SmartMusic: A Smart Tool for Music Education 1

SmartMusic: A Smart Tool for Music Education

Kristen Collins
University of Maryland University College

EDTC 605
Professor Joseph Wieczorek
March 15, 2015
SmartMusic: A Smart Tool for Music Education 2

SmartMusic is a computer program designed by MakeMusic, Inc. This company touts

SmartMusic as an "interactive tool" that "transforms the way students practice and learn"

(“SmartMusic”). The program allows students to read music on a computer screen or projection,

and play the music with a professional accompaniment, metronome click, or piano that plays

only the students chosen part. The students have the ability to slow down and speed up the music

without damaging the pitch of the music. In addition, after a student has played a selection with a

microphone attached, "SmartMusic gives them immediate feedback on their performance by

showing correct pitches and rhythms in green and incorrect in red" (“SmartMusic”).

From an educator’s perspective, SmartMusic allows educators to create assignments for

students to complete. Educators (or teachers?) can choose clips of existing music and exercises,

or create their own. This allows teachers to assess and document students’ individual

performances more frequently, and "individualized instruction and evidence of student

achievement all become a reality" (“SmartMusic”). Recently, SmartMusic was awarded the Best

Student Reward Incentive title for 2015 by the National Association for Music Merchants (“2015

Best Tools”).

Currently, SmartMusic holds over 30,000 pieces of music, method books, and exercises

such as scales, rhythms, and sight-reading (“SmartMusic”). To access the program, which

requires internet connectivity to the database, the program has a yearly subscription fee of

$40 per computer to access their program for students and $140 for educators. Subscription fees

of $44 are also available for in-school practice-room subscriptions that will allow any student

account to use the program. 

SmartMusic: A Smart Tool for Music Education 3

SmartMusic is a groundbreaking program for the music education sector, which has had

very few technological advances. The program is very unique, as no other program presents the

same capability to be used in a music education setting at such a small cost. This program allows

for assistance to students without direct teacher instruction for help outside of the classroom, as

well as developing a data-driven portfolio of student work to assist music educators in creating

lessons to enhance the needs of their individual students. With this program, individualized

instruction in an ensemble music classroom is more easily attainable.

A study performed by McKown and Cavitt (2008) analyzed the benefits of SmartMusic

in the areas of accuracy of the program, students' ability to self-evaluate their performances and

whether or not use of the program could have a positive effect on musical achievement. (p. 5).

The study included students grade seventh through ninth over a period of six weeks. When

assessing the ability of SmartMusic to accurately grade a student’s performance of rhythms and

notes, "two band directors separately review a randomly selected sample of student recordings,”

(McKown & Cavitt 2008, p. 9). “The findings were positive,” the reliability found by both band

directors had a correlation at or above, "r=.8136, p<.0001” (McKown & Cavitt 2008, p. 9). It is

important to note that in both reviews, errors were found by the computer or director or vice

versa, without both agreeing. However, more often than not, the SmartMusic program found

more errors than the band directors, and was less forgiving of multiple mistakes. Even with these

inconsistencies, it is important to note the high accuracy of the music program. In addition,

teachers listening to a performance of a selection either live or by recording are likely to forgive

errors, such as slowing down, counting strings of errors as a single error, or give a student a

grade based on effort or previous understanding of a student’s capabilities. A computer is able to

SmartMusic: A Smart Tool for Music Education 4

remove these obstructions to qualitative grading. A downside of the computer grading system,

however, is SmartMusic is unable at this time to measure and apply grading scales to articulation

and dynamics. The band directors in the study were told to "ignore musicality factors (phrasing,

dynamics) when scoring the exercise, in order to keep measurements equal to that of the CAF

program" (McKown & Cavitt, 2008 p. 9).

When comparing the pre-test and post-test using the same musical excerpt, all students

improved in musicality. "Reliability of the CAF (SmartMusic) and overall gains in musical

achievement during the study were significant" (McKown & Cavitt 2008, p. 14). Since all groups

used SmartMusic, it is unclear how much of an impact SmartMusic had on the students' musical

ability in this study. Nevertheless, it is clear that SmartMusic is able to measure student

improvement over time, and is useful as an assessment tool for educators. When McKown and

Cavitt (2008) discussed the ability to self-evaluate, the study agrees with previous studies,

“which show that junior high musicians are unable to accurately assess their own performance"

(p. 15). The study concluded that "students may need more opportunities to evaluate themselves"

and "having the opportunity to evaluate and then compare the evaluation for validation seemed

to be helpful in alleviating their self-consciousness with the task as well as improving self-

evaluation skills" (McKown & Cavitt, 2008 p. 15). This study would have been more helpful

with a larger student population, as well as a control group to assess the benefits of using

SmartMusic on musical achievements. Unfortunately, the study did not have the availability of a

control group, and states "no control group was used during this study so that all students

involved might receive instruction" (McKown & Cavitt, 2008 p. 7).

SmartMusic: A Smart Tool for Music Education 5

A second study by Nichols, B. D. (2014) addressed the following questions, "1) What

effect does SmartMusic have on students to increase their instrument practice time as indicated

in practice records and SmartMusic records? 2) How do students describe their reactions and

motivations toward the use of SmartMusic?” (p. 2). 38 band students in seventh and eighth grade

participated in this control group design study (Nichols 2014). The first group was provided a

home subscription to SmartMusic, while the second group was asked to not use SmartMusic

outside of the classroom. "The results of an Independent Samples t-test comparing the mean

scores of the SM and CC groups would seem to indicate students in the SM group practiced

significantly more than the CC group" (Nichols, 2014 p. 26). The students reported more time

spent practicing on the paper chart than the SmartMusic practice chart, yet this can be accounted

for the time the students were practicing without the program running an accompaniment. As

earlier stated, young students often have a difficulty self-assessing. A connection may be made to

past research, which finds that students believe practicing to be boring and are unmotivated to

practice without teacher guidance (Lee, 2007). With the use of SmartMusic, students are able to

receive the direct feedback they need to make practicing a productive use of time.

Significantly, Gurley (2008) studied student reactions to the usefulness of SmartMusic.

Student buy-in is important to the application of any new technology. It can only be successful if

students are willing to work with the program. After studying three groups, sixth grade, seventh

and eight grade, and high school band students, the study found that all three groups strongly

agreed that SmartMusic helped them "self-assess and modify their performance" (Gurley, 2008

p. 36). Frustrations that appeared within the student body seem to correlate with the idea that

students need "proper training and experience" to ensure they can use the technology to its fullest
SmartMusic: A Smart Tool for Music Education 6

potential. (Gurley 2008, p. 36). Once students feel comfortable with the program, the use of the

program as a practice tool will help students develop more accurate self-assessment skills, and in

turn help students practice more efficiently. More efficient practice will lead to greater

advancement in musical performance in general.

SmartMusic research verifies the benefits of the program are worth the cost of

implementation. Portfolio driven data that is collected by the SmartMusic program can greatly

assist educators to enact individualized instruction in a class where group performance is the

norm. Through this individualized instruction, students will develop practice and self-assessment

skills that will further develop their performance skills outside of the classroom. SmartMusic is

the next step for Music Education in our schools.

SmartMusic: A Smart Tool for Music Education 7

References

2015 Best Tools for Schools Awards. (n.d.). Retrieved June 15, 2015, from

https://www.namm.org/nammu/2015-best-tools-schools-awards

Gurley, R. (2012). Student Perception of the Effectiveness of SmartMusic as a practice and

assessment tool on Middle School and High School Band Students (Unpublished

doctoral dissertation). Texas Tech University. Retrieved June 15, 2015, from

https://repositories.tdl.org/ttu-ir/handle/2346/45246.

Lee, E. (2007). A study of the effect of computer assisted instruction, previous music experience,

and time on the performance ability of beginning instrumental music student. Available

from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Full Text. (304838947). Retrieved from

http://ezproxy.umuc.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/304838947?

accountid=14580

McKown, M. J., & Cavitt, M. E. (2008). The Effects of Computer-Augmented Feedback on Self-

Evaluation Skills of Student Musicians. Texas Music Education Research. Retrieved

June 15, 2015, from http://www.tmea.org/assets/pdf/research/McK2008.pdf

Nichols, B. D. (2014). The Effect of SmartMusic on Student Practice (Doctoral dissertation,

Kennesaw State University). Doctor of Education in Teacher Leadership Dissertations.

Retrieved June 15, 2015, from http://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/teachleaddoc_etd/1

SmartMusic – Music Education Software. (n.d.). Retrieved June 15, 2015, from

http://www.smartmusic.com/