Young, Assignment 3

iPod:  A technological marvel that can store thousands of songs and allows you to retrieve them almost instantly. In the classroom, this can be used to quickly and easily provide musical examples of different genres, performance methods, a genre “history” (listening to older songs and comparing them to newer songs of the same genre), etc.  In a therapeutic setting, the iPod is useful for allowing the therapist to easily provide the right genre of music for the goals of the therapy; for example, one hospice client might prefer a certain genre versus another hospice client.  While the music therapist does her best to play/sing as many of the preferred songs as possible using instruments/voice, it is impossible to know all songs from all genres; the iPod can provide those songs for the client.

Digital recorder:  In the classroom, the educator can record the student playing a instrument or singing, and then afterwards play the recording back to the student in order to provide proper feedback.  In the therapeutic setting, a digital recorder will record an intervention, which allows the therapist to help determine if progress is being made towards a goal and allows for the sharing of the intervention with parents, teachers, and other therapists.

Boardmaker software:  Boardmaker is sort of an advanced “clip-art” software that creates a “picture language” similar to sign language.  In the classroom and in a therapeutic setting, this software is invaluable for communicating with students/clients that are non-verbal or struggle with expressive language.  This is what is engaging about this software - how music can be expressed in pictures. 

For example, if a student with a disability is in the audience, the performer on stage could use Boardmaker to meet the needs of their audience.

 

Electronic keyboard:  This technology allows both the educator and therapist to have the ability to “play” an instrument without actually playing the instrument.  For example, when a client wishes to hear harp music, it is often impractical to bring a harp to the therapy session and the therapist might not be able to play it.  The keyboard can be easily switched to “harp” and the therapist can fulfill the client’s wishes.

Finale software:  Finale is a wonderful piece of software that allows the user to compose music.  In the classroom, this can be used by the student to compose music without actually being able to play an instrument; Finale plays the composed music back.