Elementary Music/Music Technology Blog

One of the items I like about the Kodály methodology is their presentation of musical concepts. When a concept is presented, the teacher teaches it through three stages: Preparation, Presentation, and Practice. For example, if you begin your young students with the pitches so, mi, and la, and you want to introduce the pitch la, your first stage would have a few lessons where the students are singing songs with the pitches so, mi, and la. During the second stage you would present the pitch la through a lesson that involves hand or body signals and the introduction of the word “la.” Finally, the third stage of the concept is presented through lessons that involve practicing the pitch la through singing and placing it on a 3-line staff.

When I want to present the pitch la on a 3-line staff, I can do this in various ways.

1. Floor Staff: I can use my floor staff carpet (though this has 5 lines) or place three pieces of tape on the floor, and have the students place note heads on the staff. However, my concern with this if I would like them to hear the pitches, then I have to perform the notes on the staff with my keyboard or the students have to try to sing the correct pitches. What I really wanted was a 3-line staff that would play the pitches as they placed the notes on it. Therefore, they would hear the correct pitches as they place the notes on the staff correctly.
2. SMART Board: Using the line tool, I can draw 3 lines on the SMART Board. I then use the pen and set it to smiley faces. The students  place the smiley faces on the correct places on the staff for so, mi, and la pitches. The students enjoy this thoroughly. The only concern again, is that I have to play the pitches.
3. Notation Software: Whether you use Finale or Sibelius, you can set the staff up so that there are 3 lines (see below on how to do this). Once you have a 3-line staff, enlarge the screen so that it is at least 300%. This assists the students greatly in correctly placing the notes on the lines or in the spaces.  I like to use this method because the pitches will play as the students place the notes on the staff. Therefore, they can hear and sing back the pitches and determine if they placed the notes correctly on the staff.

To make a 3-line staff in Sibelius: Create a new score using voice as your instrument. Once the staff is on screen, go to House Style>Edit Instruments>Families in Ensembles - Singers>Instruments in family - Voice>Instruments not in ensemble - New Instrument. You will be asked to create a new instrument based on voice, in which you answer yes. Name your new instrument S-M-L. Click on Edit Staff Type>General - Number of staff lines - 3>Gaps between Staff Lines>32. Press Notes and Rests - uncheck Rhythms (stems, dots, ties, rests, etc) to make the notes into note heads. Click OK twice, then Close. You now have to add that “S-M-L” to your score by pressing the letter ‘i’ on your computer’s keyboard, click on Singers>S-M-L>Add to Score>OK. You now have a 3-line staff listed in the instrument S-M-L that you will always have in your library. To be clear, it will play the pitches correctly while the students place the notes on the staff. However, if you want the so-mi-la to be in a major key, then the 3-line staff will be most successful if you use the keys of F or G (no key signature necessary).

To make a 3-line staff in Finale: Start a new file, using vocals, 4/4 time, and key of C. Enlarge the staff to 300% using the % tool. Click on the Staff tool>double-click on the clear box next to the staff>Staff>Other…>Custom Staff>unclick the top and bottom black boxes>Click OK twice. Click on the Simple Entry Palette and your students can now place so, mi and la notes on the 3-line staff in the keys of F and G. Unfortunately, this cannot be done in the freeware, Finale Notepad.

Though the procedures for using notation software will take some time to get used to, if you have used notation software before, then this could be a viable option if you would like your students to hear the pitches as they are placing them on a staff. If you are not using a 3-line staff, then just setting up a new file in a notation software will work well.

I welcome your comments and suggestions.

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 #2.

Content standard#2: Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.

Achievement standard 2e: Students perform in groups, blending instrumental timbres, matching dynamic levels, and responding to the cues of a conductor.

My first instinct when writing this post is to write about a lesson that can occur in a keyboard lab. There are elementary schools that have keyboard labs, however, after careful thought, I wanted to take a different approach and use technology to enhance this achievement standard by utilizing Orff instruments and one electronic keyboard. When I teach a lesson that involves my classroom instruments, I like to add one electronic keyboard to enhance the sound, especially the bass sound in an Orff ensemble. To purchase a bass xylophone, you might pay up to $925. If you decide to purchase bass bars, you could be paying $500+ for one bass bar. If you use an electronic keyboard to supplement for bass bars or a bass xylophone, you could pay as low as $129 for a Yamaha keyboard. An electronic keyboard could be a more economical solution for a music classroom with a limited budget.

When I want to achieve this standard, I will use a lesson from one of my favorite Orff resources, “Strike it Rich” by Jeff Kriske and Randy DeLelles. Due to copyright legalities, I cannot go into the details of the lesson. However, when I want to utilize a lesson from their book that contains an ensemble working together to achieve balance, I will add an electronic keyboard to enhance the bass xylophone and/or bass metallophone part. I like to do this for two reasons:

1. It increases the bass sound in the ensemble.
2. The student who plays the electronic keyboard must listen to be able to blend with Orff instruments. This is a great skill to teach and reinforce. The student must play in a way that does not overpower the other instruments and also find the right volume so that the timbre of the keyboard’s xylophone sound (or vibes, which is the sound that I will use) blends in with the Orff instruments.

If you are trying to increase your classroom instruments and your budget limits you, then I suggest looking into an electronic keyboard. It is another way to teach listening and blending in an ensemble atmosphere and successfully achieve standard #2e.