Practical Facts About the iPad in the Classroom

Last week, I purchased a 32GB Wi-Fi iPad to my great delight.  Since then, it’s become my go-to device for casual Web browsing, E-mailing, and the occasional game.  I’ve spent lots of time surfing the App store, reminding me of two years ago when I first purchased my iPhone 3G.  In my first week of using Apple’s new device, I’ve come to some conclusions relevant to using the iPad in classrooms.

First, the battery life is stellar.  My family can use the iPad on and off for an entire day, from 6am until 10 at night, and still have had no less than 35% battery life remaining.  I have no doubt the iPad will last for an entire school day (maybe two) on a single charge.

Second, the interface is child-simple.  I have two kids, a daughter aged 4.5 and a son who is 21 months old.  I synced the iPad with my computer, and transferred most of my iPhone apps with the iPad.  This included games such as Uno and Peggle.  I also downloaded Doodle Buddy, a free drawing program and Super Why!, a PBS Kids game.  My daughter, a pre-reader (recognizing letters and numbers but not most words), was immediately able to grasp the interface, and within a few minutes could play and switch between  Uno and Peggle by herself.  She made many drawings and saved them to the iPhoto library with ease.  Even my son, who saw us playing, has learned to press the home button and swipe the unlock slider!  I have no doubt that any student will be able to operate the interface easily.

My Daughter's Doodle Buddy drawing of "Mommy"

Third, this thing is FAST.  Apple’s done a great job of keeping the OS streamlined and optimized for its custom processor.  Launching apps, returning to the home screen, browsing the Internet, checking email, downloading apps, scrolling, everything responds instantly and accurately to the touch.  Kids will be able to spend their time using the iPad working, not waiting for apps to load.

Fourth, syncing an iPad is easy, until I imagine syncing 40 of them.  Plugging the iPad into my computer, it quickly syncs programs and data, music and photos, just as I expected having used an iPod and iPhone.  Unfortunately, Apple has not announced any kind of lab-management tools with their iPhone OS 4.  While it’s certainly not too late for Apple to recognize the value of the education market and release an Apple Remote Desktop-like solution, there has been no indication of any plans so far.  The silver lining of the current situation is the fact that Apple’s license allows 5 devices to sync with a single software purchase, but for many iPad lab managers, the ease of use of a remote management system likely overshadows the cost savings.

Finally, there are tons of music apps, but none ideal for the classroom setting… Yet. I’ve downloaded the music game Magic Piano, which is fun, but not a composition or performance tool of much depth.  Drum simulators Beatwave and PatternMusic have more potential for creating music, but they’re not really serious composition tools.  I’ve downloaded the free piano/organ/rhodes/etc. keyboard app ProKeys, and I was even able to plug into a guitar amp and play some organ licks with my band when our keyboard player was stuck in Paris last week.  Of course, this app is only useful if you have some piano skill to begin with.  I’ve downloaded Karajan Pro, a $9.99 “Music and Ear Trainer” which is really more of a testing app than a teaching app.  For an inexperienced musician, this might help in checking memorization of key signatures and basic intervals, but again, it’s only really useful for testing.  I’m still on the lookout for more comprehensive solutions for theory and eartraining instruction.  If you’ve found the killer music app, please leave a comment recommending what I should check out!

Teaching ALL the National Standards: an iPad App Roundup

A year ago, I attended a conference keynoted by Bennett Reimer, the author of 3 editions of “A Philosophy of Music Education.”  If you are a music educator trained in the last 30 years, chances are pretty good that you read this book as part of your undergraduate study.  In his address, Bennett spoke about the nine National Standards for Music Education:

1. Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
2. Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
3. Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments.
4. Composing and arranging music within specified guidelines.
5. Reading and notating music.
6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.
7. Evaluating music and music performances.
8. Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts.
9. Understanding music in relation to history and culture.

Bennet made the assertion, backed up by formal polls of music educators (and an informal poll of the conference attendees), that most performance class (choir, band, orchestra) music teachers are focused almost exclusively on standards 1 or 2 and 5.  The other standards are ‘left behind’ in favor of preparing music for the next concert.  Despite my music education degrees and years of experience, I had to acknowledge that I certainly devote the vast majority of my classroom time to standards 1 and 5.

One of my goals for the iPMEP is to make the other standards a more prominent part of my classroom instruction, using the iPad’s technology to facilitate them in an interesting and relevant way.  So now, I am searching for apps to best help make these goals more achievable.

Let’s go through the standards, and see what kinds of apps might be best for making them part of my classroom instruction.  Because most music teachers do them most and (hopefully) best, I’ll skip #1 and #2.

3. Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments.
4. Composing and arranging music within specified guidelines.

Because they’re related, I’ll group number 3 and 4 together.  For composition, an obvious choice is a loop-based music creation tool, akin to Apple’s Garageband, available for Macintosh computers, but not yet for the iPad.  I’ve had the chance to play with one loop-based recorder on an iPad, Pianist Pro.  This app uses a piano keyboard, with several piano-organ sounds, and a simple drum machine.  Students can record one part (such as a bass line) and then multi-track several more parts while listening to what has been recorded.  Students could easily record a 4-part chorale or be given the pattern for a simple blues bass line, and then improvise a solo using the included pentatonic scale mode.

Pianist Pro Play and Record Mode

Pianist Pro Pentatonic Mode

I’m sure it’s only a matter of time until we see a glut of music composition software for the iPad.  Pianist Pro might be great for kids after some experience with the piano, but for an introductory composition experience, I’d like to see more graphical, drag-and-drop composition software.

5. Reading and notating music.

The App store already has quite a few apps which address this goal, although none I’ve seen that follow a step-by-step approach needed for comprehensive theory and eartraining.  A new entry is Mozart HD,  an app designed for helping users to read in the 12 major and minor keys.

Mozart HD

Another music theory program that has a good track record on the iPhone/iPod Touch is Nota HD, now for the iPad.  Nota offers piano training, as well as quizzing on basic theory.  The  developers of Nota seem to be dilligent in upgrading the software frequently, and may be responsive to educators who wish to use the software in their classrooms.

Nota HD

6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.
7. Evaluating music and music performances.

Here’s another place I think the iPad could really shine as an instructional tool.  An obvious use of the iPod software built into the iPad as a way for students to listen to recordings, and keeping a diary in a text editor like Pages.  Students could use headphones for a more enveloping experience of the music they’re evaluating, which could be served from a teacher computer’s iTunes library.

In addition to analyzing existing recordings, I’d like to use the iPad to allow students to analyze their own performances, visually evaluating their pitch accuracy.  Using software such as Pitch Primer to record their own voices (using an iPhone headphone/mic headset) while singing with the choir, and then going back and listening to their own voices while studying the pitch information shown on the screen could provide valuable, concrete feedback about the pitch aspect of their performance.

Pitch Primer

8. Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts.
9. Understanding music in relation to history and culture.

On these last two points, the web capability of the iPad is most useful.  Apps such as Brighthouse Labs’ “History of Music Study Guide” (I can’t find a direct link, so fire up iTunes to see this app) offers information on history, art, and culture, although it may be more useful as a college student’s companion to NAWM than to the average middle school music student.  Resources such as Wikipedia can be browsed with various apps rather than via Safari, which helps constrain searches to only the information available there, rather than the whole, wild web.

Okay, now here’s your chance.  These are only a few of the apps that are available, and there’s no way I could possibly review or catalog them all.  What apps have you used?  Do you have a favorite piano app or theory app?  Have you read news about the major music textbook or software publishers preparing iPad software for music education instruction?  I could really use some help from like-minded music educators out there… So post away, and thanks!

The iPad Music Education Project: Welcome!

Steve Jobs introduces the iPad

Hello!  Welcome to the iPad Music Education Project blog.  In this post, you’ll find out what the iPMEP is all about, and what I hope to accomplish with this blog.

iPMEP was conceived on January 27, 2010, when Steve Jobs announced Apple’s latest creation, the iPad.  As an Mac and iPhone user, I was instantly intrigued by the power of its user interface as well as its low (starting at $500) price point.  I began to imagine how this tablet computer could be used in my middle school choir classroom, and here we are.

The iPMEP has the following goals:

-Facilitate theory and ear training

-Teach basic piano skills

-Replace paper worksheets and tests

-Replace paper octavos (with public domain music or permission from publishers)

-Use cloud technology to make student work accessible from any iPad, and make teacher evaluation automatic and easy.

-Integrate all National Standards for Music Education using the iPad technology, including performing, improvising, composing, reading, listening to, and evaluating music, as well as understanding its relationship with the other arts and the world at large.

In order to achieve these goals, grant money is being sought to finance the purchase of iPad computers and related accessories, and I am looking to partner with developers who have experience programming iPhone/iPad apps.

On this blog, I plan to publish information about finding grants, reviews of available apps which might be used for the project, and hopefully, information about the setup, implementation, and maintenance of an iPad music education lab, and how it affects my students’ music education.

I hope you find this blog informative and entertaining.  I am excited to begin my quest to bring this technology to my students, and I’m glad to have you along for the ride!

Dave