We've had a very busy Spring! Since our last post when we announced the Beta for our new music page, things have come a long way and we now have a large number of users enjoying the new page and its features. We've gotten some great feedback, squished some bugs, improved the design and added some new features. Some things of note (pun intended):
New Music Page Updates
- There are now more tools for self-assessing before submitting an assignment or after recording in Challenge Mode. After doing an assignment take or recording a Challenge, users can now: 1) listen to their recording, or 2) Listen to synthetic audio of the exercise to compare it to, or 3) Listen to their recording on top of the synth audio.
- When grading or reviewing a submitted assignment, there is now a random access slider so that you can easily fast forward or rewind to listen to different parts of the recording.
- When printing ensemble music that has divisi parts (like Concert Band or Full Orchestra), the divisi parts are now split into separate parts for easier reading for students.
Minor Scale Selector
Per popular request, we have added the ability to select which minor scale type you'd like to use for sight reading in minor key signatures. You can set your preference to use natural, melodic or harmonic minor form in the settings area on the new music page and iOS app.
Canvas Beta
SightReadingFactory comes with a "Learning Management System" built in - you can create classes, enroll your students, give them assignments, and grade their work. For people who need more powerful learning management features, we've been recommending our partner MusicFirst since 2014. We now have another option: Canvas. For schools with Canvas up and running, getting started with SightReadingFactory is very easy. You can use Canvas or MusicFirst to manage your students, classes, and assignments and let SightReadingFactory do what it's best at: creating high quality sight reading exercises for practice and assessment. Does your school use Canvas? Let us know and we'll help get you set up. Would you like us to integrate with your favorite learning management system? Tell us about it in our forums!
New Standards
We've recently added two new standards to our offerings! Middle and junior high school choral educators in Arkansas can now use SRF to generate sight reading exercises that are aligned with the Arkansas Middle/Junior High School Choral Festival. Students in central Massachusetts can now use SRF to generate sight reading exercises that are aligned with the Massachusetts MEA Central District Voice and Instrumental Junior and Senior Festival Auditions. Let us know what other standards you like to see!
Please let us know what you think of the new music page so far!
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