interested to explore some of these to see if there would be anything age appropriate for my beginning students. If there is a usable game available for elementary school children it would be great to use a projector and play the game as a whole class. I may possibly use this idea at the end of the school year after I collect the instruments, but still need material for lessons.

It’s important to listen to your students to learn what learning styles they have and what would work best for the class. Every student responds to music, no matter what genre, in a different way. Finding a healthy balance between “fun” and learning is the best way to connect with students in general, instrumental, or vocal music. This is my way of thinking every year so that I can keep the students in band and continue to improve the instrumental program.

Instruction and Assessment

This week the two chapters we read were about assessment and instructional design. I’m fairly confident with the designs of my lessons and instruction, however I am always looking for new ways to assess the students. When teaching music or any other subject, it is important to be able to appropriately assess the students’ progress. Many times it seems that teachers (including myself!) feel that the only way to assess the students is to give them a test on the subject. While some tests can be important, there are many other forms of assessment that can be very useful, especially to music teachers who do not always deal with written material.

One of the assessments that I use, which is also described in Music Learning Today is a checklist. When the students arrive to their lessons they are supposed to have with them: a pencil, their method book, their instrument, and their practice log. I award points for each item that they bring with them, totaling 20 points per lesson. If the students do not have each item on the list, I deduct points from their grade. Rubrics were also described as being the “…most sophisticated of the three authentic assessment tools” (Bauer 2014). Bauer uses an example of a world music presentation to demonstrate how a rubric could be useful for assessment, but I have also used rubrics for playing tests. Although admittedly I don’t have too many playing tests during the year, when I do, I use a 1-5 rating scale for different components of the students’ performance. The categories are usually tone, tempo, dynamics, notes, and rhythms, and the students will receive a 1-5 rating for each category. Just like the example rubric in Figure 6.3 on page 139, I include a brief description of each rating so the students will know why they received the score that they got. I like this idea a lot because it eliminates the need to ask “how did I get this grade?”. When there is evidence to back up the grade the students’ received, it creates less issues from parents or students in the future.  

Chapter seven discussed instructional design. In Prince George’s County MD where I teach, we follow Danielson’s Framework for Teaching, which includes under domain 1 an element all about designing coherent instruction. When administrators observe teachers, this is one of the main aspects they look for in the teacher’s lesson plans. It was interesting to read about all the different ways to begin designing and implementing lessons. The “backwards” design was especially interesting because it creates a desired outcome before creating activities and assessments to achieve that outcome. As an instrumental teacher, I believe this is something I do regularly for my lessons; I just didn’t realize I was doing it! The outcome for my classes is the winter concert before winter break and the spring concert before summer break. I already know I need to prepare the students for these two programs, so after I determine the dates for these events, I begin to determine which pieces to perform. After this is decided, I begin to plan lessons geared toward performing the pieces I selected. This way, I have a goal to work for and my lessons aren’t just random learning until a goal is decided later.

I also like the idea of project based learning, or PBL that is discussed on page 150. People do not always learn in the same way. Some people may thrive with quiet studying and memorization, while others require much more hands on activities for information to “stick”. Projects are ways that students of any age will be able to remember what they have learned and apply it in a way that is more creative than reciting facts. This is the way we have been learning about technology in this graduate course, and it has really helped me understand how to use and implement these new programs into my teaching. I try to include projects in my classes, but do not use them as much as I would like. In the future, I hope to add more projects about instruments, notes, rhythms, and musical terminology into my lessons to help the students remember these things when the move to middle and high school.

Chormatik and SmartMusic

This week we learned about two performance based software programs, Chormatik and SmartMusic, available on the Internet for free or a low yearly fee. I have been using SmartMusic for many years now, first as a student, then again as a teacher, but had never heard of the free program Chormatik. This program offers free sheet music that can be played on your computer or as an App on your smart phone or tablet. There are several features that I really like about Chormatik, but the main reason I am interested in this program is because it offers popular music that students and adults would want to learn. While I was looking through the music, I saw everything including pop tunes, country, famous Disney songs, jazz, alternative, rock, etc… I could definitely see myself, as an adult, finding songs that I was interested in and learning to play those pieces. I love the annotation feature where students can make notes on the music on their tablets. I also love that the music will turn pages for you and there is a small video at the bottom of the screen so that students (or adults) can play along with the actual recording of the song.  The practice log is also something that immediately caught my attention. I assign a weekly practice log to my students, and about 2% actually complete and turn in this assignment. I have tried several different ways of assigning this, but it seems only the most dedicated of students will actually take the time to write their practice habits down. If there was a platform where the students could record their practice on an App and share it with me immediately, the success of this assignment may be greater than if the students write with pencil and paper.

            My concerns as an educator with using this product are that these songs may be above the performance level of the students I teach.

“Do You Want to Build a Snowman” as well as other Frozen songs, are extremely popular among my students, but looking at the sheet music, there is no way even my beginning students would be able to perform this piece. Several of my advanced students may be able to work through it, but the majority of my students are at a very basic level of performance. However, if I were to assign homework to my middle school orchestra students, than Chormatik may be a useful and effective tool.  

My other concern is that all the special features like the annotation tool, practice logs, and recordings aren’t available on the computer. I do not own a tablet, and I’m sure many of my students do not own a tablet either. I know most have smart phones, however the screen may be a bit small to read the music or to write on. Having tablets seems almost necessary for this software program, which may be a concern for many of my students, and myself. I was also sad to see that the School and Group feature had been removed from the website. Previously there was a portion of the website and App dedicated to schools and groups, but it became to expensive for the company to continue to run. https://chromatik.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/204735875-What-happened-to-Chromatik-for-Schools-Groups- Hopefully this website will be able to bring back the features that they had for teachers and group classes in the future.

            SmartMusic is a program I am much more familiar with. When I was in high school, my teacher would allow us to use SmartMusic in the practice rooms during the school day, and I used it when I went to my teacher’s home for private lessons. In college I used smart music to help with my jazz improvisation and also as accompaniment for the numerous solos I had to perform throughout the years. I even used the accompaniment tool for my jury test one semester when my pianist became unavailable at the last minute. The great thing about that was that SmartMusic was able to follow along with me so if I made a mistake or changed tempo, the program was able to stay with my speed the entire time. Now, as an educator, I wish I could have SmartMusic at all of my schools for my students to use. Not only is it a great way for students to visually see their mistakes, but it makes learning music more fun and interactive, which always keeps young students interested and engaged.

            Since this year I have started teaching middle school orchestra, I am able to use SmartMusic as a practice and assessment tool with this group. Earlier in the year, we held a SmartMusic night where the students and their parents came to the school to watch professional musicians use the program to show all that it had to offer. Parents were then able to sign up for a SmartMusic subscription that evening or take information home that discussed the benefits of subscribing to the program.

I use SmartMusic for our “pass-off” exams that each student must take during each quarter of the school year. I assign 8-10 short songs out of the method book that each represent some musical technique that the group is attempting to improve upon. Throughout the quarter, the students must play these short songs perfectly in order to “pass-of” that exercise. Since SmartMusic has the method book we use already on it, the students can do the pass off assessments at home, and have as many tries as they want to get a perfect score. This allows the students more chances to get a perfect score than if they do the assessment during class time where they only get one chance per class.

            The other features I love about smart music are the ability to change tempos, the endless supply of music to practice sight-reading, and that there are songs in the system for any age group. A beginner from my elementary school could use smart music to practice groups of four quarter notes, half notes or whole notes, while an advanced student at a high school could use it to perfect a passage in a Holst Suite. This software is so versatile, while remaining incredibly user-friendly. In fact, there are many outlets for students and educators to seek out additional support if they are confused or need help with anything. http://www.smartmusic.com/training/ This page shows all the places to get additional training on the software with links to customer service reps, videos, and training guides. If you can’t find what you need on this link, there are also many YouTube videos that can guide a user to the answers to their questions.

            My concerns with SmartMusic are similar to my concerns with Chormatik with regards to the tablet issue. However, SmartMusic is just as interactive on a computer as it is on a tablet or smart phone. As long as the computer is equipped with a microphone, the program can be used just the same as on the App. The other concern I have is the cost of the program. Several of my students have signed up to use this, but many have not and it is because of the cost. For my school, the cost is $40 for a year subscription. This may not seem like a lot for all that is offered, but in the district I teach in this could be way over budget for many parents, especially when they are already paying for other expenses with the instrumental program. Because of this, we cannot require that all students purchase and use SmartMusic. We highly encourage parents to purchase the program, which is the reason for our SmartMusic night, but since it is an extra cost, we cannot officially require all students to obtain the program at home.

            In my opinion, Chormatik seems like an excellent tool for educators, but has a few bugs to work out. There needs to be simpler music for the students to play as well as a more user-friendly version for a computer instead of just for the App. SmartMusic is still my number one choice of educational music software and I would recommend this program to any educator at any level.

Technology and Performance...They go Hand in Hand!

I was so excited that this week we learned about using technology for musical performance! So far we have discussed many methods to use technology for writing music, creating music, and using technology in general music classes. Admittedly I have been struggling to try and figure out where all these different programs and software would fit into my lessons. This week we discussed two types of software Chormatik and SmartMusic. I already use SmartMusic, and discuss this in great detail in my reflection post, so for my thoughts on this program, please read my following responses!

            The chapter starts off by discussing a scenario that I felt like was very similar to my role in schools. I start the day at one school, sometimes an elementary and sometimes a middle school, teach a group class or several lessons, then drive to my next location to teach group classes or lessons there. Although I am not sure if this was a real or made-up scenario, it was encouraging to see that this teacher was able to incorporate so many uses for technology into his lessons, despite traveling to several different locations. Some of the ideas such as using an online metronome, having the students listen to a recording of themselves, watching YouTube videos, and using SmartMusic are things that I already do during my classes. I had never considered things like tuners and metronomes to be “technology” because they seem so basic to me, however, I have to remember that if they are machines used to help the learning process than they are considered technology.  Two technologies that I have told my students to download are the Apps PanoTuner and Pro Metronome. Both these apps are free and are extremely useful for practicing at a steady beat and tuning instruments. I mainly require my strings students to download the PanoTuner App so they can tune their strings at home. This is a consistent problem that I have if we have been away from school for a while on a break or the student has been absent they can’t tune their strings and therefore cannot practice effectively. The PanoTuner App has decreased this problem tremendously, especially in my middle school orchestra class.

            I love how the chapter highlighted the importance of practicing music to improve performance and how necessary it is to motivate students but for students to also motivate themselves. This is something I struggle with every day for the past five years that I have been teaching. During class time, I feel that I can motivate the kids by having fun, telling jokes, dancing, and getting noticeably excited when the students play a passage or notes correctly. However, once the students return home, there is little support from their families, and even though some families may push the students to practice, they may not be able to help them if they are having any difficulties. Making recordings or using the recordings provided with the method books are great ways to show the students that they are on the right track. After reading this chapter, I am considering making recordings of the lessons and emailing it home to families for the students to play along with or listen to. Maybe I could encourage the students to bring flash drives to class in order to send recordings of the music home with the students to use during practice.

            The final portion of the chapter discussed using Ipads or MIDI ensembles. I have never heard of this before, and am curious what this would sound like. As someone who is classically trained, my concern would be that these instruments would sound very electronic and synthesized, which may be hard to listen to for lengthy periods of time. When I was in my college jazz ensemble, one of the other saxophone players owned an EWI (electronic wind instrument), and would use it as a solo instrument for many of his improvisations. It was definitely cool to hear and created a very interesting timbre along with the rest of the ensemble, but I am not sure I could have listened to it for longer than what we used it for. I will have to listen to these ensembles on my own to decide if they are something I want to share with my students. It is definitely a very cool concept of using Ipads and computers to replace traditional instrumentation in an orchestra. It’s quite amazing how far technology has come even from the time I was in school fifteen years ago.