Creative Music Making at Your Fingertips

Book excerpt: Students are drawn to mobile technologies such as iPads and smartphones because of the sheer endless possibilities of the digital worlds they hold. But how can their potential for stimulating the imagination be effectively used in the music classroom to support students' development of musical thinking? Countering voices that see digital technologies as a threat to traditional forms of music making and music education, this collection explores the many ways in which hand-held devices can be used to promote student learning and provides teachers with guidance on making them a vital presence in their own classrooms. Creative Music Making at Your Fingertips features 11 chapters by music education scholars and practitioners that provide tried-and-true strategies for using mobile devices in a variety of contexts, from general music education to ensembles and from K-12 to college classrooms. Drawing on their own experiences with bringing mobile devices and different music apps into the classroom, contributors show how these technologies can be turned into tools for teaching performance, improvisation, and composition. Their practical advice on how pedagogy and mobile technologies can be aligned to increase students' creative engagement with music and help them realize their musical potential makes this book an invaluable resource for music educators who want to be at the forefront of pedagogical transformations made possible by 21st-century technologies.