Project Lovelace: unprecedented opportunities for music education

2003 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-60
Author(s):  
Mary Simoni

Project Lovelace is a school-based programme for students aged twelve to eighteen years interested in learning about making music by using technology. The programme is designed to encourage equal and equitable participation by male and female students through instruction in technology-enhanced music performance, improvisation, composition, analysis and notation. Project Lovelace is named in honour of the contributions of the female mathematician Ada Augusta, Countess of Lovelace, who in 1842 predicted that computers could be used for musical composition (Roads 1996).The goals of Project Lovelace are to develop collaborative-based methods for gender-balanced school music technology programmes, amass a gender-balanced repertoire suitable for school music technology programmes, nurture creativity and analytical skills in music technology, and conduct a longitudinal study that documents the changing attitudes and perceived competencies of participating students and teachers.The motivation to initiate Project Lovelace was the timely convergence of two vexing issues perennially facing music technology programmes in higher education, specifically at the University of Michigan: the proportionally small number of female applicants to university music technology programmes and the need to continually upgrade or replace laboratory equipment. Why not allocate second-generation university laboratory equipment to the schools with the intent of building school-based music technology curricula that lead to a gender-balanced university applicant pool?

2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 383-399
Author(s):  
Daniel J. Albert

The purpose of this study was to examine the culture of an American middle school music technology classroom based in musical composition. Research questions explored students’ perceptions of how they co-create the classroom culture with the teacher and how the classroom culture influences participation in musical composition activities, if at all. Data sources for this ethnographic case study included field notes from multiple class observations, audio- and video-recordings, and semi-structured interviews. Findings determined that teacher and students’ mutual use of constructive feedback in their discourse, the teacher’s role as co-learner, his facilitation of “messiness” as part of the learning process, and his pedagogical style helped to create an affirming classroom culture that motivated students to compose. Implications for teaching practice include critical examination of classroom cultures and thoughtful inclusion of technology in music education courses.


2021 ◽  
pp. 3-11
Author(s):  
Will Kuhn ◽  
Ethan Hein

Research has shown the need for new types of music classes that emphasize amateur music production and popular music. The new types of programs contrast with traditional classical and performance-based music programs. Digital audio production offers an unprecedented opportunity to support students in active, culturally authentic music-making. A successful music technology program requires a change from the teacher-led ensemble model to a creative workshop structure. Furthermore, it requires the recognition that current popular styles have their own distinct aesthetics and creative approaches. Project-based learning also requires teachers to develop their own pedagogical creativity. This approach can attract students who do not currently participate in or identify with school music, but who nevertheless consider themselves to be musicians. The constructivist philosophy of music education, using teaching strategies that support students’ agency in their own learning, fosters self-motivation and a critical stance toward popular culture.


2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 259-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
James L. Byo

This purpose of this study was to uncover the nature and value associated with involvement in “Modern Band” (rock band), the primary, not supplemental, means to music education in one US school. The values that emerged—music, community, identity, teacher, and classroom management—overlap considerably with the benefits and values identified by adolescents in traditional concert band, orchestra, and choir. These results provide data worthy of consideration as readers ponder the viability of rock band as a medium of school-based music education and a way to connect meaningfully with more secondary-school students. Evidence suggests that if there are reasons to reject the rock band, the source for the skepticism should not be the values accrued and identified by its participants. This case is an example of meaningful, authentic, and valuable music education that is positioned between the extremes of formal and informal learning, process and product orientation, and teacher- and student-centered pedagogy.


2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
MARTIN FAUTLEY ◽  
ALISON DAUBNEY

Curriculum is currently a big issue in England. What a school-based music curriculum should entail, what sorts of things should be taught and learned, and what makes for good learning experiences are all under consideration. One of the issues that crops up in England, and possibly in other jurisdictions too, when these sorts of discussions take place, involves considerations of what sorts of music children and young people should be involved with, what should they learn, and what is important for schools to be teaching. This immediately places discussions beyond what might be termed the strictly musical, and into the area of values. What music is valued by education systems, and what music should be foregrounded in educational settings become a significant arena of contention. This is especially the case when politicians become involved, as they will often have fixed or politically-motivated views about what they think should be taught and learned in school music classes. As ever, the pages of the BJME provide some interesting views on this matter, and so it is worth a brief trawl through the archives. The BJME home page search engine on the website produces 168 results for the term “curriculum”, so clearly this will be a highly selective sampling from these rich pickings in this editorial.


Semiotica ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 (204) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mitchell Wong ◽  
Marcel Danesi

AbstractThis article presents a system of music notation that uses a combination of colors and shapes to represent sound. This system may present advantages over the traditional system of music notation, as its symbols are inherently related to the musical information that they communicate. The present article explains the basic workings of the system. It then describes an ethnographic study in which the system was used to teach music literacy to a group of elementary school music students. It concludes with the implications that such a system might have in the spheres of music performance and music education.


Author(s):  
Jane Southcott ◽  
Renée Crawford

<span>Recently, in Australia both the </span><em>National Review of School Music Education</em><span> and </span><em>The Australian Curriculum</em><span> identify the importance of technology in school music education. However, the understanding of music technology, as demonstrated by state and territory curricular guidelines, is limited with technology mostly recognised as a tool. In comparison, contemporary Australian information and computer technology (ICT) curricula appear to have a very different understanding of how technology can enhance learning in the arts, specifically music. Through a comparison of the Australian States and Territories Years 7-10 curricular guidelines this article compares understandings in the two domains - ICT and the arts (particularly music). The different perspectives on the use of technology in music education can be seen as either using technology as a tool to support instruction in drill-like programs or as a platform for collaborative and creative learning that resonates with students in Australian music classrooms.</span>


This volume of the handbook addresses music education practice and technology in 37 chapters written by fifty three leading experts from across the world. The volume is divided into three sections and closes with an epilogue. Part 1, “Music Assessment in the United States,” presents a review of legislation and case law, national assessment trends, and state-level assessment programs in eight states. Part 2, “Assessment of Student Music Learning,” covers the practice of assessment in early childhood, special needs, primary, and secondary music classrooms and ensembles. Part 3, “Assessment and Music Technology,” covers policy and practice for technologically assisted music assessment, and details technical issues related to computerized assessment of music performance. The epilogue brings the handbook to a close with a review of the state of the art of music assessment, and introduces the International Principles of Assessment in Music Education.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 297-310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bryan Powell

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.


2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth Elpus

The purpose of this study was to understand the effects of school-based music education on later adult engagement with the arts using nationally representative data from the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts 2012 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts. The probability of adult arts engagement as performer/creator and patron/consumer was estimated as functions of prior school-based music and arts education participation with statistical covariate control applied for demographic variables known to vary with music education status. Results suggest that both music performance and music appreciation courses are strongly associated with later arts participation as patron/consumer and performer/creator, even after controlling for socioeconomic status, sex, and race/ethnicity. Former music appreciation students were 93% more likely to attend classical music or opera performances as adults and 255% more likely to play a musical instrument as adults than were non-participants. Former music performance students were 342% more likely to play a musical instrument, 258% more likely to sing, and 186% more likely to take photographs as an artistic endeavor than were non-participants. Results of this study suggest that lifelong engagement with music and the arts is one measurable outcome of school-based music education in the United States.


2021 ◽  
pp. 265-274
Author(s):  
Will Kuhn ◽  
Ethan Hein

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.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document