After reading the beginning of Bauer's book this week and being immersed in new social media, blogs and other internet resources, I have been able to deeply consider the vastness of technology's influence in every day life, school and music education in particular. It seems the more involved and dependent we become on technology, the less we think about it. So it was good this first week to start by setting up this PLN to "tap in" to more things that are out there and organize a system for technology resources.
In the preface, Bauer discusses his personal experiences as a child with early technology and how the things that seem ancient to us now were so valuable and influential in shaping who he became. I was able to make an interesting connection with this preface passage to a blog I subscribed to through Feedly. I read through John Mackey's blog entry called "How I Spent My Teen Years." Mackey is one of my favorite contemporary wind band composers. It was so intriguing to learn that he did not play a band instrument in school. He begins the article by saying that people always ask him what instrument he played and wonder how he became a composer when they find out he played none. His response was brilliant and extremely relevant to this weeks readings. He said, "The answer is that I have always used a computer – from the time I was really young."
Mackey goes on to explain and give examples of early music software that allowed him to input and compose an enormous amount of music as a teenager. He used early computers such as the Apple IIe and the Commodore 64, and primitive music software such as Music Construction Set and SidPlayer. Mackey talks about the limitations he faced when composing with these systems, yet how his early experiences with these as a young person helped mold him as a composer. It is astonishing to see how even the most early and basic forms of music technology brought us a composer such as John Mackey who never even played a wind instrument!
http://feedly.com/i/subscription/feed/http://ostimusic.com/blog/feed/
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