To keep it simple, technology has made music education easier, more fun, and much more accessible. I'm excited to see where technology can take us. Below are some of the best tech you can find to help you teach music.
1. Youtube.com I think at this point everyone knows what youtube is. Not everyone knows of it's full potential. It's an indispensable resource of music, documentaries, music covers, instrument tutorials, song tutorials, instrument methods, and even background information on different artists and performing groups around the world.
2. Musictheory.net This is lesser-known site that I've used many times in the past and found it extremely helpful. It's a free site with music theory lessons and exercises. It includes sight-reading, aural training, keyboard and fretboard memorization, and even chord and interval identification (visually and aurally). It's a great resource for reinforcing learning or even being the backbone of learning theory.
3. Garageband This software is pretty famous by now. It's a tool for creating music, with or without an instrument. With hundreds of built-in instruments and an easy-to-learn interface, Garageband is the best place to start creating music without any solid music theory knowledge. While any type of music can be created, I feel that electronic music is the easiest to jump into with this. With instruments, the possibilities expand greatly and there are even lessons available on some common instruments.
4. MIDI keyboard, MIDID controllers, and synthesizers, such as this, this, and this have made music creation so much more exciting, easy, and affordable. Some plug directly into a computer and create sound through software like Garageband, while others create sounds on their own. The possibilities are endless.
4. iPad iPads are expensive, but amazingly versatile. They come with Garageband preloaded, so they can function as instruments or as a music creation suite. They can be used to explore all online resources as well. They can be used as a differentiation tool, or for students doing more advanced projects. The possibilities are endless with iPads. A quick look in the app store will reveal thousands of apps that can be used in the classroom to increase learning.
There are many more amazing pieces of music technology. Many are being created every day. These are just a few that I believe are amazing resources for music teachers.
Abe, good post. Lots of great resources to use here. YouTube is always a must for the instant demonstration of specific songs or entire genres. You mentioned the iPad as a useful took... any specific apps you have in mind that help with teaching music? I haven't looked but I'm sure there are tons.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many. Garageband itself is pretty tough to get bored with, but I like to use Tenuto for music theory and ear training. Fiddlewax is a fun way to start playing chords very easily. I've heard that Chord Detector sounds pretty cool for figuring songs out but haven't used it myself. Lastly, more for jamming, I really love iReal Pro. It takes chord charts and plays them with piano, drums, and bass so that you can practice singing or improv without a live band. Fiddlewax yellow and Acapella from PicPlayPost are also pretty exciting music creation apps.
DeleteAll of these things make teaching and practicing music so much easier!
ReplyDeleteGood post. I like that you kept it short, sweet, and to the point. There are a lot of great resources here and so much that you could do with each one of them. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree that YouTube is an amazing tool and resource for music education. I wish the band director at my internship saw the potential of youtube in the ensemble setting rather than complaining that YouTube is ruining her program.
ReplyDeleteyouTube is huge!
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