SmartMusic

SmartMusic Announces New Print on Demand Feature for Thousands of Titles

MakeMusic Inc., creators of SmartMusic, announces the ability for students and teachers with access to Premium content (excluding free, standard or trial subscriptions) to print thousands of educational titles at no additional cost for the coming U.S. academic year. 

Los Angeles Unified School District Announces Partnership with SmartMusic 

MakeMusic Inc., creators of SmartMusic, have partnered with Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) to provide all LAUSD elementary, middle, and senior high school music teachers and students with subscriptions to the innovative web-based practice and assessment platform. 

Alfred Music and MakeMusic Create New Educator Toolkit

Alfred Music and MakeMusic, creators of SmartMusic, are fully dedicated to supporting music educators. As fall plans are still being determined, both companies are committed to providing a broad range of content and essential tools to assist with planning for the unknown.

SmartMusic Announces Free Subscriptions for Schools Impacted by COVID-19 Closings

In light of the many school closings currently taking place due to COVID-19 concerns, SmartMusic has announced that it will grant free access to teachers through June 30.

Technology Tools to Help Orchestra Students Develop Critical Thinking Skills

When I was a student, my teachers always stressed the importance of listening to myself in order to improve. I will admit that the thought of it wasn’t always pleasant, but once I got over the initial shock of listening to myself, I realized that recording oneself (or one’s group) is one of the best tools available for learning. Now, how do we do the same with our students? How do we teach them the critical thinking skills that go along with listening to themselves and making adjustments?

Technology: Rehearsal Software II

Practice software roundup #2: The Jazz Edition

In my last article, we looked at three software packages used for performance training. These practice aids have advanced assessment options that “listen” to the performer and evaluate for correct pitch and rhythm. While each has its strengths and weaknesses, they all could find a place in the student’s toolkit of practice aids.

SmartMusic, the most full-featured of the three, provides an ever-growing library of titles of both solo and ensemble music as well as a cloud-based grade book solution for the teacher. The cost, while not outrageous, is a subscription model that the student would need to pay every year in order to gain access to the SmartMusic library.

Technology: Rehearsal Software

Practice Software Roundup #1

"Practice makes perfect!" That’s what my fourth-grade band director said as I struggled to play a BH major scale on my trombone. Practicing was boring – and quite frankly, the only thing I wanted to do was play the glissando at the end of the song. Now that was fun! But practice I did. In between weekly lessons, I diligently went through the scales, exercises, and songs from the Rubank Method book each day, never really sure if I was doing anything correctly because I was too wrapped up in the process of playing; holding the horn, moving the slide, breathing, embouchure, and so on. This was way too much for a fourth grader to be thinking about, let alone evaluating what was coming out at the end of the bell.

Wouldn’t it have been great if there were somebody or something that could listen to me practice and at least tell me if what I was playing was correct? Well, today, with the ever-increasing power of computers, the patient “listener” can sit beside your students and let them know if they’ve played correctly – to a point. Let’s look at three software applications that purport to do just that.

2014 Best Tools for Schools

Educators Highlight the Best Teaching Tools from the 2014 Winter NAMM Show

The annual Winter NAMM Show in Anaheim California is the place where hundreds of thousands of musical instruments, accessories, and related products are debuted to industry insiders. For the fourth consecutive year, educators at the music products convention combed the exhibit halls looking for the best products for classroom use in an array of different categories. Using an online voting process at sbomagazine.com and hard-copy ballots from attendees, music teachers made their selections, which culminated in a presentation of the 2014 Best Tools for Schools from the Winter NAMM Show.