(Student Blog) SmartMusic: The Swiss Army knife for Music Education by Mary Sargent

About the Author: Mary Sargent is a student blogger that loves music education.  She understands the importance of utilizing technology to improve education.  She currently uses iSchoolband to simplify communication and improve productivity with her fellow classmates.

It can be hard to get music students to practice on a regular basis. After all, they would probably rather be getting on Facebook or playing Call of Duty than practicing. It’s also hard to get verification that students have practiced, which makes it even harder to prevent students from skipping practice. If we had a program to get confirmation that students have practiced and made practicing more interesting, we could get students to practice more. SmartMusic is a program that matches that description exactly.

For those unfamiliar with SmartMusic, the basic purpose is to help students have a more effective practice, but has evolved into a Swiss Army pocketknife for music students and educators. Students log into SmartMusic, choose a piece, select the tempo and start playing. SmartMusic picks up the sound through a microphone and then shows the students what notes they missed and which they got right. Students can check fingering, tune their instrument, and record themselves playing. For students, SmartMusic is a handy tool to help them practice.

SmartMusic is even more useful when music teachers use it. They can assign students to practice any of the songs in the SmartMusic library or, if the teacher has composed a song in Finale, they can assign students to practice that. SmartMusic can grade the recording automatically or teachers can grade it themselves. Students can record themselves as many times as they like and see their automatic grade when they finish. Teachers can see how long students practiced and send a comment to the students.

The main downside of SmartMusic is its interface. All the features of SmartMusic make navigating in SmartMusic a little difficult. Any issues that arise from this can be avoided by having a day or two in class where the teacher shows students how to use the program. Once students know the ropes SmartMusic is easy to use; it’s just the initial use that can be overwhelming.

With SmartMusic, students learn how the music should sound and have the resources to make playing that music possible. Teachers have a way to make sure that students are practicing and have a chance to hear each of their students on their own and give comments specifically to them. SmartMusic’s interface can be a bit hard to navigate when you are first starting out, but all the benefits make it worthwhile.