What
exactly makes SmartMusic so smart? SmartMusic is an online program designed for
music teachers and music students. The mission of SmartMusic really spells out
exactly what the program is all about in an easy-to-understand way.
Let’s take a look at the features and benefits that make
SmartMusic such a smart way to teach and learn music on a daily basis, for
instrumental students, vocal students, general music students, and music
teachers. We will investigate the costs of the program, discuss the challenges
and reasons why not to use SmartMusic, and determine if SmartMusic really is a
smart technological addition to the music education world.
There are
many benefits in SmartMusic for instrumental musicians. There are features that
are relevant to the classroom as well as features to support individual
practice sessions. Within the classroom, teachers have access to a rhythm of
the day feature, which allows the teacher to show a rhythm on the Smart Board
and have students clap, tap, or otherwise perform that rhythm. The rhythms can
also be created by the teacher to address rhythms found in the literature they
are using within the ensemble. Warm-up exercises are another useful feature in
SmartMusic. The teacher can choose from prepared exercises such as scales or
can create warm-up exercises that are individualized to the ensemble’s needs.
The listening library feature provides easy access to quality recordings of a
variety of genres. Using these recordings to demonstrate desired musical
interpretations can assist ensemble members as they work to improve their
performance. Another helpful feature within the listening library is the
ability to isolate individual voices or instruments, which can help the teacher
to focus on problem areas for the individual parts.
The
features that support individual or small-group practice sessions include the
availability of methods books, immediate feedback during practice, tracking of
practice time, assessment options, and other features such as tuners and
metronomes. There are a large
number of popular instrumental method books available within
SmartMusic. The books can be opened in the program, and individual songs viewed
during practice time. The teacher can make notes for the individual student
within the method book, in a manner similar to traditional method books. When
the students are practicing at home, SmartMusic not only provides immediate
feedback in the form of colored notes (green notes were the ones played
correctly and red notes were not played correctly) but also by computing a
percentage score based on the performance of the piece. Student practice time is also tracked. The
program notes the time actually spent playing, and not the time taken to set up
the practice area or putting the instrument together. The teacher can observe
practice patterns and habits and help their students to understand the
importance of practice outside of the classroom. The program also can be used
for assessment purposes, where the teacher creates an assignment and the
student records their performance of the assignment. These assessments can be
useful for grading purposes as well as for evidence when conferencing with
parents or administrators about the effectiveness of the music program.
Finally, features such as tuners and metronomes can assist students with
details like pitch, intonation, and tempos when practicing at home.
The
benefits for a vocalist in SmartMusic are similar to the benefits for an
instrumentalist. Within the classroom, the teacher can use the included warm-up
exercises or create individual exercises to focus on elements of which the
ensemble is working. A very important feature, especially to the ensemble
director who may be piano-challenged, is the availability of rehearsal
accompaniments for individual pieces. Using these accompaniments during
rehearsals allows the director to be free from the piano and instead focus on
the singers. Again, there are a variety of vocal pieces available from the
SmartMusic library for this purpose. These accompaniments would also be
beneficial to students practicing their music at home, where a pianist probably
would not be available. Individual practice times and assessments would be much
the same for the vocal students as it is for the instrumental students.
Several
features of SmartMusic seem to lend themselves easily to the general music
classroom. The daily rhythm feature could be used with all grade levels in a
variety of ways. Students could simply clap the rhythms or they could use
classroom instruments to play them. The rhythms could be used in discussions of
note values or time signatures. They could also be used to have the students
experience other musical elements such as tempo or dynamics. The listening
library could be used to provide students with quality musical examples. Within
the listening examples, the teacher could isolate an individual voice to
emphasize timbre or other musical elements. The composition tool feature could
be used as a whole-class exercise with students taking turns manipulating the
notes on the SmartBoard. The playback feature would give the class immediate
feedback on their compositions and allow them to easily revise and improve
their work.
There are
several features within SmartMusic that would be beneficial to a teacher as
well. There is a gradebook feature where the teacher can set up classes, enter
assignments, and have the student grades recorded right in the gradebook. The
SmartMusic program also has a feature that allows teacher accounts to be
combined, which would be helpful if the teacher had classes in several
different buildings. The composition feature could be used to write or arrange
music for specific needs or ensembles. Using the SmartMusic program with
students for individual practice allows easy communication between school and
home, where the parents are able to quickly see what their child should be
working on, and how their student is performing on those assignments.
The current
pricing for SmartMusic seems to be fairly reasonable. There are many features
and benefits for teachers and students who opt to purchase a subscription to
the program. One notable piece of information involves the cost of a student
method book versus the cost of the SmartMusic subscription. One method book
that is available in SmartMusic (for the basic program at $4 per year) can cost
nearly $10 when purchased online. For beginning instrumental students, the
basic program would probably provide enough material to work with as they learn
the basics of their instrument.
When
comparing the benefits of SmartMusic to the limitations, it seems that
SmartMusic might be the “smart” way to go for music educators and students. The
largest concern that I can see is the availability of internet for all
students. Those students in rural, low-income areas may not be able to afford
or have access to internet at home. This would prohibit them from practicing
their instrument at home. If internet access is not an issue, SmartMusic seems
like a low-cost, high-benefit program for music students. When looking at the
teacher side of SmartMusic, one could argue that many of the benefits could be
achieved for free in other ways. The rhythm of the day could be written on a
chalkboard or whiteboard each day. The music recordings of various pieces could
be found on YouTube or publisher websites. Students could compose music with
paper and pencil, or using other free online tools like Noteflight, MuseScore,
or Finale (which is a part of the SmartMusic family within the MakeMusic
company). Teachers have been creating assignments and grading them for many
years without the assistance of technology. All of these arguments are valid
but having these features in one easily-accessible place just makes sense.
After all, technology should support our teaching of music. As Dorfman (2013)
states, “technology is an important means by which we can teach music –
introduce its concepts, reinforce them, provide experience, provide practice,
assess and evaluate achievement, structure aesthetic interactions, and do all
the educational activities that make learning music a distinct, artful
pursuit.”
References
Dorfman, J. (2013). Theory
and practice of technology-based music instruction. New York:
Oxford University Press.
SmartMusic. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.smartmusic.com
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