PLN - "Synthtopia"

Synthtopia is a site devoted solely to electronic music. It covers all types of electronic music, including trance, classical electronic music, dance, and synthesizers, and features many informative links, articles, and posts.

PLN - "Impro-visor"

This week, I found a free Java software known as "Impro-Visor," a music notation program designed to help jazz musicians compose and hear solos similar to ones that might be improvised. The objective is to improve understanding of solo construction and tune chord changes. It can also be use to create accompaniment backing tracks. This website also includes various useful documents on jazz improvisation - great for use in middle/high school theory/jazz classrooms!

Reading Reflection - "Assistive Technology"

There is no doubt that the use of "assistive technology" falls into the diversity of learners outcome that we are all so familiar with here at Case Western Reserve University. Assistive technology devices, or mechanical aids which substitute for or enhance the function of some physical or mental ability that is impaired, help us, as educators reach out to all learners with different needs and learning styles - not necessarily "disabilities" or "handicaps". These two previous words often imply that certain students are not able to do something, when in reality, they just do them differently and have different needs, which we as effective educators need to cater to.

How is this relevant to music and the world of music education?. We, as human beings, are inherently musical creatures. Culturally, socially, emotionally, psychologically, and intellectually, music is deeply intertwined into our genetic fibers and whether or not we choose to pursue it as a career path, every child should be exposed to it in order to hold an appreciation of it. And every child means - every child, even children with mental and physical disabilities. Luckily, technology is beginning to facilitate this.

Soundbeam, a device that converts physical movement into sound. Using ultrasonic sensors, the SoundBeam system "detects the speed, gate and distance of even the smallest movements you make with anything from a fingertip to your entire body. These ultrasonic signals are converted by the SoundBeam controller into MIDI information that can then be processed by a sound module, keyboard, or sampler." Because you don't need to be musically trained to use Soundbeam, it allows students with special needs to create music in a different way. They only need to be able to move one part of their body to be able to take advantage of this technology. It can even be connected to a music notation program like Sibelius to convert these sounds into a real-life composition!

In general, I think Soundbeam is an extremely innovative and inspiring tool in the world of music education. Too often do we hear horror stories of children discouraged to participate in musical ensembles because they have certain disabilities that some think may "hinder" the quality of their top performing ensembles. With the development of technology like this, special needs students are getting greater exposure to and have a fighting chance to keep participating in upper-level music courses and ensembles.

Reading Reflections/GIMP

"When students take [digital] pictures and actively use them for purposeful knowledge, you have a dynamic combination for engagement and active learning." -R. McNear

Students love taking pictures as much as they love being in them. While most students aren’t aware of the different types of graphics, they can understand how it’s much more convenient to save pictures onto a disk which can be popped into a disk drive and transferred to a computer right away, as opposed to taking pictures with a regular camera, sending film to be developed, getting the pictures back, and then discovering that half of the pictures they took weren’t usable. They also realize that they have saved the trouble of scanning, saving, and doing a lot of editing of photos, since this is all done on the camera itself. They also learn that pictures can be easily viewed on a screen or Smart Board, or emailed as attachments.

Using digital photography helps the student become more involved in the classroom. The process becomes a cognitive one as the students reason and plan what pictures to take and why those pictures are needed. Random snapshots are okay sometimes, but the students quickly learn to be selective when using the camera. However, for us as teachers, it is easy to feel overwhelmed by new technologies and terminologies; but more significantly, it is more important to feel comfortable with the techniques used to enhance teaching and learning through photography than to understand all the settings on a camera.

On another note, I have found GIMP to be an extremely powerful image editor. with layer and vast range of graphic format support, over 100 built-in special effects, image coverting, all the basic tools like cropping, rotate/flip, pencil, brush, etc. to more professional tools like magic wand, blur/sharp and much much more. And that's just the start - buried deeply in this applications menu and floating tool bars is a dozen of expert sets of configuration tools to fix/retouch even the best of all images. It can make professional looking 3D images or animations in just minutes under a master users hand. GIMP is truly a powerful imaging program amongest Photoshop and other heavily priced products.

The only thing complaint about this application that I am able to forsee is that it's not aimed for the average computer user who may find this program somewhat difficult to use due to the lack of friendly interface, too advanced/complex features and absence of a built-in tutorial or help files. Otherwise, I am very glad to have discovered this program!

PLN - Neihs Kid's Pages

This website is full of children’s songs! Links to the songs include a midi recording of the song and the lyrics, and the songs are categorized by topics, such as patriotic music, holidays, and musicals. There is also a section for “Guess This Tune” where teachers can quiz students on the songs they have just learned. Additional links bring the user to websites about the advantages to children’s songs. This website is great for elementary general music teachers, especially those who teach Kindergarten through 2nd grade. Having a list of excellent children’s songs is a great resource, and teachers can find their way around this site with a lot of ease.

"Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants" Reading Reaction

Because I fall into this category myself, it is easy for me to observe that our current educational system is not always catered to today's students anymore. More than just our clothing style and physical appearances have changed - in fact, this permanent evolution is such a fundamental change that it is known as "the arrival and rapid dissemination of digital technology in the last decades of the 20th century."

What does this mean? Today’s students, K through college, represent the first generations to grow up with this new technology, having spent their entire lives surrounded by computers, video games, digital music players, cameras, cell phones, and many other tools of the digital age. Because of this, we think and process information fundamentally differently from our predecessors. Some think that because of this, our brains have physically changed, but it is certain that at the very least, our thinking patterns have changed. This can be seen in such things as turning to the Internet for information first, or in not reading the manual for a program because we have assumed that the program itself will teach us to use it. Today’s older generation were "socialized" differently from their kids, and are now virtually in the process of learning a new language. And according to scientists, a language learned later in life goes into a different part of the brain. Why is this all relevant? Because one of the biggest problems facing education today is that our Digital Immigrant instructors, who speak an outdated language (that of the pre-digital age), are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language.

With this being said, ignoring the fact that I am part of this generation, educators in general should find a way to embrace this new technology instead of shy away from it. Just as we need to be flexible enough to cater to different learning styles, we must also be aware and take advantage of the background of students and their use of technology, which is something that isn't going to diminish any time soon. In math, for example, the debate must no longer be about whether to use calculators and computers but rather how to incorporate them, from key skills and concepts to the multiplication tables.

In the end, it is HOW the information is presented that is changed because of this - the information taught itself is not what is dramatically different, but the means through it is taught is what must change to suit the lifestyles and personalities of different generations of people and their environments, keeping them as engaged learners.

PLN - "Instrument Encyclopedia"

This website allows you to learn about the multiple facets of instruments you may not be familiar with - a great resource for instrumental instructors. You begin by expanding your search to alphabetical, geographical, hierarchical, and type of material. Hierarchical expands to percussion: idiophones, percussion: membranophones, strings, winds, and electronic. A virtual map allows you to click on an area to get a list of countries in that area; then, click on a country for the icons of each instrument originating in that country. Each search method soon leads to instrument icons, while are linked to descriptions and histories of the individual instruments. The site is beautifully illustrated and orchestrated by the University of Michigan.

http://www.si.umich.edu/chico/instrument/

World Wide Wave Forms/Multimedia basics Readings

It is more than obvious that various forms of technology are highly significant to the success of today's music educators, and of these, the internet is of the utmost popularity these days.

Over all, coding language fascinates me - I think it is the idea that pictures and words can be translated from strings of numbers and commands. Understanding the world of pixels, bits, dpi, PICT, etc is like becoming fluent in another language. But through understanding this language we are capable of having a "prominent Web presence", making our music available everyday, at any time. Any many web-based editing tools allow even those without much experience to easily create and edit our own web pages, provided they have a server that will host the files.

Personally, I am excited to work more with html. Though I am almost embarrassed to admit this, my first experience with it was in middle school on my "Myspace" profile, which could be edited by manually entering html tags. I quickly learned about many of the basic commands for text and pictures through my own research - who knew a social networking site could teach you so much? However, I am now looking forward to using these skills to develop websites I can use professionally to share my music from any location.

PLN - "Reedmusic"

If you are a saxophonist looking for good solo and/or duet/trio/quartet repertoire, this website is for you! There are hundreds of audio clips from professional recordings of classical repertoire. (click here) I have used this a number of times and would highly recommend it to saxophone students who are searching for good music to play and are having trouble finding something they like. There is also a catalog of music for other woodwinds as well.

Check it out!

PLN - "MusicMoz"

This website is full of various resources for the educator, including online magazines and books, worksheets, and dictionaries. There are sections for the students, links about different instruments, and ideas for lesson plans. Some of the student websites are flashy and interactive while others are about different music programs that they can become involved with. Every link comes with a description of what it entails, and there are no pictures on the main site, mainly because of all of the links on it. The links lead to websites that have music playing and are full of pictures and much more detailed information. Overall, this is a great resource for parents, teachers, and students.

Thoughts on Delicious

With so much information readily available on the internet today on virtually any topic, having something to personally organize it all becomes almost imperativel. "Del.icio.us" is an excellent way to do just that.

Del.icio.us is a system for archiving information and discovering new and useful sites, which is constantly adding, reviewing, and filtering new information. The community of del.icio.us allows you to find some of the best resources on the Internet without having to sort through all of the junk, while giving you a centralized management system for organizing information from around the internet.

However, many people are unaware of it’s complete list of features and valuable add-ons. For example, the Del.icio.us Firefox Extension allows you to quickly and easily add sites you like to del.icio.us with a bookmarklet. This tool puts a “My del.icio.us” button at the top of your browser, allowing you to view your save pages at the click of a button. Also, if you’re a fan of Google Reader, then you’ll definitely want to start using Google Reader + del.icio.us. This is a Greasemonkey script that puts an “add to del.icio.us” button at the bottom of each post in Google Reader. With a single click, you will be able to transfer interesting posts from Google Reader into your del.icio.us bookmark collection. There is also a Greasemonkey script called Newsmasher that places a small “del.icio.us” tag on the upper left corner of your browser. When clicked, a small window appears displaying what del.icio.us users are writing about the page you are viewing. This is a great way to get quick feedback on any website you’re visiting.

In addition to all of the features mentioned above, you can also share your latest del.icio.us bookmarks on your websites for all of your readers to enjoy. You can do this using Linkrolls and Tagrolls. (Linkrolls display your latest del.icio.us bookmarks while tagrolls display all of your del.icio.us tags in a tag cloud)

Consequently, of all of the detailed and useful features of del.icio.us, I think this capability of sharing your bookmarks with others is especially relevant to the field of education and music education. Building a social network of resources for teaching and learning is critical since educators must continuously be learning, updating, and increasing their "pool" of knowledge. As colleagues, we can help students through helping each other 'sift' through and utilize the very best of the seemingly infinite amount of data that can be found through the internet.

Week 8 Reading Reflections

Technology continues to create amazing opportunities for innovating teaching practices in the music classroom. While some teachers choose to embrace it while others continue to shy away from it, as music educators, we are extremely fortunate that such music software is making teaching students more effective and fun - and the best part is that no teacher needs to be highly experienced to utilize this technology.

Known as Computer-Aided Instruction (CIA), this selected software is designed to build knowledge and skills specially for music teaching and learning. It is a vital resource for many music educators and includes programs that can be characterized as drill and practice, flexible practice, guided instruction, games, exploratory/creative, teacher resource, and internet-based.

Additionally, one of the newest forms of incorporating Computer Aided Instruction is through the use of the Smart Board, which has opened the door to diversified instruction and has made various connections to the technology that many students have become accustomed to at home. A Smart Board is an interactive white board with the power of a computer. The touch sensitive display connects to a computer and digital projector to show the computer image, allowing you to then control computer applications directly from the display. Students can use a Smart Board with music notation software programs like Finale to compose music in front of the class and then play it with the option of creating MIDI arrangements as well. Educationally, the Smart Board helps with music literacy and increasing student engagement and learning, as well as meet the needs of learners in the music classroom through differentiated instruction and enhaces lessons with visual and auditory stimulation to help all learning styles.

Consequently, another example of Computer Aided Instruction is software-generated automatic accompaniments, which are vastly superior to the traditional metronome and offer recording and style option with instant feedback. For example, middle and high school jazz band programs can benefit immensely from these because students can accomplish soloing practicing along with accompaniments of jazz band charts, listening to and analyzing solos, transposing, and creating loops to practice chord progressions. Also, Smartmusic allows students of all ages and skill levels can play or sing with professional accompaniments, making practice both rewarding and fun. However, it also helps by providing reference pitches to help intonation and looping practice where students can pinpoint particular measures, beats, or phrases to practice at any tempo. I was impressed to fine that it even has a metronome feature that plays subdivisions and multi-meters to help teach certain beat patterns to students.

Overall, students respond quickly to this kind of technology because not only are they used to usingit at home, but practicing can be more fun and rewarding because of it. Keeping students motivated and excited to learn while getting them engaged in and outside of the classroom is a recipe for success that technology plays a significant role in in today's world of music education.

PLN - Websites for Elementary Students

This website is ideal for elementary students. It features interactive games that allow students to experiment with notes on the staff and composing music. Interestingly, the games are not designed to look like music. For instance, in the composition game, students click on leaves to play a note and when you click on the squirrel he applauds you. The website is full of colors and games which would be highly appealing to Kindergarten through 2nd grade students. Also, instant gratification and no wrong answers help to enhance musical creativity for students and prevent frustration.

"Picture This, Capturing Your Sound, Technology Strategies for Music Education" - Week 7 Readings

While the amount of applications for technology to enhance music education is great, many require users to have special skills to utilize this. However, many digital recording tools today are fairly inexpensive and not too difficult to use once you have become familiar with the equipment and learn to manipulate the apparatus and the environment. With the right equipment and knowledge, one can capture the sound of your ensembles and create a lasting record of your students' accomplishments.

One way to enhance such accomplishments of student learning is to get them involved in the recording process. Students can begin by learning how to properly set levels during recording, and over time, they can assist in such activities as processing which can help them develop advanced ear training while gaining a heightened awareness of sound quality.

Speaking of sound quality, when recording a live performance, the main objective is to capture the audio experience from a single audience member's perspective, a goal that is best achieved through a process called distant miking which includes the phases of equipment selection, equipment placement and testing, recording, post-production, and project completion. The first stop in the recording process is to build a recording kit, or essentially the hardware that captures the performance. Once again, the highest quality recording possible is the goal and getting the best equipment for your circumstances is the most effective way to achieve this. A typical kit consists of two condenser microphones, a microphone stand with dual mic adapter, audio cables, mixing console with balanced microphone inputs, an actual recording devices, recording media, headphones, electrical cables, Gaffer's tape, small light source, a digital audio workstation or computer, and some type of computer input for transferring date from a recording device to computer. Local music stores are often the best source of expertise and support in finding the equipment that works best for a specific situation. You can also buy the same equipment from many websites online, which also feature great information.

Over all, s simple audio-editing program can do wonders for your music program. Benefits include effective demonstration of sound concepts, student's heightened carefulness of execution when recording, student excitement and motivation for using the technology and the ability to record examples for digital portfolios and other purposes. And they are all relatively simple to use.

"Music In Schools Today" - PLN

This website includes places to find and apply for teaching positions, information on receiving further educational training, and various ideas to add to your curriculum. The online resources provide lesson plans and places to obtain sheet music and join professional organizations. Several other websites can be found for all grade levels in another section of this website. Students have their own section of the website, which helps them become more motivated to practice, join a band, and have opportunities to contact professional musicians. This website is great for all musicians and is very easy to search through, an excellent website to use for first year music educators and any student with a passion to excel.

Week 6 Readings - More MIDI

There is no doubt that the use of MIDI files have provided music teachers with not only highly valuable teaching tools for their own personal ease and benefit, but have facilitated student growth in such fields as analysis, creativity, theory, and even act as practice aids. MIDI files have, in general, increased the opportunity to use quality computer-developed musical accompaniments in teaching music to children. Furthur, MIDI files as accompaniments can be especially helpful for students when working on solo repertoire during practice or if accompanists are not readily available. Additionally, many instrumental methods books used in schools incorporate MIDI files to practice with that students can use on their own time outside of the classroom.

MIDI accompaniment files are also extremely easy to aquire, many can be found for free online to download, or can be inportedwith a music notation software program, such as Finale or Sibelius. Once imported into one of these programs, they can also be quickly and easily altered or transposed to fit the needs of the performer or ensemble.

Moreover, while many feel like MIDI sequencing could never replace the musicality of real musicians playing real instruments, with a bit of effort, one can make sequences sound much like a real ensemble. Interestingly enough, MIDI sequencing does not include audio. Rather, a the sequence records which notes you have played, when you played them, including the tempo and rhythm, how quickly each note was played, and when the note was released. If you are a decent player, you can easiliy record live performances into the sequencer. You do not even need to be a proficient keyboard player. Instead, guitar, percussion, violin, wind, and other MIDI controllers can be used to enter sequences into the computer. Though the technology is definitely not perfect, it has come quite a ways in the last few years and is often highly impressive and realistic. And, as most modern sequencers can record audio, as well as MIDI, you can record sound with them much just as you would with a tape recorder, but with a much greater amount of editing options. Moreover, to get better-sounding music from your sequences, play them back using high quality sounds, such as those found on more sophisticated hardware and software synthesizers It is usually much easier to synthesize percussion, keyboard, and electronic instruments, while wind instruments are the most difficult to synthesize.

Why is this useful/relevant? Again, many educators create sequencing files for accompaniments for use with their students in class, rehearsals, and performances, allowing students to have a personal accompanist at their disposal anytime, resulting in better performers which can better contribute to our ensembles and their education and experiences holistically.

For further information on MIDI files and information, check out MIDI Search Engine, MIDI.com, Standard MIDI files on the Net, MIDI world, and Harmony Central.

The Art's Edge Kennedy Center - PLN

Upon discovering this well-organized website, I have found that it seeks to meet the needs for teachers of the arts, covering music, art, and theater. Teachers can find lesson plans for both the arts and other school subjects, uniquely helping students learn math or science through the arts. This website allows one to pick the arts subject, school subject, and grade level, which helps the teacher narrow down the search for a lesson plan and save time. Not only are there lesson plans but an interactive section for the students, including a virtual tour of the Kennedy Arts Center. This website is a great way for teachers of the arts to incorporate other subjects into their classroom, helping students gain a better understanding of their subjects. How the standards are incorporated into the lesson plans is also included, so much that the teacher can pick a lesson plan based on a certain standard - great for teachers who are looking to combine the arts with other school subjects.

Week 5 Readings - Everything you wanted to know about MIDI files... and then some.

After reading both articles this week, I have found MIDI files extremely flexible and useful for students, educators, and musicians. For example, the readings touched on how transposition is no problem with MIDI, allowing one to transpose entire songs at once with a single MIDI message. Also, a majority of sequencing programs allow one to edit individual or groups of notes in either MIDI tracks or audio tracks. Since a MIDI performance consists of individual MIDI events, students can easily edit or delete a single or selected grouping of notes. Also, electronic keyboards and other types of MIDI instruments make MIDI input with notation and sequencing software easy and much less time consuming.

If, however, you are looking for musically expressive, realistic sound quality, digital-audio files are much more practical. Recording rehearsals, concerts, audition CDs, and documenting performance progress all depend on genuine, instrumental sound that cannot be captured in a MIDI file. Even the most technically advanced instrumental synthesizers cannot effectively reproduce the subtle nuances of a live performance from an accomplished musician. If your students want 'the real deal', recording a live performance as digital audio is the best choice. The only drawback is that the resulting track may be more difficult to edit, though it will sound far more realistic. Moreover, it is important to note that if students want to compose hip-hop, techno, or other forms of electronic music that uses digitally recorded, looped, and processed sound clips from existing digital-audio recordings, digital-audio files must be utilized.

While I won't comment much on the technical side of how MIDI files work, my overall, general impression of determining whether to use MIDI or digital-audio files is quite simple: if you are mostly concerned with the structure of a piece of music and want to easily edit/transpose on a highly detailed level, MIDI is the way to go. If the sound itself and musicality are the #1 priority, digital-audio is the better choice.

PLN #4

I'm sure many are familiar with this website, but I have found "eHow" to be surprisingly helpful for those band directors who need a quick refresher on a certain instrument and don't have time/money to take private lessons. Just click on the "videos" tab and enter the specific instrument you are trying to learn how to play once again and you will find a myriad of "how-to" videos, which teach everything from instrument assembly to fingering basic notes/forming an embouchure.

In a pinch, these FREE beginner videos on how to play virtually any instrument can be exceedingly quick and helpful. (I've used many of them..)

PLN #3 - MENC Updates

What better way to stay updated on current events in the music ed. world than the National Association for Music Education? To get updates on the latest Music Educator's Journal, miscellaneous informative articles, music educator's forums, valuable resources, and much more, click here.

Week 4 Readings - "Sibelius/Creative Thinking/Notation Software/Vermont MIDI Project"

Most accurately stated in chapter 8 of Creative Thinking and Music Technology, "it has never been a more exciting time to be a music educator". Why is this, do you ask? Newer views of music intelligence tied to critical thinking enhanced by technology has resulted in the support of a constructionist philosophy, or the use of creativity to motivate learning. Because the significance of music in curriculum is constantly a struggle to justify to administrations, such developments look extremely promising for the world of music education and future educators.

A perfect example of this type of hands-on creative exploratory learning that allows students to 'dive right in' is the Vermont MIDI Project, "an Internet-based mentoring program that guides, encourages, and supports students in grades 2 through 12 who are learning to compose and arrange music." The project currently allows thousands of students in Vermont to to share their work with professional composers, teachers, and other students, regardless of location, helping students express themselves through music while fulfilling multiple MENC standards - how cool is that? How many more students would discover a passion of composition and music creativity if this was available to all students?

The VMP has also established multiple summer workshops for educators, where they learned to compose and arrange music and use notation and sequencing software. Each participating teacher and mentor received a copy of Sibelius software, and in no time, students and teachers were producing performance-quality scores and having them performed by professional musicians! I can't even imagine how fulfilling it would be to have my own composition performed by a professional musician - especially as a middle school student! (most of us were still too preoccupied trying to find the perfect outfit for the 7th-grade dance that detracted from the braces and questionable complexions to think about composing!)

Interestingly enough, it is clear that the Vermont MIDI Project could not exist without the help of current technology. Before computers, composition was a painstaking, laborious, and complex process resulting in many broken pencils and crumpled-up pieces of staff paper. Today, music notation software makes it possible for students at any level to more easily record
their musical inspirations and hear their pieces played in a variety of settings and styles.
Students can experiment with sound without really knowing anything about music theory or composition and just explore their creative side. Also, the Internet makes it possible for students to share musical ideas and benefit from the wisdom and expertise of music professionals all over.

Speaking of music notation software, Sibelius, one of the most popular professional notation programs, promises to be a "huge supporter of music education and provid[es] a host of materials for teachers and students". With Sibelius, teachers can print out scores and parts, prepare practice and assessment exercises and worksheets, and post files on educational Web sites, while students benefit by having the ability to compose and print out original compositions and arrangements, completing teacher-prepared worksheets, and have assisted practice sessions with recorded accompaniment. Sibelius also has the capability to add note names and fingerings, highlights and colors notes on scores, simplify or re-orchestrate parts for students, transpose music, create various rhythm parts, ensemble music, reduced piano parts, worksheets, and readiness exercises, burn practice CD's for students, and can even assist with writing your own method book. Teachers can also use scorch to post student compositions and files on school web sites that does not require the purchase of any software.

Overall, the gist of these four articles is quite simple: in order to get students to think creatively and thus become better music students, we must teach creatively. (For every action...) One of the greatest methods of creative teaching is through the use of technology, and with the aid of advanced music notation software and all of it's uses and rich features at our fingertips, there is no telling what we can't do to facilitate learning and most importantly, make it more enjoyable and valuable for students.

PLN #2 - "So You Want to Teach?"

I recently added this to my PLN and found the various articles to be quite interesting and eye-opening. Comprised as a "scrapbook-like survival guide" for new teachers, I think it's valuable to gain insight into challenges that beginning educators face that I will or may have never been told about or prepared for as an undergrad, "expecting the unexpected". After all, one can only learn so much from listening to lectures and various"what-if"scenarios, as opposed to the 'real deal'. Utilizing stories of others' experiences, hardships, conflicts, and advice is closest to the actual experience of teaching and most beneficial.

Week 3 Readings - Music Notation Software

For me, music notation software has a myriad of personal and educational benefits. On the most obvious level, as educators we can use it to write music for our groups. Now, while you're probably thinking "that's the most obvious statement ever", many 'old school' band directors shy away from it and underestimate how beneficial this software can be to meeting not only student's needs, but our own.

For example, how many times have you been missing a horn part and then proceeded to throw the poor player on some alto sax part that is already being doubled by an army of 10 or more loud saxes? With music notation software, you can easily write out a new, more musically effective part, replacing the old. Got a copy of an 80-year-old-yellow-wrinkled-can-hardly-even-readable piece of music? Enter it in to Sibelius/Finale to make a cleaner, legible copy that stops the one efervestant student from raising his hand every five minutes to waste valuable rehearsal time by asking if it's an F# or F natural in measure 5. Also, with advanced playback and sequencing options, whether your band falls victim to awkward instrumentation, is a middle-school aged group in need of easier parts, or you are blessed with one amazing player that you would like to feature as a soloist, you can write new parts to feature your star sections and players or do some musical-chair-esque rearranging of parts to highlight what actually sounds good by previewing it first. Or, if you are the over-achieving type, can create custom compositions for your group or small ensembles easily and listen to it with advanced playback. MIDI files of your composition can also be easily exported and given to students to take home and listen to. However, the compositions do not necessarily have to be concert material. Usuing Finale's 'exercise wizard", you can create custom exercises for students that feature a wide variety of teaching drill from scales to arpeggios. The possibilities are proportionate to the number of kids that will continuously forget to bring a pencil to rehearsal - yep you guessed it, endless.

However, the benefits of music notation software go far beyond the educator. For a college musician like myself, notation software has proved to be very helpful on a myriad of various music theory assignments as a way of making an assignment much more professional-looking than just using pencil and staff paper. Also, as someone who was originally very apprehensive about composition, I found using Sibelius to be a smooth transition as it is not only provides a quick and easy setup and foundation, but checks for parallel octaves/fifths, shows when certain instruments are out of their playable range, and offers immediate playback capabilities (I'm definitely an auditory learner when it comes to music). It has especially been helpful with arrangements I have done for my saxophone quartet (some that I could whip up in 24 hours) and other small groups as well. With this being said, having your students experiment with composition using music notation software, especially in schools that do not have a plethora of music classes, is a great way to encourage your students musically outside of the classroom. Perhaps you could hold contests for the best compositions or a student recital of all original works(akin to the MIDI project)? The more unique the approach, the more the students are likely to be motivated and the better they will perform for you.

Keeping it easy, fun, engaging students, and making your life significantly easier - what's not to like about music notation software?

"Music Matters - A Blog on Music Cognition"

After recently adding this blog to my Google Reader account, I found it to be extremely interesting. I personally find the psychological aspect of music fascinating, and getting the latest information on the scientific justification for the significance of music and music education is something every future educator should be aware of.

URL: http://www.musiccognition.nl/blog/
RSS feed: (http://www.musiccognition.nl/blog/rss.xml)

"TPACK" Article Reaction

Being a so-called "digital native teen" I often forget how much technology I untilize on a daily basis. From the iPhone that comes almost everywhere with me, to the music notation software I utilize on a frequent basis for musical compositions and arrangements, to the recording software I use not only when I have performances recorded but in the practice room as well, to the laptop I am currently using to type this entry on, it is difficult to pinpoint a time during the day that I am NOT depending on some form of technology to learn and obtain new forms of knowledge as a student. For the many other college undergraduates that are in a similar position as myself, especially those planning on pursuing education as a career path, the transition from student to teacher with the aid of technology should be extremely smooth due to our high level of 'field experience' touched upon in this article.
I strongly believe the use of multimedia and music technology in the classroom is a wonderful idea. Whether students become involved with 'MIDI' projects, allowing them to begin composing and arranging music at a young age, to using some type of music notation or practice aid software, it has been shown to be extremely beneficial on multiple levels. I almost wish I could go back to elementary school to take advantage of the latest technological advancements myself!
But just as a firm grasp of today's available technology in the world of music education can help students learn, it can just as easily be used to help teachers be more effective at their craft. A true educator is one whom is continuously learning and further educating themselves - something the internet can be a wonderful aid for. Not only can one continue to learn through researching, reading blogs/wikis/articles and current news, they can gain a better understanding of their 'pedagogical content knowledge' and thus a better understanding of the the technology itself. A better understanding of the advantages of technology in addition to a good understanding of one's pedagogical content knowledge and how to be an effective teacher makes a much stronger educator. In other words, the technology is not the main focus, but a strong tool, enhancing the pedagogical aspect of teaching. A teacher must constantly juggle to find balance between knowledge of technology, pedagogy, and content to truly 'rule' their classroom.

However, I was surprised to unfortunately read that few teachers said they used technology in the classroom on a regular basis. With so much at available at our fingertips and the benefits proven, it seems like a true waste and possibly the greatest kept secret in the current world of education.

The 'Noteflight' Experience

Over all, I was generally impressed after my first experience using Noteflight online notation software. I found this program to be extremely user-friendly and hardly needed the tutorial videos and handouts to guide me through the process of completing our assignment. I also found the program to be surprisingly feature-rich for an online application that doesn't cost a penny. In regards to music education, I think Noteflight would definitely be a useful tool, most obviously, because it is free. For middle and high school students especially, it is doubtful that expensive music notation software such as Finale or Sibelius with all of the bells and whistles are necessary when free programs exist that serve their purpose just as well, like Noteflight, that students can have access to not only from school, but from home as well. Noteflight also easily allows one to post and share scores from any computer to anyone, which would make it fairly easy for music educators view their student's work. The utilization of this program and others like it will definitely make its way into high school theory and music classes sooner rather than later.

Bicycle Built for Two - Noteflight