A newer development in music education that is
starting to be incorporated into performance-based classes is a program called
SmartMusic. SmartMusic is a program that helps a student practice.
It will listen to you play your part and tell you everything you did
correctly, and everything you did incorrectly. It can also play
accompaniment for whatever piece you're playing so you know what it sounds like
and can give you grades based on how well you played whichever excerpt you were
assigned from your teacher. A link to their
website: http://www.smartmusic.com/
Recently, there was a discussion about SmartMusic
and how it could possibly be "eliminating" teachers. A friend
of mine was setting up teaching private French horn lessons to a student.
However, the mother contacted him and said they did not need him any
longer because they discovered SmartMusic and were just going to use that
instead. However, is the experience the student will get from just using
SmartMusic going to be as wholesome as getting lessons from a real life
teacher?
I would say no. While SmartMusic is a great
tool to use for practicing and helping a student learn the music, it cannot
fully replace what a teacher does. SmartMusic can tell you the wrong
notes you are playing and what fingers you should be pressing down for that
note. It can even tell you how long you should play that note for.
However, it cannot tell you HOW to play that note, let alone how to play
it well. It cannot explain how your embouchure should look or how fast
your air should be moving or what position your hands should be in to play that
note. A teacher explains and models how to do that. It cannot explain how to make music out of the sound coming out of your horn. That is something that is inside of you - inside of humans that cannot be taught by a machine. Performing music is
such so physical and such a human experience that it's teaching cannot be
replaced by a machine. A real life teacher is necessary in order to
succeed.
I would not eliminate SmartMusic all together.
I think it's a great tool to enhance the students' learning. We decided
for my friend that he should have argued the points above and suggested using
SmartMusic in conjunction with the private lessons, since the mother was so
keen on it in the first place. This would be a good way to organize
assignments, and if grades were asked for, a good way to attain those as well.
Because music is very subjective in terms of grading, SmartMusic helps to
set a solid system of assignments and grading that would make the
administration happy. However, there are kinks with the grading in the
program that need to be worked out by a real teacher as well.
Overall, SmartMusic should simply assist the teachers, not eliminate
them all together.
As a private trumpet teacher, it is horrifying to read that a parent chose SmartMusic over an actual teacher. You clearly outline the pros and cons of Smart Music above, and it is very true that SmartMusic is a great idea and resource and that it has its limits. One of the limits that you did not mention is that SmartMusic does not recognize tone or timbre. Therefore, if one can accurately sing their instrumental part, SmartMusic will assess them as if they played it on their instrument. For me, that is one of the biggest challenges to using the program exclusively.
ReplyDeleteHeather, I loved the way you wrote about smartmusic in this blog post. There are indeed pros and cons of smartmusic; however, I do not believe that this program should ever be replacing teachers. As Bryan said earlier, it is very scary that a parent would choose smartmusic over a private teacher. There is just something about one on one instruction with music that you cannot get from a computer. I do love the idea of smartmusic. I do not think it should be replacing teachers but should be a tool to enhance the instruction of music at home. Parents need to understand this concept as well if they truly want their children to be successful in music.
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