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By Marcin Adamski

 

Smart Music Manager is a powerful program, which allows you to organize your music collection and always keep order in there.

Smart Music Manager has user-friendly interface and is extremely easy to use.

One of the most useful features is folders monitoring. It is just few clicks to set what folders should Smart Music Manager watch.

Whenever you add music files into those folders, every new song will be automatically imported and added to your collection.

Smart Music Manager allows you to use enqueuing in two modes. The first is automatic enqueuing, which is based on the whole music collection, and enqueuing criteries, which you can set at any time. You can select your favourite artists, genres, albums and many more criteries, which describes what you want to listen to at the moment. You can also use

manual enqueuing. Smart Music Manager can open and save M3U and PLS files.

Now you can keep all your songs lyrics in one place. It is easy to add, edit and search for your lyrics.

Smart Music Manager has it’s own tag editor. You can edit tags contained in mp3 (ID3v2/ID3v1) and flac (Vorbis Comment) files. It is simple to choose what files you want to edit. Just use the "drag & drop" method.

If you need to convert your music files between popular formats like mp3, wav and flac you can use a buit-in files converter, which uses encoders such as lame.exe and flac.exe.

You can burn and rip Audio CD with a very little effort using user-friendly wizards. It does not take much time to burn your own Audio CD and it is simple by using "drag & drop" method.

Smart Music Manager reads covers from mp3 files. There is also an ability to manage your covers saved in graphic files such as .jpg, .bmp, .png etc.

There are lots of categories in which files can be grouped. Smart Music Manager can group files by artists, albums, genres, years, ratings, user defined groups, folders where files are kept etc.

That’s why you are able to explore your music so fast and easy.

More informations about Smart Music Manager are available at http://SmartMusicManager.com

You can download Smart Music Manager for free and test a full version of it. However there will apear a box informing of unregistered version.

Download page: http://SmartMusicManager.com/download.php

I am from Poland, Wroclaw and I am a .NET developer. Before that, I’ve been writing programs in Delphi/Pascal, C++ and Asm. My biggest project is the “Smart Music Manager” - a powerful tool for everyone, who use to listen to the music on a computer.

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How to write a good music lesson plan

By Kevin Tuck

 Lesson plans are an indispensable tool for music teachers. They are very important to the success of both one lesson and the teachers career in general.

There is an old saying that says something like “failing to prepare is preparing to fail” Once you have a bit of experience under your belt however, then preparing lesson plans does not have to be as complicated as it was when you first start teaching.

For those who are just starting out, here are a few guidelines for creating compelling music lesson plans.

1. Think about the age group of the students you are teaching

The best thing to start with when preparing any lesson is to consider the age of the students you will be presenting to. What are their likes and dislikes? What music do they listen to on the radio? Are there any other cultural influences that affect them a their current development level? Are they at an age where they are extremely hesitant to do anything in-front of their peers?

These are the questions that you need to think about when preparing a music lesson plan. This is why ready made, fit all situations lesson plan usually doesn’t work. Each individual class and student needs to have the lesson plan tailored to their individual needs. When a teacher has been in the classroom for a few years they are usually able to do these adaptations on the spot, and may seem to not have to prepare at all. When you are just starting however a good starting plan is to spend a few minutes researching the age group, and learning how they think and interact with each other.

2. Always plan more than you’ll need

Often you’ll prepare a lesson with (say) ten activities. Sometimes you’ll only get up to the fourth one and the bell will ring for the end of the lesson. If you were to do the same lesson with a different class you might go through all ten points and there will still be another 20 minutes left! Its always an excellent idea to have a backup plan just in case you need more than you anticipate. Have copies of spare worksheets, or an interactive game on hand so that you can always go to at the end if you have a few spare minutes.

3. Mix up your activities as much as possible

In many schools the curriculum is planned for set lessons for the week: one lesson will practical, one theory etc. However if its possible, why not try to vary it around a bit? If you’re not limited by rooms try spending half the lesson on practical, then moving into theory based on the materials you were just playing. It’ll be interesting for the students and keep them guessing.

4. The best ideas start with a simple concept.

Its always a good idea, particularly if working with younger students to have the simplest version as a backup of your complicated idea. For example if you’re introducing a new piece of music in a practical lesson you may wish to plan for the scenario of it being way too hard for the students. Start with a section that you know the students will be able to play, then come back and deal with the harder sections.

5. Listen to feedback

Students are often extremely subtle in the way they give feedback to teachers. Teenage students (and pretty much most students for that matter!) will never say “Mr Brown, I thought you did a wonderful job today, we learned heaps, and had fun at the same time!” Perhaps you might have a dream that your student says that - but its not going to happen in real life! What you will see is your students more happy to be in your classes than in other classes, and happy to laugh with you and eager to come to class. Students when they enjoy music will also put a priority on band or orchestra ahead of other things. When this happens, you’ll know that what you are doing is on the right track.

Kevin Tuck is a music teacher who has taught in private music studios and schools in Australia. Kevin is also an editor of music theory worksheets for the Fun Music Company.

how to make learning music fun for young school children

By Kevin Tuck

 One very important thing that every teacher is taught is that you always need to be prepared for every lesson you teach. Of course, that is if you want to end the day in a stress free fashion!

A lesson plan can be very simple, and teachers who have been in the game a while can do it almost without thinking, however they always have to be prepared with something ready to do in their lessons.

In our area of music there are a few tips that make elementary classes much more fun, both for the students and the teacher.

1. Mix up the activities

There is a saying that goes “Too much of a good thing….”, and in teaching is is very apt! Even if the children love a particular game or song they will eventually lose interest in it, so make sure you stop while they are still liking it and move onto a new one.

2. Keep the activities short and sweet

Depending on the nature of the lesson it it always best to structure your lesson into short 5-10 minute segments. In a general music/singing lesson at elementary level you would normally start with a song or two, break it up with some percussion or rhythm work and them move onto another song and maybe a game at the end.

3. Break up the routine with something unexpected!

Its definitely a good thing to keep the students guessing about what they might expect next! You should always keep some stability of course, but you may wish to break it up by heading out to the playground for a lesson with some games, or visiting another class to sing them a song. Do something unexpected and you’ll suddenly find that some students really love coming to your class!

4. Have a surprise around every corner

Young children especially love getting a surprise! Get your students inspired by having a reward for the best singer one class, then the most well behaved the next! Incentive schemes always work, but mix it with surprises and you’ll find they’ll respond even better.

Don’t call it “work” - its a “game”!

Any activity will be more fun if you approach it like you would approach playing a game! So for example if you’re going to do some theory, just say: “Lets go and do some games on the board over here.” One small change to your expressions and what you say will make a huge difference!

Always have plenty of “spares” up your sleeve!

Whenever you’re lesson planning make sure that you keep plenty of material in reserve, and always have far more than you need for each lesson. You can always have a bunch of simple music theory worksheets copied and ready if you need them, and learn a couple of songs that you know will work every time.

Your music lesson plans will be much more fun and enjoyable for your students with a couple of these simple ideas.

Kevin Tuck is an experienced music teacher, having taught music both in schools and in his own music school business. Kevin is now editor of music teaching materials for the Fun Music Company.

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