Modern Technology and Music Lessons

Is new technology helping or harming music students? Where and when should we use it? These are important questions to consider when trying out new things as a musician. It’s no secret that new innovations can have both benefits and can backfire on us.

If you are a music student, below are a few technologies that we as professional musicians find beneficial and recommend. We have also included few pieces of modern technology that we recommend avoiding or being intentional with.

Learn to Use a Metronome.

A metronome allows musicians to keep a steady tempo. It does this MUCH better than a human tapping a beat. It’s unforgiving – this is the point. Having access to a metronome is truly very helpful especially when you get pretty advanced in your playing.

Metronomes are not necessarily a “new” technology. The original analog metronome was invented by Dietrich Nikolaus Winkel in 1812. The great composers and performers, like Bach and Mozart, didn’t have the help of the metronome!

This device features a super easy design and idea. It is actually almost unbelievable that it was invented so late! A metronome works by playing a clicking sound that a musician can follow to keep a steady beat. The click tempo is changed by sliding a weight up and down on the metal stick.

The great thing about metronomes now is that you can download a metronome app on your smart phone in seconds. It’s a great tool to have at your fingertips whenever you need it!

Listen to live performances of music on streaming platforms or YouTube.

One might argue how streaming platforms negatively affected the music recording industry in general, but the ease with which we can listen and compare different interpretations of the pieces we are working on is undeniable. In the past, musicians had to make great effort to research the best performances of the past and present. Now, we have the ability to instantly see other musicians play!

Use your best judgement in finding reliable recordings and performances. Try to research the names of the artists and whether they are trusted and accomplished musicians whose playing you can learn from. There is nothing wrong with sharing your music performances with the world if you are an amateur performer, but as a student you should try to learn from real masters. There’s something we call good taste and bad taste in playing a musical instrument. You want to hear the examples of good taste.

And another quick note: if you hear a piece played at an unbelievably fast tempo – this might not necessarily be right for the piece. Some performances are at a very fast tempo and are designed to sound virtuosic. Many YouTubers strive to get viewers to “like and follow” rather than be musically coherent. Remember: playing at extremely high tempos that are not marked in the score in a musical jury at a conservatory or on a musical exam may mean that your grade will be lowered. Don’t chase speed!

Make recordings of yourself playing your instrument.

The fact that we can take a video or record audio at anytime with our phones is huge innovation that helps musicians tremendously.

Why is recording yourself important? Some say that working on recording your pieces is the ultimate tool for becoming great. It allows you to hear all of your perfection that need fixing after you’ve practiced your pieces to near perfection! This causes an unbelievable push in raising the quality of your playing.

So listening to yourself works mostly during the middle and final stages of your work. Don’t stress yourself out with listening to your own mistakes when you are just learning the notes.

And another tip: if you need to produce a recording and you want to do it yourself, invest in an external microphone that you can hook up to your phone. Smart phones do not pick up dynamics well; therefore, the nuance of your performance will come through better when using a higher quality microphone.

Avoid music learning apps or use them only as a supplement to music lessons with a real-life teacher.

We are wishing the music apps creators all the best in making truly useful and helpful music educational apps. We made one a while ago ourselves. Music learning apps really work well as a supplement to real in-person music lessons; but they do not replace a live teacher. It’s also best to use them for learning music theory only and probably just the beginner stuff.

Apps that teach you how to play real songs are nowhere near to be successful at that. In fact, they usually create more problems than benefits. For example, apps that require you to play “on time” and penalize you for being late cause students to have a natural reaction of tensing up and the app doesn’t know that you are doing that. The result – a tense hand and body position and uncomfortable and even painful technique.

Remember, bad habits are very difficult to fix if you are doing something wrong for a long time. So if you feel that you are doing something that causes even the slightest stress, just don’t do it. If you stay away from music apps altogether you will be just fine, trust us! We do believe that in the future this technology will be helpful, it’s just not there yet.

Do not try to learn your pieces solely by YouTube tutorials.

YouTubre is so tempting to use to learn how to play piano! In many cases, it may even be the only way to learn the music you love. Unfortunately, learning how to play a musical instrument from videos alone lacks the most crucial aspect of a normal music lesson: there is no feedback from a teacher on what you are doing right and wrong.

It is impossible for a beginner and intermediate player to know what they are doing wrong, and boy there are a myriad of mistakes that we don’t notice ourselves because we are simply not aware that they are mistakes. We’ve seen very enthusiastic beginners who managed to learn playing several songs just from YouTube and we admire the spirit, but unfortunately we then had to spend a very long time (months and months) fixing the bad habits that made these students feel uncomfortable and painful.

Please remember that if you play the wrong way for a prolonged period of time you will eventually seriously injure your hands and body. It took musicians roughly 400 years to figure out how to play their instruments, you won’t be able to do it just with YouTube.  It is best to hire a piano teacher to help you learn how to play piano!

Avoid foldable electric keyboards and other cheap electric versions of acoustic instruments.

Some companies make products that they advertise as replacements for real instruments. Usually, these products don’t perform anywhere close to an actual musical instrument. Foldable or rollable keyboards are nothing like what a real piano should feel like. They are actually not even physically possible to play on.

Please use your best judgment! If a musical instrument is too cheap, you should probably not buy one even if it’s tempting. We can say with most certainty that if it’s cheaper than $300 – don’t get it, you will just throw it away and waste your money. 

At Riverside Music Studios we are happy to show you more ways you can use modern technology in a meaningful way. Come try a music lesson in NYC with us!

Home » Modern Technology and Music Lessons