Elementary Music/Music Technology Blog

As I continue with posting about lesson plans that utilize elementary music software as an enhancement tool, I thought that I would share with you a few ideas and a couple of lesson plans that I wrote using Music Ace.

Music Ace, produced by Harmonic Vision, is an excellent piece of software for elementary students. I first used Music Ace 1 back in 1998 when I downloaded the demo version and tried it out. All of the sudden, 30 minutes had passed. I was enthralled. I then installed the demo in my school’s computer lab and had my 5th grade general music class try out lesson one, “Introduction to Staff,” which covered lines and spaces of the staff, high and low pitches, and treble and bass clefs. The students loved using the demo and I realized that this was a wonderful way to assess and reinforce musical concepts that were being taught in my music class.

Music Ace first appeared as Music Ace 1 and Music Ace 2. There are 24 lessons in each that cover musical concepts such as rhythms, pitch, note names, keyboard skills, music staff (treble, bass, and alto), and ear training. A few years ago, Harmonic Vision combined the two programs to form Music Ace Maestro. Music Ace Maestro has all 48 lessons in progressive order. Some of the highlights of the Music Ace Series are:

1. Self-paced lessons: If you purchase a network license for your computer lab and the computers in the students’ classrooms, each student can utilize the lessons at his/her pace at his/her computer.
2. Progress Chart: You can keep track of each student’s progress. This is extremely helpful for when you need to assess each student for progress reports. If a parent has questions about his/her child’s grade in music class, you can simply pull out the child’s progress chart from Music Ace and use it to validate the child’s progress report.
3. Music Ace Maestro Manager: This allows you to input student databases and archive student databases so that you can have them for the years that you teach your students.
4. The lessons reinforce, enhance, and/or assess musical concepts that you have been teaching in music class.
5. Games: The games in Music Ace excite and motivate your students to learn.
6. Doodle Pad: A fun way to compose music using a variety of instruments. In addition, the Juke Box portion of Doodle Pad plays many songs that the students can listen to and/or edit.
7. Price: Reasonably priced for MAC or PC. As quoted from Harmonic Vision’s website: “A single stand-alone version of Music Ace Maestro has a suggested retail price of $127.95. The pricing strategy for Music Ace Maestro is to multiply a comparable Music Ace product by 1.6. For example, a Music Ace Maestro Network 30 sells for $1,918 which is 1.6 X $1,199 (the cost of a Music Ace Network 30).”

Lesson 1: I have used Music Ace in various ways. I have used it with Kindergarten to reinforce basic musical concepts, with my laptop connected to a TV and each student coming up to the computer to take a turn. We used Music Ace 1 lesson 1 so that the students could place notes on lines and spaces on the treble clef staff. The students thoroughly enjoyed this activity and were very successful at it. I was able to assess if they understood which note was placed on the line and which note was placed in the space. You can see this lesson by clicking on the following link: kindergarten_music_ace.pdf It was originally published by SoundTree. If you go to SoundTree “teaching resources”, you can see many more lessons that integrate technology for the elementary, middle school, high school, or college-age level.

Lesson 2: This lesson is included in Technology Integration in the Elementary Music Classroom. It is titled “Playing with Pitch” and it utilizes Music Ace 1 lesson 3, or Maestro lesson 4, to assess the students’ abilities to identify if the pitch goes higher, lower, or stays the same. To see this lesson, please click on the following link: playing-with-pitch.pdf

Question: I’ve discussed Sibelius’s Groovy Series and Harmonic Vision’s Music Ace Series. I would love to hear from you. Have you used these two products in your classroom?

As I blog on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays of each week, I thought that this week’s theme would be software (and lessons) for the elementary general music classroom. There are numerous products out there that elementary students can use in a variety of classroom settings, whether you teach “a la cart”, have one computer in the classroom, or can access a computer lab.

The Sibelius Groovy Series is a wonderful way for even your youngest students to begin creating music. There are 3 programs in the Groovy Series: Shapes (for ages 5-7), Jungle (for ages 7-9), and City (for ages 9-11). These ages do vary because you can easily use Shapes with grades K-3, Jungle with grades 2-5, and City with Grades 5-8. Each version assists the teacher with presenting, making conscious, and practicing the musical concepts of sound, rhythm, and pitch. Each version has two basic modes: Explore and Create. The explore mode presents a variety of concepts such as beat, high and low, dynamics, meter, and more, in a visual and aural way. The create mode allows the students to use the skills that were experienced, learned, and practiced in the explore mode to create a song. The create mode also includes all of the basic musical elements required to create a song: melody, rhythm, chords, arpeggios, bass, tempo, dynamics, instruments, and bonuses. The bonuses include unique sound effects that compliment the style of the music. For example, in Groovy Jungle, the bonuses are animal sounds from the rain forest.

I have used Groovy Shapes with my students in grades Kindergarten and One and Jungle with students in Grade Two. We have used it with one computer connected to a TV or SmartBoard (an interactive whiteboard), in five groups with access to five computers, or in the computer lab. We have also used Groovy to reinforce musical concepts that have been taught in class.

Lesson 1: When my first graders were studying the concepts of dynamics, mainly forte (loud) and piano (soft), we first sang songs using forte and piano. Then we moved to orchestral excerpts that were both forte and piano. Finally, we played a musical game such as “Hot and Cold,” however it was titled “Forte and Piano,” where one student would hide an instrument in the music room and another child had to find it. When the child was close to the instrument, the students would say “forte” loudly. When the student was far away from the instrument, the students would whisper “piano.” After we played the game, I would reinforce the concept of forte and piano by having the students perform the Groovy Shape lesson titled “dynamics” together. This could be done with one computer connected to a SmartBoard or a TV and having each student take a turn, or in a computer lab where each child works at his/her own pace at his/her own computer. Once we completed the lesson, I had the students go to the create mode in Groovy Shapes and add dynamics to a song that I created for them. This lesson was done with 5 computers and the students were split into 5 pre-assigned groups.

Lesson 2: Another lesson that we have completed in Kindergarten music class was to create a song in a specified form. My kindergartners learned about Vivaldi’s Spring, Movement 1 by listening to the music, moving to the form of music, ABACADAEA, and drawing to pictures that represented the form–we used trees for the A Section, and other Spring objects like birds, river, thunder storm, and sun for the B, C, D, and E Sections. Afterwards, we created a song using Groovy Shapes with the same form as Vivaldi’s Spring: ABACADAEA. I created the A Section and the students created the B, C, D, and E sections. We performed this lesson as a group with one computer connected to a TV.

Lesson 3: Finally, if you have Sibelius 5, you can use the Groovy Music Mark-up plug-in to create songs in Sibelius and turn them into Jungle or City melodies, rhythms, bass lines, etc. I have utilized this plug-in when I want to take a traditional folk melody like “Lucy Locket” and turn each phrase into a Jungle butterfly. One I have completed this, I then rearrange the phrases and have the students in K-4 rearrange them back to their proper order. It is a great way to assess your students.

Resources:
If you would like to hear examples of my Kindergartners’ works with the form of ABACADAEA, or my 1st graders’ works with dynamics, please just click on the links below.

Grade 1: 1C 1S 1M

Kindergarten: KK KM KC

To see the lesson about Vivaldi’s Spring, just click here: form_fun.pdf. This comes from my book of lesson plans that enhances the elementary music classroom curriculum with technology: Technology Integration in the Elementary Music Classroom, published by Hal Leonard in coordination with TI:ME.

To learn how to use the Groovy Music Mark-up plug-in, just go to Sibelius Groovy Music and scroll down to the “downloads” section. There you will find a pdf file titled “Groovy Hints & Tips for teachers“. This pdf file shows you how to use the plug-in along with how to use many other short cuts and tips in Groovy.

Groovy is for MAC and PC and has a website for you to share all of your students’ works with other students in the US and England.

If you are a member of The National Association for Music Education (MENC), then you are probably aware that about two weeks ago, during their final national conference, they debuted the new design of their website. It has a fresh new look and it is much easier to navigate.

One of the best features of this website is the general music forum. MENC includes a forum for general music, chorus, band, future teachers, and Higher Ed/Admin/Research. The general music forum is wonderful for teachers who are novice to veterans in the field. The forum is a place where general music teachers can ask each other questions and seek each other’s advice. For example, recently a music teacher asked a question about purchasing the best glockenspiels for the classroom. In the next three days, 11 teachers had answered with wonderful advice.

If you are not a member of MENC, you can peruse the various posts, however, if you are a member, then you can submit a question so that you can receive multiple answers from various music teachers. In addition, MENC assigns a veteran music teacher to be a monthly mentor who will try to answer every question so that no question is left unanswered.

One item that they did take away when they updated the website was the technology forum. This particular forum was not used often and over the years, MENC stopped having mentors for it. However, there is an excellent technology forum provided by the Technology Institute for Music Educators (TI:ME). If you become a member of TI:ME, you can join the TI:ME Yahoo group. Then, if you ever have a technology question that you need answered, you just have to type it to the Yahoo group. Usually, it takes less than 24 hours before many technology gurus like current TI:ME president, Dr. Tom Rudolph, will answer you. It is a wonderful organization whose goal is to assist music teachers with music technology.

Have you ever used the MENC music forums or the TI:ME forum to assist you?

When we start out teaching fresh from college, we enter the work force feeling very unprepared, or at least I did. Not to say that my undergraduate experience did not assist me, because it did greatly. I feel that with a music education degree, or with any degree, you cannot be fully prepared for what your first, second, third, etc job might bring. Therefore, here is a brief list of some items that have helped me in regards to teaching elementary general music:

1. Workshops:

Sign up and utilize them. Orff (www.aosa.org), Kodaly (www.oake.org), Feierabend (http://www.giamusic.com/bios/feierabend_john.cfm) Dalcroze (http://www.dalcrozeusa.org/), Gordon (http://www.giamusic.com/bios/gordon_edwin.cfm), or whatever you choose or if decide to mix and match them all, these workshops are excellent. The workshops give you several resources that you will use often in your classroom, you will meet many other music educators from novice to veteran, and you learn! If you cannot acquire the funds through your school, then I would highly recommend going to a day workshop of one of these organizations. For example, you can usually attend a Saturday Orff workshop at your local Orff Chapter for around $20.

2. Books/Resources:

There is a constant debate among music educators as to whether you should use a music text such as Silver Burdett or McGraw-Hill or whether you have enough materials with songs, listening excerpts, and instruments that the text is not needed. There are also arguments that the texts are not very authentic and some songs are not culturally appropriate. I have to state that during my first year of teaching I used the texts all of the time because I had no curriculum to work from. However, now I rarely use them. The choice is yours. With that said, I have found that the following magazines have been wonderful resources for the elementary music classroom and can fit nicely into the budget:

• Music K-8 (www.musick8.com) - I use Teresa Jennings music often for concerts in grades K-5. Check out the website because there are many more resources listed there.
• Activate! Music, Movement, and More! (www.lorenz.com) - Wonderful music and movement activities for grades K-6.
• Music Express Magazine (http://www.musicexpressmagazine.com/) - John Jacobson’s amazing elementary music magazine.

3. Music Technology:

I would not be me if I did not blog about how some technology tools that have assisted me greatly over the years in an elementary music classroom.

• iPod (http://www.apple.com/itunes/) - I used to have 50+ CDs cluttering the area around my CD player. My students used to comment about it! Now, I have iTunes on my computer, which I import my CDs to. I then create folders like “Kindergarten music” “1st grade music” etc., and click and drag my music into each folder. I then drag the folder to my iPod and now I no longer have to switch CDs during the 5 minutes (more like 2-3 minutes) I have between classes.
• Recording device for iPod - There are three different types of recorder for the iPod. When you attach the recording device to the iPod, you have just turned your iPod into a portable assessment device. This has been a wonderful tool for me in my classroom. To see the three devices please visit my website so that you can read about them.
• Software and websites: This is another blog in itself. I will just put some out there that have assisted me: Finalenotepad (freeware) (http://www.finalemusic.com/notepad/) for composition with students in grades 2-5, Music Ace Maestro (www.harmonicvision.com) for reinforcing musical concepts in grades K-5, Sibelius’s Groovy Series (www.sibelius.com) for musical composition in grades K-5, Morton Subotnick’s software (www.creatingmusic.com) for listening and creating music in grades PreK-5, Apple’s GarageBand (www.apple.com/ilife) for creating music in grades 3-5, and many others. In addition, there are several music websites set up for students like San Francisco Symphony (www.sfskids.org), NY Philharmonic (http://www.nyphilkids.org), Carnegie Hall (www.carnegiehall.org), and many more.

What are some resources that you cannot live without in your elementary music classroom? Or, what resources have assisted you greatly in your teaching?

Welcome to my very first post. I am hoping that you will find this blog educational and resourceful.

This first blog is just to tell you a little bit about myself. My name is Amy M. Burns. I am a PreK-Grade 3 elementary music teacher. I teach general music 3X a 7-day cycle for grades 1-3 for 30 minutes per each class. I teach 2X a cycle for grades PreK Olders (4-year olds) and Kindergarten for 30 minutes per each class. I teach 2X a cycle for PreK Youngers (3-year olds) for 20 minutes per each class. I have also taught general music for grades 4 and 5, taught group and private instrumental lessons, instrumental band for grades 4-8, choruses for grades K-5, and I founded and directed our after-school conservatory that currently houses 13 adjunct music professors who teach 1/3 of our students private lessons on piano, guitar, voice, percussion, strings, woodwinds, and brass.

I have been teaching music for the past 12 years. Eleven of those years have been at Far Hills Country Day School, in Far Hills, NJ. I hold a Bachelors in Music Ed and Music Performance from Ithaca College. I also hold a Masters Degree in Science of Music Education from Central Connecticut State University. In 2005, I was awarded the first-ever (TI:ME) Teacher of the Year Award. In 2008, I was elected as their President-Elect.

Please take a moment and look at my students’ works on my website. In addition, please leave a comment.