Technology in music education.

Is there a place for consumer tech in music lessons?

The truth is, we’re not sure. But there are benefits for some kids.

In junior high, I had a class called Digital Media Studies run by our band teacher. He had just bought two carts of iPads, and the objective of the class was to write, produce, and present a song and music video to the rest of the class.

But he had something special planned for the guitar players in the room though.

In addition to the iPads, our teacher had bought 10 or 12 iRigs from IK Multimedia. These little dongles would convert the 1/4 inch output from an electric guitar to a 3.5mm input compatible with mobile devices with a headphone jack.

This piece of kit paired with the preloaded software on the iPad allowed for a surprisingly intuitive music making experience. We were able to record, mix, and master a song in about 3 weeks with no prior training whatsoever.

So what went wrong?

When you give a bunch of 13-year-olds iPads and an internet connection, they’re gonna get distracted. At the end of the semester, only I and about 5 other people had a presentable project.

Students often got lost as to what the actual objective was. There was too much to do on the iPad, too many possibilities. A lot of kids ended up with songs that just had every possible instrument combination on GarageBand.

Another issue stemmed from the extent to which GarageBand can automate an instrument. There were kids that put a song together that sounded incredible, but they really only asked a computer to spit out a chord progression. There was no knowledge retained from the experience.

Everything can be boiled down to: lack of direction.

How does FIRST do it better?

Our lessons are one-on-one. We are able to give direction better than a single teacher with 30 students. Our instructors can guide, give tips, and teach, all while encouraging creativity.

The most important thing though, is that we aren’t just teaching production, we’re also teaching the instrument.

Kids will learn how to play their instrument, but will also learn how to listen, critique, and produce music universally. They will learn how their instrument interacts with others in the auditory space, and they will learn how to work with other instruments.

They’ll have a music education, and not an instrument education.