MMED 682 Teaching Music Improvisation With Technology

3 credits 42.0 hours
600 level graduate course

This course is designed for elementary and secondary music educators who want to enhance
improvisation skills in their students. No previous experience with improvisation is
required. Participants will learn how technology can be used to support improvisational growth and
musical development in the practice room, music classroom, and ensemble rehearsal. Participants
will learn the basic mechanics of improvising and the essential music theory elements needed to
teach improvisation including modal improvisation, the blues, ii-V-I progressions,
and chord bracketing. Computer software (Band-in-a-Box, SmartMusic, Note Flight,
Audacity, and GarageBand) will be incorporated to create custom improvisation accompaniments and
exercises. Web resources for listening and posting (YouTube, Spotify, SoundCloud, and
Weebly) will be covered as well. Finally, each unit of the course will include an ‘iPad
connection’ referencing free/low-cost iPad apps. (Note: You do NOT need an iPad to participate in
this course.)

This course is not repeatable for credit.