I use the app Dice by PCalc to simulate the rolling of various dice while playing tabletop and role playing games. It is good fun, but not something I have used in the classroom. Ehler has the very cool idea of using it for assigning scales. You could use these similarly for any kind of classroom need where you have to randomize an order of something (and make it fun).
You can check out the app here and read Ehler’s post below, which includes a link to download the scale dice into the Dice app.
I’ve known many directors over time to use “scale dice” to help students practice their major scales with an element of randomness. In Iowa, this is a useful preparation for All-State auditions, but it can be a handy thing to do in sectionals and small-group lessons too. Dice by PCalc has support for custom dice, and these wind up looking great.
Currently, the app supports six distinct dice designs on screen at a time (so it would be easy and practical to have six different students at once get assigned a scale with a single roll)
You can configure these dice yourself, but I’ll save you the work by sharing my “custom dice” export here.
Band directors rejoice! The latest Dorico 4 update improves score ordering for band instruments. Click and read band director Ehler’s blog post below to learn more about this feature.
It’s a little tricky to find the band score order toggle; you do so by right-clicking the sorting icon at the bottom of the left-pane, which will give you options between different score orders (leaving room for more to come).
If you set that right from the start, then as you add instruments, they’ll appear in the correct order. If you unwittingly were working in orchestral score order first and need to then adjust, simply switch it over to band score order and then left click the same icon again to have it impose that score order on your players.
Ehler provided feedback to Steinberg about this feature and for this I say thanks!
Communication and Collaboration Apps for Music Teams
This blog post, podcast episode, and presentation were prepared for the Ohio Music Educators Association Professional Development Conference 2022.
This blog post exists to serve as both session notes for conference attendees, show notes for listeners of the podcast episode, and any teacher who wishes to explore the many great collaboration tools available for teams today.
Theresa Hoover returns to talk about career changing, COVID practices worth bringing into this school year, productivity apps, and empowering student creativity!
Tech Tip of the Week: Robby – Safari Tab Groups, Sync Safari and Chrome bookmarks with a Windows PC
Theresa – Chrome Reading List / Favicons Favorite Bar
Seth Sandler, maker of the poplar mobile tuner app Tunable, joins the show to talk about the process of making a tuning app, developing for iOS/Mac, and more!
It seems plausible that some people subscribe to this blog and do not follow me on Twitter, so allow me to expand this recent Tweet thread into a lazy blog post.
🧵🪡🎶👇 Thread: a few things I am doing in my band teaching this year, that I previously didn’t have the time or resources to organize, but COVID forced my hand. (I will definitely be doing each of these every school year from now on)…
Thread: a few things I am doing in my band teaching this year, that I previously didn’t have the time or resources to organize, but COVID forced my hand. (I will definitely be doing each of these every school year from now on)…
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<img src="https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5595df9ce4b0ce9ff9ecd1a8/1620928178100-EDH2P31OY42XLM8SB7E4/CleanShot+2021-05-07+at+09.06.00%402x.png" alt="A chart designed by my colleague Ben Denne. By thinking critically about music that will challenge, but not overwhelm them, students pick their select their own, grade appropriate, solo music." width="918" height="1364" style="display:block;object-fit: cover;width: 100%;height: 100%;object-position: 50% 50%" loading="lazy">
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<div class="image-caption"><p class="">A chart designed by my colleague Ben Denne. By thinking critically about music that will challenge, but not overwhelm them, students pick their select their own, grade appropriate, solo music.</p></div>
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Solo prep: by asking colleagues for rep ideas across all instruments, I created a resource in my LMS that guides students through a process of selecting appropriate solo rep for our district Festival and then registering for it. Student enrollment is up over 300 percent this year.
Composition: students LOVE writing short themes and ostinato patterns in Noteflight After recording their comps, they will make unique band arrangements out of each other’s recordings in Soundtrap by dragging them on top of one another and splicing/editing them, like loops. Inspiration for this idea and supporting materials provided by Alex Shapiro and can be found here.
Recording: having my students record video performances is not new. But having them record in a DAW, with respect to measure number, beat placement, and a metronome has been huge for our understanding of rhythm and form. Also it requires them to practice way more.
And then there are 100 new things I can do in my general music class simply by having access to a notation editor and DAW. I don’t have enough time to detail them now but here is one example:
As much fun as I have grinding in Final Cut Pro, I do NOT see virtual band videos becoming a thing beyond this school year. It was fun while it lasted. Here’s last year’s WW Quintet:
*The following post first appeared on the NAfME Blog on April 19th, 2021.
Over the past year of remote and hybrid instruction, teachers have reimagined the tools, assignments, and methods that best engage their students. The need to engage my band students from a distance has challenged me to depend on cloud-based tools that still foster the development of their performance skills. The features of these cloud tools allow me to engage students in new ways by introducing interactive projects, collaboration with peers, and automated grading.
The ideas below will be featured in my presentation at the NAfME Eastern Division Conference this weekend. Register here to join me and the many exceptional presenters who will be sharing their ideas.
What is Cloud Software
Cloud software is a buzzword in the technology industry that is used to describe apps that run in a web browser. Examples of cloud-based music software include BandLab, Soundtrap, Noteflight, MusicFirst, and Flat for Education, to name a few. Because these offerings are web-based, they can run on nearly any computer with a web browser, as long as you have an internet connection. For this reason, they are more widely accessible to all students and can be integrated into an LMS (learning management software) like Canvas, Blackboard, and Google Classroom.
Here are some practical ideas for assignments in a performing ensemble using cloud software.
Noteflight
Noteflight is a music notation tool that runs on the web. In recent years, Noteflight has expanded to offer Noteflight Learn, which allows teachers to take Noteflight content and assign it to students in their class, much like an LMS. In the past year, Noteflight has added a feature called SoundCheck which can take these assigned Noteflight scores, and assess student performance for note/rhythm/pitch accuracy.
Students can play these scores, practice to them at any speed, and loop tricky sections. When they are done recording themselves, Noteflight provides an accuracy score and a line beneath the notes which indicates pitch and note inaccuracies by the counter and color of the line.
You can make any Noteflight score into a Soundcheck-enabled assignment. If the score is linked to an assignment in your LMS, the student score will automatically go into your grade book. Because computers are not perfect, I prefer to go back and listen to my students who don’t receive good scores on assignments, to make sure I agree with the automatic grade.
Generally, is better at assessing note accuracy than pitch, so I tend to use SoundCheck as a first step to ensuring students are prepared for their music. Finer qualities in the music like tone and articulation are best left to video assessments with more comprehensive rubrics.
Getting Existing Music Into Soundcheck
If you have music that outside of Noteflight that you want to turn into an assessment, some apps can help. I use an app called Sheet Music Scanner on my iPad to take pictures of paper sheet music and turn them into XML files. XML is a file format that can pass notation projects from one notation editor to another. Once the XML version is saved to my device, I can import it into Noteflight and then assign it to my students.
Notation editors like Sibelius and Dorico can export to XML. If you have already created a score in a professional editor, it is easy to turn into an assignment.
Flipgrid
If your LMS does not have a video recording feature built-in, you might want to check out Flipgrid. My LMS has a video feature, and I still use Flipgrid because it makes video recording whimsical and fun. The Flipgrid interface puts an active circle around your face when you have submitted a recent video (like an Instagram story). Students can add filters, emoji, text, and other effects to their final videos. Students can watch each other’s videos, and leave video responses. It is like a mini social network for your class, with lots of control over the privacy settings.
Flipgrid also integrates into LMS software, so you can use it as an alternative to the basic video recorder if you wish.
Soundtrap
Soundtrap is a web-based DAW (digital audio workstation). I have heard it described as “if Google Docs and GarageBand had a baby.” This is because it looks and functions like GarageBand, but runs on the web. Like Google’s apps, it is also collaborative. This means that you can have two or more students editing the same project at the same time while discussing their progress in a chat.
Soundtrap is great for producing beats, songwriting, and all of the things you would expect to do with access to limitless software instruments, samples, and pre-made loops. But what I use it for in the band room is to teach chamber music.
If I have a flute trio, for example, I can provide the music to my students and then invite them all to a Soundtrap project. Each student can create their audio track and record their part to the metronome. They can all be doing this simultaneously. Once they click save, they can play it back and hear what they sound like alongside one another in a somewhat real-time experience.
A fun alternative to this is to give a small ensemble piece to a single student and have them overdub themselves playing each part. This can help them to better understand how the varying parts fit together and complement one another. In cases like this, I have reached out to the local high school and asked for student volunteers to play all of the parts to a metronome. I then take all of the high schooler’s recordings and add them as tracks in a Soundtrap template so that my students can toggle each part on and off for reference while they are recording.
You can see an example of this around the 20-minute mark in the video below.
Conclusion
These cloud-based assignments empower all students to participate in engaged music-making, alone and in groups. Nailing down the accuracy with a metronome will do wonders for their sense of timing and internal pulse. With recording assignments in Noteflight and Soundtrap, my students will do numerous takes until they get it just right! I cannot speak highly enough of these tools, and I certainly plan to use the assignment ideas above even when we return to a fully in-person learning environment.
If a video of this process is more your speed, you can watch how some of it works below. I also have a podcast version of this post available here.
If you are a NAfME or MMEA member, please join Maryland at our Inservice Conference this weekend. I will be presenting a session titled Rehearse Your Ensembles Remotely! on Saturday, March 6 at 5:45 pm.
Here is the session description:
Learn the strategies and technologies to run engaging synchronous rehearsals. Engage students visually and speed up your flow using Open Broadcasting Software. Pump the sound video/music/play-along tracks directly through Zoom or Google Meet for a lag-free experience. Explore play along with resources, student reflection with Google Docs, effective camera/mic practices, and have students working collaboratively in synchronous chamber ensembles with Soundtrap! Software discussed includes: Keynote, Google Slides, Loopback, Soundsource, Farrago, AnyTune, Soundtrap, Smartmusic!
Richard McCready returns to the show to bring in the new year. We reflect on what we learned over the past year and discuss how music teachers can challenge their perception of tradition, creativity, and learning process, moving forward. Of course we also share our app and album picks of the week.
If you have not already checked out my Scale Exercise Play-Along Tracks, do it now! Everything is currently 10 dollars off on my store if you use code THANKFUL at checkout. This puts them at only $5! Sale ends tomorrow.
And if you are itching to add some holiday cheer to your rehearsal warmups, you can download my Holiday Edition of the Remington play-alongs from that collection here. These are free of charge.
What makes them a “Holiday Edition?” Sleighbells, of course. And that half-diminished 7 chord everyone thinks sounds “Christmassy.” Sample below.
Music Ed Tech Talk 
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