Week 4 Reading/Viewing Reflection

I am an advocate of teaching students to become independent musicians. However, I find it easier to teach private students to become independent musicians because teaching students one on one allows time to show that student how they can individually develop as a musician. In order to teach a group of students to become independent musicians we often have to rely on technological aids in order to offer individual attention. Recommendations of implementing technology as an aid in developing the psychomotor process for our students is what I found to be most valuable this week. The technologies in this reading that I find most valuable in my classroom are videos, SmartMusic, and audio recordings. These three technologies are invaluable methods in developing the “cognitive stage,” the “associative stage,” and the “autonomic stage” in our students (Bauer, 2014, p. 80).

I have developed a method in teaching my beginning brass students how to develop range. I have successfully taught this instructional method for over ten years in my private instruction practice. I intentionally do not use music notation during this process and pride myself in having students learn this process by rote. The method starts by trumpet students lip slurring Low C to G (2nd line). Once they develop this, I teach them the notes in between C and G. I then teach students how to lip slur to a high C, which is followed by learning the entire C scale. I then continue this process until they have developed their range to the G on top of the Treble clef. Once we reach this point, I teach them the entire Circle of Fifths and the chromatic scale from F sharp below the Treble clef to the G they have just learned how to play. I have had much success with this method, and have successfully transfered this method to the other brass instruments. It has been such an invaluable method for my private brass students that I will develop a video of this method for my beginning band students in my district.

I am constantly asking myself how I can get my students to practice more. SmartMusic and recording practice sessions are two methods I can introduce to my students to help motivate them to practice. SmartMusic has become the industry standard in helping students to practice, and for teachers to assess their students. SmartMusic offering students the opportunity to develop skills like technique and improvisation, and offering accompaniments to help develop these skills are quite valuable. What I find most valuable about SmartMusic, and recording practice sessions, is its ability to provide feedback. Bauer mentions that receiving feedback from SmartMusic, and listening to recorded practice sessions, are both methods in developing students “metacognition and self-regulation” (Bauer, 2014, p. 86). Teaching students how to develop these skills is crucial in teaching them to become independent musicians. I currently do not utilize SmartMusic due to the financial constraints of my district, but will often times record rehearsals. Prior to playing the recording for the students, I will have them fold a piece of paper in half the long way. On one side of the paper I will have them write general comments on how the piece could be performed better as a whole, and the other side of the paper are comments and/or questions about individual mistakes. We will then write notes on the whiteboard on how the piece could be better as a whole. I will then plan subsequent rehearsals to address these issues and have students ask individual questions as the piece of music evolves.

References

Bauer, W. I. (2014). Music learning today: Digital pedagogy for creating, performing, and responding to music. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Chromatik and SmartMusic Reflection

This week was the first time I had heard of Chromatik, and I have found that it offers a plethora of performance and educational opportunities for students. As I explored this website I find that it is easy to navigate, easy to use, and is intuitive. Once you develop an account, it is easy to access sheet music and videos of 100s of songs. Students are constantly asking me where they can find sheet music for their favorite songs. Now I know the perfect website to send them too. Educators are constantly being asked to implement technology in our classroom, and Chromatik is one of the many solutions. For example, Chromatik offers numerous scales notated for all instruments. Students can access this website to practice scales, and listen to model videos of these scales being performed properly.

As I explored the website, Chromatik offered that this program can also be used for sight reading activities during rehearsals. Students would only need a method of accessing the exercises during class (e.g. iPads). Teachers would decide which songs they wish to use for the sight reading activity, and students can access the song for their instrument with their free subscription. This website can also be used in a guitar class setting as well. This website offers six lessons for an introduction to guitar class and an endless amount of songs for students to access. These six lessons include learning how to tune your guitar, and learning how to read tab. I am not a guitarist, but have always wanted to find a way to teach my students how to play songs they would enjoy playing. I plan on using Chromatik in my guitar class this school year as an incentive to students learning the assignments that I give them. Once students have completed a tested assignment, I will let them sign out a chromebook from the library. At this point, they can log onto Chromatik and learn a song that they would enjoy playing.

 

Smartmusic has become the industry standard for assessment in performing ensembles. It is easy to navigate and is intuitive in use. Smartmusic is intended for assessment, but it does not need to be used for educational purposes. It can also be used for entertainment, and for general personal practice purposes. I have many music educator friends who use this program for their own practice. I do not use Smartmusic for my personal practice but did use it in my student teaching experience. This program is incredible for student learning because it offers a built in tuner and metronome, an endless amount of technical exercises to develop musicianship, and an endless amount of repertoire to keep student interest. Its most important offering is the ability to give students immediate feedback once they have recorded an assignment. When students start playing an instrument they often have a difficult time distinguishing what needs to be corrected when practicing. Having immediate feedback from smartmusic allows students to develop their skills immediately instead of having to wait until the next time they see their instructor. The main selling feature for educators is the gradebook feature. Once students submit an assignment, the grade Smartmusic gives them is compiled into a gradebook that only the teacher can see. 

The purposes of these programs seem quite different in the short amount of time I have been able to explore them. The main purpose of Chromatik is to be able to access songs that students would like to learn. Its lesser but still relevant purpose is the educational material that it offers. In the help section of this website, Chromatik admits in wanting to develop the educational aspect of the program however they realize their limitations in this aspect. Smartmusic is quite the opposite. The main purpose of Smartmusic is the educational aspects and the development of students as musicians. This program is quite developed and has become a standard in music assessment. Although these programs are quite different in their purposes, the one common thread they have is their consistency in music literacy. Chromatik and Smartmusic both concentrate on students having to read music notation when learning songs. All to often, especially in learning guitar, instruction is focused on learning by rote. Although learning by ear is an important aspect of being a musician, becoming musically literate is also an important aspect of being a musician.

Week 3 Reading/Viewing Reflection

Teaching students how to compose is an essential portion of a child’s musical development. The reading this week was based on how teachers should approach teaching composition. Bauer stated two common approaches to composition: “standard music notation,” and “non-notational compositional strategies” (Bauer, 2014, p. 59). Prior to reading this week, I believed that students should know how to read music in order to compose music. However, the following statement changed my thought process entirely: “Skilled teachers can use this as an entry point to further develop students’ musical understanding” (Bauer, 2014, p. 60). With new technologies, a student can learn how to compose without being musically literate. If a teacher is doing their job properly, we can teach the students who are not musically literate to become musically literate through using technologies like Soundation, Mixcraft, and GarageBand. This reading has inspired me to change two things about my Electronic music class. First is to be more involved in the process of teaching students to compose using Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs). Second is to teach these students to be musically literate through composing in DAWs. In the past, the projects for this class has been set up where I would hand students directions on how to set up a project. I would then give them minimal feedback on how they were progressing. Then we would move on to the next project. I believe I had done this because I felt that I was not comfortable with the technology. After reading this week, I want me and my students to be more involved with the compositional process and to become musically literate. I am inspired to make this class more rigorous for me and my students.

As a first year teacher, my cooperating teacher was a wealth of knowledge in music technology. He was the previous Electronic music teacher and was able to set me up with everything he had taught in that class. Over the last few years I have found myself becoming complacent. After this week’s readings, I feel rejuvenated due to being able to understand concepts of this subject better than when I started. Although I had heard of these terms before, Bauer’s explanation of the following concepts clarified how these concepts work: connection between soundwaves, frequency/Hertz, and amplitude/decibels; differences between analog and digital recording; and the the way he categorized audio file types by “lossless” and “lossy” categories (Bauer, 2014, p. 31). I absolutely have a better grasp on these concepts and can bring these concepts back to my Electronic music class.

All the applications that have been used in this class thus far has been useful for many different reasons. Soundation is no exception. The sharing capabilities of cloud-based programs are always valuable. Although there was only a limited time to explore Soundation, I find the loops in Mixcraft and GarageBand to be better quality. In regards to my musical practice and performance, I find that I can just work quicker in Mixcraft or GarageBand. In my current teaching situation, I do not find Soundation as beneficial in my teaching and student learning since Mixcraft and GarageBand are easily accessed in my building. There is always a value for any resource for music teachers. Especially when it is a free, and cloud based program that allows teachers to supplement their program.

References

Bauer, W. I. (2014). Music learning today: Digital pedagogy for creating, performing, and responding to

music. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Soundation assignment

https://soundation.com/user/scosta7/track/soundation-original-composition

Writing this composition was interesting because it is essentially the same first assignment my Electronic music students do with Mixcraft. My goal for this assignment is the as the goal for my students which is to explore, experience, and become familiar with the new program. My other goals were to compare how this program worked in relationship to Mixcraft, and how I could use this program in my curriculum. The musical considerations that I had when developing this song was to write something with a definate form, hence the AABA form. As I listened through the loops, there were no loops with a good melody. I then used the loops as an accompaniment and used my MIDI track as the melody track. As I was working on this composition I never considered this song representative of anything. However, “Love Me Tender” by Elvis Presley was the model in my mind when composing this song.

One aspect of Soundation that helped my creativity was the ability to search similar style loops. The ability to develop a foundation accompaniment using loops, in the same style, allowed more time for creativity with my melody. This was also a tool that allowed my workflow to go quicker. However, being able to use the virtual keyboard from my computer keyboard was the tool that helped my workflow more so than the loops. I have a MIDI keyboard that I could not get to work with this program. Although the Virtual Keyboard was mentioned in the tutorials, it was the tool that best helped my workflow. The alternative was to enter the notes individually using the piano roll which I found to be time consuming. Working with Mixcraft for many years I was challenged with the limitations of Soundation. Soundation was intuitive but the free version was limiting with the options of available loops. I was able to work around these limitations for this assignment and with more time and getting the premium version I will become better adapted to this program.

Soundation offers many things for students of all ages including the option of developing their compositional and aural skills. One of the guiding beliefs of Music-COMP is to “Begin composition with structured guidelines” (Bauer, 2014, p. 60). A lesson I could use Soundation with is by developing an accompaniment within Soundation that would be the foundation of student melodies. Once I develop the accompaniment for this assignment the students would copy and paste the accompaniment from my account to their student account. Then the assignment would be to compose two four measure melodies. One for the A section and one for the B section. The goal for this assignment would be to teach students about basic song form and how to compose a melody. I am unsure whether students would take positively to Soundation. GarageBand being free on all Apple computers and Mixcraft being relatively cheap for PCs, I do not think students would find many benefits to this program.

References

Bauer, W. I. (2014). Music learning today: Digital pedagogy for creating, performing, and

responding to music. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Bicycle Built for Two

Bicycle Built for Two

Noteflight has many educational benefits but I have found many detriments to its use as an arranger/composer. The educational benefits include that it is free and cloud based. The free version makes this program a good introduction to notation software with intuitive notation input. This program being cloud based makes it easy to use in an educational setting. In my current position, we use chromebooks which would make Noteflight ideal since it is cloud based. Having cloud based capabilities allows students to share their work with teachers for the purpose of grading, and with other students for the purpose of collaboration. I would use Noteflight in my theory class. I would start by teaching the rules of four-part harmony. I would then have them write a short composition using Noteflight. This allows students to develop their auditory skills in many ways. It would help them hear wrong notes and correct them easily. It would also help them hear when they are breaking the rules of four-part harmony (i.e. parallel fifths). Even with all these benefits there are some aspects of the program that are not beneficial. The two main aspects that I did not like about Noteflight were: the limitations of instrument options, and not having the ability to attach MIDI devices. While setting up the score for this assignment, I was not given the option to add a vocal line in the score unless I paid for the crescendo version. I did not need my MIDI controller for this assignment. However, the tutorials noted that MIDI devices could not be used with the free version of Noteflight. I did not find the user guide extremely helpful when concerns with formating the document (i.e. deleting the metronome marking) appeared. In conclusion, there are endless educational benefits for using Noterflight. However, my preference for developing professional level music notation would be Finale (or Musescore as a free alternative) since it is the industry standard.

Week 2 Reading/Viewing Reflection

Teaching students to use their imagination or to develop their improvisation is an abstract concept. Bauer states that many people “believe that creativity is a rare gift, with only a chosen few being born with creative talents” (Bauer, 2014, p. 48). I do believe that creativity is a rare gift that is often acquired at birth. I also believe that it is a skill that can be developed if one has the discipline to persist. Bauer uses Twyla Tharp, and Stephen King as examples of successful creative people. Baur points that these artists are successful because they are persistent when they are not motivated or inspired to create their work. As a first year teacher I was apprehensive about teaching improvisation to my Jazz/Rock ensemble. I believed I lacked the skills to teach improvisation. I was fortunate to have a guitarist in the class who was skilled in improvisation. He shared how his private teacher (Graduate of the Berklee School of Music) introduced improvisation to him. This perspective in turn gave me a basis in teaching improvisation to other students. This student is a perfect example of an artist who is naturally skilled in creativity, and is persistent in developing these skills.  

I greatly admire teachers who can successfully teach their students to improvise. It is a skill that I have been able to somewhat develop as a musician. However, I have only been able to develop teaching improvisation on a basic level with the help of my student guitarist. The “seven-step sequential model” that Kratus developed for teaching improvisation truly resonated with me (Bauer, 2014, p. 52). It is a process I can follow when teaching improvisation. In my district, students are introduced to instrumental improvisation in 7th and 8th grade stage band. I plan to talk to the middle school band director, and pursue using these steps as a basis of our improvisation curriculum.

I teach Electronic music using the Digital Audio Workstation called Mixcraft. Mixcraft solely consists of MIDI sounds within its loops and Virtual Instruments. I understand that MIDI is data for producing sound rather than audio actually moving through cables. However, it seems that I am lacking some information in my understanding in how MIDI truly works. It would be helpful for me to learn specifically how MIDI was developed and how it works. Teaching Electronic music reminds me a lot of the story of Kate at the beginning of Chapter 3. Many of the assignments which the story described are similar to the assignments in my curriculum (i.e. “composing a soundtrack for a video”) (Bauer, 2014, p. 45). She also reminds me of two students that were inspired by electronic music and are both pursuing a degree in sound recording technology.

Noteflight seems to be beneficial as an educational tool. Noteflight’s largest selling points are  that it is cloud based and free. My school district adopted the use of chromebooks which makes Noteflight a wonderful addition to student learning. All my classes, except two, are taught in the band room. Students developing an account would add endless possibilities of learning in my performance classes. This program could help me teach concepts like: how to transpose, how to transcribe solos, or for personal practice for chorus students. Sharing documents in Noteflight has already made an effect on music education in general. Sharing capabilities allows students to share their work with teachers for assessments, and to share work with their peers for collaboration and fun. Being a Finale user I have found a bit of a learning curve with Noteflight. I found that it took too long to figure out certain tasks (i.e. formatting and layout of a score) that I found to be more user friendly with Finale.

Musescore is beneficial for my own musical practice and performance. Musescore is seemingly similar to Finale which is the industry standard. It is not cloud based, but it is free. Musescore and Noteflight can be used in the same manner if a teacher has computer lab access, and networking capabilities. It is not cloud based which makes online collaboration harder, but not necessarily harder for classroom collaboration. I can still have students work in groups where one person is working on the computer and they are all contributing to the project at hand. I happen to have a piano lab where all keyboards are connected to computers with internet access. I will install Musescore on all these computers and have students develop a Noteflight account. The value of Noteflight and Musescore is endless. I would like to experiment which program will work best for my teaching situation.

References

Bauer, W. I. (2014). Music learning today: Digital pedagogy for creating, performing, and

responding to music. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Week 1 Reading/Viewing Reflection

As I listen and read through the lecture and readings this week I see how technology has made a huge impact on education especially over the last two decades. As a high school student in the late 1990s, I saw the beginnings of what was possible in technology in education. The overarching theme of this weeks readings and lecture is that education has changed from what it looked like 20 years ago. There are so many more opportunities to reinforce content with the use of technology and it is our job as educators to learn this technology and use it appropriately in the lessons that we teach our students. The important perspective that I appreciated this week is that at no point did it state that we should lessen the content we teach. It is quite the opposite, the readings and lecture suggests that we change how we teach it so that the students develop a deeper understanding of the content through the use of technology prior to moving on to new content.

There are a number of ideas outlined in the readings and lecture that relates to my previous understanding of this week’s topics. For example, in my History of Rock and Roll class I use Youtube and a speaker system constantly as visual and audio technology but as the textbook states, these technologies have become commonplace because they are “specific…,  stable…, and transparent…,” (Bauer, 10). Bauer states that the use of recent technologies often makes teachers nervous about using them because they are often used in different ways, they are constantly changing, and it is often confusing how the technology works. I can often relate to this because I find myself being nervous about trying any new technology mainly because I am unsure about how it works. The other concept I had a disjointed understanding of prior to reading this chapter was his concept of “Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK)” (Bauer, 12). Prior to Bauer describing the Venn diagram of TPACK (Figure 1.1), it was obvious to me that a teacher must have “Content knowledge,”  “Pedagogical Content Knowledge,” and “Technology Knowledge” (Bauer, 12). However, Bauer’s explanation of “Content Knowledge,” “Pedagogical Knowledge,” “Pedagogical Content Knowledge,” “Technology Knowledge,” “Technological Content Knowledge,” “Technological Pedagogical Knowledge,” and “Technological Pedagogical and Content Knowledge” expanded my knowledge of how I should understand and implement content and technology in my classroom (Bauer, 13-16). The final concept that relates to my previous understanding was introduced on the “Adopting Technology” slide of the lecture. It explains the different reasons why someone should use technology in the classroom. These paths of adopting technology in the classroom relates to the way that all good teachers think of technology. All good teachers will engineer solutions when necessary, all good teachers will find more efficient ways to use technology when necessary, and all good teachers will find it necessary at some point in their career to use technology because it is there and it makes teaching a concept easier.

The two applications introduced this week through the Professional Learning Network that I see as most useful for my musical practice and performance, teaching and student learning, and to music education in general is Feedly and Twitter. The reason why Feedly is most useful for me is because I see the research capabilities of this website. I can use this website if there is an aspect of my teaching I need more information about prior to presenting to my students. I find myself directly using it with my History of Rock and Roll Class when there is something that happens in the music world and I can share it with my students. With this being said, I see the value in Twitter when it comes to sharing the information I find on Feedly. I see myself making a “History of Rock and Roll” group on Twitter where I can post information about what is happening in the music world. For example, I wish I would have known about Feedly over the last school because of the deaths of many of the music legends I could have shared with my students.

References

Bauer, W. I. (2014). Music learning today: Digital pedagogy for creating, performing, and responding to music. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.