As a music teacher, your schedule is likely full of lesson planning, rehearsals, grading, and advocating for your program, leaving little room for extra tasks. That’s why the right time-saving teaching tools can make such a difference.
This back-to-school season, MakeMusic Cloud is releasing three powerful new features designed to help you reclaim your time and work smarter, not harder. Based on feedback from real educators, these updates will help you cut back on repetitive tasks, streamline grading, and give your students more personalized learning experiences.
Whether you’re syncing grades, tracking engagement, or guiding student practice, these features can save you 60+ hours a year—time you can spend making music with your students instead of managing paperwork.
Automate Your Grading Workflow with Google Classroom Grade Passback
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One of the most requested and highly-anticipated updates to MakeMusic Cloud is finally here! If you’re a music teacher who uses Google Classroom alongside MakeMusic Cloud, you’ve probably spent hours manually transferring grades from one platform to the other. It’s tedious, time-consuming, and leaves room for errors. The new Google Classroom Grade Passback automatically syncs your MakeMusic Cloud gradebook with Google Classroom. No more double entry, no more copy-paste errors—just seamless, accurate grade update |
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How it saves time:
- Eliminate duplicate work and cut grading admin time by 50% or more.
- Students and parents see updated grades instantly, reducing follow-up emails.
- Enjoy greater accuracy without having to double-check every score.
This isn’t just a convenience, it’s a game-changer for music educators who want grading software that works with Google Classroom while freeing up precious hours each week.
For more information about how to set up Google Classroom grade passback, head here.
Insights at a Glance with Advanced Analytics
Measuring student engagement in music education can be difficult. Are students practicing and completing assignments regularly? Which classes need the most help? Without data, it’s guesswork.
With Advanced Analytics, you get both a quick snapshot and an in-depth view of your classes’ activity. The new Engagement Score lets you instantly see if your class is on track, while detailed reports show individual practice habits and performance progress over time.
Time-saving benefits:
- Spot struggling students faster and target support where it’s needed most.
- Use real data to plan lessons and rehearsals instead of reviewing hours of recordings.
- Create administrator-ready reports in minutes instead of building spreadsheets from scratch.
Advanced Analytics also makes it easier to advocate for your program with clear, visual data that speaks for itself—perfect for conversations with principals, fine arts administrators, or school boards.
Better Feedback, Less Follow-Up with Practice Assessment Improvements
Until now, MakeMusic Cloud’s Practice app gave students only a percentage score based on correct notes played. While this was somewhat helpful in providing a general understanding of how they performed, it often meant you had to spend rehearsal time explaining what students should fix. It was also not very easy to see…
Before:
To fix this, we’ve completely revamped the way we provide practice feedback with more detailed, actionable information so students know exactly what to work on before the next class. This includes early/late note timing breakdowns, note-by-note accuracy analysis, and encouraging recommendations for improvement.
After:
These updates turn the Practice app into one of the most effective student practice assessment tools available—helping students improve faster while reducing the need for constant teacher intervention.
It will also save you time as a teacher by ensuring that students walk into class already aware of where they are successful or struggling, spending less time repeating basic corrections and encouraging independent practice, so you can focus on higher-level music-making.
The Big Picture: Less Busywork = More Time for Music
Every school year brings new challenges, but if you save even 15–30 minutes a day with these features, the hours add up:
| Weekly 1–2 hours saved |
Monthly 4–8 hours saved |
Yearly Up to 60+ hours saved |
With Google Classroom Grade Passback, Advanced Analytics, and Practice Assessment Improvements, MakeMusic Cloud gives music educators the tools to work more efficiently, make data-driven decisions, and give students the feedback they need—without sacrificing your own time and energy.
Ready to save time and transform your music classroom?
Log in to MakeMusic Cloud today and or start a free 30-day trial to start using these powerful new features.