Now as a teacher this really sounds like I’m blowing my own trumpet! But I have to say that I have insisted all of my students get ScaleBlitzer to improve their technical work, and it’s actually working, and I’m very happy! My 8^th grade student is [finally] flying through her scales in 6ths. My 1^st grade students are working way beyond the required level. My 5^th grade student has completely revised her attitude to scales!

Abe and I already knew that it would work, of course, but it’s nice to see students both improving AND having fun.

Here are some of the ways we’ve been using it in our studios:

Students use teacher’s device

For students who don’t have access to an i-device of some sort, I simply create a user for them on my device. I have Stages 1-5 installed and they have access to all of those. They play scales and earn points during the lesson, and I encourage them to practice in the same way at home. Some of them are working from the worksheets on the ScaleBlitzer website.

Students use their parent’s device

If students are using ScaleBlitzer on their parent’s device, they typically cant’ bring it to lessons to show me. So I create a user for them on my device for them to use during their lessons.

Unfortunately any points earned during the lesson don’t go towards their score on the leaderboard (since they can’t use the same username twice). So we tend to create usernames that have ‘studio’ on the end: for example, if their username is ‘Jane’ at home, their username in their lesson will be ‘Janestudio’. Then it’s easy to track both usernames on the leaderboard and add up the two scores!

Students have their own device

This is the best scenario and is becoming more and more common! Students bring their devices to their lessons and can show me the recordings they’ve made, the awards they’ve earned and the outfits they’ve created for their characters. We can also play scales in the lesson and their points go up on the leaderboard.

Another good tip for teachers is to remind students that they should aim for a really fast tempo at all times and not fall into the habit of playing everything slowly. This raises the bar somewhat, and keeps them on their toes!