Redefining Music Technology: A Rough Guide to a Universe of Possibilities

As music making and technology grow more entwined, it is important for teachers to become familiar with available hardware, software, Web apps, yMIDI, sequencing, sampling and other emerging products. If music students in today's digital world wish to make a career out of doing what they love--whether as performers or conductors, composers or songwriters, producers or audio engineers--they need to know how to use the technological tools that are available to them. That is a job tailor-made for music teachers. With this in mind, the authors have broken the picture down into five basic categories to show how music technology can help music teachers and their students: (1) learning and practice aids; (2) performance tools; (3) music creation products; (4) music production software; and (5) recording and distribution technology.