Book Reviews: Empowering Ensembles with Technology

Empowering Ensembles with Technology is a new e-book written by Theresa Hoover, a middle school band teacher from North Virginia, US with an extensive list of credits to her name including her popular blog Off The Beaten Path Music.

The book begins from the starting point outlined in Hoover's earlier book, Pass the Baton: Empowering All Music Students (co-written with Kathryn Finch), that pupils attain better when ‘empowered’. While this is not a new theory (it echoes the findings from Lucy Green's 2001 book, How Popular Musicians Learn) it is summed up concisely in stating that an empowered student:

• Has a voice
• Has a choice
• Creates their own music
• Asks questions
• Is connected
• Takes ownership of the learning and music-making process.

This new e-book offers a wide range of tech-based solutions to continue this journey. While clearly written with the American band room model in mind, the vast majority of options discussed would also apply to a music classroom in the United Kingdom.

At $20 (£17), the same price as a hard copy of Hoover's earlier book, the e-book initially seemed rather expensive. However, the author embraces the digital format and provides a genuinely interactive experience. Given that the main thrust of the book is to offer teachers online tools to use in the classroom, it's very useful to have these hyperlinked within the text. The author also uses the format to provide links to relevant supplementary literature and supporting video tutorials all of which make it a handy reference document. The book leads itself well to a cover-to-cover read but the extensive use of links and supporting resources also makes it perfect to dip in to as needed.

I particularly appreciated having a book of this nature that has been written post-pandemic as it reflects on the changes to working practices many had to deal with and considers ways forward now we have returned to the classroom. It emphasises that, regardless of individual experiences of remote learning, there are key lessons to be learnt for everyone going forward anyway.

I consider myself relatively well-versed with regards to use of tech in the music classroom. However, in reading this book, I found that I learnt about a wide range of new tools and new applications of ones I had already heard of. Having the music-specific applications of some of these more general resources spelled out was incredibly beneficial and I look forward to trying some of them out in the classroom.

EMPOWERING ENSEMBLES WITH TECHNOLOGY: THE ENSEMBLE DIRECTOR'S GUIDE TO TEACHING WITH TECH