As if practicing solfege wasn’t fun enough, right? Just kidding. I’ve got a pot of “Tell Tale Dark” roast coffee on this morning and I’m getting some screencasts ready for the kids to practice this summer/next year. A class I took in iMovie last week has got me thinking: how can I up the fun factor in my screencasts so more students will practice at home?
Two amazing videos I ran across on this week have me focusing on
1. Content (for solfege in Upper Grades, why not make it Pop?)
2. Visual Interest (…make it pop part 2)
Videos from U Better Sing. I love these- I wish there were more! Not sure if there are more episodes if you buy the DVD. If anyone knows give a shout out in the comments. Full Disclosure- I have purchased the stickers and cards. Because, c’mon it’s stickers. Solfege stickers! ubettersing.org
How do you like to share practice videos or practice audio with your students? For the past year or so I have been sharing straight up screencasts of myself singing parts along with Sibelius. I make the videos available via Blackboard so that they are password protected and only available to my classes. Here’s what I’m playing with now to make the screencasts a little more exciting for them.
Side note: I’m currently obsessed with the final credits song from the movie “Epic”. How gorgeous are those harmonies? Wish I could try it out with 3 or more parts but SA should be pretty fun, too.
Some resources you might find useful making your own screencasts:
Noteflight On-line Notation Platform
If you use Sibelius, and want to screencast solfege here’s a great plugin-
and how to install the plugin-
I’m sure you’ll agree… nothing beats not having to manually type in your own solfege syllables.
Happy Screencasting!
Singer Bean 