Songwriting with Iconic Notation in a Music Technology Classroom

2021 ◽  
Vol 107 (3) ◽  
pp. 22-30
Author(s):  
Matthew Clauhs
Keyword(s):  
Popular Music ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
Music Technology ◽  
Chord Diagrams ◽  
Technology Classroom ◽  
School Music ◽  
The Creation

Recognizing that music teachers may struggle to implement songwriting activities in a classroom, and that iconic notation provides an opportunity to increase access to school music for all students, the purpose of this article is to share one model of songwriting activities in a music technology class using chord diagrams, beat grids, and keyboard charts. The article outlines specific steps to the creation of drum grooves, simple chord progressions, bass lines, and melodies, using forms of notation that are appropriate for popular music instruments and styles.

The integration of music technology into popular music ensembles: Perspectives of modern band teachers

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 297-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bryan Powell
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Popular Music ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
The United States ◽  
Music Technology ◽  
Student Agency ◽  
Music Ensembles ◽  
School Music ◽  
K 12

The increased presence of technology into music education classrooms has coincided to some extent with the increased presence of popular music into school music spaces, especially in the United States. This study examined the integration of music technologies into K-12 (ages 5‐18) popular music programmes in New York City (NYC). One hundred sixty-eight music teachers responded to a survey, all of whom had previously participated in a modern band workshop as part of the Amp Up NYC initiative. Results of the study found that many of the challenges of incorporating music technology into modern bands, including lack of access to technology or faulty hardware, are not unique to popular music ensembles. Some of the successes mentioned by the teachers, including songwriting, beat-making and increased student agency, provide a glimpse into the benefits that integrating music technology into modern band classrooms can offer.

A Rising Tide

2021 ◽  
pp. 265-274
Author(s):  
Will Kuhn ◽  
Ethan Hein
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Popular Music ◽  
Electronic Music ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
Music Technology ◽  
Cultural Authenticity ◽  
Music Program ◽  
Popular Music Studies ◽  
Vernacular Music ◽  
School Music

This chapter reflects on the curriculum outlined in the book and how it fits into the larger music education landscape. While project-based electronic music may not be appealing to all music teachers, the benefits of this approach to music education generally are broad and substantial. An open-enrollment music technology course creates a culture of inclusion that can lend a school’s music program greater cultural authenticity and demographic inclusiveness. When students are able to create music in their preferred styles, it validates their musical identities and helps them build toward lifelong learning. There are racial politics underlying the gulf between “school” music and “popular” music, and the chapter discusses the opposition that each successive form of African-American popular and vernacular music has faced in the academy. Critical popular music studies animated by antiracism can serve to both advance social justice goals, and to strengthen and enrich music programs.

Songwriting with digital audio workstations in an online community

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 237-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Clauhs
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Popular Music ◽  
Online Community ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
File Sharing ◽  
Digital Audio ◽  
Google Docs ◽  
Music Production ◽  
School Music ◽  
High School Music

Digital audio workstations and online file-sharing technology may be combined to create opportunities for collaborations among many groups, including performing ensembles, music technology classes, professional songwriters and preservice music teachers. This article presents a model for a digitally mediated online collaboration that focuses on popular music songwriting activities in school and higher education settings. Using an example from a high school music production class that collaborated with an undergraduate music education course through Google Docs and a file-sharing platform, the author outlines steps towards facilitating partnerships that focus on creating music in an online community. Such collaborations may help remove barriers between our classrooms and our communities as music teachers leverage technology to develop relationships with creators and performers of popular music everywhere.

What’s stopping you? Impediments to incorporating popular music technologies in schools

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sondre Brudvik ◽  
David G. Hebert
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Trial ◽  
Secondary Schools ◽  
Private Sector ◽  
Popular Music ◽  
Local Community ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Product Use ◽  
Technology Products ◽  
School Music

This study explores why music technologies are not more often used in school music programmes despite their wide accessibility in the private sector. We examine how four popular products are perceived by music teachers in Norwegian primary and lower secondary schools: Rocksmith 2014, Soundation, GarageBand and Skoog. Our study determines what participants see as impediments to using these specific products, as well as music technologies in general. Through analysis of interviews conducted within a clinical trial of technology products, four factors were identified as perceived impediments to product use in schools: expense, accessibility, attitude and usability. Although expense is an especially prominent concern, we found that each factor can potentially prevent acquisition and incorporation of music technologies. Further, the influence of other agents besides the music teachers themselves is perceived as playing a vital role in this process, such as the school’s administration and characteristics of the local community.

scholarly journals Integrating popular music and informal music learning practices: A multiple case study of secondary school music teachers enacting change in music education

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 298-310
Author(s):  
Martina Vasil
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Popular Music ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
Music Learning ◽  
Informal Music Learning ◽  
Learning Practices ◽  
School Music ◽  
Multiple Case

The purpose of this multiple case study was to examine the practices and perspectives of four music teachers who integrated popular music and informal music learning practices into their secondary school music programs in the United States. A primary goal was to understand music teachers’ process of enacting change. Data included 16 semi-structured interviews, eight school site visits and observations, documents, and a researcher journal. Findings revealed that teachers enacted change within micro-contexts—their classrooms. Teachers had an internal locus for change; they developed rationales for change and initiated curricular changes in response to a lack of student engagement, which seemed to stem from students feeling insecure in their musical abilities and disconnected from the content and pedagogy used in music classes. For the teachers in this study, the solution was integrating popular music and informal music learning practices. Thematic analysis revealed eight characteristics of effective teacher-initiated change in secondary music education: (1) holistic and gradual change processes, (2) teacher reflection and inquiry, (3) teacher autonomy, (4) enabling institutional factors, (5) use of a variety of supportive networks, (6) student-centered pedagogy, (7) teacher-selected professional development, and (8) a balance of structure and chaos and formal and informal learning.

The Value of Learning Collective Free Music Improvisation: Preservice Music Educators’ Perspectives

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 40-53
Author(s):  
Hoon Hong Ng
Keyword(s):  
Music Teachers ◽  
Music Educators ◽  
Music Curriculum ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Music Improvisation ◽  
Free Improvisation ◽  
Entrepreneurial Skills ◽  
School Music ◽  
Collaborative Skills

I conducted a case study to explore preservice music teachers’ behaviors, thoughts, and feelings when engaged in collective free music improvisation. Nine preservice music teachers were taught how to freely improvise within groups as part of a teacher education course and participated in interviews and focus group discussions. Major themes highlighted learning across three segments that emphasized communication and collaborative skills, entrepreneurial skills and risk taking, and reconciliation and transformation. I concluded that the sociomusical outcomes produced by collective free improvisation may complement those of more formal and idiomatic improvisation practices, and that by introducing preservice music teachers to free improvisation activities, they may be more willing to engage PK–12 students in free improvisation lessons that enhance the existing school music curriculum.

The method of emotional education in music teaching

2021 ◽  
pp. 002072092098355
Author(s):  
Hui Hong ◽  
Weisheng Luo
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
Music Education ◽  
Teaching Methods ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
Aesthetic Education ◽  
Music Teaching ◽  
True Meaning ◽  
School Music ◽  
Teaching Music ◽  
Emotional Education

Wang Guowei, a famous scholar and thinker in our country, thinks that “aesthetic education harmonizes people's feelings in the process of emotional music education, so as to achieve the perfect domain”, “aesthetic education is also emotional education”. Therefore, in the process of music education, emotional education plays an important role in middle school music teaching, and it is also the highest and most beautiful realm in the process of music education in music teaching. Music teachers should be good at using appropriate teaching methods and means. In the process of music education, they should lead students into the emotional world, knock on their hearts with the beauty of music, and touch their heartstrings. Only when students' hearts are close to music in the process of music education, can they truly experience the charm of music and realize the true meaning of music in the process of music education. Only in this way can music classes be effectively implemented The purpose of classroom emotion teaching.

scholarly journals Can the adoption of informal approaches to learning music in school music lessons promote musical progression?

2017 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 127-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Hallam ◽  
Andrea Creech ◽  
Hilary McQueen
Keyword(s):  
Focus Groups ◽  
Music Teachers ◽  
Approaches To Learning ◽  
Musical Skills ◽  
Music Lessons ◽  
Stage 4 ◽  
School Music ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Three Phases

The aim of this research was to explore the impact of the adoption of the Musical Futures approach on the musical progression of students in Musical Futures’ Champion schools. The research took place over three years in three phases with 733 students and 28 music teachers completing questionnaires. Data from the interviews with 39 staff and focus groups of 325 students provided greater insights into the questionnaire responses. Overall, teachers reported that Musical Futures had enhanced the musical progression of their students and increased take up at Key Stage 4. In some cases this had led to changes in the qualifications on offer with an emphasis on those which were vocational rather than academic. This created some tensions in catering for the needs of different groups of students who had a range of different musical skills.

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