Using Performance Assignments

Flat for Education has a variety of features designed to give teachers creative, engaging ways to improve their students’ music skills. In this article, we’ll look at Performance: different activities, benefits, examples of how teachers are incorporating performance assignments, and more!

Let’s face it: Whether they want to sing or play an instrument, music students usually spend a lot of time learning tiny elements – notes, rhythms, rests, and much more – before they get to experience the joy of producing a whole piece themselves. But putting all that hard work together through performance is one of the most rewarding moments in the music classroom!

💡Tip: If you finish this article and still have questions, check out our Help page for more technical details on using Performance and Flat for Education in general. You can also check out our video tutorials on that topic.

Using performance in your classroom

Whether the goal is better understanding musical concepts by performing or an actual end-of-year performance, there are many ways to use performance assignments throughout the year.

Students can record themselves performing an individual piece or as part of an accompaniment. You can have them sing or play an instrument, whether they’re performing just their part or an entire score/song. And you can choose to have them work on technical skills (for example, by having all of your students perform the same piece) or on gradually improving their individual ability on a piece (for example, preparing for a recital). You just need to decide on the parameters of the exercise, leave the instructions in the app, and voilà!

💡Tip: Your students can record themselves numerous times and keep the best version at the end!

If you need inspiration to get started with this assignment type, check out the sample resources that are available in your account. These can be found in the Resource Library within the assignments tab.

Benefits

• Remote: Rehearsals don’t have to take up class time anymore in order to receive teacher input on progress and areas for improvement; using Flat for Education, students can rehearse at home and quickly receive your feedback.
• Playful: It never hurts to get a bit of karaoke spirit into the classroom! Performance assignments can free students from their inhibitions and let them find that next level as they imitate their favorite singers and musicians.
• Gratifying: Studying to do well on a worksheet assignment is one thing, but putting in the work to craft a wonderful performance sparks an entirely different level of delight in students.
  
  

💡Tip: You can pre-schedule all assignments through Flat for Education, giving you the ability to easily create a rehearsal schedule that is always easily accessible by all of your students.

Some lesson ideas

• Starting from a piece that students are familiar with and can easily perform, have them record versions using different dynamic levels (for example, pianissimo and fortissimo). You can then have a discussion in class about which version they preferred performing and why.
• Try blending composition and performance activities by first having students work on an original piece and then recording a performance (whether using the instrument that the piece was originally intended for, or perhaps having them push their boundaries by incorporating a different instrument).
• Choose a piece that blends easier and more difficult technical components, such as A-Ha’s Take On Me (with what Rolling Stone deemed “one of the hardest-to-sing choruses in pop history”). Encourage your students to record multiple times, figuring out how to best match the original recording.
  

💡Tip: Our YouTube channel has a series of videos to help inspire music lesson ideas - check them out!

A word from your fellow teachers

“I transcribed all of our choir music into Flat for Education so that the students could use the pieces as practice tracks. The playback feature allowed them to easily hear their part at a specific measure, practicing with just their part or with any other combination of the other parts and piano.”

[K.J., Music Educator from Germany ]

“As a choir director, it is so nice to have everything web-based and accessible. I love being able to upload my .xml files from previous creations. As a music theory teacher, I LOVE the worksheets and use them daily.”

[L.B., Music Educator from the USA ]

As always, if you have questions or feedback, please email us at edu@flat.io 💚