Week 2

This week has certainly opened some new doors in the realm of music technology.  Musescore and Noteflight are both programs that have made me aware of possibilities for use with students.  I myself have been a long time Finale user, but it can be quite expensive to purchase.  I just upgraded to the newest version at the cost of $360 (at the reduced teacher price).  For the students I work with, this is completely out of the reach of their family budgets.  However, free programs such as Musescore and Noteflight would make it possible for them to engage in the basics of composition without that heavy expenditure.

In working with these two programs, I experienced a little bit of frustration, but it was mainly because of my long experience with Finale.  I kept falling into the trap of trying to use familiar shortcuts from Finale and then realizing that they are not the same in these other programs.  I noted that several others in the class had pointed out that the exercises could be done in Finale and exported but I chose to keep working in the other programs. Despite the occasional frustration, I see real value in working through the exercises as close to possible as the way that the students will experience it.  This gives us as teachers a better perspective on what those challenges are likely to be and a better handle on how to help them when they encounter problems.

The PLN is starting to really be a source of a lot of new information - it is almost overwhelming at times.  But as the others in the group post the different articles they have discovered, it does broaden the perspective on a whole host of issues. The combination of what others post and what comes in on its own through Feedly has helped make me aware of quite a number of possibilities that I had not known about prior to this.  It is slightly humorous that a number of the postings of different people in the class start to duplicate one another as time goes on.

The discussion about creativity and improvisation is somewhat similar to one that we had in Dr. Webster's Creativity class last Fall.  However, the main difference is the addition of the possibilities opened up by Kratos' 7 stage model for teaching improvisation.  It outlines practical steps for taking students through developmentally appropriate processes to gain the audiation skills that will begin them on the road to becoming effective improvisors.  Far too many teachers are intimidated to begin to teach the process because they aren't really sure how.  By having a logical stepwise procedure to follow, hopefully that hesitancy can be overcome.