John Cage iphone/Droid App

On a train ride to Manhattan I was discussing with a friend the music of John Cage. His music is very out of the ordinary and sometimes hard to understand. Many people debate about whether or not some of John Cage's music can actually be categorized as music. I have always wondered if discussing the music of John Cage would be something interesting for a general music class. The work of John Cage is based mostly on his unique philosophy of music, and I think it is important for my students to see different perspectives and ideas about music making. During our conversation my friend asked if I have ever seen the John Cage phone App for prepared piano. I had never heard of this App and when he opened it for me I spent 15 minutes of our train ride clicking around and exploring the different sounds. What a cool App! A lot of school districts are starting to use ipads in their classrooms. If I were to work at a school who had access to any type of ipad I would definitely use this App in my general music class. The app even allows you to record and play back your own compositions! I think this will be a great way to introduce my students to modern music.

Here is a youtube video of the App itself:

And here is a video describing the actual prepared piano of John Cage:

The following is a link with information on getting the App
  http://johncage.org/cagePiano.html