Format: Available on PC, Mac, iPad.
Pricing: Yearly Subscription: Teacher - $140, Student - $40, Practice room - $44

Description: 
SmartMusic is a web based program that you download on you device. The program itself is permanently on your computer, but the music and exercises are pulled off of the SmartMusic servers as needed. Students can use this as a practice tools for ensemble music as well as chop and skill building exercises. Oh yea, and the main function of the program is to provide real time feedback on a students performance. The program analyzes the students playing and replaces the black notes  on the screen with green or red to signify correctness. 

Features:

• Students play with the program to measure accuracy and success
• Students can submit recordings to their directors for further assessment
• Wide range of exercises and literature to choose from with more frequently added
• Ability to custom make exercises through Finale 
• Inbox/grade book feature for educators to grade assignments and export information
• Subscription last a whole year rather than just the school year

My experience:
My experience with the program has been widely positive. It can be "a lot" more to grade and it does take some time, and a good internet connection, but in terms of being able to connect with students on a more one to one basis it is great. As a high school teacher we don't always get to give kids pull out lessons, but this program allows for tailor made assignments per students to help aid in their individual growth. The library that is available online is fairly expansive, but it all depends on the publisher/composer. not all titles, including some wind band staples are in the library. The jazz library is probably the smallest though they try and make up for it with a lot of improv exercises. Through both of the libraries shortfalls, they do constantly update the library to add more titles. In terms of the usage it can take sometime to manipulate well, especially the assignment creation side. While they have some pre made assignments for all of their pieces. When it gets to customizing certain sections, it can take a few times to get it right. From a students standpoint get ready for some backlash until they really get used to it. This is all depending on your situation. I found that the students that bought their own subscription to have at home they enjoyed the program more than those who could only use the program at school. Frequency on the program lets the students engage more...duh...They also don't like it because it is too "strict" (meaning that it is not flexible and actually tells them flat out whether they are right or wrong).


Pros:

• Great teaching aid to individually engage students 
• One-on-one communication abilities with the students to provide further feedback
• Accurate recording and grading of said recordings with a few errors
• Real time feedback on music performed
• Practice records and reports available
• Ability to see how long students spent on submitted assignments

Cons:

• Limited libraries for solos and jazz ensembles 
• Cost when it comes to outfitting a whole ensemble
• Internet based so it all depends on you internet speeds (still useable, can be sluggish)
• Classroom use limited
• Excess noise can be picked up an interfere with the students' assessment

Final Thoughts & Verdict:
Even though my students are not big fans of the program. I have to say that overall I am. Even though there are some user tricks you have to get used to as well as getting the students used to properly using the program. Overall I would have to say that this is a great tool. Especially being able to use the data from the grade book to show student growth (yay buzzwords!). My only warning would be to make sure that you know how you are going to roll out this program with your groups and that you have an infrastructure to support it. The more you know about what you want to do with the program the better. Because, after all knowing is half the battle. Use it. 

Format: Web browsers (for full website)
               iOS devices (for Tenuto and theory lessons apps)

Price: Free for web features
            $2.99 for the theory lessons app
            $3.99 for the Tenuto trainer and exercise app

Features:
Musictheory.net features interactive music theory lessons on topics ranging from the introductory (staff, clefs, duration values) to the more involved (keys, scales, and triads) to the advanced (inversions, chord progressions, and melody harmonization). The lessons allow students to work at their own pace and include audio and visual enhancements. Interactive trainers allow for practice and drill on a variety of skills, including note identification, scale, chord, and interval identification, key signature identification, ear training, and more. The difficulty and complexity levels for each exercise can be customized for each student or class.  

This resource is valuable to music educators as it it can benefit students at all levels of music education, from beginners to high school or adult learners. See the images below for an idea of the wide span of content covered on musictheory.net. It can benefit musicians in all performance mediums, as the theory concepts are universal. All of the features can be accessed for free on a web browser, and the exercises and lessons can each be accessed via their respective apps on iOS devices. 

Personal Experience:
I have been able to use the features of musictheory.net in a wide variety of settings. The lessons and trainers work well with beginning musicians as they are learning the fundamentals of music notation and note names. With more accomplished musicians, the key signature, scale, and ear training drills can further improve their skills. Students who need remedial work in music literacy can refine their abilities, even off to the side during ensemble class, with exercises tailored to their needs. I have used the exercises with beginning level and intermediate level students, and in both one-on-one lesson and full ensemble contexts. We turn it into games and see who can score the highest on each drill. I have also put exercises up on our classroom Smartboard, lined the students up single file, and had a "knockout" style elimination competition, which they get a kick out of. Several students have enjoyed the activities so much that they have put the apps on their own devices.  

The lessons are especially beneficial for any type of music theory class, as the concepts start at the very basic and progress to the fairly advanced. Even at the level of an AP Music Theory course, the lessons on www.musictheory.net can be a great asset to students for many of the concepts covered throughout the year. The drills in scale, interval, and chord identification and ear training are especially beneficial in preparing for the AP Music Theory exam. 

Final Thoughts & Verdict:
www.musictheory.net is a GREAT resource for music educators at any level. It cannot provide an entire curriculum or an entire class worth of activities, but the lessons and trainers are fantastic supplements for any music class or lesson situation. The complete customization of any trainer exercise allows for each student to have an individualized experience, which is incredibly valuable. Music learners of all levels can find some sort of benefit with this resource. Even if students only need help with one concept, such as key signatures, a lesson or exercise can be found to accomplish the goal. Free access to the web version, uncluttered by ads and other junk, is an incredible value. Those who feel urged to support musictheory.net can pay the small app cost.   

Format: Available on PC, Mac, iPad.
Pricing: Yearly Subscription: Teacher - $140, Student - $40, Practice room - $44

Description: 
SmartMusic is a program that can assess a musician's musical performance in terms of pitch and rhythm. The program compares the performance with notation with the use of pitch detection software. Band and orchestra literature is available to download to use in the program, but very little literature is available for choral ensembles. The SmartMusic music practice application has been used by some band teachers as part of their daily curriculum for some time now, and is only starting to gain traction within the choir world.

Features:

• Students can use pre-loaded MIDI or .mp3 files to serve as accompaniment while playing.
  
• Students can see the notation for their part, as well as a green bar that shows you where you are in the song, like a bouncing ball.
  
• Users can choose to hear their part if they need more reinforcement with notes, or just accompaniment if they want to practice playing as part of an ensemble.
• SmartMusic gives students a percentage rating for each performance, and displays correct and incorrect notes on the screen, so students can see where they made errors.
• SmartMusic has a library of vocal methods books, with exercises like sight-reading, ear memory, and jazz improv.
  
• Directors can use Finale, a music notation program, to export and upload songs that aren't in SmartMusic's online database (Choir directors have to use this feature to get ensemble literature into the program).
• Teachers can assign specific parts of songs to students to use as an assessment.
• Students can get an individual subscription to use on any supported device, or can use a practice room subscription at home.
• Directors can give individual students feedback on their playing through the optional use of comments and a rubric system.
• Students can save .mp3 files of their performance for digital portfolios and long-term assessment.

My experience:
I used SmartMusic as a choir director for an entire year of instruction. I used it with five different choral ensembles, ranging from 5th grade to advanced high school. Our program has no full-time accompanist, and my piano skills are poor, but the classroom does have a computer connected to a SmartBoard, a good sound system, and two practice rooms with computers. 
Over the course of the year, I input about 80% of our choral literature into Finale, exporting into SmartMusic. Our main use of the program was as a "digital accompanist" - playing the piano part during rehearsals, and also playing individual section parts to reinforce notes. SmartMusic was extremely useful in this regard. Students could ask to hear a specific section played, and could watch notes played in real-time on our classroom SmartBoard. We also used the program in sectionals, where a section of students would go into a practice room, and practice with SmartMusic on a computer. Usually, these sectional practice sessions had a very specific goal in mind, like "learn the Alto part on pages 6-7."
I made an initial attempt in many of my classes to use the assessment portion of the program, but gave it up after a few weeks and several frustrations. I chose not to require my students to purchase their own subscription. At $40 a year, plus the cost of a microphone, the price is a bit steep for many of my rural-area kids. I tried to do most of the assessment during class, where students would go to the practice rooms one at a time to finish assessments. This made two problems for me. One, many students had technical problems like forgetting their login information, not being able to navigate in the program, or headphone/microphone difficulties. Two, this made a lot of extra work for me outside of class, since I had to spend time assessing each student's performance, assigning a grade, and giving meaningful feedback. I have a relatively small choir program, so this must be very difficult for programs with lots of students.
We also experienced technical problems with the way Finale exports files to SmartMusic. These files, called .smps, can be very buggy when displayed in SmartMusic, detailed below. Sometimes, the program window will freeze on one measure while the music keeps playing. Occasionally, Finale will insert odd musical artifacts like ritards and fermatas in random places in the song. One limitation in SmartMusic is that only one voice part can be displayed at once. This is fine for band, where that is the norm for what students see. However, in a choral setting, students are used to seeing the entire score.


Pros:

• SmartMusic can be used as a digital accompanist.
  
• The program can be used heavily on days where the choir director is not available 
  
• The program can be used to keep electronic portfolios for students by saving .mp3s in a cloud storage system like Dropbox or Google Drive.
  
• Program can be used in sectionals without a teacher present when students aren't yet capable music readers.
  
• The onscreen notes function is helpful for communicating with a choir - you can show them a specific word, interval, or phrase on the screen before giving a direction. You can also tap on the individual notes to demonstrate an interval quickly.
  
• SmartMusic does have a library of vocal solo repertoire from the most popular series, but this is "legacy" music. The music is not displayed on the screen, and the program can't assess the performance. 
  
• SmartMusic's iPad app does not require a separate microphone, and .smp files can be added from cloud storage apps.
  

Cons:

• The program is designed to listen to one instrument/vocalist at a time, and can't assess an entire section reliably.
  
• The interface can be buggy, and is generally slow compared to other programs. From the time you hit Start to the time you actually start making music is about five seconds, which can be an eternity during group rehearsal.
  
• It was difficult to set up student accounts, because each account requires an email address when using the web registration form, and my students generally don't have individual addresses. You can use the program to register without an email address, but this can take a while with a large class.
  
• SmartMusic has no choral literature, and repertoire must be entered manually. This process is not intuitive, and may be difficult for teachers who aren't familiar with Finale. The process can take up to a couple hours for each piece, depending on how complicated the piece is.
  
• The program only assesses based on pitch and rhythm, so students tend to focus on those aspects of their performance, at the expense of artistry and technique.
  

Final Thoughts & Verdict:
Though there are functionality and content issues that can be frustrating at times, SmartMusic has been a valuable tool to use in choir rehearsals. I suggest you give it a try if it sounds like it would fit your program.