Apps Update for Music Educators By Elizabeth Sokolowski
During this semester one of the courses I am teaching is Integration of Technology in Music Education. Last year during this course I began a segment called App of the Week. My graduate students really seemed to love this portion of the class. Each student had to post their app to our Facebook group page, give a brief description of the app, the cost, what devices their app is available for, and provide a link to watch the app in action or to the info page. The rules were: no repeats of apps already posted, and the apps must have a musical or educational value to them. By the end of spring semester last year we had about 80 apps posted to this page!
This year, instead of a Facebook group page, each student created a profile on Linkedin, and we established a group page on this site. I thought in this way we would get their professional profiles and networks up and running as well as finding a new and innovative way to post our apps for each other to view.
This first week of App of the Week with this group of grad students was amazing. I want to share some exciting new resources for music education teachers that my students have both discovered and are using in their teaching. These are my top picks from our maiden App of the Week voyage!
SMULE Auto Rap
If you are a general music teacher and you want or need to add a literacy component to your lesson design, this app might just be something very cool and creative for your and your students. This app records an individual, turns the speaking into a rap, and adds a backing track, for lack of a better explanation. On the Apple
iTunes Preview page for this app is states that Auto Rap “maps the syllables of your speech to any beat, creating a unique rap every time.” Auto Rap is available for Apple devices and Android. If you want to preview an absolutely brilliant and hysterical use of Smule Auto Rap check out this video by Ge Wang, Co-founder of Smule and professor at Stanford University:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_ embedded&v=k1DgNfz1g_s
Pluto Learns Piano was created by Pluto Games, and is for iDevices. Master of Arts in Teaching in Music Education (MAT) student Alexander Younger
ala breve
writes, “Pluto Learns Piano is an award-winning free app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. It is a great way for kids to learn piano in a fun, game-like manner. It includes thirteen songs; the more difficult ones are unlocked by playing the easier ones. It is a great supplemental tool for younger piano students to help them learn the notes on the piano.”
Tutti Player, explains MAT student Ryan Weidman, “is a program developed by the company Tutti Dynamics located in New Orleans and Brooklyn. This corporation ‘publishes next generation media and interactive teaching tools that allow students to practice with master artists and share their work with others.’ Essentially, this practice tool uses video recordings to allow one to isolate any member of the band while having the capability to follow along with the sheet music. Tutti Dynamics has partnered with many famous artists such as Wynton Marsalis and his fabulous big band. In addition to full band recordings, many practice grooves in various genres are made available.” This is an amazing app, available in BETA version. Contact
http://www.tuttiplayer.com for an access and activation code.
Mapping Tonal Harmony Pro by Ariel Ramos is available for iPad. If you are a high school music theory teacher, checking this app out is a MUST. MAT
student Timothy Treweek
presented this app and everyone in class thought it was amazing. Cost is $4.99, and is well worth the purchase price due to the way in which the app visualizes and “maps” chord progressions. Tim writes, “The main purpose is to aid in the instruction and study of tonal harmony, and provides a visual map of harmonic sequencing that is viewable in 7 levels of complexity. It appears just like a map of a city and its surrounding suburbs and rural areas, with all possible harmonies illustrated in their own relativity to the circle of fifths, and showing the path of resolution. This app is also accompanied by a workbook, one for each level of harmonic complexity, which is available at their
39
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54