Brandt Schneider plans to teach Seymour High School music students how to play complex musical pieces using one instrument: an iPad.
Seymour High School purchased 15 iPads for the music department this year, using a $12,350 Katharine Matthies Foundation grant.
Now Schneider is hosting a worldwide contest to solicit original musical compositions written specifically for the iPad, a hand-held touch screen computer released by Apple this year.
The contest began this week. The winning entry will be played by the Seymour High School music theory class at a concert this spring.
“It’s exciting,” Schneider said.
Click here for full details on the contest.
Learning Tool
Schneider said the iPad is a great tool for students in music classes. The machine has access to the internet for classroom discussion on topics.
And the touch screen allows the device to be played like an instrument, for instructional uses.
Different iPad applications replicate the strings on a guitar, or the keys on a piano.
Click play to see the different applications in action.
Other programs on the iPad allow users to play an instrument, while drums or bass guitars play in the background, for a band-like effect.
Click here to read Schneider’s blog, where he outlines his efforts with the iPads.
Music in a Box
The idea of teaching students to play music on an iPad is a little radical, Schneider admitted.
But he said the computer will be used as a tool to help students learn the basics and garner an understanding for different instruments.
“I think, in many ways, this is a means to an end,” Schneider said. “I don’t see a lot of albums of iPad music coming out. But through the iPad, I think we can create singers, songwriters and musicians.”
He said with iPads in hand, students are sometimes more engaged in the subject matter.
He compared the iPad to new technologies for music that appeared in the past.
“They thought the record player would be the death of music. They thought the CD player was the death of music,” Schneider said. “This is just something new.”
Crowd-Sourcing
The composition contest takes the idea global.
Because iPads are so new, Schneider said his class was looking for ways to get musical pieces to play on the devices at their spring concert.
“While we were writing music and doing all this, I thought it’d be neat to have other people join in,” Schneider said.
So he got some sponsors, gathered up some prizes (iTunes gift cards) and put the word out in the music-teacher internet networks. And Schneider is using his Twitter account to get the word out.
“I think the way our networks are working now, it doesn’t make sense to limit it to just Connecticut, or just the United States,” Schneider said.
Schneider said the finished product will be played by the students, recorded and posted to YouTube for maximum exposure.
Contest Rules
Anyone can enter. Compose a musical piece, no longer than five minutes, that can be played by two to 15 iPads using free musical applications.
Composers should keep in mind that the performers of the piece are music students — so it shouldn’t be too difficult to play.
Music staff at Seymour High School and Western Connecticut State University will judge the entries, as well as the students in Schneider’s music theory class.
Entries are due by Feb. 1, and will be judged by March 1.
