Music Technology within Education

Jason Zacher
Montclair State University

Abstract

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The purpose of this paper is to explore the effect that technology is having in our society
and how we, as educators, can incorporate this music technology into a classroom
setting. Technology is something that is becoming more and more prominent in our
society and in this paper I will describe how incorporating this music technology into the
curriculum allows students to easily accomplish what they could not before without
technology. I will then relate this to certain examples in which music technology has
been used in order to help better improve a musicians creativity and ability both inside
and outside of the classroom. I will also relate this to how we can use this technology in
order to maintain the aspects of the more traditional style of music and educate others
using it.

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Technology is something that is becoming more and more prominent in education

throughout the world today. This is due to the fact that today's world has become
extremely dependent on the use of technology throughout society. This incorporation of
technology within the classroom is something that is beginning to become more popular
within music pedagogy. It has been stated that, "today's computers, both desktop and
mobile can now be considered musical instruments in and of themselves, and are
inspiring new practices that integrate sound image touch and video as the medium of
musical expression" (Ruthmann 1). This exemplifies the fact that, since technology has
such a strong presence in our society, these technologic innovations can be used as
musical instruments to adhere to ones musical qualities. It has been said that
classrooms that include technologic aid for students are shown to help assist these
students in their learning because of how they are so strongly efficient and familiar with
the technology that they have around them in their everyday lives. However, the
question is whether this is something that all classrooms should involve in their
teachings. Does this technology attain the same level of achievements and creativity
from students as the traditional styles of teaching? I personally believe that the use of
technology in the music classroom is something that can evoke many benefits from a
student's creativity and knowledge.
There are many new programs within today's world that adhere to a student's
familiarity to technology. Including this familiarized technology into a student's learning
can ultimately result in great benefits throughout their education. One advantage of the
use of technology in pedagogy is the fact that it is very beneficial within the musical
lessons regarding compositions. MIDI is a huge advancement in music technology

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courses and really expands a student's creativity within composing. Through the use of
MIDI, a student can take a song/note that they play on a MIDI keyboard and instantly
have that notated on a screen for them. There are many programs today that work with
these MIDI devices and this allows these students to compose music and hear exactly
what they just composed with the push of a button. These programs make composing
for students a lot easier as opposed to having to write in pencil or asking a pianist to
play what the student just wrote down. It is stated that, "the implications of using
synthesizers and computers for music education are enormous. Students can create,
edit and hear their own compositions by just pushing a button...MIDI technology offers
another advantage: students' creative experiences are not constrained by notationreading limitations. This allows students to create more freely without the fear of having
to notate later" (Beckstead 46). This quote illustrates the fact that a student does not
have to be the best musician in the world in order to use these programs. MIDI is
something that helps any student that wishes to write music to write the music without
restricting their creativity because they are constrained by notation-reading limitations.
While MIDI is very dominant throughout music technology in education, there are
also still many other technologic innovations that can be included in educational
programs in order to help the student and the teacher in their learning. One of the
benefits in the inclusion of music technology within the classroom is the fact that it
makes it easier for the schools in regards to the ability for percussionists to practice with
headphones, pianists able to use a keyboard coherently with another student, and
enables those with no musical training to participate in an ensemble. (Chriswell &
Menasche). There are also some smaller music technology incorporations in the

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classroom that can lead to the benefit of a student's musical performance. These
smaller and less expensive technologic innovations include metronomes and chromatic
tuners. This helps aid musicians in making sure that their instruments are in tune and
that they are performing in the correct tempo. These are less straining on a schools
budget, however they can tremendously help students with the quality of their
performances.
One of the biggest incorporations of technology which help students with their
music education is the internet. The internet is a tool that can be incorporated into all
aspects of teaching in order to help students. "The internet has shown itself to be a
dynamic teaching tool for exploring, discovering, creating, communicating about and
playing in virtual music-making contexts. It provides a mechanism for connecting a
network of places, spaces (both physical and symbolic), musical worlds, music makers,
generators, performances and productions" (Burnard 42). This portrays the fact that the
internet can have a major effect on ones learning, and even helps connect these
students to a broad selection of places that can benefit their learning as well. There are
many popular artists in today's world that are known for the way that they use the
internet and technology interactively with music. This is especially the case for the
artists, Kutiman who remixes YouTube videos and creates a completely new musical
composition, the band Pomplamoose who has pioneered the genre video song, and
especially Eric Whitacre who is a choral composer who allows people from all around
the world to submit videos of themselves singing his composition and then puts these
videos together in order to create a virtual choir (Ruthmann 2). This modernized
version of music composing is extremely popular within today's society and really aides

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in the expression of musical creativity. The incorporation of music technology really

helps expand musical possibilities and allows people to achieve what was previously
impossible years ago.
Although there are all of these benefits of the incorporation of music technology
into one's pedagogy, there are some disadvantages as well. One of the main problems
is the concern that, "the health of an art is in danger if those who teach it fall too far
behind those who practice it" (Beckstead 45). If a teacher is not well-educated on how
technology functions, then how do you suppose that they would be able to educate
students about this technology? This would ultimately lead to a disadvantage which
could result in causing students to fall behind. Another problem within this technology is
that a lot of schools do not have the funds in order to purchase these materials. Having
to buy many electronic devices/instruments can be quite strenuous on a school's
budget. This is especially the case in the schools that are in high poverty areas that
have problems just maintaining basic needs of the schools such as buying textbooks,
calculators, etc. Another issue that exists is the fact that "because children are working
with these tools on their own outside of school, the challenge, then, is for the teacher to
cultivate a culture and community of new media musicians inside and around the
classroom" (Ruthmann 17). This provides a challenge for teachers because, as these
children are working with these tools outside of school, teachers need to be able to play
the role of musician/learner alongside their students so that they can create new music
together. The fact, in many cases, is that "many young people are already high-end or
passive, consumption-bound users and consumers of music technology, mass media
and the production technologies when they come to school" (Burnard 38). Since these

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students are already high-end users of music technology, it is important that these
teachers create a learning environment in which they are equal to the students and
where they can learn together. It is important that the teacher shares the position as
musician/learner in this pedagogical practice due to the fact that the use of, "technology
provides a enabling environment in which learners and teachers enter a co-participative
process around activities and explorations where learners can take back control of their
learning" (Burnard 39). This ultimately allows students to take control of their learning in
the classroom and will also allow teachers and students to both participate in this
learning process together.
So, what happens in the classroom when we include these new technology
methods? Do educators lose the traditional methods of teaching that were successful
before-hand? It is actually proven that, These technologies may actually reinforce the
traditional notions that they are supposedly trying to supplant (Beckstead 45). This
leads one to believe that, with these new technologies, the traditional notions may
actually help reinforce their methods rather than replacing them with these new lessons.
It is also to believed that, "technologically mediated music making can shake the most
cherished practices of classroom music teachers but, on the other, it can generate the
desire to (and ways in which to) diversify existing pedagogical practice" (Burnard 39).
This highlights the thinking that, although these new practices can actually cause
educators to stray away from the most cherished traditional practices, these new
practices may ultimately lead to more of a desire from the students to learn and expand
upon their creativity.

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Music technology is an important innovation in today's society that can draw

many benefits from a student's learning. These newly innovated incorporations into the
classroom can truly expand a student's creativity and increase the potential of their art.
Through the use of programs such as MIDI, many musical processes such as music
composition can be made much easier for students without having to deal with the
disadvantages. "The tools for making and creating music have always been changing"
(Ruthman 18). With this being said, we need to stray from the traditional styles of
creating music and expand upon these traditional qualities and innovate them into a
newer more technology-oriented environment. With these new technologies, it is
important that educators focus on creating a learning environment in which both the
students and the teacher are learning and creating music coherently. Although there can
be some challenges when attempting to incorporate these technologies into the
classroom of some schools due to funding problems, there are also many inexpensive
ways to help improve the quality of one's art through the use of technologies. Overall, I
personally believe that music technology is something that should strongly be
incorporated into pedagogy of every sort. Since technology has become such a
dominant part of our students lives and our society, and since children are so familiar
with these technologies, it is important to revolve our education around it. Ultimately, I
believe that in order to see the best results from our students, we need to incorporate
these new innovations into our teachings in order to evoke the best results from our
students, especially in regards to their creativity.

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Bibliography
Beckstead, David. "Will Technology Transform Music Education?" Music Educators
Journal 87.6 (2001): 44. Print.
Burnard, Pamela. "Reframing Creativity and Technology: Promoting Pedagogic Change
in Music Education." Journal of Music, Technology and Education 1.1 (2007): 37-55.
Print.
Criswell, Chad, and Emile Menasche. "Redefining Music Technology." Teaching Music
16.5 (2009): 30. Print.
Ruthmann, Alex. "CHAPTER 8 EXPLORING NEW MEDIA MUSICALLY AND
CREATIVELY." Teaching Music Creatively. Learning to Teach in the Primary School
Series. London: New York, 2013. 1-20. Print.