ESE iPad: Communication and Music Ideas

If you have any questions please contact me:deborah.nelson@

palmbeachschools.org

There are a few different ways that applications can be used in the music classroom. First it may be a dedicated communication device for a student or students. In which case you are very lucky if the student uses an app likeMyTalk where you can use the iDevice to take a picture of what you are teaching, up load it, and sync it to the iDevice. The person who does the work could be the teacher, assistant, SLP, or peer teacher (student). It isn’t difficult or time consuming. One doesn’t have to be a licensed Speech and Language Pathologist to do it.

Once the image and sound is on a board the student can participate giving an answer for all to hear and possibly see depending if the iDevice is hooked to a Bluetooth system and an LCD projector.

Ideas for that participation may be:

What did we study today?

Which instrument, style, form, culture, register, volume, did you see/hear?

Which do you prefer?

Which song would you prefer to move/dance to? (that could be pictures and text to represent

songs or cues do you want a fast or slow song, blues or rock…

This will give you an idea of how applications are incorporated into my music lessons to facilitate access for students with severe disabilities:

Learn about and control cause and effect – RadSounds

Stop-go playing on cue along or with a group - almost any music app

Sequencing or form – playing the return section, word, sound, MyTalk is especially good at this, recording application for personal input,

Matching sound to an visual cue, icon, note reading, almost any music app, MyTalk

Respond to visual cue, icon, or written direction for volume, pitch, tempo… almost any music app, MyTalk

Harmony – strum or play a set pattern to a pentatonic or I chord melody or even choose instrument of preference, can set up in MyTalk and other music apps to support harmony via Garageband, GlowTunes, ThumbJam, improVox, MyTalk

Melody – play a pentatonic improvisation with or without harmony or rhythm or even choose instrument of preference almost any music app to play melody via AirVox, Bebot, Bloom, Garageband, Korg iKaossilator, m Scribble, PetTunes, PocketGuitar, Silly Pianist,ThumbJam, MyTalk

Rhythm – participate or even compose via BeatMaker, DigiDrummer, Finger Stomp, idaft, Hand Drums, Percussive, Percussions,

Select answers about style, culture, history – MyTalk

Compose – make sound/picture patterns, Silly Pianist, Songineer,

Support a story with environmental sounds and music or a sound carpet with any of the sound producing apps, Silly Pianist, Toontastic, MyTalk

Identify (visual, auditory) chorus, solo, participate via Acapella Men app, MyTalk

Demonstrate sense of ensemble via Biophilia by playing along (avantguard interactive music)

Respond to accent, phrase, key change… by interacting with Dancing Jello to create a visual change as it responds to music

Explore vocal sounds/singing via improVox, Acapella Men, Singing Fingers, Songify, Talking Tom, VocalShapes,

Performing from the app’s icon directions for melody, LeafTombone, Magic Piano, Pet Tunes

Assessment: To mimic the Florida Alternate Assessment Test (FAA) the best application to provide practice for the prompt to choose and answer from three possibilities is MyTalk. One can create a board with three visual and auditory choices. A student can look at the choices and, or for blind students, use a switch to cycle through the choices with an auditory and visual cue. Through eye gaze, touch, or another signal to the teacher, a student may make a selection. If it is correct there is immediate positive feedback. If the correct answer is not selected the screen jumps to the correct answer and the other incorrect answer. The process repeats until the correct answer is selected or left to select.

As in the suggestions for a single user, a MyTalk Board may be designed for yes or no, or any communication output one could request from a student to demonstrate learning. This may be a verbal answer, choosing a picture to represent a verbal answer, or actually demonstrating a musical concept.

I would love to have a standard bank of icons or visual representations that would be used on any future standardized text. Most of my students don’t read and reading music is even a higher level thinking skill. So I use felt shapes to represent sound. Students are learning one to one correspondence, stop, go, long, short, high, and low that way. I use color, shape, and the actual placement on the felt board to help them understand. Unless I use these exact materials and methods I doubt if any other type of testing would measure what they learned. I can then take pictures of these exact shapes and load them into MyTalk as answers to questions to demonstrate learning.

Here is a list of the applications I have use in my classroom. As I try out new ones I will update the list.

Acapella Men – example of interactive solo, chorus, you can record your own voice and virtually “sing along.” You can control the key from a few choices and between major or minor harmony. It works with Bluetooth.

AirVox – hand location gives pitch in various scales that you can choose from, as well as controlling some other sound parameters. It’s like a Theremin and works with Bluetooth.

BeatMaker – make your own beat loops, has presets and authoring capability, works with Bluetooth

Bebot – great sound – Theremin, Power PWM, Belter, Synthharp, Looper, Auto PWM, Filtered Bass, Power PWM2, Rocket clock, Argyle Socks, Fat Synth, Home Organ, Heavy Organ, Chiptune, Chiptune2, Undertone, Simplex, Vax, and Modular – Character moves to pitch change as well as O and E sound with mouth changes, works with Bluetooth

Biophilia – this app facilitates interactive music selections by Bjork. I use Lightening which is interactive picture and sound. Iit looks like sparks and lightening with pitch and tempo as one moves up, with number of pitches changing with width of finger space between two or three fingers, works with Bluetooth

Bloom – mood music and abstract picture you create by touching that does relate to pitch that loop and changes depending on the settings, works with Bluetooth

Cleartune – tuner with visual

DigiDrummer – skins and sounds of varied drum sets

Finger Stomp – garage or basketball scene settings where pictures makes sounds

GarageBand – keyboards, guitars, drums, the interface allows virtual playing even with limited vision and physical ability. One must turn on Bluetooth on iPad and also in GarageBand app, turning it off when finished

Glow Tunes – makes loops with different sounds using colored dots. It can support the following learning areas: sound/silence as in rest concept, repetition, same and different. It works with Bluetooth.

Glow Tunes Christmas – make loops with dots of Christmas tree lights, music, snow, save, works with Bluetooth

Hand Drums - great graphics that respond to touch, choices of drum sounds, choices to play solo, with a metronome, or with a loop, and possibility to record

idaft – clips of words to add to music as a beat

improVox – uses own voice, corrects pitch, and adds harmony for different styles, need microphone and headphone

JELL-O Jiggle It – Jello cube moves to music, recorded or played, select color, interacts when touched, doesn’t work with Bluetooth

Korg iKaossilator – synthesizer with sounds and visuals, changeable presets, loops, up to five layers, many different style sounds including drum with manipulative patterns

LeafTBone – doesn’t play on iPad II – plays on iPhone, a sliding melody with harmony of pre composed songs that one follows the icons to play

Magic Piano –play alone on keyboard or dots like a piano roll, duet internationally and see globe showing where partner is playing from

MeMoves – movement, music, and shapes recommended for students with Autism to relax, build focus, and brain development. Check out the research.

MyTalkTools and MyTalk Workspace – for student communication and participation. See Internet site for further information, training, and help. If you cannot get videos at work due to the firewall you may find them here: https://vodcast.palmbeachschools.org/

mScribble – sound goes with finger touch motion with color, changing pitch and volume with and without a harmony and beat, works with Bluetooth

Percussions great sounds and playing options (hand shake, hit…)cuica, cowbell, triangle, vibraslap, guiro, agogo, castanet, shaker, timbales, claves, woodblock, conga, tambourine, maracas, scratching, bell tree, matraca/ratchet, (I do not have all of these in my classroom so virtual instruments are a real boon and in a general education class would do the same and add a definite cool factor.)

Perscussive - (mallet instruments: glockenspiel, kalimba, xylophone, marimba, vibrophone) great sounds with graphic feedback of play and multiple octaves and chromatic notes, choice of hard or soft mallets

PetTunes – funny you can see paw as plays keyboard, setting with only animal sound (dog, cat, duck, cow, seal), only keyboard sound or both, preset songs with icons to follow on keys to produce song

PocketGuitar – guitar you can tune, strum, finger, change type of guitar (clean electric, lead guitar, acoustic-electric, classical, bass, ukulele), and set effects in presets. It works with Bluetooth

RadSounds – cause and effect, works with a switch, great song selection in app and allows one to load own tunes too

Recorder – records, easy to use, works with Bluetooth, allows for wifi sync for bigger, higher quality recordings

Scribble Synth – touch screen to create color, image, and sound. The sound and direction of image do not coordinate to high and low or loud and soft.

Silly Pianist - (sound effects to pitches) with 150 to choose from ranging from naughty to useful, works with Bluetooth

Singing Fingers – captures voice and finger painting for sound playback as one traces over sections or the whole of the picture. It doesn’t work with Bluetooth

Songify - turns talking into singing to the “sound” of other tunes you can select from, doesn’t work with Bluetooth

Songineer – digital composer - sequencer, works with Bluetooth, 20 instruments, 5 drumkits,

Talking Tom – animation of a cat that purrs when stroked and copies vocal sounds it hears along with other antics

ThumbJam – thirty plus real, high quality instrument sounds that you can add vibrato or bending the pitch by movement of the iDevice. Many scales available with control over range as well as between 5 -11 pitches can be played at once.Record, loop, control with voice, many great fine controls, works with Bluetooth

Toontastic –make up your own story with pictures you make or select, follow prompts for story making and add music from selections offered to support story, you can narrate your story, animate it, save it, and share it.

Vocal Shapes – pattern changes with changes in sound source, touch screen to freeze image. It gives vowels an image.