Between music education and AI

Research has shown that children who receive music education already show enhanced brain development in the areas of language acquisition, reading skills, and critical thinking (Rauscher, Shaw, & Ky, 1993). The benefits of music education have been shown to be long-lasting.

With computation power, especially in smartphones and tablets, becoming more and more part of children’s daily habits, and certain functions being outsourced to technology around us. It is evident that technology will become an essential part not just of music production, but also of learning and practicing music.

Music educators and music schools must embrace modern technologies, as they will become an integral part of the form of music education and creation. We must adopt a progressive approach to music education. One that introduce technology and innovation to music learning.  (e.g., Dunphy & Pinchock,   1997; Rudolph, 2004; Watson, 2011; Webster, 2011; Williams & Webster, 2006).

While the use of technology in music education has been the focus of a great deal of research over the past two decades, we still fail to see meaningful adaptation and implementation of technologies and innovation within music education.

The impact of artificial intelligence on the world of education, particularly music education, in the coming decades will be an interesting shift for us as human beings. The partnership we will be able to create with artificial intelligence technologies such as digital twins will enable us to greatly enhance our cognitive skills in a whole new way. For example, In a typical online setting, we lose many of the cues that would normally help us to understand and motivate our students. Coupled with AI and Asynchronous learning tools, this approach can be an effective way to reach students who cannot come to us in person. Technology’s ability to augment time, space, and the learning process itself will open new pathways not just for the students’ learning ability, but for the teachers’ as well.