This is A Bicycle Built for Two, notated and embedded in this blog using the free version of an online-based music creation and editing software called Noteflight. This editing web application has a free version that students can explore, is incredibly flexible and feature-rich (especially considering the base price), and has a number of potential educational uses. Depending on the size of the school, the cost to implement this software is relatively small (as little as $.78 per student per year). It requires no installation or setup, only a computer with access to the internet. It supports MIDI input when using any "full" or "pay" version of the software. It could easily be used to facilitate lessons in music notation (as it forces students not to exceed the rhythmic constraints of a measure), collaborative music making (as it allows for sharing and group projects), and encourage improvisation (students could improvise with a teacher-created file in a practice room or at home). I will be introducing this software to our Music Theory teacher at the high school, and will look for ways I can utilize it with my sixth grade general music students for composition.
I neglected to mention: my district is likely to go 1 to 1 with technology next academic year. Each student will have their own Chromebook. Since this application is web-based, I will be able to assign students composition projects (I'm thinking that they will begin by writing sight-reading samples), that they will ALL be able to complete on school-issued machines! EXCITING!
ReplyDeleteHey Ben - weird question...I copied and pasted that embedding code into my blogs HTML, but all I get is an empty box...do you know what I did wrong? I pasted the link in there as well...
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