General music curriculums must change to meet the desires of the general public or face even further cuts. Parents will always back a program in school if they can see a direct benefit to their child. Today, according to American Demographics, AMC, 66% of American homes have a keyboard instrument. Keyboards have become the instrument that people want to play. However. general music classrooms have been slow to embrace the use of these instruments and other technologies. Instead, K-12 schools have stayed with Orff or Kodaly type general programs to instill basic music skills. Both of these approaches do a good job of teaching basic music skills but there is no perceived direct benefit to the child. Basic music skills are hard to define unless the student is able to play a musical instrument. By taking the percentage of homes that own keyboards, one is drawn to the conclusion that a program using keyboards is what has the best opportunity to succeed in showing to both parents and administrators that the music program is important and gives a direct benefit.

However, one of the many challenges technology faces in integrating itself into the school curriculum is it's apparent lack of curriculum developed to use technology in the music area. For example, the wonderful CD's about Mozart, Beethoven, or the musical instruments themselves all rely on the teacher figuring out where and when to use them in a curriculum that wasn't developed to incorporate these items. Included with the CD's would be the theory game programs, ear training, or other similar items. These all have to be integrated into a curriculum that is not prepared for these items. Hence, many teachers are frustrated and, instead of adding technology, they stay with what they know.

So, in answer to the need for integrated curriculums, software companies are now developing programs that are first curriculum based and then utilize the computer as the delivery system and classroom management. There are two approaches that we will explore in this session. One is the Music in Education Program from Yamaha Corporation and the other is Pianoworks or Piano for Windows from Temporal Acuity and Musicware respectively. First, let's look at Music in Education.

Music in Education, or MIE as it's often referred to, is a complete general music curriculum utilizing keyboards and a Macintosh computer as the delivery system. The program has a complete set of lesson plans in 145 modules. What is unique is that MIE was developed first as a curriculum and then each piece of the hardware was developed for the curriculum. It features a special design that has a unique split keyboard making it possible to have two students per keyboard and each student feeling that they are sitting at their own instrument. In addition to the regular MIDI in and out ports, merge and thru MIDI jacks were installed to facilitate the interconnection of all 15 student keyboards to the teacher instrument and the Macintosh computer. Included with the program are two listening example CD's that represent 4 years in obtaining all of the copyright clearances.

The computer, in the MIE classroom, controls all of the various functions of the student keyboards. The teacher has complete control of each student station. Want to turn all the keyboards off? Click on the mute icon. Want to set all the student keyboards to a certain sound? Click on the sound set. Any function of the keyboard is available from the teacher station and the teacher can set the keyboards to ignore any button pushes by the students. This gives the teacher an unprecedented control of the classroom. There is even a remote control that allows the teacher complete mobility in the classroom.

The MIE program also has built in accountability. The testing that is in the program will generate reports on the students grades on individual tests. In addition, the teacher can call up one of two screens designed to show what the students are playing on their keyboards at any time in class. Student tracking of attendance and other items are done automatically in the class roster section of the program with the ability of the teacher to write notes about each student. All of this is incorporated into the software.

Training on the program is currently done at Ohio State University. This week long program takes the teacher through every phase of the program from setting up the lab to how to work the whole system. A person with no technology knowledge comes out of this training ready to utilize MIE in their classroom.

What makes MIE so special is it's use of keyboards to deliver basic music skills and understanding. While it is not thought of as a keyboard learning program, the basic skills gained in this program allows students to pursue any musical instrument. Students of this program are constantly improvising and creating their own music while gaining keyboard flexibility. Because of the use of keyboards, more parents are going to be supportive of the music program because they now see a tangible benefit of the general music curriculum. Also, because of the built in accountability of the system, multi-cultural examples, and cross curriculum activities school administrators like the program. In some states, MIE has qualified for textbook funds. For a technology assisted general music curriculum, Music in Education is the only system of it's kind.

There is a new trend in public school music programs now beginning across the country. In several school in Indiana, Chicago Illinois, and even in Brownsville Texas, piano lab classrooms are being set up. Once thought of as an instrument to be taught at the college level or by the local piano teacher down the street, these programs are becoming increasingly popular. With the recent research showing that students perform better academically if they have piano lessons, many schools are jumping on the bandwagon. Even so, many have discovered that trying to integrate the various pieces of software into a piano class can be a lime consuming project so enter the integrated technology assisted piano lab.

The technology assisted piano lab is an approach that has a computer al each student station with a keyboard installed. Each student can progress at their own rate as the computer teaches them the basic skills needed to play the piano. The teacher in this classroom becomes a facilitator helping the students learn how to "learn on their own". Some schools today are looking for this type of approach as they say it leads to the forming of a lifelong habit of self learning. One other benefit of this type of approach is that if a student transfers in to this class and they have previous experience, the computer program allows them to begin where they are. This can eleviate the scenario where a student transfers in with no musical background into a class that has been going on for 4 or 5 months.

In order to make this approach work, there had to be a program developed from a piano curriculum side with the computer used as the delivery system. Pianoworks or Piano for Windows is such a program. A curriculum developed around how a teacher would teach a student to play the piano was developed. This program integrates keyboard topography, keyboard flashcards, note flashcards, sight playing, ear training, theory, rhythm drills, and a corresponding song book with accompaniments into a package that students can access and work through at their own pace. The teacher becomes the facilitator answering questions the students might have. Each unit Or the program moves between different activities, giving the student the feeling of working with a real teacher. The program also keeps track of the students scores and where they are in the curriculum. This score tracking is also used by the computer to customize the program for the student. Score high, and the computer goes to a higher level of the program. Score low, and the computer automatically returns to a previous exercise for review. Where this program is different from similar programs like the Miracle Piano System is in it's correct sequencing of music knowledge. In addition, all of the music in this program is correct unlike how Miracle changes well known folk songs to all quarter notes. Pianoworks or Piano for Windows is definitely the way to go.

Integrating these into a school would require very little training of the person who would be the facilitator. Pianoworks requires a DOS computer with only 640K to run effectively. This is a great thing for some schools as they have older model XT's and AT's just laying around. Here is how they could be used by students. Piano for Windows, while it does require a larger computer, does have the advantage of having a four year piano curriculum developed while Pianoworks has two. Either program is strong and has been quite successful in offering a very unique way to learn to play the piano.

What the bottom line with both of these approaches is that we must begin using keyboards more in the general music curriculum if schools are to increase the parents desire for more music programs. The difference in the two mentioned approaches has to deal with the focus. MIE is a general music course not designed to teach piano, but using keyboards as the integration and confirmation of the music concepts being taught. Pianoworks or Piano for Windows is designed to specifically teach piano. I believe that using both can give students a strong musical base. MIE, introduced in the early grades or middle school with a two year piano curriculum at the junior high level could go a long way to helping the next generation of students gain valuable skills in the arts and other academic subjects. Both programs offer a complete package that could be incorporated into a number of school situations. If music education is to update the classroom with technology and move into the next millennia, it will be because of integrated solutions like these that will get us there.