Elementary Music/Music Technology Blog

Congratulations to Joel of www.soyouwanttoteach.com and Joe of musictechnology.net, who just presented the second edition of the Music Education Blog Carnival! The Music Education Blog Carnival is a compilation of blog entries from a variety of blogs that speak to music education.

The entries this month are outstanding! Some contain pure humor, some contain great advice, and some contain thought-provoking issues and views on music. I highly recommend you checking the carnival out because you will find at least one blog entry that will appeal to you. I thank Joel and Joe for including my entry about SMART Board in the Elementary Music Classroom.

If you blog and would like to submit an article/blog post, click here. Their next edition will be September 1st and will be hosted here on this blog! I felt as a blogger, musician, educator, clinician, and president-elect of TI:ME, this would be a good site to host the next edition of the Music Education Blog Carnival. I hope that you will consider submitting a past post or writing a new on for the September edition. The beginning of the school year is a perfect time to begin blogging again!

Yesterday, I received an email from Apple announcing iTunes U. As Apple states on its website: “iTunes U is a part of the iTunes Store featuring free lectures, language lessons, audiobooks, and more, that you can enjoy on your iPod, iPhone, Mac or PC. Explore over 50,000 educational audio and video files from top universities, museums and public media organizations from around the world. With iTunes U, there’s no end to what or where you can learn.”

I opened iTunes and used the search tool to see what “music” in iTunes U would produce. 150 items appeared from such universities as Yale Music, Arizona State university, Vanderbilt University and more.

When I began listening to the tracks, it made me wish that this was around when I was in college. You can find lectures, musical performances, and even lesson plans. I listened to and watched some excellent music performances from “Appalachian Celebration: A Celebration of the Life and Music of David Schnaufer” and two wonderful lesson plans from Andrea Peterson, 2007 National teacher of the Year, as a part of Smithsonian Global Sound Activities. When you listen to her first lesson, she describes a website to use in a multi-cultural music lesson. Her second lesson gives an excellent integration activity for 4th grade music and social studies classes. If you click “get” next to the lesson plans listed in the Smithsonian Global list, you can acquire 19 pdf files, all are free lesson plans on multi-cultural music.

There are several podcasts from classes, concerts, and lectures. You can also find tutorials–one I found on how to use GarageBand ‘08. The possibilities are endless.

As a resource for teachers, this is a great way to find music, lessons, videos, tutorials, or to hear lectures on current music education topics. However, I also have to think about what this means for colleges. If I were an undergrad and missed a class, being able to download the lecture through iTunes U is a great advantage. Or, if I were studying for the final, to be able to take a Saturday and listen to all of the lectures from the semester would help my studying considerably. However, one must wonder, if you can download all of the video lectures from iTunes U, then why would you get up for that 8:00 am class? What does this mean for education?

I would love to hear your thoughts.

This lesson is one that I wrote for SoundTree’s Teaching Resources. There are quite a few lessons and articles on this website. I encourage you to check them out. Enjoy this lesson!

Name Chant: An Activity That You Can Do With Your Students During The First Few Days Of School

Grade Level: 
K-3

Objective:
The students will successfully chant the “Name Chant” poem and their names to a steady beat. In addition, they will successfully read and play the notation of the poem.

 TI:ME Strategies Covered:
Electronic Keyboards or Music Production

MENC Standards Covered:
2. Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music
5. Reading and notating music

Materials:

1. The “Name Chant” Poem
2. An electronic keyboard that can play various rhythms or a music production software such as Apple’s GarageBand or PG Music’s Band-in-a-Box

Procedures:

1. Have the students sit in a circle.
2. Introduce the “Name Chant” by rote while tapping the steady beat on their laps. If you are working with Grades 2 and 3, you can introduce this chant with the rhythmic notation, rather than through rote.
3. Go around the room and have all of the students state the chant together while tapping the steady beat on their laps. Then, each student will rhythmically chant his/her name between all of the students stating the “Name Chant” together. The form would be: ABACADAEAFA etc. with Section A being the “Name Chant” and Section B, C, D, E, and F being each individual student’s name.
4. Once accomplished, have each student choose a rhythm instrument to play the rhythm of his/her name.
5. Play a musical style/beat pattern from an electronic keyboard, or from Apple’s GarageBand or PG Music’s Band-in-a-Box.
6. Now have the students chant the “Name Chant,” then perform their names on the rhythm instruments. The musical style/beat pattern being played by the electronic keyboard or from Apple’s GarageBand or PG Music’s Band-in-a-Box provides the students with the steady beat and a musical style to perform the chant.

Extensions:
The teacher could use this lesson to introduce the four voices: talking, singing, calling, and whispering. The teacher could have the students chant the “Name Chant” and rhythmically state their name using one of the four voices.

Outcome:
This lesson will produce various levels of achievements. The ideal outcome is that the students can successfully read the notated rhythm while stating the chant. In addition, they can perform the rhythms of their names on rhythm instruments while a musical style/beat pattern is being played on the electronic instrument or music production software such as Apple’s GarageBand or PG Music’s Band-in-a-Box. I have seen my students gain confidence and ownership of rhythm patterns by just adding that simple electronic keyboard musical style/beat pattern or just hitting play on PG Music’s Band-in-a-Box to accompany them.

The rubric provided below gives the teacher a reference to assess a student’s performance. I assess the two skills individually.

Excellent: The student can state the chant successfully while tapping a steady beat. The student can successfully play his/her name on a rhythm instrument while a musical style is being played.

Good: The student can state most of the chant successfully while tapping a steady beat. The student can mostly play his/her name on a rhythm instrument while a musical style is being played.

Fair: The student can state only a measure of the chant and has difficulty tapping the steady beat. The student has difficulty playing his/her name on a rhythm instrument while a musical style is being played.

Novice: The student cannot state the chant successfully and cannot tap a steady beat. The student cannot play his/her name on a rhythm
instrument while a musical style is being played.

Continuing with my posts on how the nine national standards from The National Association for Music Education (MENC) can be enhanced by technology in the elementary general music classroom, today I approach standard #9. FYI: This is out of order because I have blogged about Standard #8 on July 1.
Content Standard:
9. Understanding music in relation to history and culture.

The following lesson is from my wonderful music colleague, Maedean Kramer, who is the grades 4-8 general music teacher at my school. Each spring she conducts a jazz unit with her 6th graders. The students must study a jazz artist. She has them create a powerpoint that includes the following items listed below. She provides them with several websites to gather the information, pictures, and audio samples. All of this is done in class. After the 6th graders present their powerpoints, she has a rubric for which she uses to grade each presentation. The students are aware of her rubric and grading system because she shows them the rubric before they begin their research.

This project produces some excellent work from her 6th graders. I hope that the project that she let me share on this blog gives you some ideas for your late elementary/middle school general music classes.

“6th Grade Jazz Powerpoint Presentation” by Maedean Kramer © 2008.

Slide 1: Title slide
Your name*
Name of the artist
Slides 2-4: Biographical information
Photo(s) of your artist
Personal information- date of birth, death if applicable, place of birth, family information
Any other interesting information you may have discovered- how did your artist get started playing jazz? Does your artist have a nickname? How did they get the name?
Slides 5-6: Instrument/Famous pieces
Photo of instrument
Possible photo of artist and band?
Famous pieces- name at least 2 or 3 and 5 at the most
Slides: 7-8: Other important information
Sound clip/file URL link
Relevant information that was interesting to learn
Slide 9: Why was your artist important to jazz?
You need to create an answer for this one- it’s not written down specifically
Slide 10: Bibliography
Be sure to include all websites you used for your research

*ITEMS THAT ARE IN BOLD ARE REQUIRED

MY CHECK LIST FOR POWERPOINT:

____ my name and artist on the title slide

____ one background for the presentation

____ smooth transitions between slides

____ effects are used appropriately and efficiently

____ spell checked and proofed

____ linked appropriately to the sound clip

____ contain all the required information (listed above in BOLD)

____ my powerpoint is saved to the group shared folder as well as in my personal file

____ all photos have URL credit

Continuing with my posts on how the nine national standards from The National Association for Music Education (MENC) can be enhanced by technology in the elementary general music classroom, today I approach standard #7.

Content Standard:
7. Evaluating music and music performances.

Achievement Standard:
7a. Students devise criteria for evaluating performances and compositions.

When I use a portable digital recorder in my classroom, I use it for numerous applications. One application is so that students can evaluate their own performances. When we are preparing for a concert, I will use the portable digital recorder to record their concert songs. I then hook the portable digital recorder to the speakers in my classroom. Before we listen to the recording, we devise an evaluation criteria to see if we meet it. For elementary, some items we have included are:

1. Can we understand the words of the song? (If not, then we need to enunciate more).
2. Do we sound like we are singing or shouting?
3. Do we hear our musical phrasing?
4. Do we hear any dynamic differences?

We have added more questions that related specifically to the individual songs, however, these four tend to work for all songs. After we evaluate our performances, we work on our weaknesses and record our song again to hear our improvements.

The digital recorders that I have are used in my classroom are:

1. Apple’s iPod with recorder: Attaching the Griffin iTalk Pro recorder, Xtreme Micromemo recorder, or the Belkin recorder to your iPod video, iPod Classic, or iPod Nano turns your iPod into a digital recorder. It saves the audio files as a wav files. You can plug the iPod into your sound system to listen to the recording or you can upload the recording to your computer. Very affordable if you already own an iPod. As far as I know, none of the microphones listed above work with the iPod Touch.
2. M-Audio MicroTrack II: This portable digital recorder records in stereo with an amazing sound. You can plug the MicroTrack II into your sound system to listen to the recording or you can upload the recording to your computer. Once you have access to one, you will use it as a recording device and an assessment device. It is well worth the price.
3. Laptop: Though not as portable as the two listed above, using such programs as Audacity (freeware), Apple’s GarageBand (MAC) or Acoustica’s MixCraft (PC) and your laptop’s internal microphone (or purchase a better microphone like a Shure SM58 or the Blue Snowball microphone), you can also perform this lesson.

One final reflection on this lesson: One of the things that my students adore is that recording them provides them with a satisfaction that they can immediately hear themselves. Though yes, your students will get giggly when they hear themselves and try to decide who is singing the loudest, however, by using the evaluation that you set up with your students will assist in focusing your students’ listening skills.

Continuing with my posts on how the nine national standards from The National Association for Music Education (MENC) can be enhanced by technology in the elementary general music classroom, today I approach standard #6.

Content Standard:
6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music

Achievement Standard:
6c. Students use appropriate terminology in explaining music, music notation, music instruments and voices, and music performances

This is a lesson for Grades Kindergarten and First. It utilizes the website tvokids.com’s Make Your Own Music Game. I had not heard of this website until one of the participants in the TI:ME 1B course that I taught in Maryland showed it to me. This is a wonderful website for the youngest of students because it allows them to create their own rock band, however, in an educational way.

To set up this lesson, I would connect my laptop to a projector and screen, or to a projector and SMART Board, or to a TV. I would show the students how to create a song using this website. It is a simple process: You would audition the members of the band by clicking on them and dragging them to the stage. The stage allows up to four musicians to play together. The following instruments are played by the musicians:

Beat boxer, stick player, drummers, bass player, electric guitarist, maraca player, and more.

If you do not like the musician you chose, you can replace him/her with another musician by clicking on the new musician and replacing the old musician with the new musician. One of the best features of this website is that there is a mixer, so you can increase and decrease the volume of each musician and you can solo each instrument.

For this lesson, each student would come up to the computer, audition, and choose a musician. Once there are four musicians on stage performing together, I would then choose a “mixer.” The student who is the “mixer” will use the volume controls to “mix” the song so that all of the musicians are heard. I would also ask the students some listening questions such as “Can you hear all four musicians?” “Is one musician louder than the others?” “Is one musician playing too soft?” When the song is complete, the website records the song for up to one minute. You can then send the song to the jukebox or email it to an email account. Some listening aspects taught in this lesson include listening and choosing a musician, listening and identifying the instrument that the musician is playing, and listening to each musician’s volume.

I would probably utilize this lesson on a day before a school break or at the end of the school year because it would generate a lot of excitement and fun for the Kindergarten and First Grade.

When I speak with numerous music educators at various conferences, a more common phrase that I am hearing is “I have a SMART Board in my classroom but I am not sure how to utilize it with my curriculum” or some variation of this. About a year ago, I discovered that I could sign out a SMART Board for my classroom and get to use it if it was available. Last year, I signed it out numerous times and it has proven to be an asset to the music classroom. Below are some descriptions of ways that a SMART Board can enhance your music classroom. If you teach on a cart, you can utilize a SMART Board that might be in a teacher’s classroom too.

What is a SMART Board?
Simply put, a SMART Board is an interactive whiteboard. It requires a computer, an LCD projector to run, and the SMART Board software which is called SMART Notebook Software (the software is optional, but it can do so many things!). The computer connects to the LCD projector through the adapter that comes with the computer. The SMART Board connects to the computer through the USB port. This can be a wired or wireless USB connection depending on the particular SMART Board.

I just want to add that SMART Technology is just one maker of this interactive whiteboard. Promethean is another excellent maker of the board and I enjoyed trying their board at the recent NECC conference. Another model that teachers like is Hitachi StarBoard. Plus, there are more inexpensive and smaller versions of the board. To check out a great teacher/tech discussion on the topic at proteacher.net, click here. In addition, if you perform a google search on the topic, you will find numerous websites devoted to the discussion of which interactive whiteboard is best.

One final word before I go into the various uses. My SMART Board is on the rolling case as opposed to being mounted on a wall. If I had the choice, I would use a mounted SMART Board because it means less wires for your students to trip over and less items for your students to bump into which will cause you to “orient” your screen many times during the lesson.

Music Software:
I have used music software such as Sibelius’s Groovy Music Series and Harmonic Vision’s Music Ace with the SMART Board. We would perform a lesson, game, or create music together as a class. Each student would go to the SMART Board one at a time and complete a step in the lesson or create a certain portion of the song. An added bonus with the Groovy Music Series is that it has a button that allows the screen to get smaller so your youngest of students can reach the board without standing on a chair.

Music Notation:
Finale and Sibelius (or other music notation software programs) become easier and more memorable to use when the students create a piece together on the SMART Board. They are able to click and drag the notes from the note palette to the staff. Using a good set of speakers connected to your computer, you can play back their compositions beautifully as they watch the music proceed across the SMART Board screen.

Interactive Music Websites:
The students can take turns utilizing websites on the SMART Board. Here are some websites and ways that I have used them with the SMART Board:

1. New York Philharmonic Kidzone: I have had my Kindergartners play the Music Match Instruments Concentration game as a group. They come up to the SMART Board one at a time and click on the card. The card flips over and plays an excellent audio example of the instrument. When they find two cards that match, they earn points. They cannot lose this game because it continues until all of the cards are turned over. There are three difficulty levels, so it is a great game to reinforce instrument sounds with the students.
2. Dallas Symphony Orchestra for Kids (DSOKids): There are two sections of this website, one for students and one for teachers. I have utilized Beethoven’s Baseball with my 3rd graders and higher. It is a game where you pick composers to be the members of the baseball team. When Beethoven -the pitcher on the opposite team- throws a pitch, the students must come up to the SMART Board and choose the answer. This particular game works well with older elementary. It is a great assessment tool to a composer unit.
3. Ricci Adams Musictheory.net: Excellent website for middle and high school music theory. There are interactive lessons and training sessions (like note, key, interval, and ear training) that you can perform with your students at a SMART Board station in the classroom.
4. philtulga.com: Check this interactive and integrated website out! You will find numerous musical activities to perform with elementary students using the SMART Board. One example that I adore is on his counting music rhythm page. If you count rhythms with numbers, Kodály syllables, Gordon syllables, or French syllables, you can click on one of the side buttons to change the syllables between methodologies. In addition, the rhythms will be spoken with the syllables when you press the play button. Finally, the Sequencing with Simon is a fun music game to play that incorporates listening skills.
5. San Francisco Symphony Kids (sfskids.org): One of my and my students’ favorite websites. There are a variety of interactive musical activities from playing an instrument, to composing, to exploring the instruments, that can be done well with a SMART Board.
6. Virtual Instruments: Here are two examples of virtual instruments that you can use with your students via a SMART Board. Virtual keyboard. Virtual Gamelon.
7. Are you using Nursery Rhymes in your music classroom? Check out this website and project these excellent pictures of nursery rhymes on the SMART Board as you use them in class.

Powerpoint:
You can use powerpoint presentations on your SMART Board. One of the best ways that I used it this year was I made a powerpoint presentation that had the lyrics of a simple song typed onto the screen. When the student would come up to tap each word to the rhythm of the lyrics, the word would light up. This was an excellent way for me to assess the students’ rhythm skills. After they completed the song, we would then use one of the SMART Board markers and write in the rhythms of the song using stick notation.

SMART Notebook Software:
SMART Board has software that you can use to create lessons. The notebook software has a lot of bells and whistles to it such as games accessories like dice, spinners, etc. It also has various teaching tools like maps, graphics, pictures, tabs, etc. In addition, if you perform a google search for music SMART Board lessons, you will find lessons created with the notebook software that you can download and utilize right away. Some of my favorite lessons that I have found by performing a google search are:

1. The note tree: the students click and drag quarter, half, whole, and eighth notes off the tree and place them in the proper quarter note, half note, whole note, or eighth note circle.
2. Using the lines in the notebook software and creating a 2-line staff or a 3-line staff that the students can click and drag noteheads to the lines or spaces of the staff.
3. The note game: There are various notes projected on the SMART Board. The students must use the SMART Board pen to circle all of the quarter notes. When finished, they pull out the answer tab from the side of the screen, which will reveal where all of the quarter notes are. The students then can self-assess their answers.

These are just some ideas on how to utilize a SMART Board in your classroom. The board and software itself take a little time to get used to. However, your students will love using the board and you will love having a large, interactive, visual teaching tool in your classroom.

Have you used an interactive white board in your music classroom? If so, how? Please leave a comment and share your ideas.

Continuing with my posts on how the nine national standards from The National Association for Music Education (MENC) can be enhanced by technology in the elementary general music classroom, today I approach standard #5.

Content Standard #5: Reading and notating music.

Achievement Standard:
5b. Students use a system (that is, syllables, numbers, or letters) to read simple pitch notation in the treble clef in major keys.

This lesson comes from my book: Technology Integration in the Elementary Music Classroom.

Can you spell these words?
(A Note Naming Game using the Classics for Kids Website)

Objective:
The objective of this lesson is to have the students spell the musical words on the Treble Clef Staff, using only the notes found on the lines and spaces of this staff. Therefore, this game does not involve notes on the ledger lines.

Materials/Equipment:
The materials required for this lesson are:
- A large staff
- Notes to place on the staff
- A computer
- The website: http://www.classicsforkids.com
- A TV, SMARTboard, or LCD projector so that the students can see the website

Duration:
20-30 minutes

Prior Knowledge and Skills:
The students need to know the note names on a Treble Clef Staff.

Procedure:

1. Review the Note Names of a Treble Clef Staff:
a. Take out a large staff (this could be a felt staff, a staff drawn on an easel, a staff used as a carpet, etc.)
b. Review lines and spaces
c. Review the note names on the staff with the method that you taught the students to identify and comprehend the note names on a Treble Clef Staff.
2. Play the Game:
a. Before you begin, please go over good sportsmanship. If you decide to play a game that divides the class into two teams, then it is very important to go over what good sportsmanship means. In my school, I have an excellent PE program, so when I speak about sportsmanship to the students, they have already experienced it in their PE classes and know how to practice it.
b. Connect your computer to a TV, SMARTboard, or LCD projector.
c. Launch the Classics for Kids website: (http://www.classicsforkids.com)
d. Click on “Games”.
e. Click on the “Note Name Game” (see Fig. 1).
f. The game will appear with the notes dancing from side-to-side on the staff. They dance from side-to-side until you place the correct letters beneath them.
g. Divide the class into two teams. I usually name my two teams after composers, such as Team Bach and Team Beethoven.

h. The first few words that appear on the screen are only one to three-letter words. As the students progress, the words have more letters.
i. Assign Team Bach to go first.
j. The goal is to drag the correct letter name to the space below each note to spell a word.
k. For a three-letter word, such as AGE (see Fig. 1), have three members of the Bach team go to the computer (or SMARTboard) and drag the letter to the corresponding note. When the student puts the correct letter under the note, he/she earns Team Bach a point. Therefore, for the word AGE, if all three students place the correct letters under the notes, then Team Bach has earned three points. If a student does not place the letter under the correct note, the computer gives you a sound to let you know that the letter was incorrect and the team does not earn a point. I will usually give each student two tries to earn the point.
l. The game will give you ten words to spell. Many times, the team that earns the most points is the one who had the words with the most letters. Therefore, at the end I give each student (on both teams) a reward of a musical pencil or a lollypop. It is up to you how you decide to reward them, or if you choose to reward them at all.

Evaluation:
As the students each take a turn, you can sit in the back of the classroom and evaluate each student individually for naming notes and if you choose, you can evaluate each student for sportsmanship.

Follow-up:
This lesson can be followed-up with more note naming games like “Musical Hangman” – a game where the words used only have the seven letters on the musical alphabet – or creating compositions with the notes of a Treble Clef Staff.
From Burns, A. Technology Integration in the Elementary Music Classroom. Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard Corporation, 2008.

Continuing with my posts on how the nine national standards from The National Association for Music Education (MENC) can be enhanced by technology in the elementary general music classroom, today I approach standard #8. FYI: This is out of order because I have blogged about Standards 1-4.

Content Standard #8: Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts.

This lesson came to me yesterday as I was thinking about integration. For the next two days, I am at the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) in San Antonio, Texas. I am presenting at the Avid Education Booth (includes Avid, Sibelius, M-Audio, Pinnacle, and Digidesign) on Sibelius’s Groovy Music Series of Groovy Shapes (ages 5-7), Groovy Jungle (ages 7-9), and Groovy City (ages 9-11). These programs teach music theory and composition skills using animations and pictures. They are wonderfully geared for elementary grades (PreK-Grade 6). As I present, I continuously show my students’ works created in Groovy Shapes, Jungle, and City.

Standard #8 came to me as I was presenting Groovy Jungle because this program is set in the rainforest. My 3rd graders study the rainforest in science and they are continuously writing about the facts of the rainforest. In Groovy Jungle Create Mode, there is a typing tool. The 3rd graders will type in facts about the rainforest. Then, they will use the rhythm trees, the melody butterflies, the arpeggio flies, the chord spiderwebs, the bass line bushes, and the bonus sounds that consist of a variety of animals found in the rainforests, to create a song that compliments their written facts. These completed songs can be posted on groovymusic.com where parents and students can go to view and listen to the song as it is seen and heard in the program itself.

If you have never seen the Groovy Series, I encourage you to read about it at Sibelius’s website and to check out some students’ works on Groovymusic.com.

If you are at the NECC Conference, please come to one of my sessions on Tuesday, July 1, at 11:00 am and 3:00 pm or on Wednesday, July 2, at 11:00 am and 1:30 pm, at booth 8222. Sibelius is giving out a free Groovy triple pack (Shapes, Jungle, and City) to one participant at each of the sessions.

Have you ever used and of the Groovy Music Series in your music classroom? Or, have you even enhanced a standard #8 lesson with technology?

Continuing with my posts on how the nine national standards from The National Association for Music Education (MENC) can be enhanced by technology in the elementary general music classroom, today I approach standard #4.

Content Standard #4: Composing and arranging music within specified guidelines.

Achievement Standard #4b: Students create and arrange short songs and instrumental pieces within specified guidelines.

A couple of years back, I composed a research project that involved these content and achievement standards with second graders. Briefly, they composed a four-measure B Section (to a four-measure A Section that I composed to make an ABA song) using Finale NotePad (a free software that is a watered-down version of Finale), whole, half, and quarter notes, and the notes of a C Pentatonic Scale. They were extremely successful with placing the correct notes on the correct lines and spaces of the treble clef staff and placing the correct rhythms in a 4-meter. One of the observations that I made was that when I had students compose with the traditional methods of pencil and staff paper, some will try to put five or six beats in a measure that is in 4-meter time. They will state to me that they do this because there was still space left in the measure (they drew their notes very small). However, when these same students used Finale NotePad to compose, the program would beep at them when they tried to place more than four beats in a measure. Since they were used to computer and video games beeping at them to let them know that they cannot proceed, they had no issue with Finale NotePad beeping at them to let them know the same thing. They would continue by placing notes and rhythms in the next measure.

The students would then listen to their compositions, critique them, and make any necessary changes. Once they liked their melody, many of them would tell me that they did not have a song. As one student put it “Mrs. Burns, it is like I have a taco and my melody is the meat. But, I don’t have the cheese or the shell, so my melody is not a song yet.” After being blown away by this second grader’s observation, I then realized that some of the students wanted to “complete” their songs. Therefore, I created a Latin and a Southern Rock rhythm section to accompany their melodies. I created these accompaniments using GarageBand. The students had the option of having the Latin band accompany their melody, or the Southern Rock band accompany their melody, or having their melody play solo.

The results of these three second grade classes’ compositions can be found here: 2J 2H 2R

The students received a CD of their composition. The very next morning, I had two parents come to my classroom and tell me how much they enjoyed their children’s songs, that their children told them everything about the process of composing a song, and that they had to play the song 20+ times in the car’s CD player.

My music curriculum was now in the homes and cars of the students. I have continued this project with other second grades and the results have been wonderful and successful.

Have you ever used composition software to make the composition experience a more successful one for your students?