More on MIDI

When reading the article "Using MIDI Accompaniments for Music Learning at School and at Home", I was reminded of what a great resource MENC is. By putting out magazines like the Music Educator's Journal, there is a place for teachers to share their ideas, and thus for other educators to learn from that and pass it along to their students. In the middle of this article, there was an entire laid out lesson plan. It was something that you could literally borrow, and take straight to your own classroom, which is truly a great resource. This article gave me another idea that would be good to implement in my own classroom. I know that in my high school, there was a class website, but it was never used. Of course it was the one sponsored and attached to the high school itself, but the music page never changed. Maintaing a webpage for your music class can end up being a great resource for your students can help their learning. Through the website you can post links to videos or recordings of the pieces you are going to play. You can also upload MIDI files of play along tracks so that your students can get used to hearing the other parts of the orchestra while they are playing. MIDI has become such a universal thing, that it would work on most computers, and would be easy for your kids to get a hold of. you could even record a performance in class, and put it up later, and use it as a way to improve performance; have your students tell you what needs to be worked on. And also from the "Picture This" article, the idea of having students identify waveforms is pretty interesting. You could input a MIDI file into something like Garageband, and easily see where main playing parts are loud. It could also help identify issues in dynamics. Overall, MIDI is a tool that can go a long way.