Music Tech Week 3

This week focused on composing music using technology.  We were able to use Soundtrap to create a composition using loops, MIDI, and digital audio.  I enjoyed using this program because it is similar to GarageBand and other music sequencers but offers the flexibility of being cloud based so people are able to access their compositions from any device.  Music sequencers and DAWS allow people to create music with prerecorded loops and also allow the composer to record and input their own musical ideas into their compositions.  This is one advantage Soundtrap and other DAWS have over programs like Incredibox because while Incredibox is very fun to use and you can create some great mixes, the composer must pick from prerecorded sounds and does not have the ability to input their own music.  Here is a link to the composition I created using Soundtrap this week called “Floppy Tone Strolls With Friends”.

Using music sequencers is a great way to allow students who do not know much about music theory to be able to compose music.  Music sequencers allow for the composer to have instant feedback regarding the sound of their composition.  Also, music sequencers tend to have a large variety of sounds available for the composer to experiment with and if a composer does not like what they’ve created, they can easily delete sections or tracks without having to laboriously erase notes written on staff paper. 

I also think that music sequencer software allows for students to create music that is more culturally relevant to their lives.  I would imagine that most students in public K-12 education do not listen to classical band, orchestra, or choir music as much as they listen to music that is created in a music studio or on computers that use loops, digital audio, or samples.  Even a lot of live music performances make use of electronics like foot pedals that allow for musicians to record and loop sounds as part of their performances.  Unless a student is in a traditional music ensemble class, they are not likely to have the music performed or composed for those groups as their primary music interest.  They would have little motivation to learn traditional composition because they would likely not see the value in learning about something they would not use in their lives.  Learning how to compose using DAWS could be more relevant to their lives because they could create music that is similar to what they already listen to.

Bauer (2014) lists many composition activities that can be done using DAWS including loop-based composition, using nontraditional sounds to create music, using repetition and contrast, creating a remix, creating a composition, and creating a soundtrack.  Any and all of these activities can be done by students with little or no traditional music theory knowledge or traditional performance skills on instruments or singing. 

There are many students who are not involved in traditional music classes in schools and “a growing number of teachers have found that students who comprise this other 80% are attracted to school music classes that involve a non-notational approach to musical creativity through compositions, often facilitated through technology” (Bauer, 2014 p. 60).  With so many students missing out on the opportunity to create music if they are not involved in traditional music classes, it seems to me that teachers must begin to adjust their curriculum and class offerings to serve more students.  Music should be something that all students get at least some instruction in during their education and if 80% of students are missing out on that due to the fact that they cannot read or write notation or play or sing in traditional ensembles, music teachers should make an effort to add some nontraditional classes to allow for more students to learn about music.

Reference

Bauer, W. I. (2014).  Music learning today: digital pedagogy for creating, performing, and responding to music. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Music Tech Week 2

This week, the focus of the reading was creating music and the importance creating music has in music education.  Two ways in which a teacher can teach students to be creative within music education are composition and improvisation.  Bauer (2014) notes that according to Bloom’s revised taxonomy, creativity can be viewed as the highest level of cognitive complexity.  Bauer goes on to write, “if the purpose of schools is to provide a well-rounded education for students that will enable them to function in the many different roles they may encounter in life, the ability to think creatively should be a high priority” (Bauer, 2014 p. 48).  If this is true, shouldn’t music teachers make creating music a high priority in their classes as well? 

For the purpose of this blog, I will define creating music as composing or improvising.  While technically students “create” music when playing music that has already been written, it is a different process than actually creating unique music through composition or improvisation.  In talking with colleagues who are music teachers, I find that many of them do not do any activities that include creating music, with the exception of their jazz band classes if they have them.  While the students become very proficient at recreating what the composers of their sheet music wrote, coming up with new music on their own is something that is rarely, if at all addressed.  Some of this is due to the idea that the teachers don’t have enough time to begin teaching creative projects or units because they are more concerned with preparing their ensembles for performances or teaching their general music students about music history, appreciation, or teaching them basic music performance skills.  I find this to be sad because all of these aspects of a music education are important, but leaving out creative projects is not allowing students to get a comprehensive music education.  Creating is one of the four National Core Arts Standards, and music teachers should make an effort to address it, even if this means their ensembles won’t sound quite as good, or they won’t get as high a rating at a festival.

Composing is a wonderful way to incorporate creativity into a student’s music education.  There are many ways for students to compose, which makes composition possible in all music classes.  Bauer (2014) lists many different activities that allow students to compose, and they do not all require knowledge of music theory or how to read or write notation.  Activity one is to create a loop-based composition.  Since loops are pre-recorded, students do not need to be able to actually play the instruments or make the sounds they want to use in their composition, but they can arrange these loops in different patterns to create unique compositions.  The use of Incredibox and other websites or sequencing software provides anyone the opportunity to create unique compositions.  This type of composition might not meet the musical objectives of the traditional Western European music education model followed by much of the United States, but it can allow students to be creative within the subject of music.

Another activity mentioned by Bauer is creating or utilizing alternative notation.  This is a great activity for students who do not know how to read traditional notation and allows these students to write their own music or soundscapes using notation that makes sense to them.  The point of notation, after all, is to be able to recreate a musical idea based on what the musician sees written.  Notation could include pictures, colors, shapes, etc. as long as it communicates to the musician what sounds are to be made when.

Improvisation is another aspect of creating music that many teachers avoid or intentionally skip as part of their curriculum.  This is unfortunate, especially in the United States, where jazz is widely accepted to be the first American art form.  Colleagues I have talked with have expressed concern that they don’t know enough about improvisation to be able to teach it to students.  As Bauer points out in this week’s reading, there are many forms of improvisation, some of which could be taught by any music teacher if they want to include improvisation in their curriculum.  Bauer describes Kratus’ seven-level sequential model for developing improvisational abilities well.  Level one is “exploration” and in this stage students experiment with various sounds without any particular structure.  Any music teacher is able to guide this type of improvisational activity because there are no preexisting rules or defined outcomes that need to be followed or met.  This type of improvisation allows students to begin to gain basic audiation skills, which can help them in their musical future, no matter what type of music they engage in.  Even though this sounds very basic, this should be the minimum amount of improvisation students learn in school.  Level two is “process-oriented improvisation” which is more complex, but still easily teachable by music teachers with the most basic knowledge of improvisation. 

While music teachers might not feel comfortable teaching improvisation because they think they’re not good at it, have never been taught how to, or think that it is not applicable to the kind of music their students perform, it is still an important part of musicmaking that students should have some experience with in a comprehensive music education. 

Creating music is an important part of a well-rounded, comprehensive music education.  While not all music educators might see the value in doing very basic composition or improvisation, all students should have at least the most basic knowledge of how these activities are carried out.  Your students do not have to become the next Bach or Beethoven, they might not even be able to notate their compositions using correct traditional notation, but the experience of being creative with music is important to their learning.  Anyone is able to teach these concepts in their music class.  As Bauer writes, “music educators might explore both formal and informal approaches to creative activities as appropriate to specific learning outcomes, the learning environment, and the students involved” (Bauer, 2014 p. 51).  

Reference

Bauer, W. I. (2014).  Music learning today: digital pedagogy for creating, performing, and responding to music. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Noteflight Arrangement

Noteflight could be a useful educational tool in the right situation.  One problem that I had with Noteflight that students may also experience is that you have to go back to the palettes very frequently unless you memorize or have a chart for the keyboard shortcuts. I found this to be rather cumbersome. Also, with Noteflight you have to sign up for an account, which could cause issues with students whose parents don't want them establishing online accounts.Two benefits to this program are that the basic program is free to use and since it is based online, students are able to access it via different devices which means they might have more opportunities to work on their compositions than if files were saved to a specific device.

Music Tech Week 1

In the first week of this class, there were many ways I began to think about technology and its use in music education.  Bauer (2014) broadly explained how technology can be used to supplement and enhance a student’s music education and also help teachers to become more effective when teaching the current generation of students who have grown up with technology as a major part of their entire lives.  We also were able to learn about an app called “Incredibox” which can be accessed at https://www.incredibox.com/.  This was a new app to me and I found it to be very engaging and plan on using this app in upcoming instruction with my students.

In my experience many music teachers who teach in public schools are hesitant to use technology in their classes.  The reasons I have heard run the gamut from students don’t learn “real” music that way to the teacher not wanting to learn something new or teach using something they do not understand.  I have long thought that this is unfortunate.  As I was reading this week’s assignment, I was struck by Bauer’s (2014) description of “adaptive expertise” and its importance in using technology effectively in a music classroom.  When thinking about conversations with music teachers about why they refuse to use technology in their teaching of content, they demonstrate a refusal to adapt their teaching to include technology.  Later in the reading Bauer comments, “music educators must be open to new ideas and ways of doing things while also demonstrating a willingness to invest the time and effort necessary to utilize novel pedagogical and technological approaches if they are to initially develop and continually evolve and refine their TPACK” (Bauer, 2014 p. 17).  I have encountered many music teachers of traditional music classes like concert band, orchestra, and choir that are unwilling to open themselves up to new ideas for teaching because they have been successful in their career by teaching groups that score well at festivals and are impressive at concerts. 

Music teachers who refuse to be open to new teaching techniques or approaches often neglect to provide a quality music education to students who do not participate in performance ensembles.  There are many students who have no interest in playing traditional instruments or playing in traditional music ensembles.  As a teacher of a general music class in a middle school (in addition to teaching traditional ensembles), I recognize how many students would miss out on a music education that was relevant to them if I was not willing to try teaching in different ways from the traditional music pedagogy.  Bauer (2014) mentions the use of music sequencing software to teach students composition.  I find this to be a perfect example of using technology to effectively teach students about a musical concept when they might not have the background knowledge needed to be successful using traditional composition teaching methods.  Traditionally music composition was taught using pencil and paper and playing ideas out on keyboards and then notating them so they could be played either by the composer or other musicians.  Many of my students have no background knowledge in how to read or write music notation and do not have the knowledge of how to use the keyboard to play out ideas they have.  I care much more about students being able to create music that they like while using concepts I have taught in class (texture, form, rhythms, etc.) and care much less about them being able to use traditional notation to create their pieces.

Using technology that allows students to write music and demonstrate their knowledge of the musical concepts I have taught is much more effective than teaching them how notation works, and then how to play the notated piece on the piano.  Also, the likelihood of these students composing using piano, paper, and pencil is much less than it is the students composing using sequencing software or other apps that allow them to compose digitally.  Learning how to compose digitally is more relevant for students who are not in traditional music classes who might never take another music class in school after their general music class.  Having basic knowledge of how to compose using apps or sequencing software can allow them to continue composing on their own without more formal training.

The use of programs like Incredibox is an example of how students who do not have any formal music theory knowledge or knowledge of how to play an instrument can compose music and demonstrate knowledge of concepts taught in class.  The app is very intuitive and students would relate well to the sounds made.  The app allows you to layer different sound loops and create mixes that you can play back, save, or share.  This app could be used to teach many basic compositional techniques and does not require the students to have any previous knowledge of harmony or how to notate rhythms.  Also, the immediate feedback provided using the app allows students to make quick decisions and edits, while composing with paper and pencil requires much more time to hear elements students would want to change, make the change on the paper, replay the new element, and perhaps have to go through the whole process many times before it sounds the way the student intended.  The use of the app allows for students to quickly be able to hear their composition and edit it according to their intended sound.  I enjoyed learning about this app and enjoyed creating music with it and I am sure that I will use it in the future to teach general music students (and possibly performance class students) about basic composition concepts.

Here is a link to a mix I created using Incredibox:

https://www.incredibox.com/mix/5C3418F5C8E06-V4 

I am looking forward to learning more about technology and how to use it to teach music.  I think this class will be very valuable for me in creating a curriculum that is relevant to my students and allow me to improve my music appreciation class to provide a better music education for my general music students especially.

Reference

Bauer, W. I. (2014).  Music learning today: digital pedagogy for creating, performing, and responding to music. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Test post for music technology class.