The article Democracy of Sound: Is Gargageband Good for Music by Art Tavana is an interesting read. It’s also the type of article that could surely include the perspective of music educators, but does not.
Coincidentally I had a very productive conversation with students in my Art of Teaching Contemporary Musicians course the other day about how music educators should consider the affordances and constraints of technology when situating them in teaching and learning contexts, another conversation with a music teacher yesterday about his students’ perspectives on whether they would prefer to use ProTools or Garageband, and a dialogue with music ed faculty and doc students in our doctoral seminar today about varied narratives that could, but do not, include the perspectives of K-12 music educators and music teacher educators. Music educators discuss the issues included in the Democracy of sound article on a regular basis whether in classrooms, conferences, or research and can raise some other points that might not be addressed in the original article. The title of the article is interesting though I think many music educators would frame the issues differently given their experiences working with young people.
All of that being said, Democracy of Sound: Is Garageband Good for Music does share some perspectives of musicians that are worth reading and perhaps students might be interested in being included in the conversation as well?
So, for those who work with young people in teaching and learning contexts and have interest in issues surrounding creative musical engagement and technology, what say you and students with whom you work?