I was very excited to receive the hard copy of the new book Teaching Music Creatively by Pamela Burnard and Regina Murphy in the mail today. I contributed a chapter to this book entitled Exploring new media musically and creatively where I put forward two creative projects for the primary classroom that get pupils engaged in making music with new media.
Here’s an excerpt from the chapter abstract:
This chapter provides an introduction to projects and tools for exploring the creative dimensions of new media with primary pupils. I begin with an introduction to creative musicianship with new media, followed by an overview of tools for creating and being creative with new media. These tools are discussed in the context of practical projects and creative strategies for teacher and pupil exploration within primary classrooms. The first project I share focuses on a mobile app for Apple’s iDevices – the application Singing Fingers, which enables children to “finger paint in sound” connecting physical gesture, drawing, and sound. The second project focuses on creative performing, improvising and composing experiences with the Scratch multimedia programming environment created by the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab.
Though specifically written as a resource for primary generalist teachers in the UK and Ireland, this book has a number of international contributors including Rena Upitis (Canada), Deborah Blair (USA), Kathryn Marsh (Australia), Jenny Boyack (New Zealand), Gillian Howell (Australia), Emily Okuno (Kenya), Marcelo Giglio (Switzerland), James Biddulph (England), and Jane Wheeler (England). Give it a browse and hopefully add it to your collection!
To Cite the Chapter: Ruthmann, S. A. (2013). Exploring new media musically and creatively. In P. Burnard & R. Murphy, Teaching Music Creatively (pp. 85-97). London: Routledge. ISBN: 978041565606.