OneNote

I was blown away while I was watching the tutorials on OneNote. I was thinking, "Wow I could benefit from using a tool like this!" During one of the video tutorial, an email was sent to me and my Outlook box  icon on my work computer showed that I  received an email. So I open up Outllook, low and behold there was OneNote icon in my Outlook. I wished that my work computer had the ability to do screen shots because I would have included this in my blog. All day long at work I was soo excited that I had this tool for my use!
At the end of my workday I turned on my personal computer and looked at Outlook notice that I have OneNote located there as well. "Oh the JOY!!" I then asked my husband if he had hear of OneNote he causally states "Yes, it the new craze at his work." I asked him if he uses it or what his co works think about OneNote. He tells me that his coworker use OneNote for their "To Do" lists. He does not use it personally, but is interested in knowing more about OneNote.

What is OneNote?
According to Wikipedia"OneNote is a computer program for free-form information gathering and multi-user collaboration. It gathers users' notes (handwritten or typed), drawings, screen clippings and audio commentaries. Notes can be shared with other OneNote users over the Internet or a network. OneNote is available as a part of the Microsoft Office suite" .

Since I have this tool on my laptop, I opened OneNote,but I was not able to access it. A prompt on my computer screen informed me that I need to be connected to the Internet to have access. So I, enabled the internet  opened OneNote. Then another prompt informs me that I needed to sync OneNote, I synced OneNote. Then  I was able to have access to OneNote. (Yea!)

For this blog I am going make  a reminder for my upcoming 5th Grade Concert.

First I go to Outlook and open up my calender for May.

Next I will click on the date and add the event. I have chosen to include Monday May 11th to help remind me that I need to inform my school custodian Zach about setting up the chairs in the gym for Tuesday's performance. I also included a reminder to text or call my husband that I will be home late on Tuesday. Since he cooks dinner for me, he will appreciate the reminder that he does not have to make dinner that night.

There are other tasks that you can use OneNote. Lesson planning, invite other to share you OneNote book page.
Over all, I am excited that I have this product at my disposal. I am looking forward to using this tool for lesson collaboration, reminders, and keeping down on the paper clutter in my classroom.

Productivity and Professional Development

Is it already week seven?? Time does fly by when you are engaged in every aspect of this course.
In week seven, I read Chapter 8 Productivity and Professional development in Learning Music Today by Bauer (2014). In this chapter Bauer discusses productivity in the classroom, professional development, personal learning networks (PLN), online courses and degree programs, and musical technological pedagogical and content knowledge (TPACK).  Bauer states the following:
 "...all music education situations also require the music teacher to engage in organizational and administrative activities that can be crucial to successful learning experiences for students, even if they don't directly impact daily class or rehearsal. Technology can be a major benefit to productivity in these areas" (Bauer, 2014, p. 168).

 Reflecting back on  my first year as a middle school choir director. I remember feeling overwhelmed with all the paper work that I had to turn in with in a month after school had started, never ending emails, never ending returning parent phone calls, and classroom management. Keeping a budget on top of all that felt impossible. However, over the years of teaching  the paper work is not as overwhelming, and keeping track of my budget not as tough, but I had to learn how to do all this effectively and efficiently. I was fortunate that I had the band directors at all my schools helped me to stay organized, and know the ins and outs of budget issues. Thank you Marty, Krissy, and Doug!

Learning about new technology and how it can assist me with my productivity and organization skills have been eye opening. I am always timid in trying new programs, in fear that it will cause issues with my computer. Also, the "what if's" start to rule my thoughts: what if some one hacked my Google Doc account? What if downloading a new program cause software issues with my existing software? What if's.... are not easy to ignore, but how can you learn something new if you allow the "What if's "keeping you from learning?  Thus I started saving my files in my Google Drive and told my "What ifs " "Showed You!"

I have never experimented with the Cloud until the beginning of this school year.. In the past if I needed to work on a field trip permission slip, or lesson plans, I would either have to go to work, send my self the file attached to the email, or just wait until Monday rolls around. Now that I am using Google Doc, it is convenient to have access to my files that need revise or create. It is saving me time instead of writing my professional goals that takes hours I can write my professional goals in smaller chunks of time and spend more time planning my lessons.

Another aspects of productivity that Bauer discusses is communication. Communication effectively and efficiently has been one of my professional goals. In the past, I would get so involved with my lesson planning, concert planning, field trip planning, that I will forget to remind  my principal, and  my office manager that I have schedule a concert. Even though I scheduled it on the school calender, I would have to send a reminder email. In the present, school is using the calender in Google, the reminders are set to remind my principal and my office manager about the upcoming concert.

 Parent communication was an issue for me, as well. I would send home letters, with students to have their parents sign and return that they have received the information. And, I  still would  have a parent complain that they never received the information about the concert that was scheduled for tonight. The concert information was posted on the school website, multiple letters went home, but some of my parents would not get the information. I sent parents emails, and used the all school phone call system, and still would have complaints that they were not aware of the performance.  A middle school choir director at my school district uses Remind. It is a service that will send a text message to your students and parents reminding them about an up coming event. We (all middle school choir directors) used this during our All City Middle School Choir event. It was a success all students were on time and our parents liked that we kept them informed.

Final Thought about Learning Music Today

 I enjoyed how Bauer recapped the beginning chapter in the last chapter on TPACK. I will end with a quote from Bauer.

 "Music teachers who want to learn more about technology and how it interfaces with musical content and pedagogy need to be proactive, seeking out and exploring relevant resources on their own....Continue to explore and develop expertise with that particular technology, incorporating it in other ways in classes and rehearsals.Then...move on to another technology that holds promise for helping students achieve the music learning outcomes. In this way your knowledge, skill, and overall efficacy for using technology will deepen and expand over time" (p. 185)

This ending quote reminds me of my wonderful friend, who is an excellent 6th Grade Band Director at Wedgwood 6th Grade Center in Fort Worth TX.  Every year she creates a video of her students rehearsing for their final school performance. It is like she charges them to continue to studying music because their journey has just begun. I believe Bauer quote encourages us all to keep being life long learns in Technology.  Here is to future learning!!!

Bauer, W. I. (2014),  Productivity and Professional Development. In Bauer, W. I. (2014). Music

     learning today: Digital pedagogy for creating performing and responding to music (pp.167-187).

     New York: Oxford University Press.

My Home

Here is my song My Home. 

I had fun with this song. The background vocals are mine, and the pictures are from around the area where I live. Enjoy..

My Home

My home, my home, my home in Oregon.

My home, my home, my home in Oregon.

Verse 1

Life in Oregon is a beautiful scene 

with rivers and mountain from out of a dream.

Beautiful flowers and evergreens,

and spectacular cuisine.

Bridge:

Though I never been around the globe.

There are places that I could go.

But, in the northwest has been the best.

A state that is blessed.

Chorus: 

Verse 2

Rain, rain in the spring time.

Cool summer breezes that are sublime.

Beavers and Duck fight for prime time 

with a civil war that will blow your mind.

Though its tough to let go

of Texas that was once home.

But, in the northwest has been the best.

I can still shout gig'em Horns!

Chorus:

Responding to Music

When reading chapter five Responding to Music in Music Learning Today, I read some amazing quotes that I am going share. I will be mimicking one of my favorite authors James Jordan. He starts by quoting different passages from other profound philosophers for the reader to reflect upon, before he delivers his stories, or discussions.

"Music is a natural and essential part of  being human, capable of invoking a variety of responses in people" (Bauer, 2014, p. 105), "

"To Music is to take part, in any capacity, in a musical performance, whether by performing, by listening, by rehearsing, or practicing. by providing material for performances...,or by dancing" (Small, 1998, p. 9) (Bauer, 2014, p. 106).

"Listening is the fundamental music skill....Music exists for hearing and listening.  Such listening is a skill in and of itself, as well as a vital part of all other musical skills (Haack, 1992, p. 451).

When reading and reflecting on the meaning of these quotes, one can sense the importance of the art of listening.  I find it important to teach my students how to listen actively to a musical performance. 

 Bauer discussed was about the difference between hearing and listening. Hearing is a passive act and listening is an active act."The ability to listen to music with understanding seems to be related to prior experiences with a particular musical genre or style"(p. 107). I find this to be true when having my students listen to music from different styles and time period.  My students are more familiar with popular music, and/or classical music that is played in a movie soundtrack, than with classical music that they have not been exposed to at this point in time. When I present a song that is from a different culture my students do have a difficult time accepting the song. However, when I take the time and discuss the history, story, or culture from where the music originated from, my students are more accepting of the song. 

The use of listening maps have been helpful for me to use with my students when I present musical form and musical styles. I also use white boards for students  to keep tally marks when listening to dynamic changes within  the context of the music. And, I have my students moving to the steady beat. 

 I agree that music is contextual and that most people listen to music doing activities like driving a car, exercising, drawing, doing chores. However, when I was in my teen years I would sit in a rocking chair, rock to the beat, and listen to all styles of music for hours. Now that I am adult, I don't get that opportunity to just sit and listen. I am usually doing something, but not truly listening aesthetically. 

Over all, I have enjoyed reading this chapter, I found it refreshing and insightful to the art of listening. 

Spotify

After reading this chapter, I reflected back on how technology is used for enhancing music listening skills. iTunes, Youtube, and Spoifty are my students favorite resources for listening to music that is not school related. I use iTunes and Youtube, but I have never used Spotify until now. I enjoyed learning how you can create a play list and share it with your students. Creating my own playlist for our Spotify assignment brought back memories of when I use to share my favorite music using a black cassette tape and cassette recorder. I would wait patiently for my favorite songs to be played on the radio, then I would push the record/play button and hoped that the DJ would not be talking during the introduction to the song. Then on the weekends, I would share my 90 minute cassette tape with my friends and they would share theirs with me. Never the less, when using Spotify, I did not have to worry about a DJ speaking over the introduction. Finally I like the idea of using a playlist that I have readily available instead of sorting through CDs when I am presenting music examples to my students. Also, the idea of creating playlists to share with my students to help prepare them for an assessment  would be a win win situation for all. 

Video Lessons 

I enjoyed viewing the video tutorial on how to use Camtasia. I did not realized that I have "flipped classroom, until after I read pg 119. I am always using videos to provide instruction for my general music classes. There are some videos that I can not use due to poor sound quality, or some instructional videos are not appropriate for my students age group. I am looking forward to being more resourceful when creating my own video lessons for my students, and to enhance my instruction. 

Bauer, W. I. (2014),  Responding to  music. In Bauer, W. I. (2014). Music learning today:
     Digital pedagogy for creating performing and responding to music (pp.100-129).  New York:
     Oxford University Press.

Assessment and Instructional Design with Technology

     This week I read chapter 6, Assessment for Learning Music (Bauer, 2014), This chapter in Music Learning Today, addressed the importance of assessing students. Bauer states, "Assessment is an essential aspect of teaching and learning.....it also informs the design of instruction and can direct adjustments of the specific teaching and learning strategies that are used over time" (p. 131).  Next week,  I will be administering my school districts Music Assessment with my third, fourth, and fifth grade students.
    The Music Assessment is important, in my school district because it  measures the growth of my students musical knowledge. I do not view that the assessment is for my students only, it is also assessing my instruction. The students will be assessed on knowledge of basic musical skills and concepts: Form, Meter, Tonality (Major/minor), music symbols, treble clef pitch names, movement of notes (same, step, skip, octave), melodic identification, rhythmic identification, instrument families, instrument sounds identification, and musical styles. A total of thirty multiple questions, with a CD recording of the test being read out loud, and musical examples being played.

    My school district track all students scores through Edusoft.  Edusoft is a web based student assessment platform. It stores student data that is retrievable from year to year.  Last year my fourth grade students improved their test scores by 80% from when they took the assessment as third graders. This year's Student Learning Goals (SLGs)  I projected that my fifth grade students (last year's fourth grade students) will increase their scores by 90%. This is a huge step for my students and for myself. By using my district's Music Assessment to measure my students growth and Edusofts web platform, I am measuring my effectiveness in planning and my instruction along with my students scores. My students' data is then used for my end of year evaluation.

Portfolios
     One assessment that I would like to implement in my classroom is portfolios. The use of a working portfolio would be useful to show students their growth over time. It would help students to look back and reflect what they have learned, how they applied it, and would help them to review for the Music Assessment. I enjoyed reading about the use of Electronic Portfolios, I believe this would encourage my students to write more, My students who are on an Individualized Education Program (IEP) use a small typing device called Fusion. When students use their Fusion, they type their writing assignments, then they print their work, and hand their assignment in to their classroom teacher. The use of Google Doc would be an excellent resource for my students to use. All of my students have a school google email account, and they can share their electric documents with me.  On Monday, April 27, 2015 for the music in service that I will be attending will be looking at how to implement using Google Drive and Google Docs.

      I use  rubrics that are created by a team of music educators when I assess my students.  I am required to do three formal assessments within each tri term.  I must use two rubrics from the district and one that I make.   I also use exit tickets to inform me of  students who are not understanding certain concepts.

Instructional Design:

     In chapter 7, Instructional Design, Bauer, discusses the effectiveness of instructional design.  In my school district we have an elementary curriculum and instructional design team. These teachers help design activities, rubrics, and collect data to see if the music assessment and the general music curriculum is effective, or does it need to be improved.  The curriculum team is open to any music educator in the district to provide ideas, and feedback to help improve instruction and assessment. Even though the curriculum team had found issues with in the assessment itself, the team is open to all ideas.  The curriculum team would like to have the assessment to be computerized, instead paper and pencil. In two weeks, I will be viewing a new Music Assessment document that will be implemented next school year. Unfortunately the assessment will not be computerized, but it will address misleading questions, and misleading listening examples. Plus, it will be written in Spanish and in English along with a CD that will be in Spanish and in English.
Project Based Learning

    Reading about Project Based Learning and how using WebQuest as a format has been fascinating to me.  When I was teaching middle school choir, this would have been beneficial to my students. For example I could have designed a project that was about Solfege and the history of how the solfege system came about. Or, I could have created a WebQuest about a composer, or musical style. My mind thinks "Oh the possibilities!!"I believe my students would enjoy this activities of learning together and benefiting from team work.

I am looking forward to see where my creativity will take me in creating a WebQuest for my students to use.

Bauer, W. I. (2014),  Assessment for Learning Music. In Bauer, W. I. (2014). Music learning today:
     Digital pedagogy for creating performing and responding to music (pp.130-144).  New York:
     Oxford University Press.

Chromatik and SmartMusic

Chromatik and SmartMusic

     In the past students,who were interested in learning to sing or play an instrument signed up for band, choir, orchestra; attend class rehearsals; and practice on their own at home. As a student of music learning, I had to endure practicing at home, and had to make choices in how I managed my practice times.  When I was taking piano lessons at age six, I remember at first my practice time was exciting, and I could not wait until my next lesson. After three years of playing the piano, I realized I had my favorite piano books and my not so favorite piano books. I enjoyed the piano books that were melodic, but I did not enjoy the technique books. The technique books were challenging, I had to be self-motivated to practice the techniques that were assigned, and the technical practice was not melodic like the other books. However, what if I was able to practice the technical skills in a different venue? Would the use technology have been a better resource to practice piano techniques? Would I have enjoyed practice the assigned technical skills by having immediate feedback, instead of waiting for my next lesson?

     For this week’s assignment I viewed Chromatik and SmartMusic. Both are excellent for keeping students engaged during their home practice, and exploring new venues of learning modern day songs.  For Chromatki students who are interested in learning their favorite modern song, but they do not have the financial backing to purchase the sheet music Chromatik is an excellent resource for them.  For SmartMusic students who need to help in being motivated to practice their music either it be for band, choir, or orchestra SmartMusic is another excellent resource for them. Never the less, the following will be a survey about Chromatik and SmartMusic: how both resources can enhance learning, how both products are user-friendly for both students and educators, and the materials that are offered from both products.   

     Chromatik was created in 2011 and based in Santa Monica California by a team of musicians, who wanted to help people practice, perform, and share with others. Chromatik philosophy is to have students play music as much as possible by having digital access to a catalog of favorite and popular tunes.  With Chromatik a student can have access to a metronome, notate music with a full suite of annotated tools on iPad, students can save their recordings to track their progress, learn the tune of their choice with a reference track, and record their own video or audio sessions from Chromatik.  Finally they can share a fifteen minute highlight on Facebook, Twitter, and/or Youtube. Chromatik was only available for iOS until March 20, 2015. Now Chromatik is available for Android.

     There are blogs that students can access for new information, or helpful practicing tips. For example, the blog titled Top 10 Practice Tips for a Perfect Performance (Chromatik, 2015) is helpful information for anyone to improve their practice time.  All thought there is not a school or group usage, due to low usage and the high cost in maintaining it, teacher are using Chromatik’s for sight reading exercises, or assigning modern tunes for home practice.

      I found that Chromatik is easy to navigate I enjoyed browsing through their music catalog. I browsed at vocal, piano and cello scores. I liked how the musical score changed pages automatically while the music was playing. The music notation was not highlight like it is for SmartMusic, and there were some limitations in classical selection. Over all, Chromatik is a great resource for students who want to learn to perform their favorite popular tune. It will keep students engagement with practice reading a musical score, and student can perform and video their performance for feedback from other Chromatik users or friends. 

     SmartMusic is a software program for music educators to enhance their music program and to help students improve their skills.  The program focuses on student practice and immediate teacher feedback for students. Students are able to hear how their instrumental or vocal part relates to the ensemble by having access to a background track while practicing. Students can move at their own pace by controlling the tempo and clicktrack with subdivisions. Students can isolate difficult phrases of any lengths by using a loop tool. Students can record and play back practice sessions for self-assessment. Students can send MP3 recordings to family and friends. Finally, the solo repertoire accompaniment follows spontaneous tempo changes.  Students will need the following equipment: a computer (Mac, PC or iPad), SmartMuisc USB microphone, MIDI for keyboard (optional), SmartMusic USB foot pedal for “hands free” operation (optional), and headphones and speakers. 

  SmartMusic has a yearly subscription of $140 a year for educators, $44 a year for a practice room subscription, and students have $40 a year to access SmartMusic from home. 

Unlike Chromatik, SmartMusic music catalog had more traditional band, choir, orchestra, and piano music selections. 

     Teachers have the ability to create and send assignments to their students. Teachers are able to document and assess their students’ progress. Individualize instruction for students, and it is effective for time management so that the teacher has more time for teaching.  Teacher can create students portfolios to share with parents during conferences. Teachers can share their assignments and assessments with other teachers. Plus, parents can log in to see their child’s grades and progress.

      The program features are built-in track, built in tuner, has the ability to change the tempo or loop, student is able to hear their part and accompaniments, assessment score, color code for correct (green) or incorrect (red) pitches, and students are able to click to see the correct fingering for each note. Having the music notation highlighted when playing or singing with the music in SmartMusic is beneficial to help students read and follow the score. Over all, SmartMusic is user friendly, it has blogs to provide technical and motivational support for both students and teachers. 

     After viewing both Chromatik and SmartMusic, both programs are useful resources. Even though Chromatik does not have a yearly fee, its program format helps students to practice and perform modern music. Even though the teacher does not have direct access to their students’ information, students can still share their performance though the use of Youtube, video, social media. Whereas, SmartMusic that has a yearly fee, the teacher has more access and control to their students practice sessions. Parents are able to monitor their child’s progress and view their child’s grade. 

Looking back I would have benefit using both these programs. Chromatik for singing and playing my favorite modern songs, and SmartMusic for keeping me motivated to practice piano techniques. I believe my students will benefit from both of these programs.

References:

Chromatik

SmartMuisc

Pefromance, Practice, and Technology

     On Tuesday, April 7, 2015, my second grade students performed How Does Your Garden Grow? by John Jacobson and John Higgins.  I started teaching the musical in the middle of February 2015. Leading up to their performance, we practice our songs in music class, and the second grade teachers played the songs and the speaking parts every day in class . Even though the students were immersed with the music and text of the musical, there were some parts that still needed to be fine tuned.  Due to time constraints, I wished that I had another two weeks to rehearse with my students. Never the less, the performance was great. I received  many complements from parents, family members, co workers, and students, but I still wished that my students could have had more rehearsal time.
     During my reflection time after any performance I ask myself. what can I do  better for my students? How can I motivate my students to practice? What resources can I use to get my students "fired up" on learning new music, and not get bored or frustrated when rehearsing or practicing? This week's reading assignment was beneficial for my post performance reflection.

     In Chapter four of Music in Music Learning Today (Bauer, 2014), the title of the chapter is Performing Music. Bauer discusses that the performing musician utilizes knowledge and skills from psychomotor, cognitive, and affective domains. Music performance teachers help their students to develop all of these skills in different ways. Developing singing or instrumental techniques requires physical skills or executive skills. For instance posture, breath support, embouchure, and holding positions,  The use of motor skills is characterized as procedural knowledge according to Ormrod (2012). When playing an instrument or singing it takes both physical and mental components.  "When learning psychomotor skill, individuals progress from the cognitive stage...to the associative stage...,with a goal of achieving the autonomic stage" (Bauer, 2014, p. 80). Therefore music educators must develop their students motor skills and take these stages into consideration to promote  the achievement of automatcity, by scaffolding, experiences and activities. I agree that music teachers do help promote psychomotor skills with our students.

      When I teach recorders to my third, fourth, and fifth graders, I get negative feed back from some students who ask  "Why do we have use our left hand  instead of my right hand for the top part of the recorder?" I would explain to them that for most instruments, the left hand is on the top of the instrument (i. e. string instruments, woodwinds, etc). Most of my students would comply by properly holding the recorder correctly.  However, the students who have a difficult using their left hand. are the students who are having difficulties with their academic studies, some  are on an Individual Educational Program (IEP),and/ or Behavioral Plan.  Regardless of their situations, having students use proper recorder techniques is beneficial for their psycholomotor skills.  However, it can be detrimental for keeping some students motivated and not shutting down. My students who are having difficulties, I  adjust my students holding time, until they feel more comfortable holding the recorder correctly. I have them practice keeping the steady beat with their left hand, or have all my students practice using their left hand fingering, while  using their right forearm as the recorder.  I know that with practice all my students can improve over time, but it is difficult to convince some students that they will improve over time. Every time I listen to my students who are struggling I always say "I notice that you are holding the recorder correctly today." Or," I notice how you played the correct rhythmic passage and used the correct fingering. Now you need to work on creating the correct tone. I am excited for your achievement this week."  

     The discussion about music practice and motivation to practice is something that my students do struggle over. I have used extrinsic motivations to keep my students engaged and encouraged to practice using  Recorder Karate Plank Road Publishing.  I agree the importance of quantity and quality of practice is important to develop motor skills. I inform my students about my practice struggles,  While I was finishing my undergraduate music studies,  I was married and had two children ages two and four years old.  I remember going to my piano lesson and informed my professor that I did not have any time to practice, due to my son was ill.  My piano professor, Dr, Solomons, told me that today's lesson he was going to show me  how to practice in a short time frame, and how to manage my practice time more effectively  He took the time to show me how to practice within  a ten or twenty minute sessions. During my practice time, I was able to accomplish more during those short and more frequent time frames, than I would in an hour practice session. Dr. Solomons practice lesson was the most memorable lesson that motivated me to manage my time, with my busy life style.

     Reading about Smartmusic, I wished that Smartmusic was available when I was learning the piano, and clarinet. Even now I would enjoy using Smartmusic  for my own personal use. My general music students would benefit from having access to this technology. Being able to listen to a student's recording of their practice and give immediate feed back would be highly motivating for my students. and me. Students being able to practice at home and get a virtual one on one practice time would help my students to track their progress. Keeping a audio recording journal of my students progress would demonstrate that it takes time to show improvement when singing or playing an instrument over a period of time.

     I am also looking forward to use Audacity in my classroom for recording my students singing and instrument playing time. In the past I would use an MP3 recorder, but now that I am in school district that does not have that recording device, Audacity would be ideal.

     Looking forward to see how students can use technology to enhance their practice time, and increase their intrinsic motivation is exciting.

Bauer, W. I. (2014),  Performing Music. In Bauer, W. I. (2014). Music learning today: Digital
     pedagogy for creating performing and responding to music (pp.75-100).  New York:
     Oxford University Press.

Composing Using Non-Notational Strategies

     This week I learned that there are two types of approaches to composition: standard musical notation and non-notational compositional strategies. The non-notational compositional strategies did not set well with me.The idea of having students compose without using notation blew my mind. I kept thinking  about how can a student sight read by singing or playing an instrument without being able to read music notation? How can a student communicate to another musician on how to perform their composition of sound without chord progressions and music notation?   Many private debates that I had to resolve; never the less, the answer to my question is the following.

     When I am teaching 1st grade students to understand musical concepts, they are only exposed to musical sound. My younger students  do not see any musical notion until later in the school year. We sing, play,and move to different melodies, tempos, meters, and rhythmic chants. Once my students begin to audiate and demonstrate their aural skills then I begin show my students how to write out  music notation. Next, I have my students compose simple rhythms, and  simple melodies. Finally, my primary students then preform their compositions. Do all my students have grasped the knowledge of notation? Some do and some don't. However, when they create their composition they understand what musical sounds work together.

Reflecting on my older students musical skills, I know that some of my older students are having a difficult time grasping notation, but they know what sounds work well together. Even though, my older students have a difficult time performing their compositions, I know that what they have composed is good The answer to my question is that there is value in non-notational compositions. Having choices to use traditional notation and non- notation to demonstrate creativity through composition would be beneficial. If given choices, I know that most of my students would embrace non notational composition.



     I agree with Bauer(2014) is that "there needs to be an appropriate balance assigned constrains and freedom of choice" (p. 60). Even though there needs to be constraints to be considered to determine what is musically and developmentally appropriate for a group of students, without causing limitations to student creativity.  I also agree with the developing of aural skills. Aural skills are important for composition likewise with improvisation. Further more, "Teachers must assess their students' knowledge and be sure they are ready for learning  new concepts and skills" (p.61). By assess students knowledge and their skills will helps with unwanted frustration for everyone. When a student is not understanding  new concepts because they did not understand the previously taught concepts, those concepts must be retaught in order for a student to move forward in her learning.   How does this traditional notational educator assess compositions based on sound only?

    One thing that I found interesting is graphically oriented software, and how these programs focus on sound. One app that I am going to explore that was mentioned in Learning Music Today is Pitch Painter for my younger students and using programs like GarageBand and Soundation. I had a subscrition to GarageBand in 2008, I was impressed, but I did not know how to use it in a classroom setting.  I was teaching middle school choir at the time, and my main concern was sight singing for the University Interscholastic League Concert and Sight Reading District Composition. This was a required competition for Texas Middle Schools and High Schools. Now that I am teaching general music, GarageBand or Soundation would be programs that my students would enjoy exploring. After experimenting with Soundation, I wished that I used  GarageBand with my middle school choir students.  This would allow my choir students to have some creativity to put their aural skills into practice.

     I believe that with the information that we are learning we could reach out to the 80% of students who love music, but don't like to be apart of the ensemble world. The use of MIDI and DAWs is an excellent resource for students to explore and learn how to create music and produce music. MIDI gives students freedom to add their own ideas and expressions of music mixed with other musical sounds. I am excited to try Soundation with my students. I believe that this will help my students be better students, and would want to continue on learning music when they attend middle school and beyond.

Bauer, W. I. (2014). Creativity. In Music learning today: Digital pedagogy for creating, performing

       responding to music. New York: Oxford Press, Inc.

Noteflight

This is my review on Noteflight

I created a copy of Bicycle Built For Two and embed it below.

      When I was watching the tutorial videos, I was thinking “This looks too easy. I know there are going to be problems to watch out for when doing this assignment” .  However, I was impressed how easy it was for me to do the assignment. I did not use a midi keyboard to input the notes, I chose to use the mouse feature and the typing keyboard feature. I liked how I did not have to select a  voicing part when I needed to notate two or three notes on the same beat. If I wanted to add or delete measures, I just moved my cursor to the top of the measure to find a plus or minus button to click for the addition or reduction of a measure. When I need to add more measures, the last measure would add another measure while I was started to input notes in the last measure that was present. Everything was user friendly to access. 

     My students would do well with this program due to it being user friendly.  They would explore all options, and I would have some complaining that they did not have access to all the instrument voicing, if was unable to purchase the teacher package. 

However, some students would need to have a “one on one” time with them to be successful in using Noteflight.

     Recently my students finished a keyboard and recorder unit. In both unit studies, I had my students compose a four measure phrase with a partner, then they had to play their composition to their classmates. I had some students who did well playing back their composition, however I had some students who were struggling to play their compositions. If my students had access to this program, it would help them to hear how there composition should be performed, and help them to play more fluently.  

Creativity Through Improvisation

Six years ago, I was sitting and waiting in the doctor’s office with my 13 year old daughter.  My daughter started to tap her feet on the stool that was next to the patient’s table. Most parents would have asked their child to stop tapping or playing with the foot stool; however I tapped out a rhythmic patter with my foot on the floor.  My daughter responded back again, but this time adding snapping and clapping. This rhythmic dialog when on for at least thirty minutes, until the physician returned back with my daughter’s strep test results. Even though my daughter was not feeling her best, she and I were enjoying our rhythmic conversation while we were waiting. 

In Chapter 3 of Music Learning Today, Bauer (2014) discusses Creativity.  Bauer quotes Weber’s (2012) definition of creativity as “the engagement of the mind in the active, structured process of thinking in sound for the purpose of producing some product that is new for the creator. Creative thinking is a dynamic process of alternation between convergent and divergent thinking , moving in stages over time, enabled by certain skills, and by certain conditions, all resulting in a final product” (p. 49). Looking back on my daughter’s and mine rhythmic conversation, our conversation was the result of our past musical experiences.  Rhythmic skills and the ability to audiate rhythmic patterns gave us both the ability to create our own rhythmic conversation. Bauer discusses that musical improvisation is like having a conversation with a person. Since people don’t stop and plan what they are going to say, they react to the other person’s narrative and spontaneously begin to speak (p.52). 

Having a musical conversation with my daughter was delightful. However, I want to have   musical conversations with my students.  As a music educator implementing improvisation techniques would benefit all my students learning, by applying the knowledge of the musical concepts that I have taught them.  This would provide the opportunity for my students and I to have a musical conversation like the one my daughter and I had shared, and promote in depth learning for all.

How does one teach improvisation to general music students? Improvisation can be taught in variety of forms, from experimenting with pitch, rhythm, and timber that occurs naturally with children during play; however, where does one begin (p. 51)? Kratus (1996) describes a seven-level sequential model for developing improvisation abilities (p. 52). 

Level 1: Exploration-This requires audiation skills to be developed with the students and to provide them the time and necessary instruments to facilitate exploratory improvisation. 

Level 2: Process-oriented improvisations-This level is when true improvisation begin. This allows students to have some ownership over the process. Students view improvisation as a process of doing instead of creating musical patterns. The teacher isolates the students’ improvisational patters to show the students how their musical patterns relates to other musical patterns. The teacher continues to help develop the students’ ability to audiate and provide opportunities for students to improvise and absorb other students’ improvisational patterns.

Level 3: Product-orientate improvisation. Students become more aware of musical structures that are melodic, rhythmic, harmonic, tempo and phrasing. Students begin to use these musical structures in their improvisations, in which listeners understand its greater meaning. The teacher helps expand her students’ understanding of the structural elements of music, and helps develop her students’ aural skills and sensitivity to the differences in harmony, tempo, and meter.

Level 4: Fluid improvisation-The student is able to perform without consciously thinking about performance. The performance would be more fluid in keys, meter and tempos. The teacher’s emphasis is on proper performance technique and provide exercises for technical development for the students. The technical exercises are grounded in authentic musical contexts that focuses on improvisation opportunities to use an assortment of tempos, meters, tonalities, and harmonic chord progressions.

Level 5: Structural improvisation-The students applies larger musical structures when improvising and developing melodic ideas, tensions and release, and the connection with musical ideas within their improvisations.  The students’ improvisations demonstrates a beginning, middle, and end for the listener. The teacher can recommend strategies that students can uses when developing an improvisation, and the students will benefit by analyzing the techniques of other performers.

Level 6: Stylistic improvisation-Students are fluently improvising within a specific style, applying appropriate melodic, harmonic and rhythmic strategies. The teacher helps her students to acquire a repertoire that includes melodies, rhythms, harmonies, and timbers characteristic of a specific style. Learning standard melodies, continue to analyze expert performances, and having opportunities to perform with expert improvisers in all styles is beneficial to the students.

Level 7:  Personal Improvisation-“The ultimate achievement is for a musician to develop a unique, recognizable style of improvisation” (Bauer, 2014p. 53). The teacher encourages her students to become fluent in a wide rages of styles that over time blend into an innovative stylistic approach (pp.52-53).

     After reviewing these seven steps the ability to audiate, aural skills, time to explore and having the necessary tools/instruments to help students be successful with improvisation was highly emphasized. I would like to have tools in place to help my students to be successful. My students have the ability to audiate and identify rhythmic and melodic patters when I perform them. However when they perform their rhythmic and melodic patters for me most of my students are not fluent.  My students do write down their rhythmic and melodic compositions, but have difficulties preforming their compositions back correctly. Having access to technology would be a helpful device for them to hear the fluency in how their compositions to be performed.   Utilizing Musecore and Noteflight notation software, my students would be successful with having these tools for their compositions, and would help them reach their creativity through improvisation.

Bauer, W. I. (2014). Creativity. In Music learning today: Digital pedagogy for creating, performing

       responding to music. New York: Oxford Press, Inc.