The 21st Century Music Program

I've written about it already: Music Education must shift (as most of what we do in Education must shift now). But I haven't given a prescription for the shift. I'll focus on music education first since it's where I've spent most of my career.

Once upon a time, as the world was changing and going digital, music was right out front as one of the game changers. Since people love music, they wanted music. As digital formats and broadband increased so did the possibility that music could be made available for next to free. A huge demand ensued. Enterprising individuals with some coding know-how made it possible for people to find music online. That's the beginning of the story and how P2P networking changed the world. The rest is known to us. Napster and other websites that allowed free sharing of music and other copyrighted material were targeted by the RIAA and the copyright wars began.

Now, new modes of distribution and consumption are in place, money is paid to the artists and the world is changed. Of course, the illegal stuff still happens and will continue to-until we radically redfine and de-criminalize file sharing. But it was larely a demand for MUSIC that inspired the whole digital-everything movement. And As Chris Anderson will tell you, once things are digitized, distribution costs are almost nill for a gizzillion copies of the same file (mp3, mp4, .mov, .avi etc..).

So where does secondary Music Education fit into this? Prominently, I think. Center Stage, if you will. Teens and music go hand in hand. They "do" music all the time. In these times, students are downloading, manipulating, re-mixing and listening to music daily. What happens when they come to music "class". What is happening in "General" Music Classrooms today? Do students ever hear "their" music? In a 21st Century Music Program, they should. Do they use technology, loop-based composition software to make their OWN music? In a 21st Century Music Program, they should. Do they get to create and remix music the way they do in the real world? Do they get to download and keep their music as Mp3 files? In a 21st Century Music Program, they should. Is You Tube ever used in music class? i-Tunes? In a 21st Century Music Program, they should be.

It's an important shift because in a 21st century Music Program, there is potential for many more students to be part of the program--shifting it from the old Band/Chorus paradigm and justifying it solidly to School Boards. When you turn all students into Artists, it's difficult to cut a program. That's possible in a 21st Century Music Program.

How SMARTMUSIC is Legitimizing Music Education

In music (band) class, we identify misconceptions, make note of them and make sure to re-teach each individual student in need of such "response to intervention". We have always operated this way and always will. Anyone teaching right now knows that "RTI" is one of the current buzz words in Education. Here are a few more:

• Standards-based education
• Differentiated instruction
• Using data to drive instruction
• Performance-based assessment
• 21st century learning
  

Did you know that educational objectives are being met in music education programs using SMARTMUSIC software in the band and choral music curriculum?

HOW SMARTMUSIC HELPS STUDENTS LEARN

SMARTMUSIC is the name given to software now available for use by music teachers and music students (MakeMusic, Inc.). Smartmusic is described as "learning software with the power to transform music learning. Students of all ages and skill levels can play or sing with professional accompaniments, making practice both rewarding and fun." It is quietly revolutionizing the field of music education. When used, it transcends expectations, fixes misconceptions and ensures steady progress by student musicians. And best of all SMARTMUSIC can be discussed using an educational lens.


SMARTMUSIC IS STANDARDS-BASED
Smartmusic allows students to perform music along with accompaniments or to simply play a line of music at a time. Music standards such as reading music, understanding and executing musical instructions (articulation and dynamics, for example) are addressed within the context of each composition, exercise or folk song.


SMARTMUSIC ALLOWS FOR DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION
SMARTMUSIC contains music at a variety of levels from basic to advanced. A teacher can assign specific exercises for each student depending on their specific needs (to address misconceptions and weaknesses). These assignments are delivered digitally (via e-mail and by the student signing into the Smartmusic database).

ASSESSMENT IN SMARTMUSIC IS PERFORMANCE-BASED
Proper music instruction has always been performance-based since the only way a student can demonstrate understanding is to execute the skill(s) on his or her instrument. Music Education was doing performance-based assessment long before the term became an Educational Imperative. By it's very nature, Smartmusic uses a performance-based assessment model.

SMARTMUSIC IS DATA DRIVEN
Using data to drive instruction is, again, something that has always been done in music education. However, Smartmusic kicks it up a notch. Data are collected as recordings of student performances. These data are automatically uploaded to a "gradebook" kept on Smartmusic's servers. This gradebook looks like a regular gradebook with columns of assignments. The recorded performances are accessed by clicking an icon next to each student's name. Additionally a snapshot of what notes/rhythms students played correctly or incorrectly is viewable by the click of a mouse. Correct notes/rhythms are green in color and incorrect notes/rhythms are red. Intangibles such as tone quality, intonation, articulation and interpretation can then be rated by the teacher using the recording. Based on the strehgth (or weakness) of the data, music can be reassigned or new music can be assigned to address particular issues.


SMARTMUSIC IS A 21st CENTURY LEARNING TOOL
SMARTMUSIC makes use of technology in engaging, creative and meaningful ways to ensure high quality, data-based music learning. Importantly, it is a tool that helps music students and music teachers do what they have always endeavored to do-to learn to be competent, independent musicians and to teach music effectively.

Photo credits:
Nationaal Archief / Spaarnestad Photo / J. van Eijk, SFA003001896.
Saxaphoon by Oude School at flickr

NOTE: This blog is in no way affiliated with Smartmusic or Make Music, Inc. The views and opinions expressed in the post are those of educatioanal blogger Andrew Garcia.

To Survive, School-Based Music Education Music Shift

Music Education is traditionally thought of in terms of General Music, Band and Chorus. But, except in a few schools, the vast majority of students are not enrolled in Band and Chorus.

So, how should we teach music to everyone else? Should reading music be a priority? Notating music? Are these, perhaps, roadblocks to music creation, involvement and enjoyment?

The REALITY is that, even among people who earn a living as musicians, only a full 10% can actually read music. A popular example is Paul McCartney. Would anyone call Sir Paul musically illiterate? Hardly. He's made quite a few dollars in his day as a performing musician.

The shift now needs to be towards experiencing, analyzing and constructing music. We have the tools, thanks to technology, to "compose" music without having to write music notation. Loop-based music software allows us to achieve this (ie...Sony Acid, Pro Tools, etc..). We music educators can and should provide access to these tools for all students in the future. When we do, we may proudly proclaim that EVERY student is a music student.

Using Creative Commons To Create New Works

In the last post, I provided a link to better help (music) educators understand how they can use copyrighted material.

Taking this a step further, here's an excellent introduction about Creative Commons. Go Create!

Confusion Over Copyright In Education

Many educators are shying away from using copyrighted material in class. In most cases, they are being too cautious because they're not aware that they have more rights.

Hoping to clear up the confusion over the "fair use" of digital materials in teaching and learning, a panel of university professors has developed a "Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education."

The document clarifies how fair use applies to the most common situations where media-literacy educators make use of copyrighted materials in their work. It offers guidance for instructors so they can make informed fair-use judgments (including the use of music in education).

My Music Tech Launches Podcast

My Music Tech launched it's podcast (March 28, 2008). The podcast will contain episodes about music education technology and will specifically feature podcasts by music students as they learn about various aspects of music, podcasting and digital audio technologies.

This podcast will be of benefit to school music teachers, technology teachers and anyone interested in learning the basics of podcasting and it's application in an educational setting.

Stay tuned for future episodes. You may subscribe to the podcast at i-tunes. Do a search for My Music Tech. Subscriptions to podcasts are free.

The website for direct links to the podcasts is at: http://mymusictech.podomatic.com/

What Can Smartmusic Do For You?

I have written about Smartmusic before. I'm not interested doing product endorsements but I do believe that Smartmusic represents the future of Music Education. I also believe it represents the answer to the problem of music education. The company that makes Smartmusic, MakeMusic, Inc. is reporting that Smartmusic subscriptions are on the rise. Nearly 90,000 subscriptions so far and growing.

Even before Smartmusic became widely available, I wrote an article called The Case for Technology in Music Education which was subsequently published in the Massachusetts Music News.

How is Smartmusic related to wider School/Education Goals?

• Smartmusic is an assessment tool: Smartmusic uses data to drive learning and instruction.

• Smartmusic stimulates intrinsic motivation. Students rely on their own feedback and desire to "get better" as they do with a video game. Students own their own learning this way.

• Smartmusic encourages healthy competition. Students often make a game or competing against themselves--as athletes do during times of training.

Top 10 Web/Tech Tools For Music Educators

Throughout the school year, I often reflect on the changes I have made with regard to instructional strategies. This year has been biggie for utilizing web tools and software in and out of the classroom. As a consequence, I have been more connected to student’s real learning needs. I have also been able to effectively handle the massive ‘data pile’ of student work and assessments more efficiently.

Here are the top ten web tools/applications that made my list this year:

1- FIREFOX WEB BROWSER AND PLUG-INS

Why: Firefox is so feature-rich it’s impossible to capture why it’s indispensable as a web browser. The fact that CTRL-N loads a new page automatically, the fact that with one glance I can see what’s up with the weather (plug-in), and that I can read RSS feeds in SAGE (add-on) without leaving the browser are three important reasons why I love it.
http://www.mozilla.org/

2- GMAIL and GOOGLE WEB DOCS

Why: G-mail tracks Emails as ‘conversations’ this is extremely helpful. It’s labeling feature is primo which reduces the possibility of losing that important Email. Spam is kept way down, too.

Web Docs is the best thing that could have happened to me. Now, I do much of my spreadsheet and database management online. No need to transport files from computer to computer.
Google Accounts

3- SMARTMUSIC

Why: Makemusic, Inc. has cornered the music education market. It’s Impact grade-keeping system should become standard for all music program assessments before long. With thousands of exercises and music files to practice along with Smartmusic is serious stuff. And, oh yeah, students can Email their assessment data from home!!
http://www.smartmusic.com/

4- CANON LIDE SCANNER

Why: I promised myself that when the digital age was apparent that I would ‘digitize everything’!! This was about 8 years ago when scanners were way slower than they are now and when 8 MB was a tremendous amount of space. This is, of course, no longer the case. Scanning documents (student work, for example) takes seconds instead of minutes now and takes up considerably less space. Also, Finale Notation software (which I also use) allows importing of scanned music.
Canon Scanners

5- PDF CREATOR

Why: It creates a PDF of any file you have. For free. End of story.
Get PDF Creator

6- FOXIT READER

Why: It reads the PDF documents I have created using PDF CREATOR (scanned student work, for example again) and it takes up considerably less space on my hard drive than Adobe Reader. It’s also less intrusive.
Foxit Reader

7- BLOGGER 2

Why: Once Blogger Beta was released, blogging became so much more user-friendly which meant that kids could handle it. I use blogger as an informational resource for parents and students. Links include calendar of events, student assignment blogs and general information about our program. Students keep blogs as alternatives to practice plans. They answer specific music-based questions via their blogs and are free to comment on my blog and their classmate’s blogs. This has given students ownership of their work for which they seem grateful.
Blogger Tour

8- RSS READERS: SAGE READER, BLOGLINES and NETVIBES

Why: XML files rule. RSS has allowed me to scan news, education and music tech headlines quickly and easily, keeping me in the know. I also subscribe to my student’s blogs via RSS Readers such as Sage Reader (available for use with Firefox), Bloglines, Google Reader and Netvibes. As soon as students post a new item to their blogs I receive it in the Reader in real time.

Sage, Bloglines, Netvibes

9- i-TUNES AND MEDIA MONKEY

Why: iTunes- Excellent and quick importing and burning of CD’s.

Media Monkey- Extremely easy editing of ID-3 data and exporting of music lists. Supports flexible organization of any music collection and allows quick file conversion. Lifetime upgrade costs $35. Well worth it.
i-Tunes
Media Monkey

10- DIGITAL RECORDER-OLYMPUS-VN-3100PC

Why: Do you ever have a million ideas in your head after teaching a class or reading something compelling but you don’t really have the time to get it down? This is where a handheld digital recorder comes into play. In my case, I would speak into it after each class. I would record what we did, issues that came up and what the homework assignment was and what the follow up should be next class complete with resources I might want to consider. I’d be able to accomplish this before the next class arrived. Later that day or week, during free time, I could listen back and organize my follow up lessons.

Another excellent use is to record your performing ensembles on the fly. Then plug it into a nearby stereo for instant class-assessment. There's is nothing better at capturing music student's attention than a performance of what they REALLY sound like. My mantra is Digital Recorders Don't Lie.

Get a good one here-

Olympus VN3100PC Digital Voice Recorder

So there you are: The top ten web/tech tools that transformed my teaching this year. Go have a great summer.

-My Music Tech

What Is Music Technology?

What is Music Technology when we are talking about a class with the same name?

There are many ways to answer the question but for the purpose of refining the focus of this blog and for the benefit of those who are left wondering, here's a concise definition.

Music Technology by itself can mean digital musical instruments such as digital keyboards and sequencers. In Education though, music technology refers to technological applications (computers, software, digital sound machines, keyboards, etc..) being used to learn about and to create music. The term Music Education Technology might be more accurate but Music Technology works just as well.

Most elementary classroom music programs in the U.S. are still called General Music. This is where basic fundamentals of music are taught and learned. Increasingly, music technology labs are being adopted in secondary music classrooms (Grades6-12). These classrooms usually contain MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) labs where computers are connected to digital keyboards. Software is usually loaded onto the computers that allow for the learning of music via the direct manipulation of keys on the digital keyboards or via the computer mouse.

Some Music Notation programs will actually display notes on the computer screen that a music student plays on the digital keyboard. In this context the keyboard is called a MIDI instrument since it is connected to a computer. Other programs are focused on music literacy and offer game-like lessons that allow students to learn about musical elements such as music notation, scales, key signatures, clefs, time signatures and timbre.

With the increased use of technology in Education and in student's lives, it is well worth a school district's time and expense to gradually adopt music technology programs. The ubiquitous nature of the i-pod is reason enough to go this route. Performing programs such as Band and Chorus should always be a part of every school in the country but music technology programs should also exist to serve the musical interests of non-performing students. In terms of enrollment, these students usually outnumber the performers 3:1.

To learn more, try giving a Music Education Technology Magazine a read. There are many articles and examples to sample.