Borrowed creativity

    I am fairly obsessed with iPad and Droid apps, especially the ones that emulate musical instruments. I have at least a dozen, maybe two dozen. All of them are free, which is particularly wonderful. But what that means is that competition is fairly cut-throat; to make any money, they have to make the app attractive enough to make you want to play with it long enough that you'll look at the ads. (Perhaps I'm a little cynical.) Operationally, it means that the apps are pretty near idiot-proof. Whatever you do is going to sound good. (OK, not the Virtual Theremin. But all the rest of them!)
    I AM a little cynical, but even I find myself feeling like a musical genius when I tap on the little screen and pretty sounds come out. And this tapping is roughly equivalent to what you do with your fingers when you're bored in a waiting room; I mean, nothing sophisticated. I can just imagine little tiny kids, and more especially their proud parents, thinking they're geniuses for mastering these wonderful apps.
    And on one hand, it's really, really neat. As a child, I was frustrated trying to take up music because I couldn't instantly pick up playing the piano or the guitar. (Also because I'm really, really lazy.) So the boundary of difficulty is just blown to smithereens. (Granted, a kid could play a ukulele or a toy piano, but beautiful music was seldom the result.)
    I don't know what little kid me would have thought with access to this software, but considering how big kid me reacts, I suspect he would think he's the next Mozart. And it may be that this is a great thing, that millions of little kids might think they're the next Mozart, or it might be a problem. Because this is just borrowed creativity; we app musicians are just relying on the astonishing creativity of the app programmers. Left to our own devices (ooh, a pun!), we're just thumping our fingers on a table.
    But I guess you could say the same thing about a piano, when you get down to it. I guess my point is not that there's anything wrong with borrowed creativity. But look out for that army of toddler Mozarts headed this way!