Using audio to support learning – what does this mean to me as a music teacher?

From my experiences so far, I’ve learned that most people assume anything audio-related is relevant to music teachers. I can see the connections they make – music is sound, audio is sound, audio usually involves music… it must be relevant to teaching music!

At this point in my life I challenge this notion. From most of classes I have taught, been taught in, or observed, the most a teacher has used audio media is watching YouTube videos or listening to higher-quality recordings on publisher websites or IMSLP. This is of course extremely important and helpful, but it isn’t anything new, unprecedented, or anything that can’t be done from one’s home computer or cell phone. I did use some recording technology in high school (Logic), but I think we were some of the lucky ones as I haven’t seen similar software used in a classroom since then. Even being one of the lucky ones who got to use it, I wasn’t necessarily taught HOW to use it – I was just given access to the software, so the recordings were not excellent.

When I teach, I would love to give my students resources and instruction on how to record themselves in better ways than using Voice Memos on a iPhone. This is something I would like to explore in my tech inquiry project. Hopefully I can find out more.