ABSTRACT
Music teacher educators have been challenged to quickly adapt, change, and innovate their teaching practices in the age of COVID-19 which has created opportunities for music teachers to enhance creative thinking in their teaching practices and embed learner-centered projects that support student’s individual creativity. This has had significant impacts on the modus of instruction, the methods and approaches for teaching instruments, and the experiences of teachers and students across the US. It continues to reshape a significant portion of how teacher educators function in contemporary society. For music teacher educators who hold a readiness to embrace the digital confluence of instructional models outside the traditional teacher-led ideologies using technology, an opportunity for innovation and creativity has unfolded. This chapter will outline how two undergraduate music education students, particularly “traditionally trained” musicians, navigated a project-based learning experience using popular music instruments in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This chapter highlights the creative and student-led projects that were tailored to support student’s individual creativity and instrumental needs, as they wrote songs, learned techniques on acoustic guitars, performed popular music for each other in online settings, and taught each other songs by ear using an online recording studio called SoundTrap. Finally, the author showcases student perceptions of learning through this modus, while celebrating the development of their creativity in music outside the Western-European art music designation.
