In recent years, we have seen a growing emphasis on the use of academic standards to improve teaching and learning. At the forefront of that movement in the area of music has been the National Association for Music Educators (also known as MENC, an acronym for their earlier name, the Music Educators National Conference). In 1994, the MENC released a set of nine national standards that identify valuable activities for the music classroom and describe levels of proficiency for each grade.

In 1998, the Technology Institute for Music Educators (TI:ME) identified six areas of music technology that help music teachers achieve the MENC national standards. This two-part article will examine MENC's standards as they are achieved through TI:ME's six areas of music technology. This part will discuss notation, sequencing, and electronic instruments; part 2 will cover instructional software, the Internet, and multimedia. Many of the examples are provided as Standard MIDI Files in the Web Examples section of the MET Web site (www.metmagazine.com).

The first area of music technology identified by TI:ME is that of music notation.

Notation programs typically contain several methods for permitting quick note entry into the computer, including scanning and playing them in rhythm. Notation software also contains powerful editing tools that allow you to rescore compositions in different meters, transpose them, arrange them for different instruments, and automatically generate parts and scores.

Because the major function of notation software is to put musical ideas into a written format, any class activity that uses notation software addresses the MENC standards for composing, arranging, reading, and notating music. With some creativity, teachers can use notation software to address all of the national standards. (For some creative ideas on using notation software, see “Eleven Innovative Uses for Notation Software” in the Winter 2003 issue of MET. The text is also available in MET's Web archives.)

The second area of music technology is sequencing. Traditionally, sequencing means recording MIDI data. (Roughly defined, MIDI incorporates a set of performance instructions to which compatible software and electronic devices can respond by producing musical notes, changing sounds, adjusting volume, and so on. In recent years, however, digital audio sequencers have evolved. These more advanced programs can record and edit digital audio as well as MIDI.

Sequencing software also typically includes note entry and editing tools. Furthermore, the features of most advanced sequencers can be expanded using software plug-ins, add-on pieces of software that provide additional functions such as synthesis, EQ, and effects processing. Like notation software, sequencing can be used to address all of the national standards.

The third area of music technology is electronic musical instruments, which includes synthesizers and samplers. Note that, strictly speaking, a synthesizer does not necessarily have a performance controller such as a keyboard; it can be a sound module or even a piece of software, and can be controlled by a sequencer, a notation program, or a keyboard or other controller.

For our purposes, however, we are talking mostly about synthesizers with built-in musical instrument controllers, of which the most common is a musical keyboard. Many other instrument controllers are also available, including guitars, violins, wind instruments, and voice (through a pitch-to-MIDI converter). It is the combination of electronic instruments with computers and notation and sequencing software that makes many instructional activities possible.

The first two national standards state that students will sing and perform on instruments alone and with others. One way to use notation software to accomplish these goals is to have students sing and play with accompaniments that are performed by the computer.

The student or teacher can record vocal and instrumental performances into a digital audio track of a modern sequencing program for study and analysis. This helps identify problems with tone, diction, or articulation. Most sequencing programs can record digital audio on a grid showing the beats and measures, which means that students can check their performance for aligned and misaligned rhythms. Some digital audio programs have a pitch-correction feature or plug-in, and pitch-correction plug-ins can also be purchased separately. Using pitch correction, the student can listen to and compare the original and the corrected performances, sometimes simultaneously.

Numerous original and public-domain musical accompaniments are available on the Internet. Most are in Standard MIDI File format and can be easily imported into notation and sequencing programs and played by any computer and synthesizer (software or hardware, including a synthesizer-equipped sound card). Most modern browsers can also play MIDI files.

One well-known source of MIDI files is www.classicalarchives.com. Many of the art songs of Schubert and instrumental concerti by Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven and others are found there. (For more on similar sites, see MET's “Web Sightings” column, p. 38.) Popular songs and copyrighted materials are available at other sites, but musicians should use only those which can be obtained legally.

Of course, not all MIDI files on the Internet are of good quality. Diligent searching will frequently reveal excellent musical materials, but it's important to apply a discriminating ear. A stiff, mechanical feel is the most frequent problem. Even those files are useful, however, when the goals for the student are the development of a sense of steadiness in beat and a feel for meter.

Almost all notation programs can record and notate a “live” MIDI performance. Depending on the software, the student can play along with an accompaniment or a metronome, or both. Early entrances and releases are notated so that it is easy for the student to see their mistakes (see Fig. 1). It may take some experimentation with the program's transcription settings to get the computer to illustrate the music as desired. But for students who need a visual aid or proof of their errors, it is worth the effort.

Some notation programs have built-in pitch-to-MIDI conversion that allows students to sing or to play an instrument into a microphone while the computer notates the performance. If your program does not offer this feature, you can use third-party hardware or software pitch-to-MIDI converters.

If a student is playing into a microphone, a quiet environment is required, and he or she will need to hear the accompaniment or metronome through headphones. Because individual staves can be set to the transposition of any given instrument, you can make the notation appear in the appropriate key for the instrument (see Fig. 2).

Standards 1 and 2 may also be met by the performance of electronic instruments. Because MIDI instruments have such a wide palette of sounds (at least 128 General MIDI sounds and one drum kit), they work well with ensemble and solo performances.

The third and fourth standards cover improvising, arranging, and composing. The fifth requires that students notate music. Notation and sequencing programs provide opportunities for these activities in the classroom in a way that wouldn't be possible through traditional techniques.

Because the computer can transcribe performances, students can see their work expressed in notation as they practice. This is an aid to remembering the patterns that were successful. If an improvisation is particularly good, save it.

Sequencing software is also an excellent vehicle for practicing improvisation. Because sequenced songs are organized into tracks, the teacher can easily create music-minus-one activities by placing an accompaniment in one track and multiple prepared improvisations in additional tracks. Students can select and listen to any track or combinations of tracks, record their performances in additional tracks, and compare their performances to one another and to the prepared tracks. When you become proficient with sequencing software, you can also prepare multitrack accompaniments and mute just the part that each student will play, creating a more versatile music-minus-one sequence. (For more on using sequencers, see “Sequence-stration” in the Fall 2003 issue of MET.)

The percussive sounds of most electronic instruments are also useful in learning to improvise. Young students enjoy improvising freely with rhythms because they can accomplish a quality performance without having to think about pitch.

With younger students, you can use notation and sequencing software to create building-block compositions. In these activities, students take preexisting melodic and harmonic fragments and assemble them into customized compositions. Because students can instantly hear their pieces, they have the opportunity to make compositional decisions at an accelerated pace.

A related activity that lays the foundation for musical thinking and composition is the reconstructive arrangement of music. Fig. 3 shows an example of one such precomposition activity. Depending on the software, students can usually drag and drop the measures into the correct location.

With notation and sequencing software, it is possible to compose into an empty score. This activity requires that the students have enough musical maturity to work on their own and possess sufficient technical experience to operate the hardware and software. Students may need some preparation on different types of note entry.

With notation software, point-and-click entry with the mouse is particularly useful for young students. (This technique can be effective for advanced composers, too). Students with more experience and an attached MIDI instrument can also use step entry (playing notes of a specified value one at a time) and real-time entry (playing in rhythm as a live performance).

With sequencing software, you also have the option of step entry, but students will usually enter notes in real time, either with a MIDI instrument or by recording audio with a microphone. With electronic instruments and MIDI, students can check to see how a line would sound with different timbres by playing the part back with various combinations of sounds.

The built-in error-checking routines in notation programs can aid students in composing better music. If the proper options are selected, students are restricted to entering the correct number of beats in a measure; they can check their work for common errors such as parallel fifths and octaves and can discover range errors in the various instruments.

The fifth standard requires that students read and notate music. Because most notation software can scroll the music as it plays, creative teachers can invent lessons emphasizing performance and sight-reading skills. Sequencing- and notation software can both record student performances. Because all notation programs and most sequencing programs have a Notation view, students are able to compare their performances with the original score.

The sixth and seventh standards require students to listen to, analyze, describe, and evaluate music. One listening task might be, for example, to determine the form of a piece of music. Fig. 4 shows a short rondo. The reappearance of the A section is clear to the ear, but students may confirm their ability to identify the A section by indicating where it occurs. The sections are marked in the music in our example, but the marks can be removed and students can be asked to replace them as a class exercise.

As noted earlier, you can find numerous MIDI files on the Internet. These MIDI files lend themselves to evaluation. If students are given a score (physical or electronic), they can check the playback of a song against the written version. Commercial files are generally true to the score, but be aware that some MIDI files available on the Web contain pitch and rhythm errors, omitted sections, incorrect repeats, or poorly balanced parts.

The eighth standard asks the teacher to demonstrate the relationships between music and other arts and disciplines. A quick and easy lesson correlating math and musical skills is found in Fig. 5.

Music and math are also similar on higher levels. Listening to music, whether played through a notation program or live performance, requires the mind to operate conceptually in a manner that resembles mathematical logic. Repetition and contrast is a significant interest-building device used by virtually all composers. The recognition of a recurring theme is similar to the mathematician's recognition of a concept in a new context.

Music also has connections to many other disciplines. Many music-notation programs have the ability to place photographs and images within a score, so you can create documents that show music and an associated historical, architectural, or other image. The student could label the appropriate formal structures on both the graphic and the notation by using the text tool.

The ninth standard asks that the teacher demonstrate the relationships between music and history and culture. Studying the music of people from around the world leads to a greater understanding of their culture and society. Fig. 6 is a notation file of the national anthem of Japan. In this example, both the lyrics and the pentatonic melody are revealing. The music of many different cultures is available on the Web. One source of Asian MIDI files is www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Island/9496/Chinese.html.

Children can also learn about history from the music of the people. In the activity in Fig. 7, students are asked to identify which piece most resembles each of the picture frames from the various time periods.

Although notation and sequencing software and electronic instruments were designed primarily to notate, record, and perform music, they also have educational applications. With these tools, students can create and listen to complex arrangements and compositions and learn about the inner workings of music. Creative teachers will be successful as they identify efficient means of accomplishing tasks so that students do not become overburdened with the complexity of the software.

Floyd Richmond, a member of the music faculty at Valley Forge Christian College in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, is a frequent presenter and writer in the field of music technology. This article is an excerpt from his upcoming book.

The National Association for Music Educators (MENC) has defined nine national standards, all of which can be accomplished with the aid of music technology. They are:

1. Singing a varied repertoire of music — alone and with others.
2. Performing a varied repertoire on instruments — alone and with others.
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 musical performances.
8. Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts.
9. Understanding music in relation to history and culture.