I want to change the way I approach playtests in band. Currently, students play in front of their peers during class. Doing one test a week with large numbers in my classes certainly eats up an inordinate amount of class-time, and I would like to use an alternative.
Many band directors will send their students one at a time to a quiet room (like the practice room adjacent to my office) to tape record themselves playing. The procedure would go like this.
1. Tape recorder is setup by teacher with appropriately labeled cassette. Teacher presses record and pause. 2. Student walks into room and signs in on a piece of paper (this makes finding a specific student's recording much easier). 3. Student releases pause, states name and test number and plays their test. 3. Student presses pause. 4. Next student enters and repeats process.
The problem often experienced with this testing technique is that, eventually, some student comes in and does and uninvited step number 5:
5. Student walks into room, presses rewind, presses record, and makes everyone else's test vanish!
Whether this step is done out of malice, ignorance, or panic is another matter. But I want to see if I can come up with an inexpensive alternative.
CD-Recording decks are prohibitively expensive given a limited budget (the cheapest are nearly $300, as far as I can find in retail circles). I already have a mixing board with a pre-amp, quality microphones, and plenty of cables to use, but I really would like to have something that, once the recording is made, students can't easily un-make it.
The system also needs to be simple enough to use that all of my students (grades 6-8) would be able to operate it with minimal (if any) guidance.
Another idea is to hook everything up to a computer, then see if it is possible to have the students make a digital recording then drop it into a network drop-box, but this idea would require a lot of training for the students in how to do everything. Not particularly idiot-proof.
I imagine someone might suggest Finale SmartMusic, which is software designed exclusively for the purpose of testing students, however, I am a die-hard Sibelius user. Sibelius does not (yet) have a comparable program for recording student tests.
I look forward to your input. The collective smarts of Hatrack have been quite impressive and helpful in the past.
Posted by Jhai (Member # 5633) on :
Would it be possible to get an older student or adult to watch over the recording proceedings while you take care of the rest of the class? I worked as a student assistant to my high school band director one year, and did this sort of work on occasion.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
Digital drop boxes are more foolproof than you'd think, and are probably considerably easier than you'd imagine as well. I'd go that route.
Posted by Artemisia Tridentata (Member # 8746) on :
No help, but a good story. The Army had a similar testing program for military bandsmen and used a tape recorder for testing reserve band members. Our National Guard band was a well balanced concert band of aproximatly 50 members. However, on paper, the state was only authorized a 20 piece band. So, there were many of us who were playing instruments that the band had no paperwork to support. On the day of our scheduled testing, we found out that we had to test on the MOS (instrument) that was on our paperwork. There were four of us, two bassoonists and two oboists, who had to test on the sax, and we had not even seen the numbers we were supposed to test on. The Commander assured us that he would take care of it. He assigned a sax player, who was a professional studio/TV musician to play the tests. We all just spoke our name and rank onto the test and he played them all including his own. When the test results were posted, there were four 100's and a 30. Sgt T, the sax player had the 30! Go figure.
Posted by The Flying Dracula Hair (Member # 10155) on :
Can you remove the rewind button?
Posted by BandoCommando (Member # 7746) on :
quote:Originally posted by The Flying Dracula Hair: Can you remove the rewind button?
I thought of that, and it seems to be by far the cheapest alternative....
TomD, I'd LOVE to do the digital dropboxes (a feature of SmartMusic, in fact), but I'm afraid I likely don't have an extra computer laying around at the school here. I'm meeting with our tech guy to see what's possible.
I also appreciate the suggestion from Jhai about having a responsible student or adult in charge of monitoring the recording. This is likely an excellent compromise, as I have several very responsible students who could get by with missing a rehearsal every now and again.
Thanks for the input!
Posted by The Flying Dracula Hair (Member # 10155) on :
For a digital alternative, it seems (thought correct me if I'm wrong) like any free recording program would do the trick, and just have it set to save to a folder that's not on the desktop, which I think happens automatically once you save for the first time there. The student would just Save As it with her/his name.
Posted by BandoCommando (Member # 7746) on :
quote:Originally posted by The Flying Dracula Hair: For a digital alternative, it seems (thought correct me if I'm wrong) like any free recording program would do the trick, and just have it set to save to a folder that's not on the desktop, which I think happens automatically once you save for the first time there. The student would just Save As it with her/his name.
But what about the kid who decides to select all of the other kids' tests and throw them in the trash?
I suppose I could designate the file as 'write only' to a student account....That's an idea worth exploring, I suppose.
Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
My band teacher did this for the last three years of high school. We drew numbers, even, and the teachers aid even read the numbers out loud at the beginning of the tape so she wouldn't hear our voices.
It worked great, and made sure she stayed impartial. I would never have won first chair if she had known it was me, but once I had it I didn't let go of it that year, and stayed in the top 2 for the rest of high school....
...all because she decided to do it that way. No one sued, or asked....she came up with it herself, just to make SURE she was fair.
Best Teacher Ever.
She used a live version of this for chair challenges....she put us on stage, with the curtain drawn, and then faced away from the stage so she couldn't see our shoes. As the only guy in my section, I loved it, and I won every time but one.
Posted by The Flying Dracula Hair (Member # 10155) on :
I know if you're using Windows there is a way to create locked folders but I don't know if you can save something to them in a nomral-type way.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
The file permissions you'd want on the shared directory would be "Create" and not "Modify." This would prevent students from copying over or deleting other students' recordings.
Posted by Orincoro (Member # 8854) on :
If you have a laptop, the simplest and most fool proof procedure would be to use an audio recording program such as audacity, or goldwave, or Amadeus II (for Macs) or myriad others.
The program you use needs at most a function for marking off regions of the recording and segmenting them into the appropriate student's own recordings. If you use a sequencer such as logic, or any one of the recording programs I mentioned, you could simply look at the visual representation of the audio file and spot the periods of silence, mark them off, and then listen to each seperately. If you have the students mention their own names before they play, you can easily identify each poriton of the recording. Tape length is a non issue because you can jump around in the file easily, and your machine will have no recording limit for practical purposes.
Whatever you do, I would suggest getting into the 21st century. I would hope as a music teacher you had already considered a computer program but didn't want to do that for some other reason.
Posted by The Flying Dracula Hair (Member # 10155) on :
quote:Originally posted by Orincoro: The program you use needs at most a function for marking off regions of the recording and segmenting them into the appropriate student's own recordings. If you use a sequencer such as logic, or any one of the recording programs I mentioned, you could simply look at the visual representation of the audio file and spot the periods of silence, mark them off, and then listen to each seperately. If you have the students mention their own names before they play, you can easily identify each poriton of the recording. Tape length is a non issue because you can jump around in the file easily, and your machine will have no recording limit for practical purposes.
But what stops someone highlighting it all and dropping a delete on it?
Posted by BandoCommando (Member # 7746) on :
quote:Originally posted by Kwea: My band teacher did this for the last three years of high school. We drew numbers, even, and the teachers aid even read the numbers out loud at the beginning of the tape so she wouldn't hear our voices.
It worked great, and made sure she stayed impartial. I would never have won first chair if she had known it was me, but once I had it I didn't let go of it that year, and stayed in the top 2 for the rest of high school....
...all because she decided to do it that way. No one sued, or asked....she came up with it herself, just to make SURE she was fair.
Best Teacher Ever.
She used a live version of this for chair challenges....she put us on stage, with the curtain drawn, and then faced away from the stage so she couldn't see our shoes. As the only guy in my section, I loved it, and I won every time but one.
I like this idea. Thanks!
Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
Yeah...as a kid it was refreshing to have someone take us that seriously, and it payed off too, because we were willing to go the extra mile for her.
We were one of the best bands in the country, and toured the US twice in 4 years going to bowl games. We were on network TV 11 times in 3 years while I was there, and they went to the Fiesta Bowl the years after I graduated.
She was outstanding.
Posted by DSH (Member # 741) on :
Use Orincoro's digital recording suggestion but set the program to start recording on a certain volume level. (I know Goldwave will do this, not sure about the others) Then lock the computer in a closet and leave only the microphone out in the open.
The recording starts and stops when the student starts and stops his test. Completely hands off.
Posted by Orincoro (Member # 8854) on :
quote:Originally posted by The Flying Dracula Hair:
quote:Originally posted by Orincoro: The program you use needs at most a function for marking off regions of the recording and segmenting them into the appropriate student's own recordings. If you use a sequencer such as logic, or any one of the recording programs I mentioned, you could simply look at the visual representation of the audio file and spot the periods of silence, mark them off, and then listen to each seperately. If you have the students mention their own names before they play, you can easily identify each poriton of the recording. Tape length is a non issue because you can jump around in the file easily, and your machine will have no recording limit for practical purposes.
But what stops someone highlighting it all and dropping a delete on it?
Nothing, but in this scenario, student interaction with the computer could be eliminated. Also, you could easily run a mic cable into another room and put the computer in there.
To DSH, the same programs also have utilities for finding periods of silence and marking them automatically.
![[Smile]](smile.gif)