Some Aspects of Pedagogical Corpora

This essay focuses on the characteristics of corpora drawn from pedagogical materials and contrasts them with the properties of corpora of larger repertoires. Two case studies show pedagogical corpora to contain relatively more chromaticism, and to devote more of their probability mass to low-frequency events. This is likely due to the formatting of and motivation behind classroom materials (for example, focusing proportionately more resources on difficult concepts). I argue that my observations challenge the utility of using pedagogical corpora within research into implicit learning. I also suggest that these datasets are uniquely situated to yield insights into explicit learning, and into how musical traditions are represented in the classroom.

Teachers beware and vet with care: Online educational marketplaces

Today, millions of teachers search online to locate ideas and activities for classroom use. While some may visit established curricular sites with vetted classroom materials, many others turn to online educational marketplaces such as TeachersPayTeachers. However, issues of quality on these sites remain in question — particularly when it comes to the extent to which diverse perspectives are included or excluded. Leanna Archambault, Catharyn Shelton, and Lauren McArthur Harris highlight concerns surrounding the limited perspectives present in online educational marketplaces and provide research-driven guidelines for educators evaluating resources from such sites.

Epilogue

The chapter provides a brief survey of alternative solmization systems, which arose largely as a result of Protestant attempts to break free from Roman oversight, followed by an account of the rise of French seven-note solfège and its role in the demise of the great tradition. Owing to its simplicity, this “natural way” to solfège turned out to be ideally suited to the needs of a rapidly expanding amateur market, which demanded readily performable sheet music and the ability to read it rather than onerous craft training. It also provided simplified teaching methods and classroom materials for the new public music schools that emerged from the upheavals of the Napoleonic era. The chapter ends with suggestions as to how the solfeggio tradition might once again find a place within a living culture of music making.