Being an iPadist

Abstract

This column offers the personal reflections of the author on being a member of the band Touch, an iPad performing ensemble composed of music education faculty members and doctoral students at the University of South Florida. The ensemble primarily performed its own arrangements of popular music selections from a number of genres including, but not limited to, rock, hip-hop, and classical. The group began when the iPad was created by Apple in 2010 and had been performing all over the Tampa Bay (Florida) region, Texas, and Georgia, at the time of this publication. In this article, the reflections of the author are presented to inform the profession on how tablet technology can be used in the music performance arena and on how these devices can function as musical instruments in the general music classroom.