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Student Choice – What are your favorite music programs?
Lessons 035 - 036
DATES May 14 – May 30, 2012 (2 classes)
Lessons © www.musictechteacher.com
Students are involved with many field trips and end-of-year programs. Since many students are in-and-out of class during the last two weeks, it is a good time to let student’s explore their favorite programs that we used in class this year.
Essential Questions / Ideas:
* What is your favorite software program that we used this year?
* What is your favorite song that we learned to play on the keyboard this year?
* What will you do during the summer to continue learning more about music?
Objectives:
* Students will choose the programs that they would like to work with and continue to progress in their music learning.
Materials:
* Alfred 1A Piano Books, keyboards and related equipment
* Computers with an Internet connection for Noteflight.com or Weebly.com
* Computers with Mixcraft 5, Sibelius, Groovy, Alfred’s Theory Games, Hot Potatoes, Music Ace and other software installed
Standards:
National Association for Music Education Standards:
(3) Improvising melodies, variations and accompaniments.
(4) Composing and arranging music within specified guidelines.
(6) Listening to, analyzing and describing music.
TI:ME Technology Strategies:
(4) Technology-Assisted Learning
(5) Multimedia and Digitized media
Procedures:
Students may choose the software program that they would like to work on in class. They may also choose to practice songs that we have studied and practiced on the keyboards.
* We learned to use many programs on the computer this year to teach us music skills. Some of our programs were used to write
music (Sibelius and Noteflight).
* Some of the programs taught us music notes, keyboard skills and listening skills (Music Ace, Groovy Music and Alfred’s Music Theory Games).
* Some programs taught us how to mix music loops and create songs and MP3’s (Acoustica’s Mixcraft and Sony’s Acid Music Studio).
* One program taught students basic skills in creating a music quiz (Hot Potatoes).
* One Internet-based program taught students how to make a basic free website (Weebly.com).
* We also used our own www.musictechteacher.com website to learn about music.
It is difficult to say which program is the best, but there are many advantages to using music software to assist students in learning music. These programs make music learning FUN!
* We learned to play many songs on the keyboard this year. Some of the more advanced songs were: Lean On Me, I’ll Be There,
We Shall Overcome and Tuxedo Junction. Other songs included Christmas music, songs from our book (Alfred Basic Piano Library)
and songs from our website. The favorite song by most students is Lean On Me. What are your favorites?
Extra Activities for the Summer
Students may practice music this summer if they have a keyboard. If they have access to the Internet, they can work on lessons or quizzes from our website or other music sites. Additional materials will be created and added to the site during summer. Students may compose music using their Noteflight accounts or create a free website using Weebly.com.
What will you do to learn more about music this summer? Learning about music can be something that continues throughout life!
Evaluation
* Students will be evaluated individually to continue their self-paced progress on the keyboard or using software programs on the computers.
