Creating Music with Technology - Focus on Composition

As a firm believer in basic music teaching before anything else in my classroom, the past three weeks have altered my beliefs considerably.  Standard notation remains the foundation for my teaching, however, experimenting with non-notational software have provided me with an alternative for students that may not comprehend the standards.  

Soundtrap would open children’s minds to playing around with different sounds based on the provided loops, sound effects, etc.  Creating a piece of music utilizing those loops and other offerings would be somewhat of a challenge at first, but given the MIDI feature, the fun would be unlimited.

MIDI and digital audio opens up a whole new world of music to students that may have difficulty grasping or comprehending approaches to reading music notation.  With MIDI, students can play using a device hooked into the computer while with digital audio, they can sample from existing recordings.  There are many free programs out now that students can access online that they can play around with on their own.  However, it would be nice if they understood what they are doing from a music teacher than by hit and miss learning.  

Students today are more technologically savvy than their teachers, however when faced with MIDI and digital audio, music teachers should be able to speak from an educated standpoint to point them in the right direction about setup and usage in a composition.