How to use every MusEdLab tool
Step-by-step walkthroughs, input tips, and what to expect from each tool's output.
📋 Rehearsal Prep
What it does: Upload any PDF of sheet music and receive a complete rehearsal prep report in about 30 seconds — including score analysis, challenging passage identification, composer background, and a follow-up Q&A chat.
Learn more about Rehearsal Prep →
Rehearsal Prep lives on the shared Generators page, so you can toggle on Lesson Plan, Warm-Up, Practice Guide, and Repertoire in the same run — shared fields like ensemble type are only asked for once. Note Catcher pops up to play while everything generates, and results open on their own Results page, with one tab per tool you ran. See Generator Presets & Recent Results below for how to save your setup and reopen past results for free.
How to use it
What you'll get
- Voicing, key, time signature, measure count, tempo, and difficulty rating
- Challenging passages by measure number with specific recommendations
- Technique demands and prerequisite skills for your ensemble
- Composer biography and historical context for the piece
- A live Q&A chat so you can dig deeper on anything
Use Copy, Download, or Export right from the Results page to save a copy — or the print button for a physical copy for the podium. If something needs a tweak, use Refine with AI (free, up to 3 times) instead of starting over.
🎼 Repertoire Finder
What it does: Describes your ensemble and performance goals — the AI suggests pieces that are a strong match, including difficulty level, voicing, and why each piece fits.
Learn more about Repertoire Finder →
Repertoire Finder is one of the five toggles on the shared Generators page — see there for how results, Note Catcher, and Refine vs. Start Over work.
How to use it
The AI draws on a broad knowledge of choral, band, and orchestral literature. It works best when you give it constraints — "we need something 3–4 minutes, SAB, appropriate for a holiday concert" will return sharper results than "find us something good."
📚 Lesson Plan
What it does: Generates a complete, structured lesson plan with objectives, materials, step-by-step activities, timing, and differentiation notes.
Learn more about the Lesson Plan generator →
Lesson Plan is one of the five toggles on the shared Generators page — see there for how results, Note Catcher, and Refine vs. Start Over work.
How to use it
Mention relevant standards (NAfME, state standards) if you need the plan to align with specific frameworks.
🎤 Warm-Up Generator
What it does: Creates a tailored warm-up sequence for your ensemble based on their instrumentation, level, and what you're working on that day.
Learn more about the Warm-Up Generator →
Warm-Up is one of the five toggles on the shared Generators page — see there for how results, Note Catcher, and Refine vs. Start Over work.
How to use it
Try mentioning a specific challenge — "sopranos are struggling with their upper passaggio" or "we need work on ensemble tuning in sixths" — and the warm-up will target it directly.
🎯 Practice Guide
What it does: Creates individualized, targeted practice strategies for your students — broken down by skill and learning goal, designed to be sent home or shared after rehearsal.
Learn more about the Practice Guide generator →
Practice Guide is one of the five toggles on the shared Generators page — see there for how results, Note Catcher, and Refine vs. Start Over work.
How to use it
🎟️ Concert Program
What it does: Generates a polished, printable concert program with AI-written program notes for each piece on your setlist.
Learn more about the Concert Program builder →
How to use it
[Add student name] placeholders.Always review AI-generated program notes before printing. While the AI is knowledgeable, details like premiere dates and dedications should be verified for formal publications.
Adding your student roster
We never ask for or store student names, so your roster prints with [Add student name] placeholders, one line per singer. You choose how the names get added, and they never have to touch a computer. To get the right number of lines, set a count for each section (voice part, grade, and so on) when you build the program.
The quickest way, typing the names:
[Add student name] in the roster and type the singer's name over it.Prefer paper, or want names to stay entirely off the computer? Download as PDF, print it, write each name on its placeholder line by hand, and photocopy for your audience. It is the fastest option for a large ensemble and keeps every name in your classroom.
📊 Dynamic Map
What it does: Reads a score and visualizes every dynamic marking — from ppp to fff — across the full piece, so you can see the expressive arc at a glance.
Dynamic Map lives on the shared Maps page together with Tempo Map — toggle on both to generate them from the same PDF at once. Note Catcher pops up to play while your map(s) generate, and results open on their own Results page, one tab per map, with Download PNG, Download PDF, and Copy Link on each. Regenerating is always Start Over (1 credit) — there's no free AI text to refine on a visual map, though editing the goal arc itself is always free. See Generator Presets & Recent Results below to reopen a past map for free.
How to use it
Great for conductor preparation and for helping students understand the emotional architecture of a piece before diving in.
⏱️ Tempo Map
What it does: Plots every tempo marking in a piece and lets you draw your "goal arc" — your intended interpretation of the tempo journey through the music.
Tempo Map shares the Maps page with Dynamic Map — see there for how the Results page, Note Catcher, and Start Over work.
How to use it
🗂️ Generator Presets & Recent Results
What Presets do: Save a class or ensemble's details once — name, ensemble type, grade level, piece, composer, session length, performance date, and notes — and load it on the Generators page in one click to fill in the shared fields instead of retyping them every time.
Creating a preset
Using a preset
On the Generators page, load a saved preset to fill in its shared fields automatically — you can still edit anything before generating. Maps has its own presets, saved from the Maps page itself with "Save current setup…" rather than the account-page form.
Recent results
Every result from Generators or Maps is kept for 30 days. A "Recent results" strip at the top of each page shows your last few runs by piece/title and date — hover to see which tools were included, and click to reopen that run's Results page for free, with no credit used and no new AI call. After 30 days, results are automatically removed, so download or export anything you want to keep long-term.
Set up one preset per class or ensemble ("Third grade band," "Chamber Choir") and you'll rarely need to type the same details twice.
🖥️ The Podium
What it does: Builds a projectable classroom board for your rehearsal. Drop a live metronome, tuner, agenda, objectives, standards, timer, calendar, and notes onto a canvas, arrange them, then switch to a full-screen Present Mode for class. It's free for music educators and never uses a credit.
How to use it
What you can put on a board
- Agenda: daily activities and notes, with a separate list for each weekday
- Schedule Bar: the day's timed schedule
- Sight-Reading: a projected excerpt for class practice
- Rhythm Trainer: projected rhythm practice
- Icebreaker: music-themed conversation starters
- AI Warm-Up (Pro): an on-demand warm-up from a typed focus, with short directions readable from the back row
- Objectives and Standards: the day's goals and the standards you're addressing
- Metronome and Tuner: a real metronome (tap tempo, meter, subdivisions) and a live tuner, both sized for the room
- Timer: count down a warm-up or count up a sectional
- Calendar and Notes: upcoming dates and any reminders you want on screen
- Pitch Pipe: a clean reference pitch in any key for tuning or starting a warm-up
- Section & Soloist Picker: draw a soloist, a section to demo, or random practice groups
- Concert Countdown: the days until your next concert in one big number
- QR Share: turn a link into a QR code students can scan from their seats
- Rehearsal Mode: a clear signal for full ensemble, sectionals, individual, listen, or silent
- Video: embed a YouTube clip, distraction-free with no related videos and expandable to fullscreen
- Spotify: embed a track, album, or class playlist (sign in for full songs; see the Spotify guide below)
- Embed: show Google Slides, Canva, PowerPoint, or almost any web page from an embed link
The metronome, tuner, pitch pipe, and timers are also available as standalone tools if you just need one quickly, and they're the same tools that live as widgets inside The Podium.
Podium AI (Pro): Populate, Sub Plan Generator, and On-Demand Warm-Up help turn your planning into classroom-ready directions. Pro also includes .ics/.csv calendar import and Google Calendar sync.
Copy an Agenda day
In Edit Mode, select the weekday with the activities you want to reuse, then choose Copy to…. Select the destination weekdays. For each day that already has activities, choose Replace existing or Add to existing, then choose Copy activities. Activity titles and notes are copied; the source day stays unchanged. Each destination can then be edited independently.
Arrange widgets while presenting
Present Mode keeps widgets live and still lets you move, resize, and layer them. Drag a widget by its title bar to move it and use its resize handle to change its size. Double-click a title bar with a mouse, or double-tap it on a touch smart panel, to toggle front/back among overlapping widgets. Use the title bar itself, not a widget control.
Podium AI (Pro)
Populate: Open AI Populate and upload a lesson plan, curriculum, or sub plan (PDF, DOCX, or TXT). It suggests the widgets the document actually needs, filling Agenda, Objectives, Standards, and Notes where the source supports them. A concert date can suggest a Concert Countdown; a stated tempo can set a Metronome. Mentions of sight-reading, rhythm practice, or an icebreaker can suggest Sight-Reading, Rhythm Trainer, or Icebreaker. Supported links can go into Video, Spotify, or QR Share. Review the suggestions and confirm the ones you want — nothing is added until you confirm.
Sub Plan Generator: Generate a plan from your current board with directions a non-music substitute can run. Review it, then copy or print before closing: the plan is not saved, and generating it does not change the board.
On-Demand Warm-Up: Add AI Warm-Up from the widget tray, type a focus, and generate a short warm-up. Keep its back-row-readable directions on the board for the ensemble.
See the full Podium overview →🎲 Section & Soloist Picker
What it does: Puts a list on the board and draws one at random: a soloist to feature, a section to demo, or someone to answer a question. Fill it with section names (Flutes, Clarinets, Trumpets), chair or seat numbers, or student initials rather than full names, so no identifying student information goes on screen. Turn on "no repeats" and it works through the whole list before anyone comes up twice.
How to use it
Keep one picker of seat numbers or initials for cold-call questions and a second picker of section names for deciding who demonstrates next.
⏳ Concert Countdown
What it does: A big, motivating number counting the days to your next concert, festival, or due date. It updates on its own and switches to "Today" when the day arrives.
How to use it
Drop it next to your Agenda so students see the goal and the day's plan together. It counts whole days, so it rolls to the new number at midnight.
📱 QR Share
What it does: Turns any link into a QR code your students can scan with their phones from their seats: a recording to listen to, a Google Form, a practice assignment, or tonight's listening homework.
How to use it
Pair it with a Concert Countdown and a recording link so students can listen to the piece at home as the concert gets closer.
🚦 Rehearsal Mode
What it does: A big status banner that tells the room what's happening right now: Full Ensemble, Sectionals, Individual, Listen, or Silent. Each mode has its own color so students can read it from across the room.
How to use it
Project it in a corner of the board so the current mode is always visible while your Agenda and Timer fill the rest of the screen.
▶️ Video
What it does: Embeds a YouTube video right on the board so you can play a performance, a tutorial, or a listening example without leaving The Podium. It uses YouTube's privacy-enhanced player, so there are no related-video suggestions cluttering the end, and you can expand it to fullscreen.
How to use it
Paste a link that starts at a specific moment (YouTube's "Share at current time") and the video begins right there.
This is YouTube's official player, so any ads are controlled by YouTube and cannot be removed. The widget removes the clutter (related videos, annotations, branding), not ads. A school or personal YouTube Premium account plays embedded videos ad-free for that viewer.
🎧 Spotify
What it does: Embeds a Spotify track, album, playlist, or podcast episode on the board, so you can preview a recording or share a class playlist.
Read this first: how to get full songs. Spotify's embedded player only plays full songs when you are signed into your Spotify account in another browser tab on the same computer you're presenting from. Open a new tab, go to open.spotify.com, and log in before class. Without that sign-in, Spotify plays only a 30-second preview of each track. A free Spotify account plays full songs but includes Spotify's ads; Spotify Premium plays them ad-free. This is Spotify's own rule for embedded players, not something The Podium can change.
How to use it
To play a full piece for the whole class without anyone signing in, the Video widget is often simpler, since it plays the entire video on its own. Reach for Spotify when you want a specific studio recording or a class playlist.
🧩 Embed
What it does: Embeds almost any web page on the board: Google Slides, Canva, PowerPoint for the web, Vimeo, a Desmos graph, an online whiteboard, and more. Paste the page's embed link (or its full embed code) and it appears right on your board, with one-tap fullscreen.
How to use it
You can paste either a plain link or a full embed snippet. The Podium uses only the web address from it, so it's safe to paste the whole code your tool gives you.
Some websites don't allow themselves to be embedded and will stay blank. That's a setting on their end, not a Podium bug. Using the source's official "Publish to web" or "Embed" link, rather than the normal page address, fixes this most of the time.
🎚️ Metronome
What it does: A full-screen metronome for the rehearsal room. Set the tempo by tapping, sliding, or typing a BPM, choose your meter and subdivisions, and project a beat the whole ensemble can see and hear. It runs in your browser and never uses a credit.
How to use it
Want it alongside your agenda and a timer during class? Add the Metronome to a Podium board.
🎵 Pitch Pipe
What it does: Gives your ensemble a clean reference pitch in any key, right from your browser. Handy for setting a starting note for an a cappella warm-up or tuning a section. Free, with no credits used.
How to use it
Pair the Pitch Pipe with the Tuner so students can hear the reference pitch and see how close they land.
🎶 Tuner
What it does: A large, readable chromatic tuner the whole section can watch at once. It listens through your device's microphone and shows the note along with how sharp or flat it is.
How to use it
The Tuner needs microphone permission to hear pitches. Nothing is recorded or stored — the audio is only used to detect the note in real time.
⏲️ Timers
What it does: A big, projectable timer for the classroom. Count down a warm-up or sectional, or count up to track how long an activity runs, with a display large enough to read from the back of the room.
How to use it
Use a countdown to keep transitions tight, or drop a Timer onto a Podium board to run it alongside your agenda.
🎮 Play
What it does: A hub of music-themed games you can use for warm-ups, cool-downs, or student engagement activities. No sign-in required — shareable with students directly.
How to use it
- Navigate to Play from the nav bar or send students the direct link.
- Choose Note Catcher, Staff Climber, Pitchfall, Interval Jungle, Tempo Duel, or Solfege Ladder. Solfege Ladder offers Ladder Climb and Echo Patterns.
- Games are playable on desktop and mobile — great for classroom displays or individual devices.
- For tracked practice, use Game Assignments. Pitchfall, Tempo Duel, Staff Climber, Interval Jungle, and both Solfege Ladder modes are assignable.
Play games are publicly accessible — no account needed. Share the link directly with students or project on a classroom screen.
🎮 Note Catcher
What it does: A quick, arcade-style music game where notes fall down the screen and you slide a catcher left and right to grab the right ones. Great as a short brain break, a warm-up, or a classroom engagement activity. Lives in the Play hub alongside the other games — and it's also what plays for you in the loading overlay while a Generators or Maps result is being created, so the wait doubles as a quick break.
How to play
Project Note Catcher on the classroom screen as a transition activity, or give students the link as a quick at-home practice break.
🎵 Staff Climber
What it does: A note-reading game where you climb between staff lines and spaces to match the note name on a scrolling card. Choose treble or bass clef, then play a timed run for the leaderboard or a no-pressure practice mode. Lives in the Play hub with the other games.
How to play
Assign Staff Climber as a 5-minute warm-up or an at-home practice supplement. Sign in to save your best scores to the treble and bass leaderboards.
🎯 Pitchfall
What it does: A note-reading game where students name notes before they fall into the pit. Choose treble or bass clef; every level is open. Lives in the Play hub with the other games.
How to play
Project Pitchfall as a note-reading warm-up, or send students the link for a quick practice break at home.
🌴 Interval Jungle
What it does: An ear-training and staff-reading game. You swing vine to vine through the canopy, and at each vine you hear a two-note interval and name it before the timer runs out. Six levels build from simple intervals up to compound intervals and inversions, moving from treble clef into bass. Lives in the Play hub with the other games.
How to play
A great ear-training warm-up on a classroom screen, or an at-home practice break. Early levels ask for the interval number only, while later levels ask for the full quality, so it scales from beginners to advanced students.
🎶 Solfege Ladder
What it does: Builds listening and solfege skills in two playable modes: Ladder Climb for individual notes and Echo Patterns for short note sequences. Both modes can be assigned through Game Assignments. Lives in the Play hub with the other games.
How to play
Great as a whole-class call-and-response on a smart panel: play Echo Patterns and have students sing the syllables back before tapping. Levels follow the Kodály order, starting with sol, mi, and la. Assign either mode from Game Assignments.
🏃 Tempo Duel
What it does: A tempo-matching race. Students tap a steady beat to match a target BPM and race a rival whose tempo has its own personality. It is a playful way to build internal pulse and tempo recognition across the Italian tempo terms, from Largo to Presto. Lives in the Play hub with the other games.
How to play
Practice mode
Flip on Practice in the top bar before choosing a level. In practice the metronome stays on, every level is open to rehearse (not just the ones a student has unlocked), and nothing is scored or saved. It is a low-stakes way for students to settle into a tempo before racing it for real.
Sharing a score with you (no student accounts, no PII)
Tempo Duel never asks students to sign in and never sends their results to MusEdLab. When a race ends, a student can hand you their result through a link you open yourself.
Why this stays privacy-safe: the whole result is packed into the link itself, in the part after the #, which browsers never send to a server. Tempo Duel never asks for a name and never creates a student account, so no personal data lives in the game or reaches MusEdLab. When you collect links through Google Classroom, Classroom attaches each student's identity to their submission on its own, so you will know whose result it is without the game holding any personal information.
About the verification badge: every scorecard shows a check mark when the result matches its built-in tamper code, and a warning when the numbers look edited. Because the game runs entirely in the browser with no server, treat this as a friendly deterrent for formative practice rather than tamper-proof grading. Use Tempo Duel as low-stakes encouragement to build steady tempo, not as a high-stakes assessment.