This week our classes took a look at a few iPad apps for music education. This is always highly motivational and great fun for kids! The first one we worked with is called “Dust Buster”. You are an old lady swatting at several notes or “germs”, each note is timed to create familiar songs kids can play and recognize. The iPad can use it’s internal microphone to listen as you play on a piano or keyboard, or you can use the app’s on screen touch keyboard.
Our 3rd and 4th graders worked with an app called “Recorder Master”. This app also responds to your musical performance. One game is setup where you are a pilot in a small plane and playing one note make you go up, lower notes make you go down. You then have to navigate trees & bushes all the while collecting notes for points. You do all this without ever touching the screen! Very cool!
It a challenge in class to allow one student to play on the piano with the app while other students watch. Having my iPad connected to the projector via cable would limit the space available to play, and almost certainly restrict using the piano with the app. So I found “Air Server” a program that wirelessly streams the iPad’s display and sound over wifi to your computer. This allows me to bring the iPad anywhere in the room, let any student use it, all while the rest of the class looks on at the projector.
Here is a video from today showing a class using Dust Buster and the Air Server app. So useful for integrating technology into the classroom in a seamless way.
Both of these apps are made by a company called Joytunes.
Music with Mr. Arthur 