For a while now notebooks or binders (that a student brings with them) have been the best way to plan and track lessons. The one problem with this system is that the student has to remember to bring the notebook with them to the lesson. If they forget, then there is no back-up. However, it takes extra time to update both your notes and their notebook. That is until now.

nFinity has created an inexpensive program called Quick Voice which allows the user to record voice memos on their computer. The voice memos can then be sent as emails, mp3 files or saved on the desktop as a sticky. It is available for both Mac and PC users for about $25. For private lesson teachers this is a great tool! Simply hit the record button at the end of the lesson when you recap the lesson for your student and you will have a file that can be saved as an audio sticky in a file. You can then review or type lesson notes from the recording later. You can enter the lesson notes on Music Teachers Helper and automatically email the notes to the student or parent. The files can also be saved as a Quick Time movie or MP3 file that can then be saved on your file area on Music Teachers Helper for the student to access when the log in or emailed to the student as a reminder of what they need to work on… in case their notebook comes up missing.

For more information about this software visit
http://www.quick-voice.com/

Of the many educational music games out there, some are free online games that kids and adults can enjoy.  Some help with eartraining, some teach about instruments, rhythms and more.

One page I ran across recently was on About.com’s Classics for Kids site, offering 4 simple games, including one to name notes, one to imitate rhythms, another to teach information about the lives and works of composers, and one to allow kids to compose a simple tune.  (Links from this page will lead you to many other music education sites of interest, quite apart from games.)

The New York Philharmonic has some fun and sophisticated music games and learning sites, including a game room with about a dozen games, a chance to compose, learn about instruments, and even make your own.

Less sophisticated but well worth a visit is a Flash Music Games site which offers a large array of ear training games, piano and guitar games.  For example, one ear training game called Noteshooter sounds a note each time a treble clef floats from the bottom of the screen towards the top; the player uses arrow keys to identify the name of the note, by maneuvering the clef so it passes over the right letter.  After you get one note correct (by luck, or by matching the note on an instrument–or if you have perfect pitch!), you can then listen and identify the relative pitches of subsequent notes as they come through.

Another game is called Trichords, a memory game where you match two cards, but in this case, clicking a card plays a triad of some kind, and you have to match the sounds of pairs of triads to win the game.

How you might use these games in working with students is up to you (and perhaps you could add a comment to share with us any suggestions you have for using computer music games in teaching), but games like these are certainly food for thought.

Thanks to Toby and Tina for comments this week on Collecting the Benjamins (about collecting student payments), and to Steven for comments on last week’s survey of sites connecting students and teachers.  I agree with Steven that ads vary from day to day and place to place, so I have revised one survey listing which was based entirely on ads.  (By the way, I take responsibility for all my own comments in this blog!)

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A very up-to-date downeast Maine minister, whom I interviewed for his daring World War II experiences, introduced me to Audacity–a free music program that can provide some very nice benefits for music teachers.

(Note that Audacity is not at audacity.com; it is at this link, in case you’d like to check it out.  The download is free, and available for Windows, Mac, Linux and other systems.  It is open-source, much like Linux and Mozilla.)

With Audacity, you can record anything your computer can play–from a CD, a website, a microphone, anything–into a sound file of its own, which you can then manipulate in a ridiculous number of ways.

For example, you can slow any portion of the recording down without changing the pitch–great for transcribing tricky passages.  You can also More…

How would you like to eat your meals around an elegant grand piano-shaped dining room table, that also connects to your iPod and plays music for you throughout the evening?

Sound strange? Maybe so, but it’s called the “Concerto Table”, and is currently going for USD $8,000! The Concerto Table also has a place to store your silverware, and some other interesting features. Personally, I’d rather put the money toward a real piano, but for those who have the money and good place for it, it is kind of sleek.

Read more at http://www.concertotable.com.

Most music teachers at some time or another will have a need to “write” music of some kind - whether an original composition of any length, or some simple exercises to give to students. When that time comes, you can either do it by hand, or use notation software on the computer.

If you choose to notate your music on the computer, you have a few advantages:

• Readability - it looks like professionally published music when printed
• Accuracy - it can play back your music for you so you can listen to make sure it sounds right. You also don’t have to worry about erasers or white-out when you need to change a note.
• Speed - you can hook up a MIDI keyboard and actually “play” your music onto the screen

If you haven’t taken advantage of music notation software before, you might want to give it a try. Good music notation packages can be quite expensive (several hundred dollars). However, Coda Music has a simplified version of their Finale suite called “Finale Notepad”, and it is completely free! While the full version has a lot more features, Finale Notepad has been feature-rich enough for all my music notation needs. And they have versions for both Windows and Mac.

You can download Finale Notepad for free at:

http://www.finalemusic.com/notepad/