Roll the dice! A cube that brings tech into your music lesson

Picture this: you pick up a dice, roll it across your desk, and chance decides which new activity you'll try out this week. No thick textbook, no afternoon-long course. Just one roll, and you have a concrete lesson with music technology in hand.

That's exactly the idea behind the Dice Playing Music with Technology, which I developed together with Benno Spieker for Méér Muziek in de Klas. And it's free to download: you'll find the digital version at bertvanuffelen.nl/dobbelsteen.

Why a dice?

Technology in the music lesson can feel overwhelming. Where do you start? There are so many apps, so many options, and you don't want to lose your pupils in a forest of buttons. Benno and I wanted to lower that threshold. Not by explaining everything at once, but by giving you one small nudge: roll, read the activity you land on, and just give it a go.

Chance does something lovely here. It takes away the stress of choosing. You don't have to decide what to do; the dice does that for you. And that way you naturally arrive at activities you might never have picked yourself.

What's on it?

Each face of the dice stands for a kind of music technology, and each face comes with activities for the lower, middle and upper years. With a DAW you explore how to make a little story more exciting with recorded sounds. With presentation software you already know, like PowerPoint, you build a musical talking picture or a soundtrack for a comic strip. With a synthesizer you make "Ossie" sing high and low, or you step into the shoes of a music producer. With a sequencer you program a rhythm that you then play back with body sounds. And with the online music apps you make falling snowflakes ring out or groove along with Incredibox.

All the technology is free and simply works in your browser. You don't have to install anything. And if you ever land on a face that doesn't fit? There's always the free choice: roll again, or do your own thing.

And now, honestly

A dice doesn't turn you into a technology expert, and it doesn't have to. The technology here isn't a goal, but a tool. It's still about what it always was: making music together, listening, trying things out, starting over. The dice simply helps you dare to take that step. Sometimes an activity works right away. Sometimes you fumble a bit. That's part of it, and you can let your pupils see that too.

Try it yourself

You don't have to know everything all at once. Download the manual, print the dice, and roll. See what happens in your classroom. I'm curious where chance takes you.

The Dice Playing Music with Technology is free to download via the Méér Muziek in de Klas website. You'll find the digital version at bertvanuffelen.nl/dobbelsteen. Developed by Bert van Uffelen and Benno Spieker.