This week I learned about composition in the music classroom and some technical aspects of working with music creation hardware and software. In addition, I interacted with my Personal Learning Network (PLN).
Composition in the Music Classroom
Some music education researchers suggest the composition of music is the highest form of musical self-expression. If this is the case, guiding students through the compositional process should be an important factor in school music education.
There are two basic approaches to music composition in the classroom. The first involves composing using traditional music notation with the other does not use notation, instead the composer manipulates loops, MIDI and digital audio files to compose music.
Each of these two approaches to composition can be integrated with music technology. Traditional notation advocates can use notation programs like Finale, Notepad, MuseScore or Noteflight to allow their students to compose music. Traditional notation can help develop music literacy and connect the notation system to sounds produced by the software. Some teachers believe this approach to composition is valuable since it helps to reinforce the reading ability traditional musicians use in practice and performance. In addition, the students can learn to create music that other people can play on real, acoustic instruments.
The use of Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs) can help students compose who are not adept at using or reading traditional music notation. These programs, like GarageBand or Soundation Studio, allow students to manipulate audio files and loops to create music without the need for traditional notation. Advocates of this approach believe students should be able to compose music even if music notation is a mystery. Many of these teachers are interested in teaching and working with students who are not serviced by the traditional music ensembles offered in most schools.
In my situation, I ask students to compose using traditional music notations software. We have purchased a Noteflight license for each middle school instrumental music student in our district. We worked with a guest composition professor to guide the students through a composition exercise involving creating question and answer phrases between two different instruments. The phrases were accompanied by a simple ostinato figure. The students used Noteflight to transcribe their initial phrase and then to compose the ostinato figure. For those students who are interested, we offer a “Composition Club” on Friday mornings during second semester. In this club, we present a short 5-minute lesson about some aspect of theory or composition technique. Then, the students are free to work with the Noteflight software to create music. We walk around the room helping students with technical and compositional problems or questions. At the end of each period, we present one student composition. At the end of the semester, each student chooses one composition to feature in a recital.
Bauer offers 12 teaching strategies I will use during my composition classes and during our weekly Composition Club meetings. Some I already use, and others I intend to implement are:
4. Ask the student to describe and explain the composition.
5. Question the composers purpose and intention behind compositional decisions.
8. Prompt the student to self-analyze his or her work.
11. Provide reassurance.
In addition, focusing on only one aspect of the composition instead of many can be more helpful for a student.
The musical creativity of our composition students using traditional notation software is limited by their ability to read, understand and manipulate traditional music notation. Thus, the student can only do what he or she knows how to notate. Many of the compositional questions we receive in class are questions about how to notate a specific rhythm or how to notate a particular performance technique. One benefit of these questions is that once the students learn how to notate something, they may transfer that knowledge to the performance of that notation in our music ensembles. Interestingly, after reviewing 6/8 time in my class, many of my students experimented with compositions in 6/8!
Technical Aspects of Music Technology Hardware and Software
This week I watched numerous video lessons regarding Sound and Digital Audio, Digital Audio Workstations, Cables and Connectors, Computers and Audio and MIDI technology.
Some of my key learnings from these videos:
1. Frequency and amplitude.
2. Analog vs. Digital Sound
3. Sample Rate and Bit Rate
4. How a DAW can be set-up.
5. The different cables used in audio recording and production.
6. The importance of a fast computer.
7. How MIDI works and how it can be manipulated in software.
Though none of this information was difficult to understand, it was not information I had been exposed to. Recently, while working as a pit orchestra conductor for school and semi-professional theaters, I have been asked to set-up the pit orchestra’s synthesizers, MIDI boxes and direct line instruments. This week I learned what each of the cables I had plugged in was actually called and what it did! Very interesting and useful.
PLN Interactions
Again this week I explored Feedly, other websites, Twitter and Google+ to find information to share with others. Though I am enjoying using Twitter and Feedly, I still feel disconnected from Google+. I will attempt this week to work more with this social networking site to explore its potential.
After the first few weeks, I am noticing more or my classmates posting and sharing information. Since we are all using many of the same sources of information, I sometimes find myself racing to post information before someone else beats me to it! I know it is not a competition, but with limited sources (so far) and many participants, stories can be scarce. My goal this week will be to search for new information sites and share these with my classmates. The more information we have access to, the better.
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