Music Tool Suite is a collection of digital tools created to support music learning in studio music instructions and in music classrooms. Four tools were developed from 2011 to 2016: Cadenza, Notemaker, DREAM, and iSCORE.
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Cadenza is a motivating practice tool designed for one-on-one and small group music instruction. Cadenza makes it easy for teachers to keep track of student lessons and progress, while enabling students to structure their practice sessions effectively by setting and reaching goals, and reflecting on their learning. It also contains an annotation tool, allowing students and teachers to make real-time annotations on uploaded audio and video recordings.
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Notemaker is an app for iPhones, iPods, and iPads that allows multiple users have a real-time conversation about an audio or video recording. While it was designed for music practice and performance, the app can be used by anyone looking for feedback on creative or technical work, including theatre performances, dance, yoga, gymnastics, and other uses that we have yet to imagine.
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DREAM stands for Digital Resource Exchange About Music. DREAM was released in September 2014 and was in operation until June 2018. DREAM is no longer supported because we no longer have funding to properly curate the site. During the years that it was in operation, it garnered over 117,000 page views from close to 25,000 users. We developed DREAM as an online and mobile device tool, designed to encourage teachers and students to learn about digital resources related to music education and to instrumental music lessons in particular. The tool also enabled music teachers to evaluate the resources, to read about other teachers’ views of the resources, and to add resources of their own to the DREAM repository.
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iSCORE is a web-based practice and communication tool. It was designed to help motivate students to take responsibility for their practising and overall music learning and music creation. iSCORE makes it easier for students to set goals, create new work, edit and share their work and respond to feedback from teachers, peers and parents. It also makes it easier for teachers to communicate with their students and help their students become independent learners. It includes a text annotation tool and links to recording and notation software. iSCORE is designed for use in classrooms by older pre-college and university students, and still enjoys use by those audiences.