It’s that time of year! The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, school is out, and it’s time to take off for the summer.

Every year at this time we get the word out to our SmartMusic customers that it’s time to move their subscriptions away from their school computers and to their laptop or home computer for the summer. This way, when fall comes, you’ll have that subscription ready to activate, without worrying if your school’s IT department re-imaged all of your computers while you were out enjoying your summer.

To do this in SmartMusic 2010, click the "Settings" tab and click the link to "make changes to your subscription" or "use SmartMusic on a different computer." Follow the on-screen instructions and you’re set! (If you have an older version of SmartMusic, your option to move a subscription might be in the Help menu instead.)

Also, the end of the Gradebook year is fast approaching – so get those assignments finished up and graded! On June 30, 2010, the Gradebook school year will end. No assignments can be submitted after that last day (but you will continue to have administrative access to Gradebook).

To set up your school or classes for the 2010-2011 school year you’ll need SmartMusic 2011, and it’s coming soon. Click here for the latest developments.

Have any questions? Let us know by clicking on the “Comments” button below.

Really? Is this the end of the SmartMusic blog?

Well, yes and no. While I’m delighted and flattered that you’re reading this post, the fact of the matter is that most teachers are now done with their school year, and their thoughts are likely elsewhere. There’s not much more for us to say about using SmartMusic 2010 in the 2009/2010 school year. With today’s post I hope to suggest some closure on the past year and to begin looking forward.

I hope you get a chance to celebrate all of your accomplishments of the past year as well reflect on those areas where you hope to improve in the upcoming year. As for myself, I’m pleased with many of my accomplishments, including being a part of the SmartMusic blog, which we launched just ten months ago.

If you’d like to catch up on any SmartMusic blog posts you missed, click here to see all past titles: I think it’s a pretty impressive list! Hopefully you can enjoy them while relaxing by a pool.

While we’ve not announced an official release date, you can expect to see SmartMusic 2011 in the coming weeks. Our “Coming Soon” page will continue to provide updates as they are announced, and we’ll share details here too.

I would like to make one recommendation in advance: If possible, install SmartMusic 2011 as soon as it becomes available, even if only on one computer. While I think you’ll be delighted with the changes, you, like me, may prefer to become acquainted with what’s new before you’re in the back-to-school rush.

So, to be clear, I will return next week on the new SmartMusic blog, which, will look exactly like the old SmartMusic blog, but we’ll be focused on next fall and SmartMusic 2011. So stay "tuned" and have a great summer!

In last week’s blog I discussed how SmartMusic can help with concerts, reviews, mastery tests, and other year-end challenges. If you’re like me, in addition to completing these tasks, you’re also thinking ahead about next year too! (Why do we do this to ourselves?)

Here’s a few ways SmartMusic can help you look ahead:

1. For those students who have SmartMusic at home, consider providing them with a list of activities that can help guide their practice over the summer.
2. Are your marching band arrangements in Finale? Remember that Finale files can be made into SmartMusic files that your students can practice with and have full SmartMusic functionality. (Did you know several DCI corps use SmartMusic in their preparation?)
3. With SmartMusic and the Gradebook, you can get a headstart on choosing literature for the upcoming school year by listening to selections and even looking at individual parts for the technical demands.

If you really plan ahead, you might even be thinking about how to present SmartMusic to parents. If so, I want to alert you to some new helpful documents that were just posted on the SmartMusic website. One is a sample script for presenting SmartMusic to parents and the other is a FAQ document to share with parents. They are in PDF format so they are easily downloaded and printed.

To see them go to http://smartmusic.com and select “for Educators”>Resource Center, then click on the “Presenting SmartMusic to Parents and Administrators” link. These two documents will appear at the top of your screen:

Do you have some additional ways that you use SmartMusic as the school year finishes? Let us know by clicking on the “Comments” button below!

Unbelievably, it's already time to start thinking about the end of the school year. But before you can inventory instruments, catalog the music, and do some clean up, you probably still have some goals to accomplish: concerts, reviews, mastery tests, and maybe even having some fun! Let’s see how SmartMusic can help you more easily put the fine on your school year. 

If you're preparing for concerts, I’m sure you appreciate the advantages students have when their concert pieces are supported in SmartMusic. But if you’re preparing literature that’s not yet in the SmartMusic library, please remember that SmartMusic’s Audio Import feature allows your students to practice with any .MP3 files that you may already have. Students can slow down the tempo, create practice loops, and record themselves. You can also create assignments using the audio files with the Gradebook. If you've never done this before, simply click on "MP3 Audio Files" at the left of the SmartMusic screen and you'll see something like this:

Also worthy of mention are three practice tools that are integrated into SmartMusic: the tuner, metronome, and digital recorder. If you've never used the digital recorder for recording rehearsals, I would highly recommend it. It’s an easy way to give your students instant feedback. When students identify the areas that they need to work on by hearing what they just played they are developing self-evaluation habits that will last a lifetime.

How can SmartMusic be used to review material learned throughout the school year? Using the various categories of Exercises (like Scales and Rhythms) allows you to pick and choose material to evaluate your students’ progress. A Twister (technical exercise) can be used as a mastery study. Choose lines from method books to review concepts and for sight-reading purposes. In two earlier blogs, I offered suggestions for some game-type activities that can be also used for review purposes: SmartMusic Rhythm Challenge and the SmartMusic Face-off.

Perhaps you would like to have a year-end recital where students perform a solo. Depending on the level you teach, you can use method book lines, some new fun solo titles, Sample Files, or selections from the solo library.

Next week, in part two of my year-end wrap-up, I’ll offer some tips how you can best prepare for next year.