Note Squish

Note Squish This is a cute drill and practice app for note names. The cost is $0.99 for iphone (but it can be enlarged for iPad). It's kind of like Whack-a-Mole. You can choose the clef (treble, bass, C-Clef), range of notes used, speed, and letters or solfege. The object is to whack the mole with the correct note name on it. You can whack the other animals that appear for bonus points.

The Nutcracker Musical Storybook for iPad

I haven't posted in a long time. I have plenty of ideas for posts, but a real lack of time to do the writing. I'm sure you understand what I mean.

I don't have a good, kid-appropriate Nutcracker story book, so I went looking at iPad Apps. I found one I think will work for $2.99 (cheaper than buying a book) called The Nutcracker Musical Storybook. It has nice illustrations that are slightly animated. It plays excerpts of Tchaikovsky's music at the appropriate times in the story. The website for the app has a trailer that gives a good idea of what the app is like. It's not very interactive, more like a movie. It takes about 25 minutes to get through the whole thing, so I plan to break it into shorter bits for the kids. I like that the title screen has a Christmas Tree with numbered ornaments that are like bookmarks in the story so that you can do a little at a time and come back to that spot. There is no narration for this app, which I think is slightly odd, but I plan to read it to the kids anyway. You can choose to run the app as a movie or swipe to turn the pages as you would an ebook.

Title Screen of The Nutcracker Musical Storybook

Planbook.com

I've had several post ideas floating around in my head for weeks, but I just haven't had time to post them. I don't know why this school year feels even busier than past years. I've been meaning to write this post for several weeks.

I'm using an online lesson plan site for my lesson plans this year. It's called Planbook.com. When I signed up last year, it was free. Now there is a $9.95 yearly charge. There is a 30-day trial period if you want to try it out first.

I'm impressed with the service because it even works with my completely messed up schedule. My 2nd and 3rd graders come for 50 minutes on a three day rotation. I see my K/1 kids for 25 minutes two times in a three day rotation (some classes on days 1 and 2, some on days 2 and 3, and some on days 1 and 3). I was amazed that I can make that work in Planbook. The only think I couldn't figure out was how to incorporate my 4th and 5th graders five day rotation. My solution to that is that I have two separate Planbook accounts.

Planbook even has music standards for most states so that you can mark which standards you are working on in each lesson. It has the ability to deal with snow days and classes missed for whatever other reason. It is really very flexible. I really like that I can access it from any computer that has internet access.

There are a lot of other features I haven't mentioned here, but I encourage you to check out the site. I am in a beta testing group for an iPad app as well. I'm unsure when the app will be available.

Here's a screen shot:

Isle of Tune iPad App soon available

Good news! The iPad version of Isle of Tune will be available on Oct. 6. The cost will be $2.99. I'm really looking forward to having my students use this app for composition. They will love it!

Here's a sneak peek from You Tube that was posted back in March.

5 Little Monkeys

I use the 5 Little Monkeys finger play as an activity to reinforce pulse and high and low voices (as do many music teachers). If you also like to incorporate literature into your classroom, you might like to know that the storybook app for 5 Little Monkeys is on sale in the iTunes app store for 99 cents through tomorrow.

Flashnote Derby iPad App

I learned about this app from the Technology in Music Education blog (great blog, by the way). You can read Mr. Russell's summation of the app on his blog here. The app is Flashnote Derby which is a drill and practice app for note names. It costs 99 cents. There are several of these kinds of apps out there, but this one sets itself apart in a couple of different ways.

1. The app allows you to pick which notes you want to drill. You can pick treble clef, bass clef, both or you can even more specific and just drill line notes or space notes.
2. After the game is complete, you have the option to go back and review the notes you missed.

I'll be using this app as soon as school starts next week.

A listing of iPad Apps

My friend, Martha, on the MK8 list recently acquired a new iPad. I'm always excited to hear of other music teachers getting new technology. She is looking for some instrument apps, so I've decided to make a quick list some of my favorite music and non-music apps here. All apps are free unless otherwise noted. This is definitely not an exhaustive list. I'd love input about additional apps from others, so leave a comment if you have some to recommend.

Instruments:
Virtuoso - piano keyboard
Shaker - iPhone app with lots of unpitched percussion. Hit the 2X button in the lower right to make it iPad sized.
BaDaBing - Drum set and bongos
Percussive - Xylophone. The lite version is xylo only, the $1.99 paid version has glockenspiel, kalimba, xylo, marimba, and vibraphone.
iCanBass - Bass guitar
iVibraSlap - iPhone app for vibraslap
Train Whistle - iPhone app for a train whistle
Rain Stick - iPhone app for a rain stick. You actually turn the iPad to play it.
Cowbell - obviously, a cow bell.
Zampona - pan flute

There are a LOT more instrument apps. These are the only ones I have explored at this point.

Other Music Apps:
Melody Street - described in this blog post. 99 cents/
Singing Fingers - described in this blog post
BeatWave - create beats/loops
Finger Stomp - described in this blog post
Isle of Tune - not yet available. I'm very impatiently waiting for this one. The website is described here.
Monster Chorus - described in this blog post. 99 cents.
Young Music Genius - described in this blog post
Sound Drop - create chance music with balls and lines.
Blue FiRe - recording
ElectroBeats - beat making app
Tap Tempo - for determining tempo of a piece of music. iPhone app.
GarageBand - $4.99. The iPad app of the Mac software.


Teacher Helpers:
Teachers Pick - for randomly choosing students
SmartSeat - seating chart app. $3.99. Described in this blog post.
Planbook - not yet available, but this is an iPad app for Planbook.com. I am beta testing it right now and will let you know as soon as it is available in the app store.

Other useful apps:
Diigo - Internet bookmarks
Dropbox - file storage/sharing
Friendly - for Facebook
Kindle - for reading books. Love this! You can use it even if the iPad is your school's and not your own. The books are stored in your Amazon Kindle account, not actually on your iPad.
AppShopper - for finding new apps
Freebies - for finding free apps