Music Technology

We are required to take a music technology course as part of our curriculum here at Montclair.  This class has opened my eyes to no only the common software/hardware that you will find in your classroom and how to use them; but to other newly innovated software that makes learning music easier and more accessible to students.
Because students are growing up in an increasingly more advanced technological society, creating lesson plans and learning activities that utilize everyday technological items that students will be familiar with (computers, iPods, etc.) will make the subject matter more interesting to the students and allow them to retain more from the lessons.
One of my favorite programs that this class has shown me is E006.  Available for free download at www.eamir.net.  This program makes ear training and learning to identify chords more fun for students.  By using the number pad on your keyboard, you can play the diatonic chords of a scale (1-8).  Students can play different chord progressions and even songs without any previous knowledge of being able to read music or playing an instrument.  This technology expands the accessibility of music to more and more students who are not interested in performing on instruments.  The program also puts the chords and progressions in terms of popular music that they listen to in real life.  Thus, applying the knowledge they are learning to real life situations.

Final Project

Google Spreadsheet

The lesson plan I have from my ELL class last semester is a lesson on the various instruments in a school band and introducing them, what they sound like and their function to a general music class who has probably never been taught this before.  The overall goal is to increase student understanding of school band instruments, their traits/sounds and their functions in the ensemble.  This is a lesson plan that would take much longer than one class period due to the amount of instruments that need to be taught.

In my matrix, you can see that I have separated the teaching strategies that I would use to teach this lesson and aligned them with which standards they satisfy and which technologies would be required in order to successfully complete each lesson/activity with the students.

The first line satisfies the standard of recognizing musical elements and using appropriate vocabulary to do so.  Having students watch teacher demonstrations and professional demonstrations will require them to use musical vocabulary to properly describe what is going on.  Without the musical vocabulary, it will be difficult to make an educated analysis of the performances.  The students would need to use the Internet, preferably YouTube, to find professional performances on each of the instruments.  Using a sound system and projector would allow me to share their findings with the rest of the class.  This, in turn, satisfies the National Educational Technology Standard of Students applying digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information because they are using the Internet in order to find videos and evaluate different musical elements about the video.  They are also using the information to teach others in the class about what they find.

            The second line satisfies the standard of arranging simple pieces for voice or instrument.  In this case, we are writing for instruments because that is what our lesson is about.  The students will be composing their own pieces using their knowledge about the band instruments and what functions they provide in the band.  Because the students I will have in this class will most likely not be able to play an instrument, we will need to find another way for them to produce sounds made by band instruments.  The computer program Garage Band has numerous patches that allow students to compose and produce a piece using band instruments through the computer, rather than playing the instruments themselves.  This program is easy to learn how to use and can be manipulated in many ways to create very different pieces of music by each student.  Hopefully a computer lab would be available so that each student could use a computer to produce their composition for band.  Each student would need a computer with Garage Band on it, headphones (so as not to disturb their peers), the internet (to expand possibilities of patches), and MIDI keyboards (to play their own creations rather than just patches).  This activity satisfies the National Educational Technology Standard of demonstrating creative thinking, constructing knowledge, and developing innovative products using technology because students are using technology to create their own composition (innovative product) and using their creative thinking to incorporate the instruments they’ve learned about in their own interesting ways.

            The third line satisfies the content standard of categorizing families of instruments and identifying their associated musical properties.  This is the primary content standard that the lesson addresses.  Along with a lecture from the teacher about each instrument and their function, I though games for the students to play and demonstrate their knowledge in would be fun and keep them actively involved in the learning process.  The games involve listening to clips and identifying the instruments and then sorting them into whichever family of instruments they belong to.  A sound system and media player would be necessary for the first part of the game of identifying the instruments by sound/timbre.  I felt a Smartboard would be an appropriate way of dragging and dropping instruments into categories for the kids.  They can use the technology to actually see the differences in the families of instruments.  The Powerpoint presentation would be used by the teacher during lectures as a means of illustrating the lecture.  This line satisfies the National Educational Technological Standard of using digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively.  The students will be working together using these technologies to work together and help each other learn about the instruments and their differences.

SmartMusic Eliminating Teachers?

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.

Interactivity #4

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AvyGdl5peVRzdDFONkpCcDlkenU4YXFWeFVhY25tbEE&usp=sharing


I chose this particular lesson because it seemed to be a lesson that I felt my students would be able to relate to and easily learn from.  It also seemed to be something where they could bring their personal lives into the classroom through music they listen to.  I thought it was also already well thought-out and did not need very many changes to the plan.
One of the gaps I noticed between the Standards and the technologies used was the use of notation.  The original lesson plan did not use notation at all when determining the style of a piece.  However, Standard 1.1.5.B.1 states that musical notation will be used to identify the elements of music as well as aural prompts.  I felt that those needed to be included in this lesson plan in order to accomplish this standard and I therefore added a projector displaying notation of the listening examples during the class.  I believe this will not only give students an aural distinction in styles of music, but a visual example as well.  I think this will help the various types of learners I will have in the classroom.
The other detachment I saw was a lack of a group discussion about the musical elements.  I believe this will help the students think more critically about their reasons for picking those elements and why they believe they make the styles different.

Interactivity #3 - Reflection

I think this group interactivity was authentic collaborative.  We all contributed to the spreadsheet and we had a good variation of ideas when we were finished.  We decided to create categories and then have each of us contribute to those categories in order to help us spread our ideas out and make it easier to reach the quota of ideas. 

The ideas we came up with at the end of the activity were pretty varied and some of the things that were on the spreadsheet are technologies that I might not have thought of by myself.  Making this activity collaborative helped get more different ideas on the document.  A lot of the technologies we have on the document are computer-related; like the typical kinds of technologies that you would think of when that word is used.  However, we also have a lot of other things that we call new technologies that wouldn’t fit under that category.  These would include BERPs, music staff whiteboards, and visualizers to name a few.  These are also very helpful technologies that have helped us in the music classroom despite not being electronic (what people usually refer to as technology).

The ability to easily have access to an unlimited amount of music and recordings in the classroom through the internet and CDs has changed music education immensely.

Interactivity #1

As a teacher, it’s important for me to understand Olivia’s relationship with technology because:

            We can’t always make assumptions like a lot of teachers did when they thought that the students weren’t able to use the technology since they don’t have regular access to it.  However, they find ways to get to it (such as Olivia using the computer in her basement) and figure out how to use it without instruction.  Because it is something new and exciting that peaks their interest, they put more effort into figuring it out.  Technology is still cool for students.  By incorporating it into the classroom, you associate cool with you subject matter.

Because technology is such an important part in Olivia’s life, as a teacher I could use that to my advantage when trying to teach.  Developing assignments that peak the students’ interest in technology and incorporate different aspects of technology that they use in everyday life would be a good way to get them more interested in the assignment and gear it towards a way that they will get more out of it.  Technology in Olivia’s life helps her get away from everything that is going on and let’s her forget about things for a while.  I think linking schoolwork to this positive outlet of technology could help her have a positive relationship with school and therefore help her studies improve.

There are many ways that young people use technology to learn; not just to have fun.  They find that through their hobbies that are based off of technology, they actually are experiencing a great deal of education as well.  For example, in the video we watched, one of the boys spoke about how his playing of online video games contributed to his developed skills of communication and coordination in a group setting.  He explained that it is easier to work with others after having so much practice working with others to beat the game.  In addition, one girl spoke of how her hobby was to learn Japanese, which she did through the Internet.  To them, technology like the Internet, opens a resource that would otherwise have not been there.  They take advantage of it and use it to expand their horizons even when they are not asked to.  Humans are naturally curious, so by giving them more resources through technology, we are helping them to cure that curiousity.

Three technologies that I use most often in my life are my cellphone, social-networking sites/email and the internet.  These have impacted the ways in which I learn new things mostly because of the accessibility they provide.  When I’m out, I always have my phone on me.  This means that people can always get in touch with me and it also means I have access to the internet and any information I might need at the moment.  I can learn new things that make me curious right there rather than trying to remember to look it up later (I would usually forget).  The internet and social-networking sites allow me to stay in touch with people I care about and learn about their lives easily. 

            As compared to the students in the videos, I think I am very similar when it comes to using technology for learning.  It is a great resource that I use without being directed.  I use it on my own because I want to learn more, not because a teacher said I had to.  I think this helps make the learning more meaningful to the student when they do it all on their own.  However, I wouldn’t say that technology becomes an escape as it does for Olivia.  It holds greater meaning to her than it does for me.  Technology is important to me, but I think it is held higher in her life than in mine.