The Smartphone Situation

Band directors and music teachers weigh in on how the almighty smartphone has affected music education—for better and for worse.

When it comes to technology in schools, you can’t put the genie back in the bottle. Smartboards, Chromebooks, tablets and smartphones are inseparable from education. Over the past decade, and with rapid advancements since Covid, there’s been a tidal shift in how tech drives teaching in general, and how it impacts the music classroom specifically. The principles of teaching remain tied to the tried and true, but educators must consider how to use new resources in a positive manner.

Among the hottest topics in current education, including music education, is smartphones. Is it better to negotiate their use in the band room or forbid them outright? Are they simply a distraction or can they be effective learning tools? Music & Arts spoke to seasoned educators to get their feedback on finding the best pathway in this phone-forward culture.

The Big Picture

A secondary band director in Tennessee (who preferred to remain unnamed) cited smartphone addiction and misuse as “the single biggest impediment to learning on a regular basis.” And many if not most in the educational field agree. Policymakers and stakeholders across the country are taking action: When questioned for this article, more than a dozen band directors from four different states and three different regions mentioned complete or partial bans implemented in their districts and surrounding areas within the past 18 months. And the number of schools moving in this direction is quickly growing.

Few elementary buildings have to deal with this issue, since phone ownership is rare for students at that age, and a significant percentage of middle schools have had no-use policies successfully in place during the school day for years. High schools, understandably, have a harder time navigating this terrain. Some maintain a full-use atmosphere for phones; others make it a class-by-class decision, where each teacher can choose if they want students to have full or partial access, leave them in bags, put them in caddies or keep them in their pockets. Many other high schools have zero allowance, pushing back against phone-related distractions as mounting research reveals the problems that occur with constant use.

Left to Their Own Devices

For music educators left to make the call on phone allowance, there remains a balancing act in terms of personal respect and productivity. Some note that they simply ask students to put them away, and that often does the trick for the majority of the class. But they also admit that there are always a few musicians intent on carrying on with Snapchat or game playing; they keep their phones hidden behind music on stands, leaving the director to play whack-a-mole or ignore the problem to keep from constantly stopping rehearsal and losing momentum.

Dustin Bartley, the Orchestra Director at Plainview-Old Bethpage John F. Kennedy High School, believes that a productive phone presence is the key to control. “My favorite method for managing this is integrating them into rehearsal—using them as metronomes, or tuners, or using a web app that allows them to answer a question without having to speak in front of the class,” he explains. “If they’re using phones constructively, they’re usually too busy to switch to Instagram in the middle of things.” Real-time feedback tools like Nearpod and Mentimeter, which allow for polling, short-form quizzing, word clouds and other assessment and team-building activities, are two specific resources that Bartley has found to be useful.

Lynn Cromeyn, Director of the Symphonic Winds at Northport High School, has a similar belief in the upside of phone use: “I’ve had students using the DroneTones app for tuning and intonation exercises—playing and singing—and it’s been helpful to be able to infuse technology into the curriculum that way.” Both of these educators note the benefits of having students use phones as recording devices, citing the instant connection they provide to wide-use educational platforms like Google Classroom.

Avoiding or eliminating phones in the classroom isn’t always feasible, but there’s often a way to use them to your advantage. Here are some ideas for educators looking to embrace smartphones in the band room.

You & YouTube

Approaching its 20th birthday in early 2025, YouTube has become the standard for full-length video access. It’s also a treasure trove for music educators. Whether you want to find a reference recording—that Soon Hee Newbold orchestra piece, Frank Ticheli concert band work or Count Basie jazz standard you’re prepping—or you need a video on embouchure or hand position for certain instruments, YouTube has you covered.

For general music teachers, the benefits go even further. Lessons, supplemental materials and play-alongs are there for the using—if you know where to look. “‘Swick’s Classroom,’ ‘Mr. Henry’s Music World,’ ‘Ukulaliens’ and ‘musication’ are all great resources,” shares Brendan McGlone, an experienced educator in the Sachem Central School District. “I love these [channels] for the GM classroom because they’re contemporary and engaging for today’s students. Those YouTube channels really focus on the performance-and-movement aspect of education that’s essential for younger students.” Jessica Lowenhar, who’s been teaching classroom music for more than two decades at the middle-school level in the Harborfields Central School District, adds that “DrJillReese” is another wonderful page to use for ukulele development: “It has a variety of repertoire that’s easily accessible, leading students to immediate success.”

Teachers & TikTok

Using short-form videos as a social-media strategy, TikTok, which hasn’t even been around for a decade, has become a dominant platform in youth culture. But music educators have also found ways to use it to their advantage—sharing thoughts, creating dialogue and finding help within the app’s dimensions. Mrs. Housholder (@housholdmusic) has made a notable impact on the young music front, carving out themed sections for “Song & Story” lessons, “Pedagogy Corner” posts and “Parachute Activities” ideas.

Mr. Campbell (@tiktokbanddirector) brings inspiration and perspective to the fore, sharing his journey in rebuilding a West Virginia band program at his alma mater. Also from West Virginia, Mrs. Allen (@mrs.allen.81) creates vignettes that find hilarity in the relentless workday of a middle-school band director. Rachel Girardet (@rachillybean) has a sizable following, with educators drawn in by her choral and theater-leaning classroom tips. @DarthGlader, a saxophonist, captivates with humor and positivity from the band room and beyond.

LB Wendelin (@theorchdorkteacher), a middle-school orchestra director in the East Lyme Public Schools, in Connecticut, made her initial splash fishing a pencil out of a cello. She has since become one of the most prominent music-education personalities on TikTok. “So many people were commenting on that specific post—about their experience in middle school, their experience playing cello, teachers who’ve had to do the same thing,” she shares. “And that made me say, ‘Wow, people care about this. There are people that this actually resonates with, and it’s not just string/music educators.’”

That viral post led Wendelin to create instrument repair videos that gained more traction. But her work didn’t stay in that niche. As students and aspiring educators started to ask questions about life in the field, her attention shifted toward videos about the realities of teaching, among other topics.

Wendelin isn’t blind to the problems that come with TikTok. “It’s the internet, and it can go sideways very quickly,” she says. But she also points out the positives of TikTok, with its no-cost instant access, easy search setup and built-in community with different perspectives. “If you’re genuinely looking for advice or things that you can try,” she says, “you just have access to so many people and ideas.”

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