The Blair Finch Project

Recorder Master is a great way for students to practice at home or in class. Not only is it a game-based practice app, but the kids will not advance unless their intonation is just right. The program uses your computer or iPad’s microphone to listen to their playing, and if a note is off pitch it will not register, giving immediate feedback to students. 

Another excellent feature of Recorder Master is that when students play at home, they can send their progress report to you, the teacher, very simply. The teacher can then log in and review what levels students have passed, practice minutes, etc. Collecting and recording minutes has always been a weakness for me, so this has been a life saver! The "connect to teacher" feature is not a part of the app currently, but is very simple to do on the web.

Recorder Master’s sequence begins with B-A-G and continues to high C and D. Because my students begin learning G and low E and D, we add this in after a month or so when practice minutes start to become a chore. This could also work well as stations in the classroom or to create assessment opportunities. 

Students can play along at home with the free program at www.joytunes.com, or project your computer screen or iPad in class and play together. Playing it with the whole class is more difficult than playing alone, but leads to very positive discussion on technique! 

Watch this tutorial from Joytunes.com to see some images from the app. I highly recommend it! There is also a piano version called Piano Mania and Dust Buster.