Recordings of music have allowed amazing composers and groups to perform in homes and classrooms around the world . Above, John Williams (Star Wars, E.T., Jurassic Park) goes over the score to one of his famous movie scores in the recording studio.

Interactivity 2

If someone were to think of technology and what it means today, you would probably get an array of answers varying from anything dealing with cell phones, smart phones, apple products, laptops, MP3s, etc, etc. Because technology has advanced so far over the years, its hard for today’s tech savvy youth and even adults to remember where we once were in the growing world of technology. I feel that one of the biggest impacts made on education, music education to be exact, is the CD and the CD player. ( I feel the two go hand-in-hand)

HISTORY

The CD rom is also known as the digital compact disk. The process of digital recording came around in 1965 and was created by James T. Russell. The CD is an extension and a grown of vinyl records and was invented with the idea to record and store data with light, rather than by touch. As stated in a passage about the inventor of the CD on thinkquest.org, Russel invented a method of recording onto a photosensitive platter in binary bits (“dots” of light and dark, each 1 micron in diameter). To read the patterns created by the lights and dots, he used a laser which when the patterns were recovered, could then be converted with a computer into an electronic signal. This signal could then be made into something audible (sound) or visual (images).

It wasn’t until the 1980s when CDs were readily available and sold. In 1980, Russell’s company first licensed his system. The large amount of unoccupied time was due to the fact that many people were weary of his invention and would not invest in the process. It wasn’t until 1985 that big name companies like Sony, and and Phillips purchased manufacturing rights and began making the CD for buyer consumption.

I feel the CD has positively and negatively influenced music education. Before the CD most people had cassette tapes, and before that were vinyl records, and before that the phonograph. All of these recording technologies led the way for the invention of the CD and are just as important, if not more. But, the CD holds a fairly large amount of data in comparison to its predecessors. The CD is also an easily shared technology. And by shared I mean exactly that. The CD is portable, small, thin, and doesn’t take up a lot of space making it perfect for overachieving, over packed music students!

The CD is also a great device for music education because of its recording ability. It’s much clearer in sound than older resources. Recording in general is a great resource because of many reasons. It allows students, performers, composers, etc, to have the ability to play music that was recorded thousands of miles away comfortably in their own homes. Recording is also ideal because of its consistency. The recording someone listens to is the same one over and over; nothing changes so it makes analyzing, transposing, and conducting much easier.

Along with its positive attributes, the CD has some negative effects. Because of its portability and purpose (to listen to any music at any time) less people are going to see live performances of classical music. Also, CDs of musical recordings are not cheap and although they are accessible to everyone, they are not affordable to everyone. We are constantly reminded of the need for teachers in urban districts, and within these districts there are many financial problems facing the students. A future educator, or present educator may find that some of their students do not have the funds to pay for multiple CDs of recording you think would benefit them.