What apps do you use on a daily basis while teaching music? I teach Band every day to five different groups from 5th grade through High School. We also have one experimental group that is exploring the Pop, Rock, Electronic side of music creation and arranging.
I use a group of apps everyday in almost every class. Then I use another set of apps when not in class but still doing teaching related activities. There is of course a group of apps I use when I am creating and exploring music as well and one more group of apps that I use when I am not doing musical activities.
Here is my list of apps I use constantly while teaching;
unRealBook, ForScore, Avid Scorch, Tempo, ClearTune, Fingerings, SL-Remote, Filemaker Go, DropBox, AirSketch, PlanBook, YouTube, Music (the app) and of course YouTube and Safari. I wish our school had an instant messenger app for GroupWise. Why we are still using archaic technology like GroupWise I will never know! If we had an Instant Messenger app all teachers could use I would have WAY fewer phone interruptions!
My list of other apps I use for my job but not while I am teaching… (in addition to those listed above – because some of those listed above I still use while NOT teaching);
PlanBook, Pages, Keynote, MagicalPad, SmartMusic Inbox, AnyTune, Capo, Hokusai, Mail, Contacts, PDF Expert, Calendar, WunderList, Notability, NoteShelf, Skitch, Evernote, Hello, GMusic, AirSharing, SilverWiz, Photos, Videos, Camera, iMovie and PhotoSender. My newest find is iCam.
My list of Apps I love to use while creating, exploring, and playing music are;
MorphWiz, Mugician, GeoSynth, Seline, ThumbJam, Sunrizer, SampleWiz, CrystalSynthXT, GarageBand, Magic Fiddle and Piano, PianistPro, ProKeys, and my latest SampleTank and MelodyMaker.
The list of Apps I use when I am not making music, working on music classes or enjoying music…. in other words the rest of my free time;
ByLine (RSS News Feeds), Pulse News, Flud News, River of News (I can’t decide which I like the best but I did list these in the order I use them the most), Twitter, Flipboard, Showyou, Music, GMusic, WeatherBug or AccuWeather, Alarm Clock HD by the Alarm Clock Company, PackTheBag, AirVideo, Screens, Fandango, Flixster, What’s On?HD, Launch Points and Maps, and of course Safari, Mail, Contacts and Calendar.
What apps do you use constantly? I would love to discover new ideas and find out who else is using the same apps as I do on a constant basis. Leave a comment below.
February 22, 2012 at 1:32 am
NPR Music.
February 22, 2012 at 2:03 am
I’ve never used that…. What is the best show?
February 22, 2012 at 1:55 pm
What you’re using on your iPad makes me feel like an absolute amateur! I’ve been given five iPads to experiment with in my classroom, and I’m currently taking an in-house course on creating a blog.
I’m teaching in Indonesia and was trained in Australia. My program is quite different to a US style band/ choral program. All of my students do a bit of singing, percussion, guitar, aural training, music theory, composing and history for each unit of work. I came across your site while looking for similar blogs to my own, alisonsmusicblog.wordpress.com , if you have time, check it out.
February 22, 2012 at 11:59 pm
Alison…. Glad you stopped by…. What an awesome situation – 5 iPads! Any money to buy apps with?
I love the idea of your Rock Room. How awesome!
I will be following your blog from now on. I look forward to watching what you are doing over there. Where did you grow up?
February 23, 2012 at 9:20 am
No money to buy apps with yet, but just experimenting with garageband mostly and reading scores with the iPad. The school I’m at is only 4 years old but we started out with an amazing purpose built campus, so I have a few practice rooms for students- hence the rock room and gamelan room, plus four other general purpose prac rooms and a big classroom.
As for where I grew up — childhood in Papua New Guinea, high school in Australia but I have lived in and visited a lot of countries. (Both my parents were international teachers.)
March 5, 2012 at 10:25 pm
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March 30, 2012 at 9:11 pm
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May 29, 2012 at 3:09 am
Hi Paul. I’d like to share with you my app that I made and use to teach music. It’s called Scale Tapper. Here is a free download code you can redeem in iTunes: HYM7X6FFA4Y9. What’s great is it lets you construct your own pitch constellation for any chord or scale and then listen to it on a fully-customizable string instrument.
September 27, 2012 at 11:28 pm
I thank you so much for the endless list of apps to use in the music classroom. I currently have been given a class set of iPads for my grade 6 music class and need to figure out what to do with them. Would you be willing to share a brief description of what I could do to get started with my kids using one or two of the apps you’ve listed. I teach in Canada and my kids get general music classes for 90 minutes a week. I’d appreciate any ideas you can offer. Thanks.
September 28, 2012 at 2:04 am
Kerri,
That is so awesome that you have a classroom set of iPads for your general music class! Plus you get 90 minutes a week with 6th graders for this! Is that split up in three classes or something?
Ok… So my first thought is GarageBand, GarageBand, GarageBand! Of course it is $5 but it is so worth it!
You are going to be going in a direction I do not have the luxury of going! I only have my iPad that I myself use. With what you have I would be getting those kids playing music by using different musical instrument apps…. Like the ones built into GarageBand. You can do this as a class group, just like a band/performing group.
Plus I would get them recording music soundtracks to stories that they record and rewrite. This can get them being very creative. Of course they need some headphones to be working on creating and recording by themselves as individuals.
The guy that wrote music theory.net has two different music theory apps out. You could have them learning music theory using those apps.
Good luck.. Post some recordings or videos of what you guys end up doing!
Paul
September 28, 2012 at 11:50 pm
Hi Paul. Thanks so much for your reply. Yes we get 2 -45 minute blocks of music each week. We also have a $150 budget to buy apps. By the sounds of your reaction I have a pretty good thing going here.
I was able to use a class set of iPads for a very short time frame last year with my then grade sixes. We worked in garage band a bit but it was mostly exploratory for the kids.
This year I am hoping to do some general music theory with them but was also hoping that I could find some apps that would possibly prepare them for the junior high band program that they,ll have the option of entering next year in grade 7 at our school.
I think it’s time I better aquatint myself with garage band. Hopefully I can find some lesson ideas on the net I. Order to get going with that. I,m really excited about the possibilities that this technology will bring to my music class. I’ll certainly keep you updated but it might take some time.
I’d really love to find a way that the kids could prepare something for our upcoming Christmas concert. Any ideas on that?
Thanks again Paul. It was so nice to find this forum. I dont’t feel so alone anymore
Kerri
September 29, 2012 at 1:06 pm
Check out these youtube video’s….
These first two are of some things Brandt is doing at Seymour High –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3oFK0rA81U
Here is his website – http://brandtschneider.blogspot.com
Another iPad Band
Lion King Video and Explanation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kmb6jusTDLg&feature=channel&list=UL
Here’s a couple of Music Theory ideas
Mucicopolis – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqfKo_wqXlw
Music Room – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5M97xZeuOt4&feature=related
February 28, 2013 at 9:09 pm
Hi, I’m trying to find a grading option for my elementary music classes. Right now we have individual google docs for each student in the building. Is there an app out there where we can record music grades. We want to be able to use and I-Pad to record grades for each individual outcome while we’re teaching, but still be able to export individual reports for each student come report card time.
Any ideas?
Thanks
Miss Music
February 28, 2013 at 10:50 pm
I do not use any GradeBook App yet because the GradeBook my school uses will not interface with any of the apps currently.
I would take a look at these apps though… TeacherKit, GradeBook Pro and possibly even Teacher’s Assistant Pro. I only mention the last one because I am using that app to keep simple grades in. It is very good at allowing me to quickly enter an item, like “has instrument” then assign a point value and then select which kids I want to receive points for that. I’m not so sure I would call this a GradeBook but I do track points very quickly with it.
February 28, 2013 at 10:50 pm
Oh… As the other reason I mention it is because there is a desktop app for Teacher Assistant as well.