Teaching with Technology

Music On the Fly…Or In the Car…Or At the Beach
Technology To Keep Skills Sharp Over Summer Breaks

Most students these days own some kind of pocket music player such as an iPhone or an ipod. I own an ipod, but have not explored the device fully yet. In the last few weeks, I decided to go on a “tech” adventure and found some valuable musical “Apps” which can be very helpful for students’ learning. Educational technology is ubiquitous and it is ready to serve people in anywhere at any time. This article focuses on the importance of using high technological gadgets in music education and introduces various applications of mobile communications devices. The author claims that these educational tools can help students stay connected to keep their musical skills sharp over summer break.

For Listening
www.pardora.com
It is a free music streaming service for Classical music listeners. You can create “stations” with your favorite composers, artists, genres and the like, and Pandora will stream music that matches your criteria. Although most users listen to Pandora from their computers, there are also versions for iphone, as wells as for the Android and Windows Mobile operating systems.

For Everyday Practice:
• Metronome by GLP Software, FREE
With this app, your iPhone screen turns into a classic Wittner-style metronome. You can pay for more sophisticated apps, but this one will suit most musicians.

• Cleartune-Chromatic Tuner by Matthew Finn, $3,99
For the non-pianist readers, this can be very useful. There are other free tuners available, but
Cleartune has the advantage of “listening” with great accuracy.

• iProRecorder by BIAS, Inc., $4.99
This is a very sophisticated audio recording application.

• Nota by Melvin Rivera, $4.99
This handy theory reference booklet for chords, scales, notes, key signatures, and the like includes simple quizzes, and keyboard and staff view options-

For MIDI Gurus:
• ¡TM MIDILab by Silicon Studios,
FREE This turns your iPhone into a MIDI controller that can send MIDI to any application on your computer over a wireless network. It includes an onscreen keyboard for input. This is a great tool for class piano or theory teachers who want to be able to walk around the room while still demonstrating notes on the screen.

• RJDJ by Reality Jockey, FREE
This app translates everything that happens on your iPhone (calls, texts, button pushes, ambient noise around you) into prescribed bits of electronic music, creating a veryavant-garde soundtrack to your day.

• Bloom by Opal Limited, $3,99
Created by New Age guru Brian Eno,
Bloom gives users a simple set of parameters to create atmospheric soundscapes, It’s both fun and mesmerizing-

• Oisklavier Controller by Yamaha,
FREE
By connecting an iPhone or iPod touch to your Disklavier’s wireless network, you’ll be able to control many of the basic functions of the Disklavier Mark IV.

Computer Technology
www.musiclearningcommunity.com
The websites offers hundreds of single concept music games for every level.
A teacher membership ($19.95 per month) covers up to 50 login names for students and
includes score tracking.

For Student Teachers
Dallas Symphony’s DSOkids.com
Morton Subotnik’sCreatingMusic.com.

For serious research (free for University students subscribers via University library system)
OxfordMusicOnline.com includes access to the complete Grove Music Online, as well as other Oxford music reference titles, including The Oxford Companion to Music and The Oxford
Dictionary of Music.

Free for Everyone
Virginia Tech Multimedia Music Dictionary
www.music.vt.edu/musicdictionary

Online Music Courses
Berklee College of Music.
www.jazzpianolessons.com
Indiana University.

Scores to Go
www.imslp.org

Tip for reading PDF scores:
A programmable USB foot switch (such as the AirTurn wireless pedal system) for your computer, and you can use it to turn the pages! If you are ready to jump over to the MIDI world, your scores can become both portable and interactive. First of all, if a piece is available in MIDI format,
it can be read as a score in TimeWarp Technologies’ Home Concert Xtreme score following software ($99 at www.timewarptech.com).
Since most methods include MIDI files in their catalogs, you should be able to find most of what your younger students are playing. For more advanced musicians, lots of standard repertoire is
available in MIDI format at wvwv.ClassicalArchives.com.
Home Concert Xtreme displays any MIDI file as a printed page on your computer screen, and when connected to a MIDI keyboard, it intelligently turns pages at the right time and coordinates accompaniment speed as you play.

Go The Distance
When live interaction is required, you might explore some distance learning alternatives.
Many students make recordings on cell phones and teachers can require students to submit recordings periodically. Video clips are easy to send via e-mail or even as a message on a cell phone. If you want to stick with pure audio recording, you might consider simple computer software such as Audacity (www.audacity.sourceforge.net) or a high quality pocket audio recorder such as Yamaha’s PockeTrak. Barely bigger than a USB flash drive, it has a built-in microphone and a flip-out USB plug that makes transferring files very easy.

Video-conferencing software
iChat and Skype
Internet MID! ($69, www.timewarptech.com),
It transmits information between two MIDI keyboards over the Internet. This simple tool lets users connect with a buddy-list-like system that requires very little setup or technical know-how.

Shana Kirk (2009). Music On the Fly…Or In the Car…Or At the Beach  Technology To Keep Skills Sharp Over

                                        Summer Breaks, American Music Teachers, April/May 2010