Mentor: Patricia
Wurst Cichy
Phone: 865-1954
Dept: Music Department
EMail: pcichy@providence.edu
Resources
Requested
Stipend
1 AY: 1,400.00; Christopher
Kelton
Stipend 2 AY: 1,400.00; Patricia
Wurst Cichy
Music
Software: $240.00
Equipment:
$454.00
Total: $2,794.00
Project
Info
Start
Date: July 1, 2003
End Date: June 30, 2004
Milestones: Fall
2003: Introduction into MSC 224. MSC 216,
MSC 217, and Introduction to methods faculty, applied
music instructors, and applied students. Spring
2004: MSC 221, 223, MSC 321, 215, and continued
use with applied teachers and students.
Deliverables
Enhancement
to Professional Practices: Summarizing
what was stated earlier under Project Objective,
the ultimate goal of helping our students in
both their playing abilities and their teaching
capabilities will be facilitated with the new
technology. When students use this technology,
their concepts of performance pieces will be
strengthened at the same time they are realizing
just how much they can help themselves and help
their future students with this and any other
computer assisted learning tool.
Paper
or Article: possible submission to the
Rhode Island Music Educators Journal, The Rimer.
Alternate possibilities would include the Saxophone
Journal (un-refereed)and/or The Saxophone Symposium
(refereed).
Professional
Presentation: Possible presentation at
the Rhode Island Music Educators Fall, 2003, In-Service
Conference.
Other: We
plan to pilot the SmartMusic software usage with
our faculty and students during the 2003-2004 academic
year, with the idea that given successful response
this could enjoy expanded usage in our new Arts facility.
Primary
Objective
The
software and hardware proposed here will be used in
three important ways:
- Applied
music instructors and students will be able to
use Smart Music as an extremely potent tool. (features
below)
- Music
education students will learn how to use this tool
to prepare their own students for solo festivals
and recitals as a part of wind methods classes.
- Jazz
students i.e. Jazz Studies class students, Jazz
Band students and Jazz Combo students, can all
use Smart Music as their own practice rhythm section.
Smart
Music is a software program that plays accompaniments
for an instrumental or vocal soloist. It can be used
in lessons, practice sessions and even master class
performance situations. Smart Music goes far beyond
what traditional "play-along" ("Music
Minus One") recordings can do. Smart Music actually
listens to the performer and follows at the speed the
student plays. In this way a student learns to lead
the accompaniment, not just follow as one follows a
metronome. The sounds that the program creates are
excellent sampled piano sounds or sampled orchestral
sounds. It requires a more powerful computer than music
faculty currently have in our offices, plus classroom
quality speakers. System requirements: 1. 300 MHz Pentium
recommended 2. Microsoft Windows 98/Me/2000 3. Minimum
64MB RAM 4. 230 MB free disc space 5. SoundBlaster
16 compatible sound card with record/playback capability
6. DirectX 8 support.
To
take advantage of Smart Music's ability to listen and
follow, the sound card must at a minimum, support DirectX
5, full duplex audio Our plan is to start with two
functioning Smart Music stations each on an "Anthro
Cart", one for each floor
of our current building. In a lesson, the instructor
can teach the student to perform their part in relation
to the piece as a whole. An applied music student
can then practice their part with the accompaniment
on a regular basis. This is a privilege that our main
accompanist, Mr. Norfrey, can only give to students
on a very sporadic basis; he only has so much time
in a week. The aspect of experiencing the piece as
a complete entity, even to the extent of hearing
high quality sampled orchestral sounds in the case
of concerti is something that is entirely missing from
instrumental music education in our area schools. Having
judged the solo and ensemble contest in Rhode Island
for three years, I am consistently disappointed at
how few students have ever had the opportunity to play
their solo pieces with any kind of accompaniment. The
Smart Music brochure gives an apt analogy that this
is like shooting baskets alone in one's driveway without
ever getting to experience playing the game with other
players. Dr. Cichy, President-elect of the Rhode Island
Music Educators Association, and I would like to see
area band students have this opportunity. If our music
ed. students use this technology while they are studying
here, they will be much more likely to use it when
they enter the field.
A
further benefit speaks to something most music teachers
give lip service to, but are hard pressed to put into
practice: Smart Music can record the complete rehearsal-performance
as soon as it's played. Most students hear themselves
on recordings only sporadically, and usually wish they'd
heard what they sounded like before sharing their sounds
with the public. As soon as we have Smart Music, its
use will be a part of my syllabus for Woodwind
Methods; brass methods and string methods instructors
will be encouraged to act similarly. I will offer to
demonstrate Smart Music to students in David Neves'
Secondary Instrumental Methods course for the fall;
this would allow music ed. students in the class of
'04 (who have already taken my Woodwind Methods course)
to be a part of this. Dr. Cichy plans to demonstrate
it in Intro to Music Education. In addition, Dr. Cichy
and I will use it in my own applied studios and I will
do a presentation for all applied students and faculty
who could use it.
Smart
Music has a good selection of accompaniments for all
levels of performers in the following areas: all woodwinds,
all brass and high, medium and low voices. String accompaniments
for elementary levels will be available this fall.
I estimate that this could affect approximately half
of the ~110 students currently studying in our applied
department. In addition to the classical performance
areas listed above, any jazz performer on any instrument
can utilize the jazz repertoire contained in the program.
The difference here is that although the original recordings
of such things as the Charlie Parker play along ("All Bird")
are limited to one original key and whatever strict
tempo Mr. Aebersold counted off, with this program,
one may choose any key, any tempo.
The
primary desired results of this will be:
- PC
instrumentalists and vocalists will have a more
thorough experience of their musical repertoire.
- PC
Music Education students will become fluent with
this program and use it as a part of their teaching
when they go into the schools. Also, PC Music Ed.
faculty will be able to share this knowledge with
Rhode Island Music Educators already in the field.
- PC
jazz students have a great way to practice their
improvisation skills even when the rest of the
group isn't available.
Assessment
Qualitative
and quantitative data will be collected through the
development of a survey directed towards applied students,
applied faculty, methods faculty and the use of an
In/Out Usage Log to document student and faculty use.
Long-term
assessment could include use of this technology at
the Rhode Island Music Educators-sponsored Spring Solo
and Ensemble Festival.
