Making Music, the Instrument encyclopaedia that has been around for a while is still available on CD-Rom!
David Ahmed of DavidAhmed.co.uk developed this application as an encyclopaedia for musical instruments from around the world. The latest version v7.0, was released in April 2005 and despite its age, the program can still find its way into your teaching toolbox for imaginative lessons. It could be used in loop-based composing as well as a reference tool on any Interactive Whiteboard (IWB). But is that enough?
As an educator if someone comes to you with a new idea, application or book resource and says, “this is really great, check out this resource!” What do you do? Do you:
a) Buy it for your department/studio and promptly leave it on the shelf?
b) ‘Um’ and ‘Ah’ but do nothing?
c) Buy it and make maybe a few lessons using this resource?
These are pretty common responses but something struck me as I was watching a Superman Cartoon on day with my little boy (stay with me). If you don’t know Superman (and you should) his arch nemesis is Lex Luthor, a man with no super-human abilities what-so-ever. Yet, as Lex himself says, “I have imagination and the will to carry it out.” And I thought, “That’s it! That is what is missing from so many books and lesson plans I had written or used over the years: imagination.”
Does your imagination fire when you see something like this application Making Music? Or a new web 2.0 link? Do you get creative with projects for your students and when something new comes along do you think, “I could use that to enhance this learning experience, and then teach this, oh and then they could do this and what if the students had the freedom to comment on each other projects or remix them and then…?” So many music teachers rely on worksheets and guitar chord playing (guilty) to get through the day and is anyone’s imagination being charged with creativity? Not really. Does this constitute as education? I would have to argue idealistically and say no. So what could be done with Making Music that would be so imaginative and not just a worksheet activity?
Making Music has a database of 336 instrument graphics & audio samples from around the world – a goldmine for music educators. Have you seen my students World Music Wix.com Sites? Imagine having all the pieces you need to help your students create their own site or project on world music instruments complete with visual and audio material. After all, this is Music Education! Get them to interact with the visual and audio material, do tone colour written exercises if you wish but when they are able to classify and research world instruments based on their own experiences I believe a more lasting impression is made in their learning.
Check out this video to see what Making Music is!
You can email David for more information on his Instruments application and request to purchase a CD-Rom. I did.
