SmartMusic is a music education program used by teachers and students. It is utilized through the Internet and can now be accessed from any device through the Cloud. SmartMusic has a multitude of features. It is an easy-to-navigate program that is meant to enhance and enrich music learning by connecting teachers and their students. Teachers are able to create an account for free to access thousands of accompaniments to songs, ability to send and receive assignments, hear student recordings, and access the gradebook. Teachers also have access to several practice exercises, including sight reading and scale practice.
Intuitiveness
SmartMusic has made many improvements to make the program more intuitive. Many directions and changes such as to the tempo, hearing specific notes and passages, looping and listening to sections or the entirety of a piece are now easily just a click away. Students have more control of what they hear when practicing whether it's the volume of the accompaniment or the instruments heard in the accompaniment. Students now have the ability to hear their recordings immediately so to provide that vital feedback necessary in music performance practice.
Materials Offered
Educational Implications
SmartMusic can be used for any performance-based classroom. It can be used by students at a variety of levels and ages. Students will find practicing more engaging because of the professional accompaniment tracks. SmartMusic can be used as a motivational tool by providing that immediate feedback on recordings, instantly alerting the student to where improvements need to be made. Students are able to tailor their practice time to suit their preferences. They can access the tuner without having to download another app.
SmartMusic is an all-encompassing tool for teachers. It allows the teacher to monitor student
practice. Teachers can send and receive assignments, keep grades and communicate to students easily. Many of these benefits are available for free through Teach free. The upgraded version can be used by 3 different teachers and 50 students. It provides access to method books, over 5,000 titles and solos.
SmartMusic is a great way to integrate technology and music performance. It is an intuitive program that teachers and students can easily navigate. It provides immediate feedback to students and ability for teachers to monitor students practice and progress. Choosing SmartMusic for a performance classroom is a very smart idea.
References
Smartmusic. (2017). Retrieved from https://www.smartmusic.com
[Smartmusic]. (2017, April 21). New smartmusic training - unit 5:1 - gradebook [Video File].
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdxB2GrTYCE&feature=youtu.be
Smart Music being in the cloud is an important feature. I adopted my current method books because they had similar features to Smart Music. Until this year, my music room has not had internet access for students. Now that I have wifi in my room, I was excited to get my students using the features in the method books we use. Turns out we cannot load programs onto the chrome books but can only operate from cloud based programs. The method books I adopted have a download program and is not cloud based. Cost is a real barrier for my district adopting Smart Music, but the cloud feature would make it accessible to all of my students.
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