Using the Yamaha Harmony Director Keyboard

Today I pulled a small group of students to test out my idea of implementing Sound Cloud into my advanced band class. I uploaded recordings of a few of the pieces we are rehearsing in class and made them available to the students on the mobile app. Uploading the recordings was simple, mainly because I had already purchased them and had the mp3 files available. Students found the app very accessible and user friendly. They also confirmed my theory that this app makes it simple for them to login and listen immediately. My second idea for using this technology was to have the students record audio files and send them to me in the app. This wasn't quite as simple as I had hoped. The process is a little involved and honestly I will probably just end up using Google classroom for their submissions. In comparing the two tools, Google Classroom and Sound Cloud, sound cloud is simpler to access and readily available for student use, while Google classroom is a little more difficult to a...

I have made it my personal mission throughout this course to seek out more technology for the music classroom and find out ways to implement this technology for the improvement of my students.  This week I found an article titled 6 examples of using technology in the music classroom.  One section of this article spoke to me, as it fulfills my need for finding a way to communicate with my students, without using social media. Sound cloud is a free website where I can add recording for students to access as well as the capability for them to upload audio recordings they have created. My biggest draw for this website is the fact that it truly meets students where they are...on their phones. My students are constantly "plugged-in" with their ear-buds in their ears. My thought is reaching them with an app or website that is easily accessible to them might mean they actually use the technology. Having students listen to quality recordings of the music we are working on in class sho...

I found another article on the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) website that discusses technology strategies for the performing ensemble classroom.  Traditionally it has been very difficult or expensive to implement technology in the performing ensemble classroom. This article presents multiple options for free technology that helps organize, communicate and instruct. One of the main takeaways from this article is  Music Monitor by MusOpen is a free mobile app that allows students to record and send practice sessions and assessments from their mobile devices. This, as well as the digital recorder found in current mobile devices provides an excellent method of assessing individual student performance. Playing tests can be done remotely or in a practice room, sent via email, assessed, and then later reviewed together by both student and teacher.  This option is a great tool to hold students accountable for their own progress, as well as an easy way to c...

This week we have begun to see some major progress in class in regards to the Yamaha Harmony Director Keyboard.  We have been consistently using the keyboard for the past 6 weeks and the students are adapting to it, probably faster than me. In my opinion the consistent use of the keyboard for daily tuning and tone quality has improved the sound of the band immensely.  I had the opportunity at the KMEA conference a few weeks ago to talk to some of my colleagues who use the keyboard on a regular basis and I was able to discover some tricks that they use to continue implementing the keyboard into my daily lessons. Some of the suggestions I received were to use the keyboard for modeling, for example I will play a rhythm on the keyboard and have the students play it back in a call & response style. This not only gets students to listen to what I am playing and repeat it, it also allows us to work on balance and blend, one of the key aspects of producing a quality sound.  A...

After I attended to Google Infused Bandroom session at the KMEA conference I started searching for more ways to implement Google classroom in my band room. After a quick search I found a fantastic article on the National Association for Music Education website titled "Google Classroom for the Large Ensemble".  This article discussed numerous ways to implement google classroom in a band rehearsal setting. Exactly what I needed! The major use of this tool is communication. This tool allows me to communicate with my students in the same way social media can be used to reach students. The platform allows me to post documents, assignments, videos, recordings and basic announcements for each class separately.  Students use their mobile devices constantly and they check social media constantly. This  tool allows my class to become part of their routine to check "what's going on" in my classroom and keeps it on their minds and in their conversations on a much more reg...

I was fortunate enough to attend a session at the Kentucky Music Educator's Association In-Service Conference last week titled The Google Infused Bandroom" presented by Stephen Keys from Frankfort, KY. This session was one of the most helpful sessions I have ever attended at an in-service conference because it gave me so many ideas on how to implement technology in my band classes.  To often we as music educators fall into the trap of teaching music the same way we were taught in high school and college.  The idea of a rehearsal setting hasn't really changed since the romantic period when Beethoven and Brahms were rehearsing their symphonies with professional orchestras.  The basic plan for the rehearsal is a dictatorship with the conductor being in charge and literally manipulating every action in the room.  We don't usually think we have time to implement technology into our plans, because quite frankly we are control freaks and think we have it all under control....

This will be a very short week for at school since I will be attending our annual Kentucky Music Educator's Conference downtown. This is a 3 day conference that starts on Thursday morning and ends on Saturday.  This is one of my favorite events of the year, because I am able to reconnect with colleagues and discuss all of the innovations and new technologies they are using in their classrooms.  I intend on attending a couple sessions that are specifically dealing with the integration of technology in the music classroom. One session I am particularly excited to attend is MusicFirst: Perfect for Assessment, Instruction, Improvement & Creativity Clinician: James Frankel, Music First, New York, NY.  MusicFirst is a company that helps seamlessly incorporate technology in the music classroom.  Their website is https://www.musicfirst.com and has lots of videos that explain how they operate.  I am excited to see what I can learn from this clinic and share...

This week I read a blog discussing the uses of the Air Drop feature on Apple products.  The author was discussing how he uses air drop to send large files from one apple device to another, use it to transfer files or send items to other users that are nearby.  One point he brought up is that his school has disabled the air drop feature on their ipads because students were using the feature to send test questions to each other.  My thoughts on using this feature in my classroom are that I can expedite the transfer process of students submitting their performance assessments to me. I require my students to video their playing tests on a school ipad and then send me the video. We have had lots of issues with videos being too long to send in an email, or they simply take too long to upload to youtube.  I am going to try using the air drop feature with my students in the classroom, so they can send me their videos immediately and we can hopefully fix our upload issue....