I was happy to see that Bauer wrote about flipped classrooms in this week's readings. I first became aware of flipped classroom teaching when I was working with a charter school -- the 7th & 8th grade math teacher decided to try flipping, and found it worked quite well for her purposes and the purposes of her students.
I have long thought about how flipping might work for an instrumental music classroom. At first glance, it seems pretty counter-intuitive - for instrumental music, all students need to have access to the instructor on a regular basis, and the instructor needs to have direct access to the student to assess proper executive and musical skills. Giving students instruction via video can be risky for instrumental instruction, especially when new techniques and concepts are being introduced. At the same time, how many students are looking up new techniques and ideas on YouTube and Vimeo and other video sites? I was impressed at the beginning of this school year when several of my middle-school violinists came in telling me about how they'd gotten together over the weekend and looked up how to do that 'shaky-hand thing' -- vibrato. Their technique wasn't solid, but they'd taken the initiative to investigate and experiment, which really impressed me.
Instead of 'conventional' flipping where the teacher creates or finds video to teach the concept in question and then has student practice that skill independently or in small groups in the classroom with the teacher available for assistance, I think that flipping the instrumental music classroom needs to look and work more along the lines of creating centers and generating space for lesson time with students, even if only on a group basis. When I did my student teaching, I was in one of the more affluent Pittsburgh (PA) suburbs. 75-80% of my students took private lessons, and all of the cellists (and most of the bassists) had instruments at home to practice with. My students where I am now are not as well-off, and only three of my hundred-or-so students take private lessons with any regularity, while only one or two of my students who play the larger instruments have those instruments available to practice on at home. Only my high school students don't have to share their large instruments, so my middle school and elementary students don't even have the opportunity to take an instrument home to practice over the evening or weekends without making special arrangements. While I'm working on changing this, it's a slow and expensive process -- do I buy strings, accessories, new music, and get some repairs done this summer, or do I blow my entire budget on buying one new instrument of questionable quality? It's not a fun choice to make.
One of my goals for the upcoming year is to give each student SOME kind of lesson on a regular basis. Most likely it will be rotating small group lessons where I get to see kids every few weeks. While this might not be flipping in a traditional sense, I do see it as a type of flip -- generally lessons would be conducted outside of class time, and instead I'm burning class time to make it happen. Students not involved in lessons will get time to work on independent projects -- small ensembles, composition and theory projects, and other exploratory-type activities where I can set up things ahead of time and let them go with minimal intervention. Web quests will also likely feature prominently in these centers, or possibly even 'practice-quests' where I give students a list of tasks to complete to ensure they are practicing the assigned material in various ways. I will then put the practicing as an ensemble that would have happened that day on the student as a responsibility. I know I'll need to support at-home practice more -- I'm thinking of ways that I can make practicing easier and more fun, so it'll be more likely to be accomplished. I'm already planning on setting up a website over the summer so I can link to recordings of the full ensemble for our pieces as well as each individual part (my high schoolers will be helping me make recordings for my middle schoolers, so that will take some of the responsibility - and stress -- off of me!). There's lots of potential for expanding the classroom and making space to spend more time with each kid individually. I'm nervous that our ensemble skills will suffer from reduced rehearsal time, but I'm hoping that the payoffs will make up for that through improved executive skills and improved awareness of the music, plus getting myself better acquainted with each student's strengths and weaknesses. It's going to be an interesting experiment, to be sure, and I'm looking forward to seeing how many different ways I can incorporate technology into these lesson/centers days next year.
Friday, April 24, 2015
Friday, April 17, 2015
Assessment and Instructional Design, or, Why Every Student Needs an IEP
This weeks readings and lecture discussed instructional design and assessment. As much as many teachers dislike these topics, they are among my favorites. I don't think that there is ever a 'best' way to provide or design instruction -- there are certainly ways that work better than others in many situations, but there is never only one way of doing things. I believe that the 'best' way to design instruction is whatever way your students will truly learn and understand the material you are covering.
But that brings up an interesting conundrum -- how can you best instruct your class of diverse learners, with each student in their appropriate place on the learning spectrum? Maybe I'm being a bit naive, or maybe I'm showing my inexperience, but it's always seemed silly to me to expect a class of 20 or so younglings to move at the same pace and make the same progress on ANY subject, let alone something so uniquely experiential as music. For instrumentalists and vocalists, the spread of ability and skill is even wider, plus you add in the added challenge for instrumentalists of every student needing to be taught their own part and instrument. One of my biggest frustrations in my four years of teaching as well as my teacher training programs has been the nearly ubiquitous approach to lesson design of teaching to the 'middle' and differentiating for the extreme outliers. College instructors, principals, and other teachers have come up with all kinds of justifications for this approach, but... I question why. We know that students don't neatly sort into boxes but fall somewhere along a flexible continuum of understanding and ability. We know that students all learn differently, uniquely, and on their own time frame. So why are we still planning and assessing and designing lessons as if it was drill for the continental army?
I know it takes extra time to plan and execute, but I really think that every student needs to have their own plan through the curriculum that will be covered. It could be student-directed for those kids that have the maturity level and knowledge to understand how they learn best (for example, providing students a list of possible assessment tasks and allowing them to choose the assessment they will be measured with, same with instructional materials or experiences), or it can be teacher-directed (such as breaking students into groups of roughly the same ability level with roughly the same needs for mini-lesson time and group support). With the number of demands that are placed on teachers, this isn't going to be de rigeur anytime soon (or possibly ever), but I really think that it's a discussion that needs to be had. Especially for instrumental music teachers at the beginning and intermediate level, where we are teaching not just ensemble pieces to the whole class but also technique and musicianship to each individual, I don't see how we can't approach planning in this manner!
But that brings up an interesting conundrum -- how can you best instruct your class of diverse learners, with each student in their appropriate place on the learning spectrum? Maybe I'm being a bit naive, or maybe I'm showing my inexperience, but it's always seemed silly to me to expect a class of 20 or so younglings to move at the same pace and make the same progress on ANY subject, let alone something so uniquely experiential as music. For instrumentalists and vocalists, the spread of ability and skill is even wider, plus you add in the added challenge for instrumentalists of every student needing to be taught their own part and instrument. One of my biggest frustrations in my four years of teaching as well as my teacher training programs has been the nearly ubiquitous approach to lesson design of teaching to the 'middle' and differentiating for the extreme outliers. College instructors, principals, and other teachers have come up with all kinds of justifications for this approach, but... I question why. We know that students don't neatly sort into boxes but fall somewhere along a flexible continuum of understanding and ability. We know that students all learn differently, uniquely, and on their own time frame. So why are we still planning and assessing and designing lessons as if it was drill for the continental army?
I know it takes extra time to plan and execute, but I really think that every student needs to have their own plan through the curriculum that will be covered. It could be student-directed for those kids that have the maturity level and knowledge to understand how they learn best (for example, providing students a list of possible assessment tasks and allowing them to choose the assessment they will be measured with, same with instructional materials or experiences), or it can be teacher-directed (such as breaking students into groups of roughly the same ability level with roughly the same needs for mini-lesson time and group support). With the number of demands that are placed on teachers, this isn't going to be de rigeur anytime soon (or possibly ever), but I really think that it's a discussion that needs to be had. Especially for instrumental music teachers at the beginning and intermediate level, where we are teaching not just ensemble pieces to the whole class but also technique and musicianship to each individual, I don't see how we can't approach planning in this manner!
Sunday, April 12, 2015
Chromatik and SmartMusic
Chromatik and SmartMusic are both programs that offer students the ability to play along with music, providing the notation in-time with the accompaniment (and in the case of Chromatik, the lyrics are included even for instrumental parts). SmartMusic is marketed as an educational package with additional features to assist teachers in evaluating students, additional material for students including metronome and fingerings and modelling options, and integration with many popular beginning methods.
Chromtik is a fairly simple site focused on providing a connection between popular music of many genres and the instrumentalists or vocalists who want to play or sing those pieces. The site provides notation for a selection of popular tunes, as well as an 'official' play-along track (which seems to generally be a track of the recording artist for the pop genres). There are no print options, although computer-savvy individuals would have little trouble creating screen captures to print (note that this would be copyright infringement, which is NOT ok!) The navigation and tools in Chromatik are very intuitive, and are on par to contemporary web sites -- slick images, smooth transitions, and clear control clusters are reminiscent of Pandora, iHeartRadio, and other popular websites.
My biggest complaint (I always seem to have those!) about Chromatik is that it's not well-edited. The songs are closely realized, or about as close as pop tunes can be realized for instrumental performance, but there are some basic editing choices that baffled my mind. As a violist, I was very interested in just what the viola options were going to be. Viola was completely absent from the classical selections, even those where the viola has transcriptions and would make sense (such as Elgar's Salut d'Amour, one of my favorite pieces to play on any stringed instrument!). I will admit to not being real surprised (violists understand these things happen), and it wouldn't be a big deal for me or others at our level of performance, but kids and young adults and adult amateurs that get interested in classical music will certainly be disappointed if they go to find a piece that they particularly enjoy that isn't there. I think that's especially unfortunate because many of the classical works on the site seem to be public domain, and therefore realistically can be arranged or transcribed or whatever to be workable for any of a number of different instruments other than the original. When I went in to check out some of the pop tunes that were available, I checked out Owl City's 'Fireflies'. I was again struck by 'violist syndrome' -- while the piece was rhythmically and melodically accurate, no violist would ever write the piece up in the stratosphere of the viola the way how this transcription has suggested! I think the problem comes from a low Bb that occurs in a few times, and the overall large range this requires to reproduce faithfully. But even if this displacement couldn't be avoided by moving the key of the piece (again, would have taken a little human effort, but not challenging in the least with modern technology), the high stuff could have been rewritten in treble clef -- MUCH more friendly for reading prolonged areas above the staff (and this is coming from someone who plays flute on a regular basis too!). Also disheartening were seeing all of the collisions in the parts where the 2nd voice was notated -- in some cases the note heads were completely obliterated by rests. Chromatik really seems more as a 'fun' exercise to keep kids playing, but the inclusion of the lyrics makes me less likely to use it in the classroom or even as an alternate option for students playing outside of class. Too many popular songs today have language, metaphors, and concepts that are not welcome in the education spheres, and while Chromatik would be a wonderful way to get reluctant practicers to play more at home, I worry that parents would be less than enthusiastic about their child having access to explicit content (I'll leave the discussion of parental involvement in practicing, internet usage, and mature content for another time).
SmartMusic is intended for use in educational settings, and so has none of the issues with lyrics or content that Chromatik has. However, SmartMusic charges for everything. Subscriptions start at $40 per year for student access, or teachers can set up practice room subscriptions for ten percent more. With more and more schools moving to a 1:1 technology model, SmartMusic becomes a very attractive software suite for music teachers -- especially instrumental music instructors, who frequently have to juggle differentiated instruction by ability as well as by instrument, a situation where SmartMusic provides a great benefit and support system. The ability to assign etudes or method book assignments on a per-student instead of per-class basis is a genius move in today's age of portfolio-based evaluation in the arts and with the increasing expectations for teachers to be evaluated on student products as well as in-classroom observation and evaluation. SmartMusic can be a very smart investment for program justification, if a school district is willing to put the money out for it. And perhaps that's one of the bigger draw backs to SmartMusic. If the district isn't supportive of the cost, and the students can't afford to buy their own subscriptions, SmartMusic is basically dead in the water before a teacher even starts using it. SmartMusic requires that students have a compatible device and internet access even before the subscription piece enters. While this is a great option for schools with large budgets or affluent families, urban and/or rural districts with budget woes and a high number of students in the lower socio-economic strata will struggle when trying to implement SmartMusic without outside help from fundraising, donor/sponsors, or grants. Additionally, using SmartMusic as a classroom tool requires space to put the computer or device, recording rig, and the student(s) that will be using the system. In some schools, especially those where music facilities are shared with other classes, the space for SmartMusic may be hard to come by. For my situation, SmartMusic would require funding assistance both to get started at the school as well as to get student access. I would love to have the ability to listen to my students' assessments outside of class time, so I will be spending some time brainstorming how to make it work, but I'm not sure where I would have students working in SmartMusic while at school if I am able to purchase a subscription. One of the best benefits with SmartMusic would be solo repertoire access. My students do not have many opportunities to study privately, so having a semi-autonomous feedback system for solo repertoire practice would be a wonderful boon when preparing for solo & ensemble contests.
Both SmartMusic and Chromatik can be wonderful tools, but SmartMusic shows through it's many features that it was truly designed with the music educator in mind. Chromatik, with it's easy access to pop tunes, really seems to be aimed more at music consumers and could potentially help students enjoy playing at home (and practicing, although not necessarily what their teachers would hope they would be practicing) more than the material given to them by their teachers, but the content may not be entirely suitable for many students. Neither are a perfect fit for all music programs, but both may be useful to some educators for specific purposes in the classroom and beyond.
Chromtik is a fairly simple site focused on providing a connection between popular music of many genres and the instrumentalists or vocalists who want to play or sing those pieces. The site provides notation for a selection of popular tunes, as well as an 'official' play-along track (which seems to generally be a track of the recording artist for the pop genres). There are no print options, although computer-savvy individuals would have little trouble creating screen captures to print (note that this would be copyright infringement, which is NOT ok!) The navigation and tools in Chromatik are very intuitive, and are on par to contemporary web sites -- slick images, smooth transitions, and clear control clusters are reminiscent of Pandora, iHeartRadio, and other popular websites.
My biggest complaint (I always seem to have those!) about Chromatik is that it's not well-edited. The songs are closely realized, or about as close as pop tunes can be realized for instrumental performance, but there are some basic editing choices that baffled my mind. As a violist, I was very interested in just what the viola options were going to be. Viola was completely absent from the classical selections, even those where the viola has transcriptions and would make sense (such as Elgar's Salut d'Amour, one of my favorite pieces to play on any stringed instrument!). I will admit to not being real surprised (violists understand these things happen), and it wouldn't be a big deal for me or others at our level of performance, but kids and young adults and adult amateurs that get interested in classical music will certainly be disappointed if they go to find a piece that they particularly enjoy that isn't there. I think that's especially unfortunate because many of the classical works on the site seem to be public domain, and therefore realistically can be arranged or transcribed or whatever to be workable for any of a number of different instruments other than the original. When I went in to check out some of the pop tunes that were available, I checked out Owl City's 'Fireflies'. I was again struck by 'violist syndrome' -- while the piece was rhythmically and melodically accurate, no violist would ever write the piece up in the stratosphere of the viola the way how this transcription has suggested! I think the problem comes from a low Bb that occurs in a few times, and the overall large range this requires to reproduce faithfully. But even if this displacement couldn't be avoided by moving the key of the piece (again, would have taken a little human effort, but not challenging in the least with modern technology), the high stuff could have been rewritten in treble clef -- MUCH more friendly for reading prolonged areas above the staff (and this is coming from someone who plays flute on a regular basis too!). Also disheartening were seeing all of the collisions in the parts where the 2nd voice was notated -- in some cases the note heads were completely obliterated by rests. Chromatik really seems more as a 'fun' exercise to keep kids playing, but the inclusion of the lyrics makes me less likely to use it in the classroom or even as an alternate option for students playing outside of class. Too many popular songs today have language, metaphors, and concepts that are not welcome in the education spheres, and while Chromatik would be a wonderful way to get reluctant practicers to play more at home, I worry that parents would be less than enthusiastic about their child having access to explicit content (I'll leave the discussion of parental involvement in practicing, internet usage, and mature content for another time).
SmartMusic is intended for use in educational settings, and so has none of the issues with lyrics or content that Chromatik has. However, SmartMusic charges for everything. Subscriptions start at $40 per year for student access, or teachers can set up practice room subscriptions for ten percent more. With more and more schools moving to a 1:1 technology model, SmartMusic becomes a very attractive software suite for music teachers -- especially instrumental music instructors, who frequently have to juggle differentiated instruction by ability as well as by instrument, a situation where SmartMusic provides a great benefit and support system. The ability to assign etudes or method book assignments on a per-student instead of per-class basis is a genius move in today's age of portfolio-based evaluation in the arts and with the increasing expectations for teachers to be evaluated on student products as well as in-classroom observation and evaluation. SmartMusic can be a very smart investment for program justification, if a school district is willing to put the money out for it. And perhaps that's one of the bigger draw backs to SmartMusic. If the district isn't supportive of the cost, and the students can't afford to buy their own subscriptions, SmartMusic is basically dead in the water before a teacher even starts using it. SmartMusic requires that students have a compatible device and internet access even before the subscription piece enters. While this is a great option for schools with large budgets or affluent families, urban and/or rural districts with budget woes and a high number of students in the lower socio-economic strata will struggle when trying to implement SmartMusic without outside help from fundraising, donor/sponsors, or grants. Additionally, using SmartMusic as a classroom tool requires space to put the computer or device, recording rig, and the student(s) that will be using the system. In some schools, especially those where music facilities are shared with other classes, the space for SmartMusic may be hard to come by. For my situation, SmartMusic would require funding assistance both to get started at the school as well as to get student access. I would love to have the ability to listen to my students' assessments outside of class time, so I will be spending some time brainstorming how to make it work, but I'm not sure where I would have students working in SmartMusic while at school if I am able to purchase a subscription. One of the best benefits with SmartMusic would be solo repertoire access. My students do not have many opportunities to study privately, so having a semi-autonomous feedback system for solo repertoire practice would be a wonderful boon when preparing for solo & ensemble contests.
Both SmartMusic and Chromatik can be wonderful tools, but SmartMusic shows through it's many features that it was truly designed with the music educator in mind. Chromatik, with it's easy access to pop tunes, really seems to be aimed more at music consumers and could potentially help students enjoy playing at home (and practicing, although not necessarily what their teachers would hope they would be practicing) more than the material given to them by their teachers, but the content may not be entirely suitable for many students. Neither are a perfect fit for all music programs, but both may be useful to some educators for specific purposes in the classroom and beyond.
Friday, April 10, 2015
Recording Classroom Technology (Week 4 Reading/Video Response)
This week's reading covered the use of using technology to record and (re)play music in and for classroom settings. The author discusses how recordings contribute to learning and retention of material, helps educators with self assessment and improvement, and provides an opportunity for student assessment in addition to benefits listed above.
I can't argue with the efficacy of recording technology in the classroom. It's one of those best practices that research shows time and time again is useful. SmartMusic, one of the programs covered in the reading, is certainly considered industry standard when it comes to interactive student software and recording software. With the increase of 1:1 initiatives getting more technology into the hands of more students, SmartMusic certainly seems like a great investment and resource. But what about for those of us in districts that can't afford / won't invest in SmartMusic, or the arrangments (technology-based and logistics-based) necessary to use it effectively? I'm sure I'm not the only teacher that has to make some tough choices between purchasing classroom supplies like music, strings, instruments (and repairs), and tech-based toys (yeah, I went there) like software. The building I teach my middle schoolers in is an historic one, recently renovated, but lacking dedicated practice rooms. My fellow teachers are extremely generous and understanding, but I doubt they'd be enthusiastic about letting me take over their classroom(s) to allow students school-day opportunities to use SmartMusic -- assuming that we could find an available computer rig to operate the software! I'm not as familiar with SmartMusic as I'd like to be, but there's also that network resources piece that is concerning. We've been hearing a LOT about network resources now that testing season is upon us. Our students take their standardized tests via internet, so woe befall any teacher who is hogging network resources for something like video or audio streaming. I'm sure that SmartMusic has options for downloading and playing/replaying music and accompaniments from the physical disk, but that then begets other concerns from the tech gurus regarding available space and allocation of resources.
So, I've been looking at alternatives to SmartMusic. I know it's a wonderful program, but it's not something that's going to work in my room (and I really hope that you all realize that I'm not automatically opposed to everything out there!). I have been brainstorming how I might be able to get the ability to hear my students perform in a way similar to how SmartMusic can record assessments. I might have to do a bit more work in the way of grading my assessments on my own, but here are some things I've thought of to try to make it as easy and streamlined as possible:
- Have students use their (smart)phones to video-record themselves, then upload to google drive (assuming they have the ability to do so from their phones) and share with me. That way everything is in google, and students will appreciate the opportunity to use their phones on 'official' school business. PROS: Students can use their own technology, assignments hit several media arts standards in addition to music standards, and playing assessments can be done outside of class time. Video and audio recording allows for better assesment. CONS: Time consuming to resolve issues with format, students may not be familiar with process and may require additional assistance to complete assignment. Time needs to be found to watch and assess videos. Not all students have video device access.
- Have students use their (landline, cell, or smart) phone to call in to a dedicated number set up through GoogleVoice. PROS: Anyone with access to a phone can access submission number; GoogleVoice service allows for great differentiation of numbers, mailboxes, and other features -- most for free. CONS: No video for assessment of playing position / technique, audio less clear than live or many video options, possibility for cheating based on lack of video (no way to see to confirm who is actually playing).
- Collaborate with school video classes to record performance assessments -- make arrangments to have student videographers available for recording assessments either during class time or during open periods or before/after school. PROS: Collaborative projects generally encouraged within school settings, video assessment that doesn't require director take individual time to record. CONS: Additional people involved with assessment process means additional opportunities for mistakes or issues to occur. Student-managed video recording may result in more videography issues/errors.
In addition to recording student performance (whether as an assessment or as a check-in to see how the ensemble is performing overall as a group), video can be used as a way to instruct students. In ELA, math, science, and social studies classes, the use of video in this manner is frequently referred to as a flipped class. Students are assigned video clips of the instructor teaching a concept, and class time is then devoted to working on whatever the object of the lesson was -- basically class time becomes dedicated homework time with built-in teacher tutoring. While this may seem challenging to implement in the instrumental music classroom, I think it is totally possible to implement. There are so many good videos out there for instrumental instruction! The DVDs included with most contemporary method books is a great place to start. YouTube and individual sites for ensembles and performers also have instrument tips and tricks videos that could easily be assigned. This approach might work especially well as a plan for days when small ensembles are going to be rehearsing, allowing an endless reconfiguration of groups as various assigned videos are worked through, discussed, and demonstrated with and by the students.
Perhaps the biggest limitation to all of this is something I alluded to earlier -- accessibility of recording equiment. Not all students have access to a recording device, and even if they have a recording device not all ensembles have access to appropriate space to utilize that equipment during the day. Assigning video recordings can be tough in a situation where some, but not all, students have access to mobile recording devices -- instead of being able to be responsible for their own recordings, students without have to make choices about asking for a modified assignment, asking for help from a peer, or taking the loss of points by not turning it in. It's unfortunate that some students have to make these choices, but it's also a fact increasing in frequency as more and more students are growing up in poverty. I don't have any realistic solutions to offer -- each school and truly each student, are unique cases and unique situations. Ideally, we would all have practice rooms with dedicated Macs and SmartMusic for our students to use and explore. For those of us for whom that isn't an option, we'll just have to find other ways for making this type of technology work for us.
Friday, April 3, 2015
If a pitch is played without a note, will it still sound? (Week 3 reading/video response)
This week's reading discussed composition, and what really struck me was the encouragement to use software such as Soundation or Garage Band to create opportunities for music-illiterate students to produce their own works.
Yes, music-illiterate. I went there.
This is something that I've struggled with while trying to learn to use Soundation the past two weeks for a 'composition' project. I feel pretty strongly that using programs like Garage Band and Soundation to 'make tracks' isn't composition, unless you're using a MIDI entry tool and recording digital audio (which has crashed my setup every time I've tried to do it - quite frustrating). A lot of my view on this likely comes from my experiences with using MTV Music Generator for Playstation back in the early 2000s. I had a wonderful time creating some interesting arrangements of sounds and effects, and came up with some pretty danceable tunes, but it was never composition. I put very few original elements into the pieces I worked on. It was more like creating a collage than envisioning and creating a brand new work of art -- I took bits and pieces that somebody else created, took the parts that I liked, and arranged them in a way that was pleasing to me.
Now, I'm not saying that Soundation and GarageBand aren't musical, or that the product of these programs isn't music. They are, and it sure as heck does create a music product. But I hesitate before saying that a student can write music with these types of sequencers, or that creating sound projects with sequencers is an acceptable alternative composition task for students who are illiterate in music.
Illiterate. There's that word again. Especially in today's high-pressure, high-stakes, 'failing' schools environment, literacy and illiteracy are highly loaded terms. Illiterate means 'unable to read or write', which exactly describes many students when it comes to music. The situation described at the beginning of this week's reading features a musically illiterate student. I bristle at the idea that students MUST learn to read and write language in addition to being able to speak it, yet we are willing to allow them to squeak by and 'compose' without having to learn to read and write music if they are 'musically gifted'. I'm sorry, but I can't just imagine that's a good idea and post as if I agree with it. There's no reason that 'musically talented' individuals should be encouraged to NOT take the time to read and write music. This is bleeding over a little bit into advocacy, so I apologize for wandering away from the tech focus of the class, but as professional musicians we have to teach our students to perform to the highest possible standards. That doesn't mean we shouldn't teach students who can't read or write music notation -- it means we need to increase the rigor of our programs and help those students who are musically talented yet musically illiterate to develop the notation skills to express themselves as well as study how others express themselves through composition.
Sequencing programs like Soundation and Garage Band, especially when combined with a composition class or an exploration of sound project, can help bridge that music literacy gap. The clips in Soundation have graphical components that appear to be representations of the acoustical properties of the clips. For someone who is musically illiterate at the high school level, the sound file itself combined with the graphic representation can lead to a discussion of what the sound is actually doing and why the soundwave graphic appears that way, which can lead on to relative pitch and/or dynamics and/or any of a number of different musical attributes in traditional notation, providing an opportunity to scaffold knowledge of notation off of observable and audible features of the music. Using sketching as part of the composition process can be a useful tool in transitioning to reading notation, especially if contour is introduced with the same pitch orientation as found on any staff. Yes, this is harder than pointing a student at a digital workstation and turning them loose, but in the long run, the student will have learned both how to create a looped, sequenced, piece and also worked towards developing better musicianship skills.
Yes, music-illiterate. I went there.
This is something that I've struggled with while trying to learn to use Soundation the past two weeks for a 'composition' project. I feel pretty strongly that using programs like Garage Band and Soundation to 'make tracks' isn't composition, unless you're using a MIDI entry tool and recording digital audio (which has crashed my setup every time I've tried to do it - quite frustrating). A lot of my view on this likely comes from my experiences with using MTV Music Generator for Playstation back in the early 2000s. I had a wonderful time creating some interesting arrangements of sounds and effects, and came up with some pretty danceable tunes, but it was never composition. I put very few original elements into the pieces I worked on. It was more like creating a collage than envisioning and creating a brand new work of art -- I took bits and pieces that somebody else created, took the parts that I liked, and arranged them in a way that was pleasing to me.
Now, I'm not saying that Soundation and GarageBand aren't musical, or that the product of these programs isn't music. They are, and it sure as heck does create a music product. But I hesitate before saying that a student can write music with these types of sequencers, or that creating sound projects with sequencers is an acceptable alternative composition task for students who are illiterate in music.
Illiterate. There's that word again. Especially in today's high-pressure, high-stakes, 'failing' schools environment, literacy and illiteracy are highly loaded terms. Illiterate means 'unable to read or write', which exactly describes many students when it comes to music. The situation described at the beginning of this week's reading features a musically illiterate student. I bristle at the idea that students MUST learn to read and write language in addition to being able to speak it, yet we are willing to allow them to squeak by and 'compose' without having to learn to read and write music if they are 'musically gifted'. I'm sorry, but I can't just imagine that's a good idea and post as if I agree with it. There's no reason that 'musically talented' individuals should be encouraged to NOT take the time to read and write music. This is bleeding over a little bit into advocacy, so I apologize for wandering away from the tech focus of the class, but as professional musicians we have to teach our students to perform to the highest possible standards. That doesn't mean we shouldn't teach students who can't read or write music notation -- it means we need to increase the rigor of our programs and help those students who are musically talented yet musically illiterate to develop the notation skills to express themselves as well as study how others express themselves through composition.
Sequencing programs like Soundation and Garage Band, especially when combined with a composition class or an exploration of sound project, can help bridge that music literacy gap. The clips in Soundation have graphical components that appear to be representations of the acoustical properties of the clips. For someone who is musically illiterate at the high school level, the sound file itself combined with the graphic representation can lead to a discussion of what the sound is actually doing and why the soundwave graphic appears that way, which can lead on to relative pitch and/or dynamics and/or any of a number of different musical attributes in traditional notation, providing an opportunity to scaffold knowledge of notation off of observable and audible features of the music. Using sketching as part of the composition process can be a useful tool in transitioning to reading notation, especially if contour is introduced with the same pitch orientation as found on any staff. Yes, this is harder than pointing a student at a digital workstation and turning them loose, but in the long run, the student will have learned both how to create a looped, sequenced, piece and also worked towards developing better musicianship skills.
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