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.