observe how my students’ songs change and grow over time, to see how much pride they have in their compositions, and to see how students influence each other’s musical deci- sions. Once students have completed their compositions, I always have each person share his/her piece with everyone plugged into the Jamhub. This is a great opportunity to teach young students how to give feed- back, whether it be positive or constructive criticism.


When teaching my students about im-


provisation, I tell them we are going to have a “Jam Session”. I instruct each student to choose an instrument that they like, usually from GarageBand or ThumbJam, and I help them choose the right key and scale that will fit the background music I am going to play for them. One of the nice things about Ga- rageBand and ThumbJam is that you can set the instrument into “scale mode”, meaning that each note on the screen will fit perfectly into a specific key and/or scale. This is a way to make any student feel successful since this setup does not require anyone to be taking private music lessons or have an advanced music theory background. No matter what note they play, it will fit the music well. They can focus more on the creativity and playing what sounds best to them without any fear of playing a wrong note. Before the jam session begins, I always


remind my students that they need to use their musical manners and only play when they are instructed to play. Although every- one could play and be heard all at once, at the elementary level, this can sometimes lead to cacophony. During these jam sessions, I usually allow one person to improvise at a time, unless the group is well skilled, in which I will have two students improvise at a time. I provide the background music and I tell everyone whose turn it is. Usually, each student will get to improvise for 8-16 measures, and other times much shorter. To keep things exciting, I do not give stu- dents a heads up as to who is next, which keeps them on the edge of their seat as they wait for their turn. Students also have op- portunities to improvise alone along with their solo compositions. During these ses- sions, one student improvises on an iPad instrument with his/her solo composition, while the other students observe the playing (watching the fingers) and listen to it all in their headphones.


MARCH 2016


“Young Composers Night”


Once the students have completed their compositions, and have had a suffi- cient amount of practice with improvisa- tion, they are ready for “Young Composers Night”! At this event, each student gets to share a piece of music he/she has created in front of a live audience. “Young Composers Night” is not a passive listening experience for the audience; rather, it is an engaging and exciting experience! Each student im- provises along with his/her solo piece on an iPad instrument of his/her choice. Each student gets to experience the satisfaction of hearing an audience applaud a piece of mu- sic that he/she can call their own. In addition to these solo performances,


all of the “Young Composers Night” par- ticipants break into “bands” and they have a live jam session that is not too different from a big band jazz performance. Each stu- dent takes turns improvising along to back- ground music that is coming through the speakers. After each student finishes solo- ing, the crowd cheers wildly just before the next student begins. During the “Young Composers Night”,


the Jamhub is still being used with one dif- ference: the Jamhub is being run through a speaker system. And rather than using a mixer to adjust volumes, the teacher is us- ing a Jamhub Solemix Remote to adjust all the volume levels accordingly during live performance. The Jamhub is not just for the classroom. It is excellent for live perfor- mances as well!


composition at this event comes 100% from each student, and not the teacher. I of- fer very little guidance in the compositional process and I leave all the decision making up to them. The improvisation that comes from each student is a pure form of his/her personal musical expression. I offer some generic tips on improvisation, but I try not to get in the way of letting them listen to themselves and deciding what sounds best to them. It is my hope that “Young Com- posers Night” has provided my students with an experience that has helped them grow in confidence not only as musicians, but also as people. In addition, I hope that I have set them on the journey of discovering who they are as musical individuals.


Additional Notes


Teachers can buy a Jamhub Bedroom (up to 5 people), Jamhub Greenroom (up to 7 people), or a Jamhub Tour Bus (up to 7 people and can do live stereo recording) for their classroom. www. Jamhub.com


Information about the headphones I referred to can be found here: http:// goo.gl/lpi6Ox


To see some examples of Jamhub being used in my classroom, use this link: https://goo.gl/UygzD9 This link will take you to a 5 part mini-documentary created by the Jamhub company to display how I am using Jamhub at my school.


To see a sixty minute webinar that I created to going over all the aspects of using a Jamhub with students, use this link: https://goo.gl/Hbjxaw


To see “Young Composers Night” June 2015, click here: https://goo.gl/zkHii3


To see “Young Composers Night” Nov 2015, click Y0kV5A


here: https://goo.gl/


If you have any questions about iPad apps, Jamhub, or “Young Composers Night”, email me anytime at dbeal@ ltps.org


JAMHUB SOLEMIX REMOTE


“Young Composers Night” is an ex- ample of students sharing their artistic in- dividualities. Students at this event are pre- senting music that represents their musical thoughts, opinions, and preferences. Each


27


classroom for over nine years now, and he is cur- rently teaching Pre-K to 3rd grade at Lawrenceville Elementary School in the Lawrence Township Pub- lic Schools district. He is particularly interested in the integration of music technology into the music curriculum and loves to use composition and im- provisation with his students to help them discover their musical individuality. You can follow Dan on Twitter at @LESMusicMan


TEMPO Daniel Beal has been teaching in the music


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