SKDS BANDS SmartMusic

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What is SmartMusic?

It's a great way to keep kids interested and motivated to practice! It is the most exciting practice tool I have seen since I was in school!

Instantly get access to three times the music you already have! You can play along with professional accompaniments to 7 method books and many of the band songs.
The music shows up on the computer screen along with a green cursor to show you where you are
It can be used with any instrument- families with multiple students can switch to the notes for each instrument
You can use it to just listen to songs to see how they sound before you practice them
You can speed up or slow down the music
You can click on a note to see the fingering
It can listen to you and assess your playing- green notes were right and red notes were wrong
There is a built in tuner and metronome
You can record yourself and make it a digital file to burn to a CD or email to family

SmartMusic can be bought online and is a yearly subscription. It is really a great deal. Consider this: a book of Disney Songs, or Star Wars songs, costs $14.95 and is usually about 8 songs; these books come with a CD that is usually too fast, and confusing to know when to play for most students. SmartMusic gives students instant access to several other method books, each with 100+ short songs, and students can also play along with many of their band songs. Plus, it's fun to record yourself and see how many notes you got right. Not only that, but tuners and metronomes are at least $10-20 each! At $30, it's a great buy.

Students with Essential Elements 2000 Book 1 have a free version of SmartMusic that only contains songs 1-99 in that book. This is a great way to find out about and use SmartMusic before actually purchasing the subscription.

Links to more info:
SmartMusic Features
Search for Music on SmartMusic
System Requirements (internet access is required)
Order SmartMusic