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Greg Dellera
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Hello,

 

We're happy to share with you the demo version of SmartMusic’s Sight Reading Builder.

https://srbuilder.smartmusic.com/

 

This powerful tool allows teachers to easily build and customize sight reading exercises.

 

In a few weeks:

  • the full version of this tool will be available in SmartMusic for all Full Access educators ($40 / year), allowing them to send assignments based on the Sight Reading templates they create.
  • Students will get a brand new exercise each time they load or retry the assignment.
  • They’ll also receive the red and green note assessmenton their performance from SmartMusic.

 

Until then:

  • You can try the tool for free and provide any feedback on this forum: we’re very eager to hear from you and fine-tune this new tool!
  • If you’re already a SmartMusic user, you can save your templates in the File > Save menu. You’ll be able to re-import them into SmartMusic as soon as we release the full version.
  • If you’re not yet a SmartMusic user, you can learn more here: https://www.smartmusic.com/sight-reading/

Thanks for your feedback and see you soon on SmartMusic!

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12 comments

  • Avatar
    britt.forman
    0

    I LOVE this idea! It's great to be able to regenerate music with the same parameters. 

     

    It would be awesome if I was able to select the instruments I want displayed inside the "ensemble" selection tool. I have bassoons in my beginning band but I don't need the full symphonic layout. 

     

    It would also helpful to make these available to read in class. i.e. Push play and have the metronome count off so the ensemble band can follow along. I love it as an assessment tool but we sight read A LOT in class.

     

     

  • Avatar
    Jsitarz
    0

    I am a middle school choir teacher with around 228 singers.  I have never been a SmartMusic user, but have looked into it to see if it would assist in shortening the length of time it takes me to complete sight-singing assessments.  With 8 sections of choir, it currently takes me two class periods per section to complete an assessment that recurs every quarter.  After exploring SmartMusic, I found that it does not currently meet my teaching needs.  I was intrigued about this new product.  I found that the sight-singing examples generated when I tried the Sight Reading Builder are not inherently musical in nature (mostly due to pitch), and would be too difficult for my singers who have a pretty decent background in sight-singing.  The melodies start and end on random scale degrees that do not seem to make musical sense.  In an ideal world, it would be great for middle school (or any level) singers to be able to sight-read a melody starting and ending on any scale degree, but there needs to be some scaffolding in which students practice the kinds of tonal melodies they have heard and have sung in pieces already.  I could not find an option to customize the *musicality* of the melodies so that it sounds like something they might actually encounter in a song.  The other options for customization were great - more than I would need to use.  

  • Avatar
    Anthony Goss
    0

    It would be nice to be able to specify the starting and ending pitches of the exercises.  It would also be helpful for singers if specific tonal patterns were isolated (do-mi-sol, fa-re-la, re-ti-do, etc.)

  • Avatar
    Andrew Bennett
    0

    Thank you for your work on this interesting new feature. For me a must have feature would be a way to set it to state specific sight-reading requirements. For example we use a program from SightReadingFactory that does this but lets us create examples based on NYSSMA sight-reading requirements.

     

  • Avatar
    Joseph Gutowski
    0

    I like this idea. I think a great way to make this even more useful is to take pieces you already have and make it so you can easily create sight-reading examples along the same level.

    For instance, taking a piece such a Richard Meyer's Dragonhunter and using the same general parameters that the piece has (rhythms, pitches, etc.) to create sight-reading exercises.

  • Avatar
    Skip Spratt
    0

    I am thrilled to see this addition to SmartMusic! Can't wait to try it and add more feedback...

  • Avatar
    Taylord
    0

    I have two cursory observations.

     

    1.) When I select either beginning band or symphonic band, I don't see an instrument for just snare drum. Further, the percussion instruments don't appear to have very realistic scoring (see screenshot below for example). It would be very helpful to be able to have snare drum as an optional instrument in these ensemble choices.

     

    2.) Again, for percussionists, I would like to be able to add diddles to individual 8th/16th notes. It's great to have the usual 5/9/etc.-stroke options available, but it would also be nice to be able to add those individual diddles.

    Thank you.

  • Avatar
    Pschultz
    0

    Will this be available for those of us that use Classic Smartmusic?

  • Avatar
    Jon Cielinski
    0

    Hi Pschultz. The Sight Reading Builder tool is currently planned exclusively for the new version of SmartMusic. 

  • Avatar
    Greg Dellera
    0

    @Britt Foreman: thanks for your feedback. 

    The official release of Sight Reading builder around mid-October will include the ability to define custom ensemble.

    A metronome will be added too, as well as count-off.

     

    Best, 

    Greg

  • Avatar
    Greg Dellera
    0

    @Jsitarz @Anthonygoss: The official release of Sight Reading builder around mid-October will include the ability to define starting and ending degrees.

    Stay tuned!

    Greg

  • Avatar
    Jsitarz
    0

    Greg, it looks like you've made some great adjustments.  Thanks for responding to our feedback!

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