Are you always looking for ways to improve your teaching methods? When I was teaching, I was constantly on the lookout for new instrument pedagogy tricks, tuning procedures, conducting techniques, rehearsal tips, etc. I was always eager to increase my knowledge with anything that would benefit my students.

Today I'd like to share with you an incredible resource — a secret ingredient — for helping your students that might not occur to you as you brainstorm additional ways to improve your teaching methods.

Drum roll, please.....

The secret ingredient is the support of the parents of your students. As educators we know that students, administrators, and parents are all part of the equation, but it's easy to focus more attention on students and administrators because we see them on a daily basis. But supportive parents can make a huge difference in your program. They encourage your students, attend your performances, help with events and fundraising, and much more. My experience was that parents will support you even more when they understand what their kids are learning in your classes. Sometimes this requires that you educate the parents as well as the students.

How does SmartMusic play a part in all of this? Well, there are several ways that I have observed first-hand.

SmartMusic helps any parent, even those without a musical background, tell the difference between an adequate and a really good performance. They can see the green and red notes and know what was played correctly and what was incorrect. It's no longer subjective and something that leaves some parents feeling left out. SmartMusic recordings are also very beneficial to parents; again, even those with no musical training are able to hear the progress between a student recording make the first week of class and the last.

All parents also recognize when leading-edge technology is being utilized to help their children, and they can see how SmartMusic helps you provide more individualized instruction for their child.

The last point I will make here might be the most important: communication. There are several ways SmartMusic helps parents know what is happening in your classes.

1. When you schedule an assignment in the SmartMusic Gradebook, you can indicate whether you want an e-mail reminder to be sent. This reminder will be sent out to all e-mail addresses that are in the student record, including parents.

2. In the Recording and Assessment Window, you have the option of a sending an e-mail that can include recordings and assessment screenshots:

After clicking the "E-mail" button, you can indicate who will receive the e-mail:

But it doesn't stop there. Parents can easily check on the progress of their child by simply visiting http://www.smartmusic.com/gradebook and then logging in with their child's log-in information:

The parent and student can now hear and see assessments of graded assignments as well as any assignments that have not been completed. In addition, your individualized comments to the student are visible:

This communication is invaluable and so easily accomplished using SmartMusic. Parents appreciate your keeping them "in the loop" which can make for an even more successful teaching experience.

SmartMusic can help parents to better understand what their children are learning and what you are teaching. What's more, I found that SmartMusic helped me foster better communication with parents, who I think we can all agree represent a vital, if not secret, ingredient to success.

As part of my work as a SmartMusic Education Specialist, I attend music education conferences across the country, where I enjoy meeting all kinds of delightful people. Among them are many college students currently pursuing music education degrees. I'm always interested to learn about their familiarity with SmartMusic. Many have used SmartMusic to practice solos; they're often very familiar with the benefits of SmartMusic's Intelligent Accompaniment feature. However, it's not unusual to meet music majors whose experience with SmartMusic ends there - they simply aren't aware of the vast libraries and types of repertoire, the exercises, or the assessment and recording capabilities, let alone the Gradebook.

It only takes a brief demonstration to illustrate how helpful SmartMusic can be in their preparation to teach. It can help them learn secondary instruments in more meaningful ways, provide better awareness of literature requirements, and offer practical means to individualize and differentiate instruction to the students they will someday instruct. It's also a great way to integrate technology into their curriculum. Today I'd like to share a few ideas of how colleges can integrate SmartMusic into their music teacher preparation curriculum (methods classes).

I always suggest that teachers try out SmartMusic on a secondary instrument (as well as their major instrument). This gives them the perspective of a student and it quickly becomes apparent how SmartMusic can help students develop basic performance skills including fingerings, technique, tuning, and tone. This same approach can be used with music education majors in methods classes.

Teachers of college methods classes can require education majors to perform method book lines, scales, exercises, solos, and sight-reading, all with accompaniment from SmartMusic. The assessment and recording features will help them evaluate themselves. Using the Gradebook, the instructor can provide appropriate feedback and keep track of each individual student.

With all the literature that is in SmartMusic, teacher preparation can be taken to a new level! Would-be teachers can easily study and play beginner- to advanced-level music. Learning fingerings for instruments becomes more meaningful when played in the context of the accompaniments in SmartMusic. Methods class teachers now have a way to better get across their ideas of teaching each instrument. They can easily point out and play any of the numerous parts by using SmartMusic. Imagine a clarinet instructor using a SMARTBoard or whiteboard, pointing out a "run" in the Holst Suite in Eb, circling and making notes of what is "tricky," showing the class a solution (perhaps using alternate fingerings), and then playing it with SmartMusic!

SmartMusic offers great benefits to percussion education as well. Percussion methods teachers now have a wealth of material to demonstrate how percussion instruments need to be performed within an ensemble. Learning the proper techniques for triangle now takes on a whole new meaning when you can hear it in context. Understanding the proper length of a cymbal crash based on how the music is being played and not just what the notation says is a valuable lesson for a percussionist. Now the instructor can easily show and demonstrate this concept. Students can hear and evaluate themselves playing the instrument with the music using the recording feature.

As part of my teacher preparation, I remember having to evaluate method books to see how different concepts were approached. SmartMusic currently includes 26 different method books. This is a tremendous resource that can be used in methods classes. For example, the classes can easily compare how the various band methods approach the clarinet going over the break or how the string books introduce shifting, as the methods are just a click away.

By using SmartMusic in college teacher preparation classes, future teachers have practical experience and more knowledge to answer the following questions that often arise in job interviews:

• How do you plan to individualize and differentiate your instruction with all of your students?
• How are you going to document student progress?
• How are you going to communicate effectively with parents regarding the progress of their child?
• How do you plan to use technology in meaningful ways in your classes?

Those applicants familiar with SmartMusic and the Gradebook will be able to talk at length about practical solutions they can offer for each challenge and it can start with college methods classes.

The SmartMusic Gradebook always offers you full access to every assignment your students have submitted; simply click on the Gradebook tab in SmartMusic 2010. You can even access this info from a computer that doesn't have SmartMusic installed by visiting http://www.smartmusic.com/gradebook. Of course your students (and their parents) similarly have 24/7 access to their submitted assignments. However, you may wish to periodically save off a subset or sampling of each student's work; in other words, a portfolio. This week I'll share some tips on how you can use the SmartMusic Gradebook to easily save specific recordings and assessments to create a student portfolio.

To make this all work, you will need to create a system of organization. I'd suggest starting by creating a folder for each group you teach, and indicate the year. For example, if you teach both a beginning and an intermediate band your two folders might be named "Beginning Band 2010-2011" and "Intermediate Band 2010-2011."

Inside each folder I'd suggest creating separate folders for each of your students, "Bobby Johnson," "Suzy Garcia," and so on. Within each student folder you might also create another folder including the year, like "Suzy Garcia 2010-2011."  Now when you receive student assessments or recordings you wish to save, you have an organized place to keep them.

Now let's look in the Gradebook:

Click on any green speaker icon (I've circled one above) to access the Assignment Review window:

In the Assignment Review window in Gradebook (above), look in the upper right hand corner for the Portfolio button (which I've again circled in red). After this button is pressed, you can select between the screen shot of the student's assessment or the recording:

Clicking on either icon gives you the opportunity to name and save each file as well as determine where the file is saved. Here you'd navigate to the individual student folder you created above, and you'd want to assign an appropriate name like: "First Solo 9-21-2010," "Articulation Evaluation Number 4," or "Mozart Flute Concerto No. 1 in G." It's up to you how detailed you want to get with this.

That's it. You have saved a student's work in his/her portfolio.

You could also type up any comments in a word processing application and save them in this same folder, or include a screen shot of this Assignment Review window.

Here's how:

Windows users: Press the Print Screen (PrtScn) button on your computer's keyboard, then open up Paint and type Ctrl-v to paste the screen shot into Paint. You can then get to Paint's File menu and choose "Save As..."

Mac users: Press Command+Shift+4. The cursor will turn into a cross-hair. Outline the window by dragging and then release. You now have a picture of the Recording and Assessment window. Rename the file as "My" Comments (substitute "My" with your name) and put it in the student's folder for the assignment.

Again, a portfolio contains a sampling of a student's work so you don't have to go through this process for every single recording - just those you deem appropriate. Next year you can copy this year's portfolio into the folders of your continuing students so you have quick access to both years' work - and so on. Imagine if this process is started in middle school and continued through high school!

SmartMusic and the Gradebook can definately help you document each student's individual progress. I hope this helps you get started.

Teachers often ask about SmartMusic and individualized instruction: "If all students get the same assignment, won't those who progress at different rates be penalized?" Fortunately, the SmartMusic Gradebook lets any assignment be modified to meet the needs of each student in your class. Today we'll look at some ways this can be accomplished.

Let's say you'd like to assign a line from a method book. Here are the available settings:

You can choose which parameters are required, and you can change the settings for any parameter you've marked as "Required." For example, you might disable the Tempo requirement and have the Solo Line on: 

This would allow the student to play the piece at any tempo they choose, but the solo line would have to be on for the assignment to be submitted. Clearly there are many different options that could be chosen here.

Now that you see how easy it is to change settings, how can the assignment be sent to specific students?

On the bottom of the assignment window, you are given the option to schedule an assignment to an entire class or individual students:

Clicking on Selected Students allows you to determine which students will receive each assignment. You can even select students from other classes:

Other ways you can individualize an assignment may be less obvious. In the Schedule Assignment window, the Grading Options allow you to distribute the points for a SmartMusic Assessment and Recording as you see fit. For example, you could use the same assignment for the entire class but change the point values so that the recording is worth more than the assessment. (Because you provide the score for each student's recording after listening to each recording, you can ensure that those who did their personal best, for example, receive the maximum points.) Also, by using the Scheduling Options, an assignment can have a different due date scheduled for selected students.

The fact that students can be enrolled in more than one class can also be very helpful. Just as a student in Concert Band could also be enrolled in Jazz Band, you could have a flute class made up of the flutes from the Concert Band. To take it a step further, you could even have a class of ONE student!

Finally, you can even create your own Grading Scale as I have done here:

Music teachers have always tried to find good ways to track student progress. The SmartMusic Gradebook made it possible for me. I am sure that you will discover many other ways to use the Gradebook to individualize and differentiate your instruction.

Last week we began to look at some of the resources SmartMusic can offer to anyone teaching a school jazz ensemble. This week I'll continue describing some of the ways I've used SmartMusic with young jazz students.

Standards

One of the goals I set for my jazz ensemble was that the students all learn to play, improvise, and recognize some jazz standards. SmartMusic gives your students instant access to this music. From the SmartMusic home, click on Jazz Improvisation to pick from a wide variety of collections of standards. This repertoire allows students to play the head and improvise over the changes along with SmartMusic's jazz accompaniment.

There are also several tools to assist them in improvising these pieces. Chord symbols are listed, and a variety of Jerry Coker-style jazz patterns can be displayed to help students become familiar playing chord tones.

Also included are actual transcriptions of what you hear being performed by the rhythm section of piano, bass, and drums. Bass and piano players can compare the chord symbols in the piece with what jazz musicians would actually play, helping them to learn to walk - and comp - respectively. Plus the piano, bass, and drum parts can each be turned off or on, not only to provide an opportunity for closer scrutiny, but also to allow, for example, a drummer to play along with the provided piano and bass.

As always, these pieces can be slowed down as necessary or transposed to different keys to help develop student transposition skills.

Importing Audio

Although the SmartMusic accompaniment library is the largest of its kind, and it continues to expand all the time, there are occasions when you want to play something not currently found in the library. Using the built-in Audio Import feature, SmartMusic allows your students to practice with any .MP3 file. What's more, SmartMusic allows you to change the tempo of these files without changing pitch, and the sound quality remains very high. This feature helps not only when you're trying to play along with a difficult piece, but it is indispensible when more advanced students begin to transcribe recorded solos.

When our jazz group worked on titles not found in SmartMusic, I would import an .MP3 recording of the chart and do the same sorts of things that I did with supported titles, including changing tempos, looping difficult sections, and working with students to emulate style, tone, blend, etc.

Finale

In addition to importing audio files, you can also create additional SmartMusic repertoire using Finale. Personally, I would create custom practice files for pieces we were working on. In addition to entering notes, I could make accompaniments by placing chord changes using a MIDI keyboard (you could also type them in) and generated the rhythm section accompaniments using a Finale plug-in. I then saved these files as SmartMusic accompaniments so the practice/assessment features could be used. I also saved the Finale files as audio files and burned them to a CD for students' use outside of SmartMusic.

On occasion I'd select some challenging measures from a part and score it for the entire group. I would use this "exercise" as a warm-up or study. In that way, the section of the group that needed to master this excerpt was able to do so, and the rest of the group was also challenged with relevant material. I would also assign these examples using the Gradebook, to make sure that every student would master the section before our next rehearsal.

I also made chord progression scale sheets to be used with improvised sections of pieces we were rehearsing. When used in class, I've have one student improvise while the rest of the students played the scales "underneath" at a piano level.

Recording

Self-assessment is important no matter what style of music your students study, and SmartMusic's recording capability gives them this instant feedback. Students practicing improvisation should make great use of this feature to hear what works for them - and what doesn't.

The recording feature is also very useful in the classroom. I would record the group performing a piece, or an excerpt of a piece, and then play it back. Using a SmartMusic microphone produces very good results, and students thrive from this kind of immediate feedback. Afterwards we'd save these files and use them as a measurement of improvement when compared to later recordings.

Auditions

Are you ready to begin putting all these suggestions to work? Great! Perhaps your next step is to include SmartMusic as part of the auditioning process for your jazz ensemble. One of the published pieces I used for tryouts was in the 12 bar blues format. The idea occurred to me that by using the Straight Ahead Blues sample file, the students could perform the tryout piece with SmartMusic accompaniment, making for a more musical experience. It also gave students the opportunity to try improvising.

Auditioning drummers needed to demonstrate their ability to play a variety of styles. In preparation I looked to SmartMusic's Jazz Improvisation section to select three pieces that demonstrated different styles. During the audition I used the Instrumentation feature to mute the drum part so that only the piano and bass were heard as the drummer performed along with the accompaniment. This helped in the evaluation of the drummer's ability to play and fill in the correct style, in time, and in balance with the SmartMusic rhythm section.

I used a similar process for the bass and piano players. I also recorded the auditions using SmartMusic and saved the audition recordings as .MP3 files - providing one more great way to document each student's progress.

Of course, these are just a few ideas of how you might implement SmartMusic into your jazz ensemble work: they just scratch the surface of what's possible. I hope they inspire you to even better ideas and help you to instill a love of jazz that will be with your students their entire lives.

Many teachers are also required to teach jazz ensemble, regardless of their level of experience as a jazz performer. Fortunately there are many resources they can draw from today - including SmartMusic. SmartMusic provides jazz-specific exercises, ear training, and literature - including the recent addition of the Standard of Excellence Jazz Ensemble Method. In today's blog I'll share just a few of the ways that I utilized SmartMusic in teaching my jazz ensemble: Please note that while the emphasis here is on jazz, these activities could also benefit any of your performing groups.

Exercises

While all of the SmartMusic Exercises clearly benefit the jazz performer, two groups of exercises are specifically created for this purpose: Jazz and Play By Ear.

The Jazz exercises utilize scales and patterns commonly used in jazz charts. These files can be looped to be repeated or to transpose with each repetition, either in 5ths, 4ths or half-steps. These exercises provided my students with an opportunity to become more comfortable with jazz scales and to improve technical ability, all while being accompanied by a rhythm section. Because the Finale Exercise Wizard shares these same exercises, I was able to use Finale to print hard copies of these exercises for all students.

Among the many Play By Ear opportunities are some specific "Blues Licks Exercises." Against the context of a jazz rhythm section, SmartMusic plays some unseen notes, and then provides space for the student to repeat them. Here's one way I used these exercises to develop listening skills: At the beginning of a rehearsal I'd tell the students what notes we were going to use, and we'd play them. Then I'd start a Play By Ear exercise and students would listen and attempt to play back the licks using the same notes. I found student concentration to be sky-high during these activities.

Over time, their listening skills improved greatly, benefitting improvisation as well as every other type of playing done with other musicians. Keep in mind that when performed by individual players, the unseen notes can be assessed!

The Play By Ear exercises were a great way for the students to verbalize rhythms, whether we were focused on swing eighth notes, or specific articulation. Instead of playing the exercises, the students would verbalize them with the inflections and syllables I modeled for them. Once this was successful, then the students would play the examples - with greater accuracy and understanding.

Improvising

Rockin' Blues, one of the sample files in SmartMusic, provides an excellent vehicle for beginning improvisers who are ready to begin applying the blues scale. We started out by playing the blues scale in unison along with the file. After learning more about improvising, students could practice at home with SmartMusic and try out their ideas in privacy. I would also use Rockin' Blues at the beginning of rehearsal with SmartMusic being amplified through some powered speakers.

We'd arrange for all students to take turns improvising for one bar, one student immediately after the other. As they became more comfortable, the number of measures was extended, and more confident improvisers were invited to play an entire chorus or more. Even the bassist and drummer were encouraged to improvise along with the SmartMusic rhythm section. Of course, tempo and key can be adjusted as necessary. Doing this at the beginning of rehearsal allowed the students to immediately focus musically, and I saw confidence increase quickly.

Practicing with Jazz Ensemble Repertoire

From the SmartMusic home page, you have instant access to jazz repertoire appropriate for any skill level. Simply click on "Concert & Jazz Band, String & Full Orchestra," specify "Jazz Ensemble," and indicate a skill level. Play back these pieces and you'll hear actual audio recordings of professional musicians. And again, tempo can be changed without changing the pitch.

Students with SmartMusic at home can practice these pieces along with the professional ensembles, while taking advantage of all of SmartMusic's features, including the ability to record and assess themselves.

I used the Gradebook to assign parts from this music. For example, one piece had a particularly challenging section, which I assigned to all students, requiring them to send me their recording of this section along with the accompaniment. The Gradebook made it easy for me to quickly review every student's recording. At the next rehearsal, before the first note was played, I knew who could play the section, who needed help, and what specifically they needed help with.

Of course jazz is primarily an aural tradition - to someone who's never heard jazz before, even the best charts will lack vital information required to play the music in the intended manner. Listening to recordings of jazz greats is a great way for students to learn the language, but adapting what they hear one place and applying it elsewhere is often a big leap.

Having a professional recording of the pieces the group is rehearsing is a great reference for students. It allows them to hear what it's supposed to sound like. We would listen to these recordings in rehearsal and concentrate on specific aspects - for example the interpretation of articulations, or unwritten dynamics. My contribution was to project a part on the screen so students could SEE and HEAR their part in real time. On occasion, I might loop a section over and over, or slow it down (again, without changing the pitch). Because I had SmartMusic amplified, I could have any section of the group (or the entire ensemble) play along with the pros.

The rhythm section was able to better sense the feel of the music by listening and playing along. Drummers benefited by seeing the written part and how the professional drummer interpreted it. This easily opened a discussion about how a drum part is often just a guide and how drummers play ensemble and section figures.

Next week I'll share some more ideas about jazz ensemble, including playing standards, making student recordings, and expanding SmartMusic by importing audio files and creating charts in Finale.

As I began to incorporate SmartMusic into my program, I continually found new ways to use it to my advantage. Today I have two ideas to share, and the first offers help before you've even met your students.

If you are involved in recruiting students to join your program, a great presentation is very important as contact time with these new prospects is limited. As part of my presentation to these possible future musicians, I used SmartMusic. I demonstrated each instrument along with a SmartMusic accompaniment. Not wanting to give a bias to a particular instrument because of a "cooler" accompaniment, I used the same song for each of the instruments I demonstrated.

I showed the students how SmartMusic can help them learn how to play an instrument, demonstrating the red and green notes and clicking on notes for fingerings. Of course, there is an appealing game-like aspect to the red and green notes. At the same time I was also reinforcing the idea that the red notes help in the learning process.

They also saw that some cool technology was part of the band program. In many schools, music performance classes are one of the classes that students can choose. Who knows what small part of any presentation sways a student's decision one way or another?

Once a student chose to participate in the band program, I scheduled a meeting with each of them and their parent(s). The purpose of this meeting was to help the student select the instrument he/she would play. I respect that everyone has their own methods for this process, so I won't share mine here.

After the selection process was complete, I demonstrated how we used SmartMusic in class. I would play a line from our method book using the instrument the student had selected. After I played the line, I played the recording as we viewed the assessment. I explained the meaning of the red and green notes as we listened to the recording and then clicked on the notes to show the fingerings. These demonstrations always resulted in both student and parent enthusiasm.

Then, once the school year started, I would use SmartMusic again, demonstrating its use more fully, as part of a SmartMusic Demonstration Night.

Once you're up and running, please share some of the creative ways you're using SmartMusic!

In last week’s blog, I shared some ideas on how I've used SmartMusic to help students become more independent musicians. This week’s blog takes the Solo Friday idea a step further.

First some background: My beginners typically start in September. Early on I decided they should have their first public concert in January rather than in December. We all know how much preparation time concerts require; I want to devote more of that initial class time toward developing skills and learning the basics. An extra month means that their first performance can be more of a natural extension of what is being taught in class – and less of an exercise in anxiety.

However, after I integrated SmartMusic in my teaching, I found that my students were developing faster, and (due in part to the activities I mentioned in my last blog) were more comfortable playing in front of others. While this improved rate of progress could have facilitated an earlier concert, I decided instead to perform more challenging material at a higher level!

The solution? A public version of Solo Friday! 

We held this event in the band room at our normal class time so the students would feel more at ease. Because it was to occur during the school day, I recognized that not all parents or family members would be able to attend, but decided to judge the pros and cons afterwards and adjust accordingly for the following year's event.

Students were allowed to select any piece from our method book for their solo (remember, it was all about the students). I simply planned the program order to separate the few songs that were duplicated. In preparation, I covered performance etiquette and tips with the students. The benefits of preparing for this activity are too numerous to list here.

We created a flyer that was displayed in the school and distributed to parents. (If you are wondering about the title, I was inspired by Sunday Night Football on Thursday!)

At the beginning of our session I gave a brief overview to the audience. I also announced each student's name before they performed, and each student announced the name of their selection. I made any necessary tempo adjustments, set the accompaniment to ON, and set the melody OFF. Four clicks and away-we-go!  

During the performance, when a student had a lapse, I would temporarily turn the melody line to help out. Each time I did this, the student immediately got right back on track. Students learning early on – to keep playing no matter what – is priceless!

The response of the audience was fantastic: They enjoyed it as much as the students.

In review, here are a few things I might do differently today:

• Record the event and use it at the upcoming concert as mentioned in this blog

• Send recordings (electronically or on CD) to parents who could not attend

• Allow students to play from other method books as well – now possible because the improved Playlist function makes switching between methods so much faster

Writing this blog brought back many good memories – thanks!

We all want our students to play independently. When I speak with teachers who haven't used SmartMusic, they often wonder if SmartMusic practice will result in students who depend on SmartMusic's accompaniments.

It's time for me to confess: I had this same question when I first started using SmartMusic!

As I have mentioned before, the answer depends on how SmartMusic is being used. We can all know that a metronome can be helpful in practice and still recognize that it is a means to an end and not the end in itself. Let's look at a few ways in which SmartMusic can be used in much the same way as the metronome.

Have you ever had a student tell you in class that they did not want to play something you wanted them to? The following activities focus on helping students of any age be more comfortable performing solo in a group setting.

Having an LCD projector and speakers connected to your classroom computer can enhance the classroom experience when doing these activities: The entire class is engaged by hearing and seeing, which can offer more teaching moments.

Encourage independent playing in class

Like me, I'm sure you've had students play by themselves in class. We also know that some students embrace this while others would rather walk on fire. Using the accompaniments in SmartMusic, whether from a method book or large group ensemble title, can help students feel more confident because they are not playing by themselves (although they actually are).

After students gain confidence, you might prefer for your students to only play with a click track and SmartMusic gives you that option as well. My experience is that once students have success performing in front of the group, subsequent performances come more easily - regardless of whether there's accompaniment or not.

Solo Friday

I created Solo Friday as an extension of the above activity. I introduced it as a fun activity we could all look forward to at the end of the week, but it also produced tangible benefits. While we'd try to do this every Friday, sometimes other plans took precedence.

I began Solo Friday during the students' first month with their instruments. Students were allowed to play anything in SmartMusic (including SmartMusic files I created). In the beginning, student selections were limited to things we were working on in class. But before long, they were selecting lines from pages we hadn't gotten to yet! Some students even chose lines from the other method books in SmartMusic!

One day, one of the percussionists came in early Friday morning to ask me if he could play a specific solo for class on the bells. When he told the name of the piece it didn't sound familiar. When I asked what book and page it was on, he explained that it was one of the band pieces in SmartMusic. To say I was surprised would be quite an understatement! Soon after, other students were also performing band pieces for Solo Friday.

The idea of students inspiring each other to seek out new pieces and to base their decisions by listening to performances by professional musicians is pretty exciting!

Next week: a recital where everyone plays a solo AND has fun doing it!

Finding the perfect literature for your group can be a significant challenge. Few can afford to purchase music only to find out later it's not going to work. Let's look at a few the ways that SmartMusic, Gradebook, and the SmartMusic website can help.

SmartMusic
Within SmartMusic itself, you have several resources that can aid your search for new repertoire. You can:

1. Use the Quick Search function to find a specific piece of music, using as many filters as needed,
2. Listen to any selection in its entirety,
3. View any part to help evaluate the technical demands of the piece. This can help you develop your teaching strategy or help you decide if the piece is appropriate for your group.

To view the latest releases in SmartMusic look in the upper left hand corner for SmartMusic Catalog and click on New Releases, or look for New Releases on the right side of the screen:

Gradebook
After logging into Gradebook, select Assignments>SmartMusic Assessment and Recording>Band and Orchestra Titles Library. 

From here you can search for literature choosing various filters (including ensemble type and level of difficulty) and listen to full recordings by clicking the speaker icon that appears to the right of each title:

Print Search Results
You can also search from the SmartMusic website. Besides being available from any computer with an Internet connection, this option also allows you to print the results of your search.

To try this out, go to the SmartMusic homepage and click on Find Music from the top of the page. Specify your search parameters and hit the Find button to see the results. Want to print them out? There's a "print results" button at the bottom left of your search.

In addition to printing them out, you might also save them in a digital format such as PDF. Mac users have this capability built-in, and I've found that the free-of-charge PDFCreator works for me on Windows.

Hopefully this helps your search for that perfect piece a little easier. Happy Hunting!