The Future of YouTube in Music Education

     In my graduate class, Current Trends in Music Education, we were given the assignment to make 3 educational music videos for our students, and post them on YouTube. This assignment made me wonder how many music teachers already utilize YouTube as a teaching tool, and what do they use it for. So, I googled it and, immediately, came across a book entitled ‘YouTube in Music Education’ by Thomas Rudolf and James Frankel. I should not have been surprised but I was. I have not been working with children in a classroom for 3 years and, to me, this feels like a short period of time but, wow, do I feel like I need to get in touch with the times! There was a long list of similar books, but just to name a few: Technology Integration in the Elementary Music Classroom, Integrating Technology with Music Instruction, Making Music with GarageBand and Mixcraft, The Teacher’s Guide to Music, Media, and Copy Law, Pop-Culture Pedagogy in the Music Classroom, Teaching with Technology, Technology Guide for Music Educators, Technology Strategies for Music Education, Computers in Music Education: Amplifying Musicality, Spotlight on Technology in the Music Classroom, and the list goes on and on. How would I go about picking one? Is one more reputable than the other? I see that a few are sponsored by MENC, should I choose those books because they did? Hmmmmm. 

    Leila Viss, a piano and keyboard teacher for grades 2-8, founder of www.musicteachershelper.com , uses YouTube in the following ways:

• 1.     Uploads performances to track student’s progress from year to year.
• 2.     Uploads recital-ready performances to acknowledge work well done.
• 3.     Uses practice performance videos to aid students in mastering a piece.
• 4.     Shows videos to students for educational purposes, such as how the inside of the piano works.
• 5.     Uses ‘Favorite Composers’, a collection of videos that features performances of classical pieces for student reference and comparison.
• 6.     Uses ‘Favorite Arrangements’, where new artists and arrangers share their creativity. This inspires her students when looking for a new piece to play.
• 7.     Leila puts a video of herself playing on YouTube as a marketing tool.
• 8.     She puts her favorite artists, pianists, dances, etc. videos on to inspire and enlighten students.
• 9.     Puts on students original compositions and improvisations to showcase their work.

     Trafalgar Primary School is using Musical Futures, the resource book that we are using in our graduate class, and suggested that students and teachers use YouTube: to search for guitar, piano, bass and drum lessons online and use podcasts in the “ iTunes Store” for free, excellent online lessons that will download straight to iTunes.

     I can see how useful YouTube could be for me in the general music classroom, I could show: clips of musicians, an old musical clip, everything mentioned above, post lessons etc. I have a few fears; copyright infringements and how to know which sites are credible, are they who they say that they are, and is the information reliable. My supervisors will want to know how I am monitoring the credibility of the information that I am showing to the students, at least I hope that they would be concerned. 

    I realize that I have just scratched the surface of YouTube and how I can utilize it in the music classroom. I will start slow, but I will promise myself to use it in my next teaching experience.