The Mobile Phone Orchestra as a Classroom: Teaching Music with Mobile Devices
Resumo
This paper presents a pedagogical proposal for music education using mobile phone orchestras as an educational environment. By integrating mobile technologies with contemporary music teaching methodologies, we explore the potential of smartphones as accessible and versatile digital instruments. The proposal is structured in three main stages: musical experiences with everyday technologies, workshops on creating digital instruments with Pure Data, MobMuPlat, and Mixxx, and the formation of a collaborative orchestra. The theoretical framework is based on the STEAM approach and the concept of Ubiquitous Music (Ubimus), emphasizing sound experimentation, creativity, and cultural inclusion as central pillars. The project was implemented with high school and university lab students, revealing pedagogical gains, technical challenges, and high participant engagement. We observed that transforming the mobile phone into a musical instrument increases access to sound practice and establishes a bridge to formal education. The project also sparked students’ interest in traditional music learning methods, demonstrating its potential as a gateway to more structured training. Finally, we discuss the technical challenges faced and future paths for applying the methodology in broader formal educational contexts.Referências
Beatriz Ilari. Musicalização: reflexões sobre a prática educacional. Editora Moderna, São Paulo, Brazil, 2002.
Carl Orff. The orff approach to music education, 2003. Principles of the method connecting movement, percussion, and improvisation.
Organization of American Kodály Educators. The kodály concept: Foundations and pedagogical tools. Institutional material, 2021. Describes the method’s pillars, such as singing, movable-do solfege, and hand signs.
Helder Macedo. Educação musical: métodos e abordagens. Editora Vozes, Petrópolis, Brazil, 2005. Presents the fundamentals of the Willems approach to music education.
William Todd Anderson. The dalcroze approach to music education: Theory and applications. General Music Today, 27(1):9–17, 2013.
Regiana Blank Wille. Educação musical formal, não formal ou informal: um estudo sobre processos de ensino e aprendizagem musical de adolescentes. Revista da ABEM, 13:39–48, 2005.
Rômulo Vieira, Guilherme Lunhani, and Flávio Luiz Schiavoni. Vantagens e desafios do emprego da metodologia steam no ensino de música na educação básica brasileira. In Anais do XVIII Simpósio Brasileiro de Computação Musical (SBCM), pages 172–182, Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil, 2021. Sociedade Brasileira de Computação (SBC).
Fernando Lopes, Marcelo Gimenes, and Márcio Lacerda. Ubiquitous music: A prospect for a new musical and social reality. In Max Mühlhäuser and Iryna Gurevych, editors, Handbook of Research on Ubiquitous Computing Technology for Real Time Enterprises, pages 552–569. IGI Global, 2010.
Dan Trueman, Perry R. Cook, Scott Smallwood, and Ge Wang. Plork: The princeton laptop orchestra, year 1. In Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC), Copenhagen, Denmark, 2007. International Computer Music Association.
Ge Wang, Ajay Misra, Ajay Kapur, and Perry R. Cook. Stanford laptop orchestra (slork). In Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference, pages 533–536, Montreal, Canada, 2009. International Computer Music Association.
Luke Dahl and Ge Wang. Stanford mobile phone orchestra (mopho). In Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference, pages 207–210, New York, NY, USA, 2010. Stony Brook University.
Jason Freeman and Akito Van Troyer. Laptop orchestra as classroom. In Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference, pages 479–482, Belfast, UK, 2008. Sonic Arts Research Centre.
Marcos Campos. Music and technology in the 21st century. Revista Vórtex, 2(1):1–16, 2014.
Andrew R. Brown. Networked music performance: State of the art. In Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression, pages 16–21, Pittsburgh, PA, USA, 2009. Carnegie Mellon University.
Rafael Dimitri Bento, Lavinia Silva Silva, and Flávio Luiz Schiavoni. Instalações Sonoras da Orquestra de Silício e Barro. In Anais do XXII Congresso de Produção Científica e Acadêmica da UFSJ, pages 1–13, Online, 2025. UFSJ.
Mixxx Development Team. Mixxx dj software, 2025. Available at: [link]. Accessed on June 29, 2025.
Miller Puckette. Pure data: another integrated computer music environment. In Proceedings of the Second Intercollege Computer Music Concerts, pages 37–41, Tachikawa, Japan, 1996. Kunitachi College of Music.
Daniel Iglesia. Mobmuplat: Mobile music platform, 2013. Available at: [link]. Accessed on June 29, 2025.
Carl Orff. The orff approach to music education, 2003. Principles of the method connecting movement, percussion, and improvisation.
Organization of American Kodály Educators. The kodály concept: Foundations and pedagogical tools. Institutional material, 2021. Describes the method’s pillars, such as singing, movable-do solfege, and hand signs.
Helder Macedo. Educação musical: métodos e abordagens. Editora Vozes, Petrópolis, Brazil, 2005. Presents the fundamentals of the Willems approach to music education.
William Todd Anderson. The dalcroze approach to music education: Theory and applications. General Music Today, 27(1):9–17, 2013.
Regiana Blank Wille. Educação musical formal, não formal ou informal: um estudo sobre processos de ensino e aprendizagem musical de adolescentes. Revista da ABEM, 13:39–48, 2005.
Rômulo Vieira, Guilherme Lunhani, and Flávio Luiz Schiavoni. Vantagens e desafios do emprego da metodologia steam no ensino de música na educação básica brasileira. In Anais do XVIII Simpósio Brasileiro de Computação Musical (SBCM), pages 172–182, Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil, 2021. Sociedade Brasileira de Computação (SBC).
Fernando Lopes, Marcelo Gimenes, and Márcio Lacerda. Ubiquitous music: A prospect for a new musical and social reality. In Max Mühlhäuser and Iryna Gurevych, editors, Handbook of Research on Ubiquitous Computing Technology for Real Time Enterprises, pages 552–569. IGI Global, 2010.
Dan Trueman, Perry R. Cook, Scott Smallwood, and Ge Wang. Plork: The princeton laptop orchestra, year 1. In Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC), Copenhagen, Denmark, 2007. International Computer Music Association.
Ge Wang, Ajay Misra, Ajay Kapur, and Perry R. Cook. Stanford laptop orchestra (slork). In Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference, pages 533–536, Montreal, Canada, 2009. International Computer Music Association.
Luke Dahl and Ge Wang. Stanford mobile phone orchestra (mopho). In Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference, pages 207–210, New York, NY, USA, 2010. Stony Brook University.
Jason Freeman and Akito Van Troyer. Laptop orchestra as classroom. In Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference, pages 479–482, Belfast, UK, 2008. Sonic Arts Research Centre.
Marcos Campos. Music and technology in the 21st century. Revista Vórtex, 2(1):1–16, 2014.
Andrew R. Brown. Networked music performance: State of the art. In Proceedings of the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression, pages 16–21, Pittsburgh, PA, USA, 2009. Carnegie Mellon University.
Rafael Dimitri Bento, Lavinia Silva Silva, and Flávio Luiz Schiavoni. Instalações Sonoras da Orquestra de Silício e Barro. In Anais do XXII Congresso de Produção Científica e Acadêmica da UFSJ, pages 1–13, Online, 2025. UFSJ.
Mixxx Development Team. Mixxx dj software, 2025. Available at: [link]. Accessed on June 29, 2025.
Miller Puckette. Pure data: another integrated computer music environment. In Proceedings of the Second Intercollege Computer Music Concerts, pages 37–41, Tachikawa, Japan, 1996. Kunitachi College of Music.
Daniel Iglesia. Mobmuplat: Mobile music platform, 2013. Available at: [link]. Accessed on June 29, 2025.
Publicado
15/09/2025
Como Citar
PEREIRA, Matheus Durães da Cunha; GERALDO, Rafael Carvalho Avidago; ROCHA, Gabriel Lopes; SCHIAVONI, Flávio Luiz.
The Mobile Phone Orchestra as a Classroom: Teaching Music with Mobile Devices. In: SIMPÓSIO BRASILEIRO DE COMPUTAÇÃO MUSICAL (SBCM), 19. , 2025, Campinas/SP.
Anais [...].
Porto Alegre: Sociedade Brasileira de Computação,
2025
.
p. 188-194.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5753/sbcm.2025.14345.
