Classroom technology

Smart
learning
Advances in technology over the past few years have led to an explosion
in apps and online platforms designed to aid instrumental teaching and
practice. Peter Somerford looks at some of the most useful – but cautions
that such tools should never be used to substitute rhythmic and aural skills
 CLASSROOM TECHNOLOGY

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he ubiquity of smartphones, tablets and laptop then at least more effectively. When Norwegian cellist, teacher

T
computers and the proliferation of apps, teaching and technophile Tine Johnsgaard wanted to find new ways to
platforms, online recordings and video tutorials motivate her students to practise more at home, she developed an
offer numerous ways for string teachers and students app called Practice Presto (practicepresto.com). Teachers use the
to use technology in their teaching and practice. The app to create customised assignments for the students to work on.
challenge is to find the tools that are most useful and When they begin their practice, students have the option to make
use them effectively. The smartphone has brought old-school a recording of part of their session and send it to their teacher, as
technology such as the metronome and tuner together in one well as to start the practice clock so that they can also send a
powerful device, but students still have to be smart with these record of their accumulated practice time (students can upload
technologies, recognising their usefulness but not relying on their practice time manually, too). The teacher can then comment
them. While new apps are being developed all the time, teachers on the uploaded file, and ‘like’ it or add a sticker. The students
are also finding fresh ways to use well-established online resources. receive awards according to practice time and consistency, and
And they are thinking outside the box and investigating this motivation has both a community and a competitive aspect,
technology not even designed for music instruction, such as says Johnsgaard. ‘Students can look to see who’s practised the
sports coaching apps that help analyse biomechanical issues. most. This has been a great incentive in my experience, especially
One area that has seen strong technological development is with young boys.’
SIMON JONES

practice tracking, and software that enables interaction between Although some teachers and parents might be uneasy about
students and teachers between lessons. Many teachers (and the idea of young children competing with each other,
parents) would like students to practise more – or if not more, Johnsgaard says she has not had any negative feedback and
www.thestrad.com JANUARY 2019 THE STRAD 49
 CLASSROOM TECHNOLOGY

‘SOCIAL MEDIA CAN PROVIDE

A SENSE OF CAMARADERIE IN
A TEACHING STUDIO, HELPING
STUDENTS FEEL THAT THEY’RE
NOT PRACTISING ALONE’ –
JENNIFER MISHRA, VIOLINIST/
VIOLIST AND PROFESSOR
Emily Grace Cowen, a student of Jennifer
Mishra at the University of Missouri–St
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teachers using the app don’t have to create awards if they feel the upload practice videos and recital programme notes to shared
competitive aspect doesn’t fit with their approach. But friendly Dropbox folders, and will sometimes text Walvoord from their
peer pressure can be a powerful motivator, agrees Jennifer Mishra, practice room with a technical question accompanied by a video
violinist, violist and associate professor of music education at the clip or photo. ‘While in my office, between lessons, I can often
University of Missouri–St Louis. ‘A sense of social responsibility quickly take a moment to view the message and respond,’ says
to their peers can get students into the practice room more often. Walvoord, ‘and the student hasn’t even left the practice room.’
If you practise every day and post your time, and everybody’s Using video and audio recording in the practice room can also
doing that, then nobody wants to take a day off.’ encourage students to self-diagnose problems, says violinist
For Mishra, who co-authored iPractice (Oxford University Jonathan Swartz, who teaches at the Herberger Institute for
Press, 2018), a new book about using 21st-century technology in Design and the Arts at Arizona State University. ‘While a mirror
the practice room, peer support can be about much more than can be good to see things in the moment, a recording is even
just sharing practice times. ‘Social media can provide a sense of better, giving students some distance to evaluate more things that
camaraderie in a teaching studio, helping students feel that might be going on,’ he explains. ‘Video work in the practice room
they’re not practising alone,’ she says. ‘Sharing with the student allows students to share specific issues with the teacher between
community can also take the form of crowdsourcing answers to lessons, but I find that the need for this extra help is mitigated by
problems, such as asking your peers or more advanced students the video enabling the student to be their own teacher first, and
about specific fingerings or bowings.’ that students find ways to be self-sufficient until the next lesson.’
Practice tracking and video are brought together in a powerful

A
t the University of Texas at Arlington, associate professor way by the educational platform Collabra (wordpress.
of violin Martha Walvoord is also keen for her students to collabramusic.com). Unlike other resources, where video
track their practice time. She asks them to create two-
week practice plans, and then keep a log of their actual practice.
‘The plans are usually great, but the students rarely meet their
own expectations,’ she says. ‘It’s instructive for us to get together
and compare the two calendars, and I’m starting to do this
electronically using Google Docs.’ Walvoord says the tracking
makes students account for what happens throughout their
practice session, as she also asks them to record when they take
a break, and whether during that break they are checking
Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. ‘I struggled with the idea of
students not being able to disengage from social media,’ she
admits. ‘But I’ve had them buy into the idea of keeping their
phones in aeroplane mode in the practice room, which makes a
big difference.’
Walvoord also creates five- or ten-minute video assignments
JENNIFER MISHRA

on specific concepts such as shifting or extended techniques and Collabra allows teachers to monitor
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asks her students to watch the videos until they feel they can
CREDIT

understand and demonstrate the technique. The students can

50 THE STRAD JANUARY 2019 www.thestrad.com
CLASSROOM TECHNOLOGY

uploads are often time-limited, Collabra allows students to record Video is also transforming traditional technology such as
their entire practice sessions straight on to the cloud, and teachers play-along recordings. These have in themselves come a long way
can drop in on their students’ practising at any time to monitor from the Music Minus One recordings that first appeared in the
their progress, watching as much of the student’s practice video as 1950s. For example, Metronaut (antescofo.com), an app
they want. Mishra has made Collabra a requirement for her string developed by a start-up offshoot of the music and science institute
methods class, and says: ‘There is a kind of Big Brother aspect to IRCAM in Paris, not only lets students set the tempo of the
it, but it enables me to give midweek feedback to the students, piano, chamber or orchestral accompaniment, but also can adapt
and I can build that into my teaching. Both teacher and student the accompaniment tempo to the student’s interpretation in real
can make time-stamped comments on the practice video, so I get time. And now there are apps and web-based platforms such as
my students to watch their videos back and comment at the point PartPlay (partplay.co.uk) that add video to the equation.
where they think they did their best staccato – or whatever was Developed in the UK by professional violinists Steve Bingham
the focus of their practice that week. I can then write a comment and Philip Aird, PartPlay lets students sit in on specially recorded
too, perhaps directing them to a different point where I think performances by groups such as the Coull and Maggini quartets.
they did their best staccato.’ Students can observe the interactions between the players, and
play along by muting any instrument or combinations of

V
ideo is at the heart of many study opportunities, including instruments, adjusting the tempo down if necessary and looping
distance learning through online lessons directly with passages for in-depth study.
teachers, but also video tutorials. Both options are offered Just as online lessons may not be as ideal as having the teacher
by websites such as Play with a Pro (playwithapro.com) and in the room with the student, so accompaniment resources like
violin pedagogue Kurt Sassmannshaus’s Violin Masterclass Live PartPlay may not match the experience of learning to play with
(violinmasterclass.com). Students may already have an excellent live collaborative partners. But Simon Jones, head of string
teacher locally but not be able to attend masterclasses by world- performance and historical performance at the Royal Welsh
class players, in which case online masterclasses, such as those by College of Music and Drama, says there are clear logistical and
Miriam Fried, György Pauk, Hagai Shaham and others at artistic benefits to such technology. ‘The way I’ve developed
iClassical Academy (iclassical-foundation.com), might be a chamber music teaching at the college has been, as much as
useful alternative. ArtistWorks (artistworks.com) takes another possible, to get professional players to come in and not just
approach to the online tutorial format, in that alongside offering mentor but also play with the students, which in my experience
libraries of pre-recorded video lessons it enables students to gives the biggest rate of improvement. Financially and logistically
submit videos to the teacher and receive a video response. These this can be difficult, but PartPlay allows us exactly the same
video exchanges are then made available to other students, so that opportunity, in that we can effectively place the students within
teaching points can be shared. an established quartet, and they learn a lot from the experience.’
Aird points to the ensemble skills that students learn from
watching the micro-interactions between players, and adds:
‘Parents who are monitoring and supporting practice can pick up
basic mistakes in a student’s technique, such as a collapsed wrist.
‘ALL THE THINGS THE STUDENTS The benefit of video means that they can see how things should
HAVE BEEN TOLD FOR YEARS, look as well as hear how they should sound.’

SUCH AS THE NEED FOR BOWING

T
he mother lode of video resources that is YouTube can be
CLOSER TO THE BRIDGE AND SO endlessly useful for researching different recordings and
playing styles and accessing demonstrations of specific
ON, BEGIN TO MAKE INSTINCTIVE techniques. But Mishra suggests that teachers have not always
SENSE’ – MIRANDA WILSON, used YouTube in a pedagogical way: ‘There are all sorts of
possibilities: viewing reference and historical recordings; watching
AUTHOR AND PROFESSOR students of different levels playing the same piece and seeing what

Metronaut can adapt

its accompaniment
tracks to the student’s
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52 THE STRAD JANUARY 2019 www.thestrad.com

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as recommended by her teacher Miranda Wilson Presto app with her student

‘THE NEED FOR EXTRA HELP FROM THE TEACHER IS MITIGATED

BY THE VIDEO ENABLING THE STUDENT TO BE THEIR OWN
TEACHER FIRST’ – JONATHAN SWARTZ, VIOLINIST AND TEACHER

difficulties they’re having; and sending students off to find twelve the difference between a weak, non-resonant tone and a sound
recordings of The Four Seasons to compare and contrast. It’s just that will project well. Once they understand this, all the things
our imagination that’s stopping us.’ they’ve been told for years, such as the need for bowing closer to
As with many technologies, YouTube needs to be used the bridge and so on, begin to make instinctive sense, because the
effectively by students – with an open but critical mindset. students will intuitively adjust things to get the results they want
Swartz says: ‘The access to various recordings can stimulate ideas from TonalEnergy.’
and creativity – or it could lead to imitating mindlessly and not For all the many other apps and technologies available, from
developing strong musical understanding.’ He offers similar chordal playback software for jazz to apps for reading and
caveats for other technologies now easily accessible on marking up music on a tablet, there are still gaps that string
smartphones: ‘A metronome can be helpful in diagnosing rhythm teachers are creatively filling by looking beyond the music field.
issues, and can be used tactically to develop new strengths, but if Thus sports coaching apps – such as Hudl (hudl.com) and
it’s used as a crutch – to count or keep steady in place of the Coach’s Eye (coachseye.com), which offer video analysis of
student’s responsibility to use and develop an internal sense of tennis, golf or baseball swings and allow a coach to draw on the
rhythm – it could do more harm than good.’ Likewise, the screen over the video to help the athlete understand how the
tuner: ‘Setting a tuner to a low-note drone can be very helpful movement could be improved – are being used by teachers to
in developing a good ear and good intonation, but it’s help students with biomechanical issues.
counterproductive to try to tune every note with the specific As useful and popular as some apps undoubtedly are,
note on the tuner, or for a string player to try to play like a piano developers sometimes simply stop supporting them. New ones
with tempered tuning.’ are still often device-specific or require workarounds for certain
LEFT PHOTO MARLEY BALL. RIGHT PHOTO PRACTICE PRESTO

Today’s tuner and metronome apps can, however, be both operating systems. The professional versions with the best
powerful and versatile. Miranda Wilson, author of Cello Practice, features aren’t free, and on top of subscriptions to other online
Cello Performance (Rowman & Littlefield, 2015) and associate platforms and services the costs involved can counteract the ease
professor of cello, bass and theory at the Lionel Hampton School of access. And then there are always the issues of security and
of Music, University of Idaho, uses the frequency analysis feature data sharing to be aware of. But this should not scare off
of the TonalEnergy tuner and metronome app (tonalenergy.com) teachers or students who may be wary of, ambivalent towards,
to teach students to measure whether they are playing with a or just new to some of this technology. As this article shows,
good sound. She explains: ‘Frequency analysis gives them a visual there are many benefits to embracing video and other
method for measuring and understanding what it means to technologies in teaching, and the computer, tablet and
produce the fundamental and overtones. They will often especially the smartphone can be powerful tools for students
understand a visual cue more quickly than they can learn to hear when used effectively and efficiently.
www.thestrad.com JANUARY 2019 THE STRAD 53
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