Love ’em or hate ’em, computers are here to stay and are rapidly permeating most areas of our lives. Music is no exception.
There’s music software ranging from humble metronome and tuning duties, right through to sophisticated composition and recording, and everything in-between! In preparing the next generation of musicians, integrating music technology into our lessons is therefore an important aspect of our student’s development.
But where to start? What software should students use? Will it be expensive? What skills need to be taught?
Over the next few months I will looking at some of the basic concepts of music technology that I teach in my music lessons as well as sharing some advanced techniques learnt from my experiences as a freelance composer and producer.
So why incorporate music technology in lessons?
- It brings exciting variety into the lessons for both us as teachers and for our students
- Particularly good for engaging teenage boys but I’m equally pleased to see the enthusiasm of my female students too
- Helps give us a “USP (unique selling point)” when students are looking for a new teacher
- Playing back to students what they written or recorded and allowing them to “see” their music is a very powerful method of learning
- Helps us stay relevant as teachers
- Gives students skills that they will be need in the future
What software is available?
For simplicity, I would divide music software into three basic roles:
- Software for notating sheet music
- Software for recording
- Utility software for tuning, metronome duties, guitar pedal software, drum machines, soft synths, etc.
How much?!
The good news is you don’t have to spend a penny! There is much legitimate, free software out there and some of it is exceptional. Beware that there is a lot of illegal, cracked software that may be very tempting. As teachers, we need to set a good moral/ethical example to our students and their parents. Software developers rely on sales to fund future releases and cracked software often contains bugs that can cause serious problems.
Notation software
NoteFlight is a fantastic free web based product and has provided a very good starting point for lots of my students. As their skills develop, some students have upgraded to Sibelius First, which can later be upgraded to the industry standard Sibelius. It is worth mentioning Finale which is another highly respected notation package in the music industry.
Recording software
There are many great products available for recording. You many hear of them referred to as DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations).
Apple provide their free entry level product GarageBand on their iPhones, iPads and MacBooks which is simple to use and can later be updated to their flagship product Logic (available on Macs but not the iPhones or iPads). With the Apple Camera Kit and a USB cable (same as a USB printer cable), you can connect a midi keyboard to record music. Bluetooth keyboards are now available so that you don’t need to use cables anymore! Guitars and microphones can also be connected for use. IK Multimedia provide some great products for singers, guitarists and keyboard players to interface with their mobile devices for recording.
Cubase is a long respected DAW which has the benefit of being cross-platform (I run it on both my PCs and Macs) and has been my weapon of choice since I was 14! It comes in three flavours, Elements (entry-level), Artist and then the full version.
Finally, I would like to mention a website called MusicRadar which is a fantastic resource for learning about software products and learning about how to use music technology.
The post Teaching Music Technology: Part 1 – Why? appeared first on Music Teacher’s Helper Blog.