Music & Technology

When I think about the music classroom, I do not immediately see myself using technology a lot of the time. I think the reason is that I just do not think about technology in the classroom as often as I should. In my last post, I discussed that technology is becoming more prevalent in the lives of the youth than ever. If that is case then we should constantly be searching for ways that technology can be incorporated in the curriculum. If education is to stay relevant to our student’s lives, technology must be continuously integrated within the classroom. I’d like for this post to be a personal think-tank for ways in which technology can be easily incorporated into the average music classroom.

Basic – Level 1: Mp3, Video, & CD's

On the most basic level of adding technology we can have students access music via video, mp3, or cd. In a lesson the teacher can play listening examples through an iPod, mp3, or YouTube. Listening assignments could be a fun way for students to listen to music in a forum that they are comfortable with. This is an easy way to put a little technology in the class. But, this is far from sufficient.

Advanced - Level 2: Music software & online resources

Having the students use music notation software, like Finale, is a fun and creative way to teach notating, melody, harmony, and composition. After teaching some basic theory to students, the students could create a short composition or do their theory work, all through the program Finale. 

As a guitarist, one of my key roles is to accompany melody with chords. Teaching chords in a classical context can be, for lack of a better word, boring. Tab sites offer, with fairly decent results, a plethora of popular songs with chords, lyrics, and tabs. It could be really fun to have students pick a song of their choosing and have them learn the chords. They could perform it with themselves, someone else, or the teacher singing along!

Theory can be made into a game with the free online resource musictheory.net. There are a variety of different exercises and difficulties to choose from so, it is applicable for a wide range of students. If I wanted to assess my student’s progress I could use this as well. 

Super-Advanced! – Level 3: Protools, YouTube, Blogging, Eamir, GarageBand and beyond...

YouTube can be used in the classroom in two fun ways: watching and creating videos. A potential project could be for the student to record themselves playing a song individually or in a group and post it to YouTube to be graded. The teacher could post supplemental teaching videos for the students to access. 

Created by V.J. Manzo, Eamir takes technology and music education to new levels. I don’t understand everything (yet!) but the site offers ways to teach music in a format that is innovative, accessible to a wide array of students, and fun. One project in particular, the Guitar Eamir-o, could be used for learning melody, composition, performance, and other education goals.


Now, I have set this up in a 3-level format, which is purely for the purpose of convenience. The purpose of integration is not to use one “tech assignment” a year. Technology should be thought about, accessed, and utilized by teachers and students throughout the whole school year, if it is to be meaningful and effective. By using a combination of all of the technologies that I have mentioned, and all of the ones that I did not mention, integration might be achieved. I have not gone into the fullest detail as to how far we can take technology in the classroom, but I hope I’ve given a broad overview as to what can be done.

Do you know of a super cool technology? Do you completely disagree with me? Have I touched you in a way that you would like to express? Please tell me what you think in the comment section!