This is the time of year when I usually decide to practice a lot of boring technical stuff. Scales in every key, arpeggios, simple etudes—basically, the stuff that's usually pretty difficult to execute in keys with lots of sharps and flats. I think that in my younger years, the combination of Easter (playing a lot of stuff in E major) and big youth orchestra concerts made me associate springtime with "difficult-to-play, sharp keys."

If you're a heavy SmartMusic user yourself, you may have done a lot of woodshedding already—setting up a never-ending repeat of a 2- or 4-measure phrase until it's played perfectly. Even better—perfectly done 7 times in a row. There's some psychological research from the 1950s that makes 7 a magic number for our memory, and a teacher telling me that years ago made it stick nicely in my head. I think he said it 7 times, too.

Pull up a tricky "Twister" exercise in SmartMusic and try the Loop feature. It can be especially challenging to speed up the tempo and loop it through the Circle of 5ths. Give those fingers a workout!

We're happy to announce that—based on feedback from our dedicated SmartMusic subscribers—we’ve enhanced our assignments functionality! The list of updates is fairly long and chock-full of technobabble, but I’ve pulled out some of the choicest ones for you:

• Great news for international educators: the assignments function is now available anywhere in the world! (Contact Customer Support for more information.)
• You can now send comments when you reassign an assignment
• You may choose to allow students to report “non-SmartMusic time” on a practice report
• It's now easy to delete multiple assignments at once if necessary (see the screen shot, above)
• When you assign a unit, it will now display in the order you’ve set up, not alphanumerical order

We’ve already updated the built-in User Manual with information on these, and our Customer Support team is ready to help you with your assignments questions. Other features you’d like to see? Let me know in the Comments section below.

Ten years ago I inherited a wonderful band program from a talented teacher. Included were a large, clean room with well-kept equipment, a great library, and a giant metal bookshelf full of oversized purple binders. The latter struck me as odd. I opened a binder to find hundreds of pages of snippets for sight reading, coded by number and letter. The theory was that you’d have students grab a binder, then, after randomly calling out a letter and number, they’d sight read the associated piece.

It was a great pedagogical tool, but not particularly reproducible because of the difficulties presented by copyright. And those books were huge as they had to offer a range of examples to last each year. They also challenged the structural integrity of music stands, and after a binder fell off and squashed an oboe, I became a little less enthusiastic about the idea. Certainly there was a better way.

Today SmartMusic has introduced ten levels of sight-reading exercises, graded by level. To locate them click on Find Music on the left side of the Home screen to see “Sight-Reading Exercises” as circled above.

These exercises are through-composed by musicians and arranged in increasing levels of difficulty for your students’ benefit. Each exercise opens with a “curtain” down so you can’t see the notation until you click Start Take. Then the curtain is lifted and you have 15 seconds (or longer if you wish) to study the exercise before playing.

Check it out and let me know what you think by clicking on “Comments” below.

Based on your feedback we’ve made it easier for your students to purchase SmartMusic online.

Since most students want to download the software immediately, we’ve made purchasing SmartMusic as a download the default (although a free disc remains available for a small shipping fee). Students will still need a SmartMusic microphone to use the software effectively, but instant access to the software means they can be installed, up, and running when the microphone arrives.

We’ve also made it easy for everyone to manage their renewal choice during the ordering process. Previously, only students could pick whether or not to renew while ordering; teachers managed their subscriptions outside of the order process. Now everyone has the option to renew (or not renew) when placing an order.

Check out these improvements and more by clicking on Store at http://www.smartmusic.com.

Have any additional feedback about our ordering process? Please share it by clicking on “Comments” below and I’ll get it on the list!

In an effort to best safeguard your login data and student records, we’ve recently made some improvements to our security measures.

Today, should you misplace your password, we can automatically reset your password to a random string of letters, numbers, and symbols to be seen only by you. In the past we could track down your old password, which was pretty convenient, but not as secure. Your data is now fully encrypted and no one in the company can decode your password. The same goes for your Security Key.

As a result, should any of your students have used a non-active email address to set up their SmartMusic account, they will need to update the email address associated with that account to access their password.

Another ongoing change is that we’re locking down your student data so that it is only accessible on your terms. What does this mean in practice? Let’s say you call our support staff for help: Today we’ll always ask your permission before viewing your student data–even in the act of troubleshooting.

As we work to finalize these current improvements, you may be asked for your password from our support staff. While this may seem at odds with improved privacy measures, it’s a temporary step as we complete the troubleshooting system.

Everyone at MakeMusic is committed to protecting your privacy and safeguarding your students’ personal data. We’ll never share your information with people outside of MakeMusic and we maintain strict internal confidentiality. If you have additional suggestions, please share them below by clicking on “Comments” or contact our support team directly for a private discussion of your account. We’ll be happy to answer any questions!

Mark Maronde, always looking out for SmartMusic users. (Or is that “out looking?”)

Mark Maronde is the SmartMusic project coordinator. This week we hope to discover what that means, and get to meet one of the behind-the-scenes people.

James Lund: What is your musical background?

MM: I received a bachelor’s degree in music theory and composition from Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. I also did graduate work in choral conducting at Yale and in music theory at the University of Minnesota.

JL: You continue to compose, right?

MM: Yes. I’ve written a lot of stuff for choir and organ, including an anthem that was published by Augsburg, and I recently got my first concert band piece published.

JL: And are you a long-time Finale user?

MM: Since 1997!

JL: Can you tell me what the SmartMusic project coordinator does?

MM: I like to think of myself as the SmartMusic “utility infielder.” As I’m a generalist, I like to do a lot of different things, and this role is perfect for me as it entails many diverse responsibilities. I write the SmartMusic online help, I write and produce the SmartMusic QuickStart Videos, and I manage the SmartMusic Beta program. I also oversee the creation of SmartMusic installers, proofread marketing materials, provide support for the SmartMusic trainers, help with software testing, test the repertoire releases, and do special projects as assigned.

JL: From improving the software in the Beta program, to your work on the on-line help and videos, much of what you do directly helps SmartMusic users.

MM: I’m always looking out for our customers.

JL: Hence the photo.

MM: Exactly!

JL: What are you most excited about in the upcoming version of SmartMusic?

MM: I’m certainly excited about the new sight-singing and sight-reading features, and our new support for vocal assessment. But overall, I’m most excited by the fact that SmartMusic has now come together with all of its new components and its new user interface. Everything is working together – the software, the web pages, and the repertoire – and it’s all working great! We completely rewrote SmartMusic over the past two years, and it’s very gratifying to see all of our work come to fruition.

Teachers and students can now reap the rewards of all our hard work.

I’d like to thank Mark for sharing his time with us and for all his great work in SmartMusic.

Have a question or observation for Mark or me? Please share it by clicking on “Comments” below.

As the end of the school season approaches, music educators have many things on their minds.

How SmartMusic is going to spend the summer vacation might not be one of those things.

And that’s okay! Whether you plan on using SmartMusic on a different computer this summer, or simply plan on returning to SmartMusic in the fall, taking SmartMusic off the school computer before summer break ensures that everything will go smoothly the next time you use SmartMusic.  

The process is fast and simple:

1. Open SmartMusic 2011.
2. Click Subscription in the left navigation panel.
3. Click Move this Subscription to Another Computer.
4. Enter your password and click Continue.
5. Click Continue again to confirm.

That’s it! SmartMusic will now be deactivated and your subscription is ready to go for summer use, or to re‐activate when you return in the fall (even if your school computer’s hard drive gets reformatted while you’re gone).

Have any questions? Please let me know by clicking on “Comments” below!

We have released many updates to SmartMusic since the beginning of the school year. As a result of your feedback we’ve added important functionality, reinstated most “Impact” features (several years worth of them in a few months time), and have refined many minor points along the way.

Here are just some of the assignment improvements we’ve completed in the past month:

• We’ve made it easy to share assignments from your Personal library into the District and State libraries.
• Your feedback on students’ assignments now appears on their Class screen for easy review.
• You can now select how many assignments to view per “page,” greatly improving the gradebook experience in large classes.
• We’ve added some very flexible automated scale and rhythm assignments.

Here are some of the recent changes to how you view and print from the gradebook:

• We’ve implemented powerful filters to help you customize how you view students and assignments in your gradebook.
• The gradebook can now display your students by ID (instead of by name) to ensure confidentiality in parent conferences.
• You can now print your Class Roster and print Progress Reports for each student.

What’s on the horizon? You will soon be able to print reports from the gradebook, and students will be able to view an improved grade report.

What else would you like to see? Let us know by clicking on the "Comments" button below!

We recently released SmartMusic 2011a, a free-of-charge update to SmartMusic 2011. It includes support for the Sound Innovations method book, addresses a handful of minor issues, and adds an easily accessible, stand-alone metronome:

With music open hit Ctrl+m (Command+m on Macintosh) to access this Metronome.

Here’s a related question that’s come up a few times recently:

“It takes months to approve the installation of new software at my school.
Do I have to go through this now, or can I skip the 2011a update?”

If SmartMusic 2011 is working perfectly for you, you don’t currently plan to use Sound Innovations, and you can live without the metronome, feel free to continue using SmartMusic 2011.

Have any additional questions about SmartMusic, SmartMusic 2011a, or the 2010 Minnesota Vikings? Please click on “Comments” below.

Mike Anderson is a software engineer at MakeMusic where he works his programming magic on both the SmartMusic application and the SmartMusic websites. In addition to being an experienced programmer, Mike brings a deep music background and a great sense of humor to work every day.

James Lund: What instruments do you play?

Mike Anderson: Saxophone, and a bit of flute and clarinet.

What had you done professionally prior to joining MakeMusic?

I spent twelve years in the Air Force Band. For six years I was stationed at the Chanute Air Force Base in Illinois where we supported the recruitment effort by playing at high schools throughout a five-state area. I met many band directors and music students during that time. The last six years I was stationed in Germany, performing all around Europe in the United States Air Forces in Europe (USAFE) Band.

I also spent ten years as a C++ programmer at Bankers Systems, which became Wolters Kluwer.

What sorts of music gigs do you do today outside of MakeMusic?

I play a few gigs a year with the Great River Jazz Collective big band; most Monday nights I’m at "Monday Night Jazz" at the Veranda in St. Cloud; I occasionally do theater productions (including a recent run of Jesus Christ Superstar) where I may play sax, clarinet, and flute; and I’ll also occasionally play with George Maurer – who has an annual holiday show (this year on December 22nd) at the Dakota (Minneapolis’ premier jazz club).

Got an Air Force Band story for us?

One of the most memorable concerts I played was in 1990 at Pilsen, Czech Republic.  When I first arrived in Germany to play in the USAF band in Europe there was no slot for a saxophone player in the Jazz Band. I was put into the concert band playing clarinet and I was less than thrilled about it. However, many things were happening in Europe in 1990, including the fall of the Berlin Wall and the opening of the east.

The concert band was sent to Pilsen to help celebrate the liberation of Pilsen by the American Army, the first time this was allowed since 1945! Previously the citizens were only allowed to celebrate the Soviet liberation of the city. We played to a huge crowd and the emotions were evident from the first song we played; many people cried as they sang the U.S. and then the Czech national anthems.

After the concert the band was swamped with people eager to thank us and talk. My roommate and I were led around the city to many small parties and we met tons of wonderful people. It was eye-opening to see that the events of WWII still had such an impact.

Being able to tour the Pilsen brewery the next day only added to the fun!

I know you’re also a SmartMusic user. Do you have a favorite SmartMusic piece?

I like the play-by-ear “Blues Licks” exercises. I also like the “Wynton Marsalis Volume III: Standards.” When I first joined the Air Force Band a lot of the musicians practiced with the Aebersold play-along CDs and I learned a lot by listening to them and improvising myself. The big problem was that the tempos were not flexible. Some were too fast, while others weren’t fast enough. SmartMusic play-along titles have a huge advantage in that you can adjust the tempos! You can also change the keys. Nothing is better for memorizing and really learning songs then playing them in all 12 keys. 
 
If you could have a super power, what would it be?

I don’t know if you’re familiar with “Mr. Big Ears” but he’s got the super power I’ve always wanted. He can hear any sequence of notes and instantly play them back on his instrument. He also recognizes chord qualities instantly. 
 
Good luck with that! I have one final question: Why are you holding a trombone in the employee photograph taken last year?

I left my saxophone at home that day, and had to hold something. Good thing I always keep a trombone in my trunk for just this sort of emergency!