4 Tips for Moving Your Performance Ensemble Online

by Michelle Rose, TheMusicalRose.com

With the sudden rise of school closings, many school districts are asking teachers to transition to online teaching. Do not fear, your resident virtual music teacher is here! I currently teach middle and high school music online full time through a K-12 virtual school. In addition to teaching general music, I direct the virtual choir and virtual band/orchestra. I am also the director of the IMES Virtual Honor Band.

My main tools for directing my performance ensembles are Zoom and SmartMusic. Zoom is a web conferencing app that has a free option for meetings up for 40 minutes and 100 participants. SmartMusic is a practice tool for instrumentalists and vocalists. SmartMusic is offering free accounts to those affected by schools closing through the end of June 2020.

Before Anything Else: Determine Who Will Have Access

I am lucky enough to know that all students have access to a computer, printer, and internet(my virtual school helps provide for students with demonstrated need). Even if you teach at a one-to-one school, don’t assume that all kids will have access to the internet. If possible, take a private survey so you can get a better idea of what your students will be able to do at home. If students only have access to a phone, they would still be able to call into Zoom. 

1. Create Step by Step Instructions

If you plan to do anything online, you need to create step by step instructions like you are explaining technology to your not so tech savvy grandparents. It is best if you can provide written instructions AND a screencast of you walking through those instructions. For Screencasting, I use QuickTime(on Mac only), Zoom, or Screencast-O-Matic. I know it seems like overkill but I promise, this will save you a lot of time answering emails later on.

If you’re planning to use SmartMusic, check out their Youtube channel for some helpful videos to get you started.

2. Give Students Warm Up Videos

If I had to choose one thing students aren’t as likely to do on their own, it’s a full warm up before diving into practicing their music. If you have regular warm ups, record a video of you conducting and saying the phrases you typically say before, during, or after warm ups. This extra guidance can be helpful for students who may not feel motivated to warm up on their own.

You can also upload your warmups right into SmartMusic. Instead of assigning a warm up every day, I like to create one warm up they can use for the entire semester. I set it to be “due” on the last day of the semester and put in the title/directions DO NOT SUBMIT - FOR PRACTICE ONLY. Students can still get a “full ensemble” feeling by practicing with the accompaniment on.

As I tell my students, it’s important that we all make sure we’re getting our daily dose of musical broccoli(breathing exercises, long tones, you know…).

3. Assign Small Chunks

Don’t try to get students to practice an entire piece of music every day. I learned this the hard way. Assigning an entire piece can overwhelm students and might make them less likely to submit. Pick small chunks of music for students to work on. The more exact you can be, the easier it will be for students to practice on their own. One other great feature from SmartMusic is that you can customize assignments for each part. If you’re playing a piece of music that is already in SmartMusic, some of them come with these customized pre-defined assignments built right in!

4. Listen to Your Full Ensemble

If you are going to be out for longer than 2 weeks, you might want to hear how your ensemble sounds together. For my virtual ensembles, I try to put together a full ensemble recording about every 2 weeks by combining individual student parts.

First, I assign part of a piece in SmartMusic(if you want to hear the entire piece together, I still suggest breaking it down into at least 3 chunks). It is important when you are setting up the assignment to check the “allow metronome” and then set the tempo to EXACTLY” so that all students are playing at the same tempo

Before students press “submit” on their SmartMusic Assignment, ask them to press “save.” This will download their current take. I have them label their file with their last name and part. Then they upload their part to a Google Drive folder.

I put all of their parts together in Garageband. If you don’t have access to Garageband, Audacity is another great, free resource you can use to combine parts. Once I have combined all of the parts, I send the final piece out to students and we discuss how we can improve. This also helps me to give students more specific instruction in what they need to practice.

This process can be a little time consuming so if you are only out for a short time, it might not be worth doing. But if you’ve been out a while and want to hear how the full ensemble sounds, this is a great way to do that without having students in the same physical space!

You’ve Got This!

Transitioning online can be a little bit overwhelming at first. But with a little creativity, students can still thrive in online environments!

If you have questions, you can reach out to me at any time. Connect with me on Instagram @the_musical_rose, on my website themusicalrose.com, or through email michelle@themusicalrose.com