My goal in creating this book, and the accompanying audio, MIDI, video and .pdf files on the companion website, was to create a resource for teachers who wanted to teach music using technology but had difficulty finding a place to start. It follows my motto: Teach Music. The Technology will follow. As I state in the preface:

Regardless of prior music education, or lack of thereof, students have access to sophisticated music software, which is either free or inexpensive, and they are already composing their own music. All students can have meaningful hands-on applied learning experiences that will impact not only their music experience and learning but also their understanding and comfort with twenty-first-century technology. Technology allows a musical experience for all skill levels-an opportunity, never before available, to compose, manipulate, save, instantly listen to music electronically, and even print standard Western music notation for others to play without having to know much about traditional music theory or notation. We are now faced with a new challenge in music education: how to reprioritize what skills need to be taught in order to foster music composition, given the available music technology. As music educators, we understand that there is and always will be a need to teach students the basic elements of music and music composition if our students are to create sophisticated music. The question is what are the necessary skills and how do we best deliver them, given the technology available? This text focuses on teaching students basic music concepts and compositional techniques and has students demonstrate those skills through creating music. Whether the primary focus of your class is to use technology to create music or to explore using technology as a unit or two, this book will show you how it can be done with practical, tried-and true lesson plans, student assignments, projects, worksheets, and exercises.

Use the materials in this book and the companion website to teach music concepts through the creative process of composition. It's a turn-key, step-by-step guide for the teacher new to this topic and full of tried and true ideas for the veteran teacher.

Teaching Music Through Composition: A Curriculum Using Technology contains 64 lessons in 29 units of study, complete with Student Assignment Sheets, Handouts, Worksheets and files to be used as Overhead resource to display to all students. Teach the fundamentals of music, rhythm, pitch, melody, harmony, form while students create their own music demonstrating what they learned while being creative. Use the companion website to download all resources to distribute to your students and use in your classroom. Great for grades 6 - college and every lesson contains modifications specific to the lesson for use with younger students or students with special needs.