SmartMusic would be a bit more difficult to implement in the classroom because there is the cost factor, needing to have computers available for student use and/or requiring students to obtain their own microphone and software for home use. There is also a fair amount of setup work that has to be done by the teacher, such as setting up assignments, finding the correct books to align with the class method book, etc. However, once the footwork has been done to prepare to use SmartMusic, I always felt it was an incredibly easy program to use. Students can simply select their assignment or an exercise out of a book and play along. The program provides immediate feedback in green and red not only notating if the student made a mistake, but what that mistake was (was it the wrong note? the wrong rhythm? etc.) and notates it in red to make it easy to see and correct (see screen shot below from the SmartMusic website). As a teacher, although the computer grades it automatically, I can still override the grading system. SmartMusic also allows me to see how long it took a student to complete the exercise, record their playing, and store recordings on my iPad or tablet for use at parent conferences or lessons with the student. As students grow "out of" the method books, smart accompaniments become available which has really helped my high school students rehearse for solo/ensemble contests. These accompaniments listen to the player as a real accompanist would and will match the tempo of the performer. I think this is an incredibly powerful teaching and learning tool and, in my experience, is something the kids enjoy using! It makes practicing much more appealing and provides educators with tangible progress proof, taking away some of the subjectivity of grading performances.
On the other hand, I was given the opportunity to explore Chromatik this week as well. I have had no personal experience with Chromatik and so the only reflection I can give is on the basic information I received from the website, lecture and a limited amount of time to explore the site myself. I believe that implementing Chromatik in a classroom would be much easier than SmartMusic. This is a free program which solves the issue of finances for both the school and the students. This is also web-based (not software) and cross-platform which means it is more accessible to students anywhere they are going. There are apps available as well for tablets, smart phones and of course, access via computer/laptop. For these reasons, Chromatik would be easier to implement in a classroom. From my limited experience with Chromatik, this is where the classroom benefits end. Although the site is easy to use, there was limited repertoire and although it provides a play along feature using videos, it doesn't visually show you where mistakes were made. Students can still record their performance and submit it as an assignment, but the feedback isn't immediate and it would be up to the teacher to grade each individual assignment, make annotated corrections and send it back to the student. The screen shot below shows the features that I would most use for educational purposes in tracking progress of students. I can see where the music selection would be more intriguing to a student - seeing as how I explored mostly with the Disney's Frozen sheet music! These are songs that excite kids and could be used to simply get them to play their instrument/sing more.
Perhaps with more actual experience with Chromatik I would begin to see more benefits for the music classroom. In my opinion, I feel like SmartMusic wins hands down for the music classroom, but Chromatik could be a great tool to inspire kids to practice and perform more music they enjoy!
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