John Paul Titlow discusses the change in music in his article, “New Apps Show the Music Education Revolution is Just Getting Started.” I think everyone knew that with the creation of online music pirating, ahem….Napster, that the way music is communicated would be forever changed. It’s been about a decade since then and music technology is only developing at a more rapid rate.
Music education is now available online, via SoundSlice – which allows guitar-learners to watch YouTube videos to learn tabs. Children can essentially teach themselves with the help of this app. Music education students are also able to communicate with a teacher over Skype. This is a transformative approach to teaching and learning to play music.
I particularly think this is an awesome approach to learning music because I have quite the embarrassing/horror story on my quest to play a musical instrument. In fifth grade, I decided to pick up playing the trumpet in the band. Man, I really loved it and was pretty darn good at it…..if I must say so myself. However, I was forced to give it up because I had some sort of allergic reaction to the metal on the trumpet. Literally, it looked like I had a football in my mouth.
So, I switched to the percussion. I was given this little starter drum and the xylophone. The xylophone was so tricky, and I never figured it out. Needless to say, I dropped out of band that year. Maybe, if I was able to work on the craft in the comfort of my home with some YouTube assistance, my xylophone skills maybe would have improved. Who knows? Instead of pursuing educational technology, I could be pursuing music education or even better, a Grammy. J
So maybe there is hope for me. I'm in my mid fifties and can't play any sort of musical instrument, but I really want to have that talent. Taking classes with pre-teens would just be embarrassing for me; they always pick up new stuff so quickly. An app at home would be ideal for me!
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