How can I use SmartMusic with S-Cubed Sight Singing Program for Beginners?

Are you an S-Cubed Sight Singing Program user who also has a SmartMusic subscription?

Maybe you have access to SmartMusic, and you've heard of S-Cubed, but you don't know much about it, and you want to learn more?

Or perhaps you have never heard of S-Cubed Sight Singing Program for Beginners but you have a SmartMusic subscription.

Either way, if you have SmartMusic, you have access to an important supplemental tool that I created specifically for programs like SmartMusic to help teachers who use S-Cubed improve individual assessment and practice for their students.

And anyone who has a SmartMusic account can log in to check it out! (Don’t have an account, get a free 30-day trial here.)

Whatever your situation is, here is some information to help you make the most of S-Cubed in SmartMusic.

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What is S-Cubed?

S-Cubed is a sight singing curriculum I created to help chorus teachers who teach true beginners!  I wanted to create something that I would have wanted when I started teaching chorus back in the 20th century…before the internet!  I was tired of the moans I would hear from the students when I would say “Pull out the sight singing books.”   I wanted to enjoy teaching sight singing, and I wanted the students to enjoy learning it.  So, I put together a series of power points that include the daily lesson plans for the teachers.  I set up my I-phone in the corner of my room daily for two years, and I recorded myself actually teaching the program.  I uploaded those videos to YouTube and included the links in the power points.  AND, each day I filmed teaching tips for every single lesson in the program and uploaded those to YouTube as well and included those links in the power points too.  I wanted to do everything I could to help teachers and their students be successful as they navigate this program that is like no other sight singing program on the market.  It is part method and part philosophy.  When students complete the program, they know how to successfully sight sing choral music a capella with syncopated rhythms and skips as wide as an octave.  Teachers all over the globe have been using it and reviewing it since 2013.  Here are the reviews!  The program can be purchased from Teachers Pay Teachers and JW Pepper.  District “Multiple License Discounts” are available.  Contact me directly at inthemiddlewithmrd@gmail.com to access those or if you have more questions about S-Cubed.  

Soon after I designed the program, I decided to create one-to-one correlated, supplemental sight-singing practice examples that I hoped to use for computerized individual assessment in which students would sing into a microphone on a device and get immediate feedback and a grade.

Perfect for SmartMusic, right?

Personally, I've always struggled to make time for individual sight-singing assessments because of the large number of students in my program. I hoped to simply be able to look at the summary/grade of their work on the supplemental examples and get immediate information. Sometimes, in my gut, I knew that Bobby, who sits on row 4 in my class of 84 students, was struggling with sight-singing, but I couldn't verify it easily. 

Maybe you just want your students to practice what they learned in S-Cubed that day a little bit more if the example was a bit challenging for the class. Or maybe you want to give a sight- singing "quiz.”

With the supplemental exercises offered in SmartMusic, problems like these are solved!

How does it work? 

Below are three ways to use SmartMusic with S-Cubed:

#1-

In S-Cubed, we don't actually start sight-singing until Lesson 4 of the program. (That's usually "week 4" of the program if you see your students daily for 50 minutes). After you do your first real sight-singing example in Lesson 4 in class with your students, you can create an assignment (Lesson 4 Day 2, for example) to send to students. You could also share Playlists of these exercises with students, or even group them sequentially into Units for students to access. Here are some great tips and ideas for how to utilize SmartMusic in and outside of your music class!  

#2-

You may not want to do every single correlating supplemental example I've written for SmartMusic. Maybe it feels like overkill. Perhaps they struggled on Lesson 6, Day 2 in class, so you decided to send them into SmartMusic to Lesson 6, Day 2 to do the correlating example for a little extra practice.  

#3-

You may simply want to use SmartMusic as a "quiz" grade periodically. Perhaps you just finished Lesson 9 Day 3, and it feels like time for a check-up so you can see how everyone is performing individually, but you don't want to take class time to listen to the students. Simply assign Lesson 9 Day 3 and your students will receive instant feedback when they are working through the exercise in SmartMusic, AND you will have access to listen to their submissions and provide valuable feedback (and gather data on student progress)!

Using S-Cubed in SmartMusic can save you lots of time and give you so much information that you might otherwise not garner individually during class time.  

You make the decision about how to use the SmartMusic S-Cubed supplemental examples in your setting with your students.

I have never heard of S-Cubed, but I have SmartMusic...

Or

I have SmartMusic, and I've heard of S-Cubed, but I don't own it...

Either way, you can use SmartMusic to learn more about how the program works.

In the supplemental practice/assessment examples, I've included a lot of guidance for users that was designed to help reinforce what you taught in class.

Here are two examples-

So, whether you've heard of S-Cubed Sight-Singing Program or not, since you have access to SmartMusic, you have a lot of information at your fingertips to help you learn more!

If you have questions about S-Cubed Sight Singing Program for Beginners, reach out to me directly at inthemiddlewithmrd@gmail.com.