Apps as a Vehicle for Musical Creativity

-- April 28, 2011

I'll admit it.  I'm stumbling my way through an iTunes U Stanford course on Objective C and developing apps for the iOS.  This is not just because I've always been fascinated by computers (though music supplanted that passion when I was in eighth grade), but it is also because I have always been curious about different kinds of experiences listeners can have.  To me, this goes way behind simply sharing and choosing new music to listen to.  By creating innovative interfaces, we musicians can give people ways to monkey around with the actual notes and rhythms, learn things about how music fits together, and create new instruments along the way.

I'd say the ownership question in this article by Eliot Van Buskirk just scratches the surface.  What does it mean to "play" music?  What does it mean to "listen" to music.  What skills are earned and learned to do either in a satisfying way?  Most interesting to me, how can composers and educators make opportunities to create music for people with little or no musical training.