I started taking cello lessons in October 2011. As a music teacher, it’s been a long time since I’ve been a beginner on an instrument. But I figured it was important to experience a little of what my students are experiencing. Cello was the right instrument to choose. I have never played a string instrument before, and am not fluent reading melodies on the bass clef. I do indeed struggle like a beginner.

After four months of working with a private instructor, I was invited to participate in a strings recital at my music school. Of course I agreed to participate, even though I’d be the oldest by about 15 years (and likely the roughest sounding on my instrument—especially for my height).

I’ve been working really hard in SmartMusic, and I’ve heard from both our customers and our marketing materials that it is perfect for accompanying during recitals. I thought I’d give it a shot. (Hey – this will make a great blog post, right?)

I was delightfully surprised to find that the recital performance was very anti-climactic. I showed up about 5 minutes before the recital was to begin (running late as always), and found that I was first on the program (Murphy's law). I opened the SmartMusic tuner and tweaked the knobs on my cello until SmartMusic told me I was in tune. I didn’t need to connect to the internet—I’d been playing my recital tune in SmartMusic for weeks, so it was already downloaded. The tune loaded with lightning speed. The sound guy plugged my laptop into the system. I kicked the USB foot pedal and SmartMusic started my intro.

SmartMusic played the way it plays every time I practice. There were no surprises. I played the way I’ve been playing the last few times I practiced. And then it was over. I handed the stage over to the other participants (whom I’d overheard talking nervously about playing with their accompanist). I shrugged, then went out for a beer with my parents. (I suppose that’s unique from my underage co-participants.)

I will say this: later in the evening at a different venue, I performed on keyboards with a live blues band that was a part of a “Rock Camp for Adults.” I was brought in as a ringer to fill in. The guys got nervous and our show didn’t sound half as good as the last rehearsal. I’m a huge advocate of playing with live musicians, but I was glad I didn’t have two rough concerts in one day. SmartMusic was solid.

So there’s my blog for today. Want to learn a new instrument and perform in a recital with no drama? Do it right: use SmartMusic.

Much has been written, in this blog and elsewhere, about using SmartMusic with young band and orchestra students. Less ink has been devoted to using SmartMusic to guide the development of sight-reading and aural skills, particularly at the college level. MakeMusic’s Leigh Kallestad recently spoke to Matthew Shaftel, Associate Professor of Music Theory at Florida State University, about how SmartMusic has been implemented in their programs.

Leigh Kallestad: What is your role at Florida State University?

Matthew Shaftel: It’s my eleventh year as a faculty member at FSU. I’m a trained singer and I have my three degrees in music theory and music education from Yale University. My job here entails teaching upper-level graduate music theory classes, upper-level undergraduate classes, and music theory core classes; basically the whole curriculum.

Each year 340 freshmen and sophomore students take sight singing and ear training. We needed a way to guide their aural skills training in a productive and focused manner, but this was virtually impossible to do to the extent we wished with the available human resources. Today the students are all using SmartMusic.

LK: How did you guide aural skills before you used SmartMusic?

MS: Since we have such a large group, it has been a challenge to find a way to give them guided practice. We tried three different textbooks before my colleague Evan Jones and I developed and adopted our own textbook. We tried two different computer-assisted instructional models, and an older model of pre-recorded practice CD’s with live singing juries before we settled on SmartMusic. Basically, we were using various software programs for dictation practice, but were completely dissatisfied with the products. In all the cases, there were a number of support issues, and crashing made them virtually impossible to use. In addition, we were seeking a solution that could accommodate real musical repertoire.

That’s about the time that we looked at SmartMusic. The SmartMusic gradebook had just been developed and I realized that the SmartMusic instructor/student suite intersected our own materials perfectly.

LK: You were using SmartMusic before we had vocal assessment content. Did you create your own content?

MS: Yes. We developed these materials over a two-year period. The first year, we experimented with SmartMusic; by the second year we decided that we were just going to adopt it for all 340 students. We released a chapter of the materials and a set of SmartMusic exercises each week. It was very intense because overall, we have between 450 and 500 excerpts drawn from real music.
Some of these are just short excerpts, but others are entire pieces that have been arranged for multiple voices. These excerpts are drawn from a broad range of styles--Folk music, popular music, etc., but the majority of the excerpts are classical works that have been adapted for multiple student voices. The idea is to replicate a real-life musical experience while providing exercises of increasing difficulty.

LK: Did you have the students singing harmony exercises?

MS: Yes, and that’s one of the things that we found lacking in other software. We wanted students to sing melodies, harmony-lines and bass lines, but always with other parts playing. That’s one of the places where SmartMusic really excelled. In fact, it’s really the only option.

LK: Have you adopted a curriculum for your aural skills classes?

MS: Yes. Our book has been through three major revisions and we are in the process of our fourth revision, which I’m really happy about. We have developed units for each week; we have a good sense of where we are going and how our aural skills assignments interlock with a written theory curriculum. Things have been very smooth.

LK: How do you compare your aural skills class results using SmartMusic to your pre-SmartMusic days?

MS: There is no question that there is a vast improvement. Here’s what I really love about SmartMusic: When students are sight reading a line with SmartMusic, they are invited to participate in a musically relevant process. They are thinking about dynamics, they are thinking about articulation, and they are thinking about harmony, because all the other parts are participating in them. Also, SmartMusic encourages a musical fluidity, which is such an important aspect of literacy. That fluidity (because of the cursor and the ability to draw students through an exercise at certain tempo) means that when they go to their studio teacher and are asked to sight read something, they are able to replicate a complete musical process with a certain level of musical fluidity. We are getting reports from the studio teachers that they are happy with the skill level of our students.

On the written tests, it’s very clear that the time that they have put in practicing their aural skills has really paid off. In fact, that’s one of the advantages of SmartMusic, because I can see exactlyhow much time a student has spent practicing. Also, I can see that they have practiced regularly and that makes a huge difference.

LK: Have your students been able to transfer their aural skills SmartMusic experience to other parts of the SmartMusic program?

MS: Yes, especially the students who see teaching in their future. They begin to see that this is a tool that they can use throughout their careers and in many contexts. I think that it’s pretty obvious to them that this is the way to go.

There is a local middle school teacher that graduated from our program just last year. She is aiming to get SmartMusic at school and use it with her students.

LK: What would your advice be to other music teachers that are dealing with aural skills classes?

MS: The old paradigms of aural skills are falling out of favor, and with good reason, because they focused on a curriculum that is more than 100 years old. In that curriculum, you only learned intervallic, note-to-note reading, often in less-than-typical musical contexts, but it really wasn’t successful.

In certain national studies, our Florida State University aural skills program using SmartMusic is the top-rated music skills program compared to other universities.

LK: Thanks so much for sharing your story with our readers. Do you have any closing comments?

MS: My colleagues and I are all energetic people that just can’t rest with “lukewarm.” I would like to see other programs find better ways to prepare their students for what is out there today.

I’d like to thank Matthew and Leigh for sharing their insights with us. Please share yours with us too by clicking on “Comments” below.

Tomorrow is the first day of the Midwest Clinic, an international band and orchestra conference held in Chicago every December. Music educators from around the world attend this event to discover new techniques, literature, and other tools to aid them in guiding their students in the pursuit of musical excellence.

Being selected as one of the groups to perform at Midwest is a once-in-a-lifetime honor; only the top 2% of applicants are accepted. Among the groups selected this year was the honor band from Cross Timbers Middle School in Grapevine, Texas.  In the video above, director Asa Burk talks about how SmartMusic has helped his students to play more challenging material, and prepare to perform at Midwest.

Are you headed to Midwest? Have you performed there? Hve you heard Asa’s students? Have a comment on the video? Please share your insights by clicking on “Comments” below.

It’s your worst nightmare come to life: a big truck races toward your marching band. It’s all part of the job for Brian Timmons, director of bands at Bergenfield High School in Bergenfield, NJ.

Last March I blogged about the Bergenfield band’s appearance on the Today Show, and at that time Brian mentioned that that they’d also recently participated in some scenes for “Tower Heist,” an upcoming film starring Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy. On the heels of its November 4th release, I thought I’d share the YouTube video featuring a few different angles of the band's action scene, just to raise the blood pressure of marching band directors everywhere.

These scenes were shot on two chilly days in December 2010, with the Bergenfield High School Marching Band performing as the Macy's Great American Marching Band. You can also catch some even more exciting (albeit shorter) glimpses of the band in action in the official trailers.

Brian was kind enough to offer some details of the experience:

“We received the uniforms from Macy's the day after their Thanksgiving Parade. Beginning Monday, we had two professional costumers and a seamstress at the school for a week, fitting all of the students in uniforms during their band rehearsal period. We also had a casting associate on site to process all of the film permit paperwork. By Friday afternoon the uniforms were tailored and on their way to Manhattan. Miraculously, it all fell into place in time for a 5:00 A.M. call time on Saturday morning.

The students met at the school early in the morning on both Saturday and Sunday and were brought into NYC on buses. The band's holding area was at a private school near Lincoln Center, a few blocks from the set. There, they relaxed and worked on schoolwork while waiting to be called to the set. They also were fed very well from craft services.

When we arrived on the set, the director explained the scene to me. He explained that it was an action/chase scene, which I already knew. I wrongly assumed, however, that it would be Ben Stiller or Eddie Murphy running through the band on foot, chased by an FBI agent. Instead, it was a vehicle chase, with a box truck being pursued by an unmarked FBI car! Fortunately, just as I panicked for the safety of our students, a crew of stunt people came on the set dressed in the same uniforms and carrying rag-tag instruments. Throughout the shooting, it was always the stunt actors near the vehicles—our students were safely out of harm's way.

Just this week, our Friends of Music organization rented out our local theater so that the students could see themselves on the big screen.

This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for our kids (actually twice for me and a few older kids, since we also appeared in "Bounty Hunter" with Gerard Butler and Jennifer Aniston). The opportunity to experience the inner workings of a major motion picture film set was priceless. Now we just have to wait for the casting director to call for our next film!” 

Had any near misses with your marching band, or care to discuss something more closely related to SmartMusic? Let us know by clicking on “Comments” below.

Last month I shared a video clip of Ben Harloff, the Brass Staff Technique Specialist with the award-winning Carolina Crown drum corps. In it Ben described how SmartMusic is perfect for drum corps, in part because SmartMusic makes it possible for students and teachers to work together over great distances.

Clearly other drum corps are discovering this too: At least ten world-class DCI corps incorporate SmartMusic into their recruiting and training programs.

The video I've shared above is a second, shorter clip where Ben describes how SmartMusic has transformed the productivity of Carolina Crown summer camps, and how music fundamentals are part of the secret of their success.

Are you using SmartMusic with your drum corps? Please share your experience by clicking on “Comments” below.

Most of us first began our musical study with a method book. While I can’t recall the color of any of my other grade school textbooks, I retain a vivid image of my first method book: It clearly represented an important doorway in my life.

When you think of how many lives a popular method has the potential to shape, you begin to appreciate the awesome responsibility it is to create one. This is clearly a task that should only be entrusted to our best and brightest; people like Bruce Pearson.

Bruce Pearson is a world-renowned music educator, author, composer, conductor, and clinician. He is also a highly awarded music educator with more than 30 of experience. Bruce is the author or coauthor of several methods found in SmartMusic, including Standard of Excellence, and Standard of Excellence Jazz Ensemble Method.

SmartMusic recently added Tradition of Excellence, a new method Bruce co-wrote with Ryan Nowlin, and Bruce was kind enough to speak with me about it.

Scott Yoho:  Your Standard of Excellence is a hugely popular and influential band method. What did you set out to do differently in Tradition of Excellence?

Bruce Pearson: Perhaps I should first clarify that Tradition of Excellence is not an update of Standard of Excellence. It’s a whole new, different book that combines new teaching techniques along with new technology. Frankly, communicating this is a challenge, because Standard of Excellence continues to be a very popular book.

SY: So both methods will continue to have separate lives of their own.

BP: Yes!  Both Standard of Excellence and Tradition of Excellence will have separate lives of their own. Tradition of Excellence starts with new teaching methodology, as well as technology.

Regarding methodology, for example, it’s very clear that we’ve employed what’s called the “sound before symbol” music reading approach. While this was incorporated in Standard of Excellence, I think Tradition of Excellence makes it more apparent, and the sequencing of it is stronger, and therefore it’s easier for kids to learn how to read music.

Another motivating force, and one of things we hear time and time again as a pedagogue, is: “How do we deal with the diverse and varied skills of students?”

Of course this speaks to differentiated instruction or differentiated learning, or in some cases, differentiated testing. We built all three of those into Tradition of Excellence so that kids of varying abilities and skill levels can progress at their own level of competency or their own achievement level.

We’ve incorporated three full concerts with band arrangements in the book. I did a few, but most of the compositions were created by my colleague Ryan Nowlin who was an extremely successful educator in the Cleveland area, and is now serves as staff arranger for "The President's Own" United States Marine Band.

We changed pacing and sequencing between the two books, and added greater emphasis on rhythmic development.

SY: Can you talk about how SmartMusic and Tradition of Excellence work together?

BP: Let’s face it; SmartMusic is the industry leader, recognized worldwide as an effective assessment tool. So when we built in differentiated instruction/learning/assessment it was with SmartMusic in mind. I’m grateful for the relationship between our two companies.

Of course, we’ve only scratched the surface of Tradition of Excellence here. I should point out that it offers three entry points: for private lessons, for instrument class instruction, and for large ensembles. I should mention that in combining the latest technology with new and classic pedagogy, Bruce believes it provides teachers a way to “enter the students’ world rather than always asking the student to enter the teacher’s world.” Ultimately, I’ll have to leave some of the details to the Tradition of Excellence website.

As I casually mentioned to Bruce how I anticipated difficulty in properly detailing everything included in Tradition of Excellence in a brief, readable blog post, he explained: “This is the world I live in. In writing these method books it is a balancing act. We try to be as thorough as possible without being overwhelming.”

Tags: pearson, bruce, tradition, standards, excellence

Meet SmartMusic Teachers | Scott Yoho

The Technology Institute for Music Educators (TI:ME) is a non-profit whose mission is to assist music educators in applying technology to improve teaching and learning in music. I recently spoke with TI:ME president Amy Burns about her personal experience with technology in the classroom.

Bob Grifa: From receiving the first TI:ME Educator of the Year Award in 2005 to becoming the President of TI:ME, you have long been a champion of using technology in the music classroom. What inspired you to use technology as part of your teaching? 

Amy Burns: When I completed my undergraduate degree in the mid-1990s, technology was not a requirement for the music education degree. I began teaching elementary general music where a colleague received a grant to install a 16-keyboard SoundTree lab in her music room. A year later, she left when her husband relocated. I didn’t know much about the technology in her room, but thought it best to get on board and learn about the technological tools that could enhance my curriculum.

I heard about TI:ME and took TI:ME Level 1 and 2 courses over the next few summers, where I learned from some great teachers, including Tom Rudolph, Scott Watson, Don Muro, and Lee Bilotta. I was inspired to utilize technology in my elementary general music classroom, and as a result I was able to reach more students.

BG: What effect has using technology had on your teaching and your students’ learning?

AB: In my classroom we play instruments, move to music, sing, and much more; technology is simply one of many tools that I use. A few of the more pronounced results I’ve experienced from my use of technology include making it possible for much younger students to compose music (achieving MENC standard #4) and helping me to relate better with all my students.

BG: Do you have any advice for teachers who are considering the use of technology?

AB: Yes, start small. Using technology in your classroom can be as simple as using an iPod with playlists assigned for each class or grade level that you teach. When you get more comfortable, utilize networking tools like TI:ME and Musicpln to connect with other music educators so you can bounce ideas off each other on how to utilize technology in your classroom. Finally, when planning to use technology in your classroom, always remember that technology is simply another teaching tool. It is always wise to think of it this way instead of planning any lesson around technology. Let technology assist you in teaching a musical concept.

BG: Have you had the opportunity to use SmartMusic? What do you think of it?

AB: Yes, I use it with my fifth grade instrument class and my fifth graders adore it. They love the quick assessment when they are performing songs from their method books. I enjoy using SmartMusic accompaniments with students working on solos. In my summer graduate courses I’ll demonstrate how SmartMusic can be used in the elementary instrument classes and these students love what they see too. One of their favorite features is the performance and assessment of band scores.

BG: What can TI:ME offer to teachers that are interested in learning more about technology in their teaching?

AB: TI:ME offers many benefits. There are summer courses that teach music educators how to implement technology into their music classrooms. There are articles and newsletters with great information about software, curriculum ideas, and more, plus we provide grant and research information to members of TI:ME. One of the greatest benefits is the lesson plan database, where members can access over 600 lessons, written by music educators, ready to implement into their classrooms. I’d encourage everyone to check out TI:ME today!

BG: I couldn’t agree more, and would like to thank Amy for sharing her personal experiences with us today.

Are you familiar with TI:ME? Do you have questions about implementing technology? Let us know what you’re thinking by clicking on “Comments” below!

Back in April the SmartMusic Blog featured Jane Minnis. Jane had approached the MakeMusic booth at an MENC conference with questions about using Finale to scan music in order to create a SmartMusic accompaniment. Why? Jane’s students found that SmartMusic made a big difference in their practice, and they needed SmartMusic accompaniments for all their pieces.

For today’s post we’d like to offer a short follow-up from Jane:

“I wanted to let you know that the Darien High School Orchestra earned a Gold rating and an Adjudicator's Award trophy at the Heritage Festival in New York City on Saturday, April 30th. We received a score of 93 from all three judges. All of the students agree that it was the use of SmartMusic that helped them receive that score. In fact, instead of saying "Cheese!" for their post-performance photo, they said "SmartMusic!"
 
Thank you for all of your help teaching me how to scan a score into Finale and create a SmartMusic file. It has been an amazing addition to my teaching bag of tricks!”

Congratulations to Jane and the Darien High School Orchestra!

Have any questions or observations about creating your own accompaniments – or anything else? Please let us know by clicking on “Comments” below.

Joe and Clara, both Kenyon-Wanamingo 5th graders, practice with SmartMusic.
Clara won the top prize, having practiced more than 1000 minutes in the two week event.

What if you could simultaneously provide your students with extra incentive to practice AND raise money for your music program?

That’s what Claire Larson set out to do with the Practice-A-Thon.

Claire is the director of bands at Kenyon-Wanamingo middle- and high school in Kenyon, Minnesota. She created the Practice-A-Thon to inspire her 5th and 6th grade band students to practice longer. Here’s how it worked:

• Students approached family and friends asking for pledges of support. These could take the form of a flat donation, or on a cents-per-minute basis.
• All funds raised would be used to purchase new music for the school’s 5th-6th grade band program.
• Claire contacted local businesses to donate prizes to award the students based on who practiced the most. Everyone who practiced more than 200 minutes became eligible for drawings of the three grand prizes, including an iPod.
• Parents indicated the time their student practiced by signing a practice record form Claire provided.

The Practice-A-Thon took place over two weeks, from Sunday, Feb 27, to Saturday, March 12. That weekend students collected from their sponsors and turned in the donations on Monday the 14th. The band’s spring concert occurred on Tuesday the 15th where the prizes were awarded.

How did it turn out? Claire provides the details:

The Practice-A-Thon was very successful. This is the first year I've been at this school and also the first Practice-A-Thon that I've held. One of the great things about this event is that it is 100% profit while at the same time it improves the level of playing in the ensemble AND invests young students in their band program, empowering them to make a difference.

It was rewarding to see kids invested in practicing and making such incredible progress. We raised $550, the majority of the students participated, and an audible improvement was noticed. For a small, rural school with 80 members in the 5th/6th grade band, it was a good effort in fundraising. Now I will work on tweaking the practice a thon for next year.

While SmartMusic wasn’t a required component of the fundraiser, it’s a big part of Claire’s program:

I used SmartMusic at my previous positions at Brooklyn Center Jr./Sr. high school and New Prague area schools and have found that the results are remarkable. Kids enjoy practicing with SmartMusic and the accompaniment helps to solidify the rhythms and pitches, which are challenging for young instrumentalists.

I introduced SmartMusic here this year and have been using it in various capacities in each band. I use it in my lessons to accompany students as they play. I use it to assess students on scales, and I use it as a component in Band Karate, an idea I got from a master teacher, Julie Spindler, in New Prague, MN.

Band Karate is my system to incent students to practice ‘forward’ and achieve various milestones throughout the Essential Elements book. It has inspired students to work ahead in their book and go for 100% mastery.

I choose different numbers in our Essential Elements books, which progressively test students for understanding and mastery of technical skills as they advance through the book. They receive strands of colored ribbon to tie on their instruments once they achieve at least 80% accuracy in playing with SmartMusic. They work through the different belt colors until they arrive at black, the most difficult exercise towards the back of the methods book.

All in all, Smart Music has come in handy in so many different ways!

I’d like to thank Claire for sharing her ideas and enthusiasm. The Practice-A-Thon and Band Karate are great examples of creative ways to encourage students to excel. What creative means have you developed to challenge your students? Please share your ideas or questions by clicking on “Comments” below.

Richard Meyer rehearsing for the Robbinsdale (MN) School District’s Spring Orchestra Festival

On Saturday, March 12, 2011, 600 orchestra students, in grades 4-12, performed together under the direction of composer Richard Meyer.

As someone who finds it challenging getting his two preschoolers into their respective car seats, the above photo fills me with a sense of awe. I recently spoke with orchestra director Jeanne Kauffmann about how it all came about:

The idea for this festival was first hatched at the 2009 Texas Orchestra Directors Association convention in San Antonio. A middle school teacher from California told me what a wonderful experience her students had in a clinic with Richard Meyer. Since my students have loved performing his compositions, I decided to pursue the possibility of having Richard conduct our annual spring orchestra festival.

In the off-chance that someone reading this is unfamiliar with Richard, I should say that he is a nationally recognized, best-selling composer with more than 130 compositions and arrangements in print. He is a sought-after clinician, a string editor at Alfred Publishing, and the coauthor of several string method books, including the popular “String Explorer” Series, and, most recently, “Sight-read It for Strings.”

When Jeanne contacted Richard in the spring of 2010 he agreed to conduct the clinic. As Richard lives in Arcadia, California, we can only assume Jeanne downplayed the fact that the clinic would occur in Minnesota in March.

Because of the enthusiasm Jeanne’s students had shown Richard’s music in the past, it was easy to create a program for the event made up primarily of Richard’s compositions. A complete list of what pieces each group performed can be found in the event program.

Jeanne describes Richard’s visit below:

Richard arrived on Friday, March 11 to conduct separate clinics with the Robbinsdale Middle School and Plymouth Middle School during the school day, and a combined clinic with our two high schools, Armstrong and Cooper, on Friday afternoon. The middle school students absolutely loved the clinics and many asked for autographs.

I was impressed that 60 students came in after school on a Friday afternoon to work with Richard for 90 minutes – playing his works and participating in a Q and A regarding his inspiration and compositional process. Many students cited specific compositions of Richard’s that were personal favorites, and a few asked about his involvement with SmartMusic.

The day of the festival we set up 600 chairs, each with a post-it note bearing a student’s name. They arrived at 1:15 in shifts and started rehearsing at 2:00 until 5:00. The rehearsal went so well that Richard was done with the elementary students a half-hour early, simply because they knew their music so well from rehearsing with the string accompaniments in SmartMusic.

We were totally dumbfounded! This event always seems to run out of time, especially with the elementary students.

The high school rehearsal was wonderful as well. Richard had developed a relationship with many students since they had attended his clinic the day before.

The concert was a huge success. Before each piece, Richard discussed its inspiration with the audience and students. The finale, a Sandra Dackow arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s Trepak, was performed by all 600 students (the elementary parts were written in Finale and saved as SmartMusic accompaniments for elementary rehearsal). Even Richard was impressed with the size of the event and the quality of the performance.

Many parents have commented that this was the best festival we have ever had, and what an amazing experience it was for our students to work with Richard. We are thrilled with the results and with the wonderful opportunity our students enjoyed. Almost immediately we began to wonder: What can we do to follow this?

I’d like to thank Jeanne for her great work and for sharing the story and the amazing photo with us.

Jeanne Kauffmann has more than 22 years experience as a music educator. She has taught at every level from beginning strings to college chamber orchestras. She is currently an elementary orchestra director in the Robbinsdale School District. A long-time supporter of SmartMusic, Jeanne can be seen sharing her thoughts on getting started with SmartMusic in this YouTube video.