With SmartMusic 2011 we’ve revised the assignment process in lots of small ways that add up to big improvements. This week we’ll look at how to set up your account to use the Gradebook feature.

Step 1
You need to launch SmartMusic 2011 to begin. When you do, you’ll be greeted by the friendly Home screen, and prompted to log in:

Step 2
Next you’ll see a screen similar to the one below. Get rolling by clicking Add School. If your school isn’t immediately listed, you can expand your search geographically or type in a different ZIP code.

Step 3
Check off what classes you teach and type in your name as you want it to appear to students.

Step 4
Create a Security Key and type it a second time. This additional password helps to keep your grades more secure. It can be the same as your previous Impact Security Key if you like, but please make sure it’s not the same as your account password!

Step 5
Now to get your school year up and running! Click Add where you see your Classes in the upper-left:

Here you can select at which school the class is offered, the name of the class, the grading scale (which is editable, like in previous years), and you can define your school year all at once. It’s a lot of options … but it definitely doesn’t look overwhelming:

For each additional class you want to offer, repeat Step 5. You can edit them later if you need to make changes. Once you’ve created the classes you need, it’s time to open up music inside SmartMusic and start creating assignments – and we’ll do just that next time! Feel free to work ahead – there’s a great video to help you get up and running.

Let us know how it’s working for you by clicking on “Comments” below.

As I mentioned in my last post, one of the greatest benefits the SmartMusic gradebook offers is the ability to easily manage student recordings and assessments. Before this can happen, however, students need to enroll, so they can receive assignments and submit them. Students can enroll on any computer that has an active SmartMusic subscription on it. Today we’ll see how easy it is to enroll with SmartMusic 2011.

First the student needs to click on “Login” (if they already have an account) or “Create Account,” where they simply provide requested information.

Next, the My Home screen appears, where the student selects “enroll.”

Because SmartMusic recognized them when they logged in, only the appropriate school(s) appear:

Which classes appear for their school is determined by their teacher: We’ll cover this process in a subsequent post. To enroll, students simply select the appropriate class(es).

After enrolling, the student will see an updated My Home page:

Hey this is cool!

To see their assignments, or for more information about a class, students simply click on that class – in this case, “Cub Band.”

I already have assignments? I just enrolled!

To open any assignment, just click on the assignment title.

That’s it – the student enrollment process for 2011. The goal was to make the process more clear and simple.

How did we do? Let us know by clicking on “Comments” below.

In last week’s blog I announced the release of SmartMusic 2011, which you can download here. While I have additional exciting news to share, first I’d like to continue where we left off by showing you a little more about SmartMusic 2011.

Both teachers and students now have a personalized Home page called My Home, which appears immediately upon logging in to SmartMusic. This is where you see what is going on in your class.

Below is an example of a teacher’s Home page. It offers easy access to everything related to the class: “Current Assignments,” “Practice Reports,” “Classes,” “Class Announcements,” “Method Book,” “What we’re playing” and “More Assignments.” Also note that you have easy access to all of the repertoire categories in the Left Navigation panel:

For those of you who’d rather not have my photo on your Home page,
rest assured you can use one of your own too: school pictures are a great resource!

Let’s take a look at what a student sees on his/her Home page. While similar to the teacher’s view, it includes important information which will help students (and parents) to be more involved, including the grades the student has received for each assignment:

What should I practice first, Mary Ann or First Suite in Eb?

Now for the latest exciting news I mentioned above: SmartMusic developers have also completed the new gradebook component, allowing you to create and send assignments for 2010-2011 school year.

How does it work?

After a student submits a completed SmartMusic assignment, the corresponding screenshot and audio recording are sent directly to the teacher’s gradebook. Here the teacher can hear and see the student’s work. Access to this documentation is a huge benefit when working on individualized instruction, grades, student portfolios, parent conferences, and any number of other tasks.

Anyone who, like me, remembers recording all your students and trying to organize boxes full of audio cassette tapes can instantly see the elegance of an electronic solution to that challenge alone!

The information is clearly presented: A legend that explains what each icon represents. Once you no longer need these reminders you can hide the legend for more screen space.

I’d like to point out two specific improvements regarding the view of the gradebook on the page. First, more students can be viewed at one time. Second, you can now view your gradebook by section [indicated in red below]: Woodwinds, Brass, Strings, Vocal, and Percussion – which I find really helpful.

All those trumpets getting an A? This must be a fake class!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this brief overview of SmartMusic 2011 and the corresponding gradebook, and that you will visit us again soon. In the next few weeks we plan to cover some additional aspects including Activation, Enrolling Students, How to Create Assignments, Presenting SmartMusic to Parents, the new SmartMusic Help System, and much more.

Let us know what other subjects you’d like us to cover by leaving a comment below. 

Cue the trumpets – SmartMusic 2011 is now available for immediate download. I am very excited about this new version, because I think it includes improvements that will result in an even wider acceptance of SmartMusic among students and teachers.

Just as any band director or musician can always find things they can improve upon past performances, SmartMusic’s development team studied what could be improved in SmartMusic. Working in cooperation with many SmartMusic teachers and students, SmartMusic 2011 was an unbelievable cooperative effort. The results not only look great, and better leverage current technology, the interface is also much clearer, consistent, and easy for anyone to use.

Of course, I want you to explore SmartMusic 2011 on your own but let me just highlight a few new features.

Below is the new Control Bar. Besides the new look (which in my opinion is pretty cool), notice how easy it is to access the different features. You might ask “What does Start take mean?” or “Where’s the Record button?” Well, you no longer have to select “Record” to record. Pressing “Start take” not only starts the music but also records the performance.

The Practice Tools have also been redesigned. Instead of accessing each component separately they all appear together:

Furthermore, the tuner is detachable and a tuning note can be selected from the drop-down menu:

The early reaction I’ve heard from teachers about SmartMusic 2011 has been very positive. I keep hearing comments like:

• I like the looks of it. My students will too!
• It just seems even easier to use.
• What an incredible upgrade.

Here are a few specific quotes from SmartMusic Advocate Art Greenburg:

"Happy to see that there is now an option to turn off the question about using a drum pad for drum parts!"

"My greatest compliments to to the programming staff. I love, really love the fact that now you can isolate a few measures on a line in the lesson books to practice. Just as I suggested. This is going to really help improve my teaching time. Rather than have to restart the line, now we can work on the rough spots.”

For a complete video overview of SmartMusic 2011, click here.

In an upcoming blog I’ll show you some of the exciting changes in creating and sending assignments.

Hopefully you will be as excited about SmartMusic 2011 as we are. Please let us know what you think by clicking on “Comments” below, and have a great school year!

Laura Vaughan is a Missouri-based music educator and SmartMusic clinician with years of experience using SmartMusic with both voice and band students. Laura recently sent us an email highlighting her experiences demonstrating the upcoming SmartMusic 2011:

“I just wanted to share that yesterday I did a SmartMusic demo for more than 50 band camp kids at my college [Jefferson College in Hillsboro, MO]. I played my flute with a beta version of SmartMusic 2011. Five kids already had SmartMusic subscriptions at home, and about five others use it in their schools – none of the other students had seen it. To say they were ecstatic is an understatement! They liked the new tuner and practice tools setup, and LOVED the capability of looping in their method books. The new feature of clicking anywhere on the music for a start point is HUGE.

They were enthused about the recently played pieces being visible on the Home Screen, the graphics of seeing their 'books,’ and the other new graphics. I had extra brochures with me and they all took one. The kids who had been 'power users' previously were just blown away! They kept asking WHEN the new version would become available! The other music professionals in attendance had not seen SmartMusic for a few years and their unanimous comment was overwhelmingly, 'Every student in band should get a subscription!’

SmartMusic just keeps getting better and better! Thanks to all at MakeMusic who are making this happen!”

Thanks to Laura for her support and for allowing us to share her comments. The latest details on the upcoming release of SmartMusic 2011 can be found here.

Questions or comments? Please let us know by clicking on “Comments” below.

As I mentioned in last’s week blog, we’re starting to look beyond SmartMusic 2010: SmartMusic 2011 is coming soon. As you will soon see, it offers some exciting changes and makes both SmartMusic and the gradebook feature easier to use.

Although SmartMusic 2011 is currently still in development, I thought you might enjoy a preview of some of the new features.

Here’s the new Performance screen:

As you can see, all the same controls still exist, but with a different look and feel – and with some additions to make SmartMusic even easier to use.

Take a look at the “Start Take” button on the left. When you and your students press this button, SmartMusic automatically begins playing the music and recording your performance.

When you’re done playing, and have clicked the “Stop Take” button (or your spacebar or footpedal) you can choose to listen to what you just played, keep it for future use, or save it as an .MP3. If you’ve ever said, “I wish I had recorded that,” you’ll enjoy this feature as much as I will. No one will ever have to choose between “Play” and “Record” again.

Other practice tools are more easily accessed than before because they appear, in one form or another, on every screen:

SmartMusic 2011 also makes it easier than ever to send customized assignments, track each student’s progress, and build a portfolio of their work. Among the related improvements is the addition of “My Home,” a personalized screen for you and your students. Here is what the student screen looks like:

Want to see a little more of SmartMusic 2011? Check out the new overview video just added to the coming soon page.

There are also three new videos here that feature teachers talking about SmartMusic and how they use it. These videos are brief (the longest is under four minutes) yet they do a great job of communicating the SmartMusic message. Please feel free to share them with others.

I hope you enjoyed this sneak preview of SmartMusic 2011. Please let us know what you think by clicking on the “Comments” button below.

Really? Is this the end of the SmartMusic blog?

Well, yes and no. While I’m delighted and flattered that you’re reading this post, the fact of the matter is that most teachers are now done with their school year, and their thoughts are likely elsewhere. There’s not much more for us to say about using SmartMusic 2010 in the 2009/2010 school year. With today’s post I hope to suggest some closure on the past year and to begin looking forward.

I hope you get a chance to celebrate all of your accomplishments of the past year as well reflect on those areas where you hope to improve in the upcoming year. As for myself, I’m pleased with many of my accomplishments, including being a part of the SmartMusic blog, which we launched just ten months ago.

If you’d like to catch up on any SmartMusic blog posts you missed, click here to see all past titles: I think it’s a pretty impressive list! Hopefully you can enjoy them while relaxing by a pool.

While we’ve not announced an official release date, you can expect to see SmartMusic 2011 in the coming weeks. Our “Coming Soon” page will continue to provide updates as they are announced, and we’ll share details here too.

I would like to make one recommendation in advance: If possible, install SmartMusic 2011 as soon as it becomes available, even if only on one computer. While I think you’ll be delighted with the changes, you, like me, may prefer to become acquainted with what’s new before you’re in the back-to-school rush.

So, to be clear, I will return next week on the new SmartMusic blog, which, will look exactly like the old SmartMusic blog, but we’ll be focused on next fall and SmartMusic 2011. So stay "tuned" and have a great summer!

It has become increasingly difficult for me to blog about SmartMusic 2010. Every day for the last few months I’ve been working with the upcoming SmartMusic 2011. I’ve been playing with it, trying to break it, and writing new documentation to help you use it most effectively. Then I have to switch back to the current version to provide support, and it’s like going from Blu-ray to DVD. It’s striking how many improvements are in 2011 when I compare it side by side with its predecessor. I look forward to all of you having the same opportunity.

So, when is it coming out? This summer! That’s the official answer, of course, and I have to stick to it. We do have a “Coming Soon!” page that we’ll continue to update as we get closer to the official release date. You’ll see some “teaser” screenshots and high-level overviews of what’s coming.

We are very interested in getting the new version into your hands ASAP, so watch your email and/or the website for updates. You’ll want to make sure your tech folks are aware of the new version as well so you can be sure to have SmartMusic 2011 and the gradebook feature up and running before school begins.

Have any questions or comments? Let us know by clicking the “Comments” button below.