Readings
Reading #1
Rose, L. S., & Countryman, J. (2013). Repositioning ‘the elements’: How students talk about music. Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education 12(3): 45-64.
The focus of the article “Repositioning ‘The Elements’: How Students Talk about Music” takes a critical look on how teaching the elements of music through grade school takes away students creativity and gives music education a very Eurocentric view.
I have conflicting thoughts on this article. On the positive side, I absolutely agree that music education, especially in the elementary grades, shouldn’t have an entire focus on the elements of music and European classical music. The article states, “The musical passions that enrich many students’ lives, such as garage band jamming, electronic mixing, or intense listening to specific contemporary genres are usually not evident in our secondary school programs, confirming for these students that they do not belong, that they are not musical in the sanctioned sense of the word” (50). I couldn't agree more with this statement. In my high school, I never got the opportunity to learn how to properly record music, or how to edit music on software such as garage band. In the present time, learning these skills help market yourself when posting these videos online. I see so many posts on youtube or Instagram of people playing/singing music and it helps them get connections. I’ve also seen fellow students who are really good at mixing never get the chance to show it off in high school music. Not having musical diversity when teaching, leaves out genres of music that are just as important in the present day.
There are some parts of the article that I don’t completely agree with. To start, this article completely disregarded teaching the elements of music at all when there are definite perks of knowing terminology to express what you are hearing. Knowing the elements of music, allow for students to develop a new language that can be used to analyze music. I don’t believe that it is the elements fault for lack of diversity but it is the educators that completely depend on the elements to teach music. I think that they should be taught but not the sole purpose of the course. I also believe that the elements are important in preparing students for music in university. Although most students that take music in high school aren’t going into university for it, the students that do go, need a solid foundation and understanding of the elements. I’m just finishing my first week of university and I would have no idea what was going on if it wasn’t for my high school teaching me how to analyze music with the elements.
One thing that surprised me in this article is the fact that only 5.7% of students enrol in Grade 12 music when adolescents report that listening to music is their favourite activity (49). This pulls up a lot of issues as to why this is happening. One issue I know from experience is not being able to fit it in the time table due to the maths and sciences being mandatory. Another issue is the fact that you don’t learn popular music. This causes students to lose interest.
Finally, I would like to ask the authors:
What they thought of the way music is taught in university?
How we go about satisfying the curriculum when trying to bring diversity and self-discovery into music education?
Reading #2
Serres, D. (2014). Think Everything's "Normal?" Then it's Time to Reconsider a New Narrative of Disability. Retrieved, September 19, 2017, from http://organizingchange.org/think-everythings-normal-then-its-time-to-reconsider-and-promote-a-new-narrative-of-disability/
I had a lot of issues with this article.
I completely agreed with the beginning of this article. I agreed with the author when they talked about how society puts stigma towards people with disability especially when it is visible from the day to day (eg. Wheelchair, blind, deaf). We do have an issue in our society about wanting everyone to be normal. This was especially evident when the author mentions that “Parents or staff will often setup photos so that they hide the wheelchair and, thus, makes the kid seem “normal.” These small things that people do make it seem that people with disability are less then ‘normal’ and need to hide a part of them.
I was honestly shocked by the rest of the article. I found that most of this article romanticizes mental illness. In this article, the author states how people with mental illness don’t need help and in wanting to help them we are pressuring them into the social norm. THEY NEED HELP. Yes, in the past and present day, the ways people have tired to help haven’t been right but medication, different school tracks, therapy etc. help so many people live their lives and gives people the shot to live their best lives.
Furthermore, this article was all over the place. This article is about how we stigmatize mental illness and force people of disability to live a 'normal' life. However in this article the author puts random points about how people of colour and LGBTQA+ are more likely to be diagnosed with mental illness. This is a huge issue in society and it deserves to be fully developed and not just thrown into an article not about race or the LGBTQA+ community.
Also, this article puts a lot of emphasis on the education system and how the current system is causing children with mental illness to' go to jail'. In my experience through school, which was completely public education, the special education program is great. When my friend was given an IEP in grade 11, her life changed for the better. Before when taking tests, she would get into a thought spiral and normally end up having to leave early to deal with her mental health. After she got it, she was able to get more time on her tests and was given the option to test in a more secluded area not in the classroom. This helped. I have also co-oped at an elementary school where they had a “Life Skills” program that helps kids with disabilities learn how to do everyday skills like cook, clean, and live on their own. Something that they would never learn how to do if they were in the same track as most students.
Finally, I would like to ask the author why he would write an article about how no one is normal but put all people with disability into the same category and assume that everyone suffers with the same issues.
Reading #3
Hourigan, R. M. (2009). The Invisible Student: Understanding Social Identity Construction Within Performing Ensembles. Music Educators Journal, 34-38.
I enjoyed this article.
This article takes a look into ways teachers can help students that like staying in the back and not interacting with others.
I enjoyed the format of this article. The way that the author switched back and forth between Jason, a very specific example, to talking about ‘invisible’ kids in general was very effective in getting the point across. I also agree with what the author is trying to convey. It is easy to always have your attention on the loudest students in the class, both in a positive and negative manor, but it is just as important to spend time with the quiet ones because they will be the ones that slip through the cracks. In my high school music program, we have teachers that use some of these techniques and they work. For the first month of school, we would have icebreakers and get to know you games before every rehearsal, we went on bonding retreats, and students never picked their own roommates. All of these things worked at my school and I felt that because of this we were more of a family and even made better music because we had a group of dedicated peers that didn’t want to let the group down.
I was frustrated by how the teacher hadn’t talked to Jason in months. As someone who wants to go into music education, this surprised me. I feel like it is the band director’s duty to make sure everyone is included. I have noticed that sometimes band directors forget that they are more than just conductors and need to realize they are teachers first. As a teacher they need to notice when someone is being left out. If they don’t notice, it means they don’t care and as a student, I couldn’t imagine not having my music teachers support me when I have been having bad days. If my teachers didn’t notice, it would make me feel useless, unwanted and insignificant, nothing a student should ever feel especially in a music ensemble.
I was pleasantly surprised at how much I agreed with in this article. Hourigan does a great job at conveying his point. I appreciated that he gave solutions to issues and that he gave a real life example instead of just leaving it in the hypothetical.
I would like to thank the author for writing a great article and would like to ask how, as educators, do we go about figuring out a students needs when they don’t like talking?
Reading #4
Dawe, L. (2016). Fumbling Towards Vulnerability: Moving Out of the Familiar for Music Education’s Sake, Canadian Music Educator, (57)2, pp. 22-24.
This article articulates the vulnerability in being creative in the classroom and how a teacher’s education influences their ability to go “outside the box” in their teaching.
I can strongly relate with this author, as I have also had a very similar education. In my experience, I had to do an improved jazz solo in grade 8 and I was petrified of being wrong. Looking back at it after reading this article, I realize that you can’t be ‘wrong’ at soloing and I was looking at it as ‘black and white’. However, I also got to see the other side of teaching where in my Grade 11 vocals class I got to do a passion project. In it, I got to create anything as long as it retained back to music. I chose to arrange a song into a choral piece which is something I really wanted to do and others did an aural percussion song on Garage Band. It was a chance to explore things that got you interested in music in the first place. Having projects or classes similar to this really helped me rediscover why I love music.
I also appreciated that the author from the beginning says that this is her experience of dealing with vulnerability in teaching creatively and that what she has been doing isn’t perfect. In doing this, I could relate to her more personally and made me feel more connected with this article. She also points out how not everything works, by saying, “Only a small portion of our students go on to take music past Grade 8, and even with our collaborative approach to teaching and learning alongside out students, we still have some students who are disengaged from music class (23-24).” I found this really interesting because even with everything Dawe does as a music educator, the numbers going into high school don’t increase. It makes you wonder what other issues are causing students not to take music in high school.
The only thing I wish the author went into more was how she was creative. She did mention that “it would be easy for me to write a top ten list of ways to infuse more creativity or inquiry into their music classes, but the truth is that a lot of what I found to be successful has been discovered by taking a risk and experimenting (24)” but it would nice to get first steps.
One question I would like to ask the author is now that you have been teaching in this new style, do you feel more comfortable in your own music making to take risks? I.e. soloing, improv.
Reading #5
Bradley, D. (2006) “Music education, multiculturalism, and anti-racism: ‘Can we talk?” Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education, 5/2: http://act.maydaygroup.org/articles/Bradley5_2.pdf
The article “Music Education, Multiculturalism, and Anti-Racism – Can We Talk?” By Deborah Bradley explains her attempts to “decolonize” multiculturalism in music education.
I agree with this article. I believe that it is important not to be a ‘colour-blind’ teacher but one who notices race and “engage[s] in conversations[with students] that acknowledge the ways in which music and our discourse in music are racially coded.” Looking at this article, I can relate it to my learning in the history course I am taking this year. In it we learn about Eurocentrism and how a historians background can persuade someones perspective on events and how it ‘others’ different ways of life. This is very similar to what Bradley is attempting to educate us on. In the article, she explains how some music scholars look at western art music as being the “highest quality”, and that ‘other’ music is primal and has not yet evolved to Europe’s standard. Looking at music this way has created a very close-minded narrative that needs to change.
One thing that surprised me was how the MFYC’s experience with South African music moved me. As a choral student, hearing about MFYC’s experience with Haleluya! Pelo Tsa Rona is truly inspirational. At this story, I finally understood the importance of telling a songs origins. This reminds me of when the females of my high school choir sang a song called Prayer. This song was written to honour the memory of the victims of the 1989 University of Montreal massacre. I remember the difference in our singing and attitude once we heard what happened in Montreal. I realize that this song wasn’t about race or world cultures but it reminded me of the importance of context when learning a piece.
One thing that frustrated me about the article was the authors use of large unnecessary words. I found that the large words were taking away from Bradley’s argument and it took me forever to truly get what she was saying. Personally, I only started understanding and agreeing with this article when Bradely started talking about choir. One part that I loved in this article was when Bradley was talking about Diana and said, “Diana’s words sting like a slap in the face”. It was this phrasing that made me understand Bradley’s point, not the long words that I had to look up in order to understand.
One thing that I would like to ask the author is whether she has always had this way of thinking or was it some experience in her life that made her realize the need for an anti-racist praxis?
Reading #6
Williams, D. A. (2014). Another Perspective - The iPad is a REAL Musical Instrument. Music Educators Journal, 101(1), 93-98.
This article focuses on how iPad’s can play a significant role in a music classroom and how this helps look at alternative pedagogies when teaching.
I honestly don’t know how I feel about this article. As a musician who has only played traditional instruments, it feels odd to call something electronically produced an instrument. Looking at this article, the author makes very clear points that shows how an iPad is indeed an instrument and I agree with those points. However, I feel as someone who loves performing in ensembles, there is also a different skill set needed to play/sing live compared to playing an iPad live. One example of this, is the element of tuning. This is completely taken away when sounds are pre-made.
Although I don’t completely agree with using iPad’s, I like how the author connected it to different kinds of pedagogies that can still be used with the traditional band instruments. He mentions how classroom sizes effect how much creative input individual students can put into a class but we could alternatively “divide a class of forty students into eight or nine smaller groups… in small groups, students could be given significant opportunities to make creative decisions to guide how they solve musical problems, presented by their teachers.” This example, as well as others, are in my opinion, are great ways to get more class participation, creativity and possibly more interest into music classrooms.
Furthermore, although I still question iPad’s as an ensemble, I think they are a great tool to be used in the music classroom. They can be used with children with disabilities, giving them the option to create music. They can also be used for projects to remix a piece or arrange a piece with any instrument available online. Having iPads gives students a chance to be creative without the limitations of people in the class not having the technique to play the piece.
One other thing that kind of bugged me with this iPad ensemble, is that I listened to some of their pieces and it seems like a majority of the time they are just playing classical instruments on iPads when there is a whole other element of sound that can be used when using digital music.
One thing I would like to ask the author: You mention how your iPad ensemble is made up of musicians that are already classically trained, how do you think your techniques would change for a group with no classical training and do you think there is a need for a bit of musical background to ‘properly’ play an iPad?
Reading #7
Tobias, E. S. (2013). Toward Convergence Adapting Music Education to Contemporary Society and Participatory Culture. Music Educators Journal, 99(4), 29-36.
For this week in Music Ed we had to read “Toward Convergence Adapting Music Education to Contemporary Society and Participatory Culture.” This article talks about how music educators can incorporate new styles of music and new ways to interact with said music.
I found this article really interesting. I thought this article gave great examples on how a teacher could bring new styles of participatory music making into a classroom. The table incorporated into the reading clearly demonstrated ways that teachers could incorporate this way of teaching, including covering, arranging, parodying, satirizing, multi-tracking, remixing, sample-based producing, mashups, tutorials, remediating and commenting and discussing different music. I found it really cool when the article started talking about Into the Woods and all the things a teacher could do with that show. I never even thought about doing something like that in a classroom. Like in my schooling into writing, remixing and covering music. But writing music in the shape of ‘what would the giantess sing about here?’ Would bring a new level to writing music. It helps teach students about how music can develop character arcs and how the instrumental music can reflect whats happening in the lyrics. A project like this would also get students applying the elements of music without fully realizing wha they are doing I also feel like it wouldn’t be to hard to mark because you could base on the kids rationale as to why they choose to do what they did. It really showed me ways to incorporate creativity into the classroom.
I also was interested in how the author explained how copyright works because once a teacher starts working with sampling and popular music, they have to start being careful about copyright infringement, something that I never thought about before.
The only thing I would like to know more about is how can an educator go about doing some of these interactive participatory projects if they don’t have the budget. Like at my school we were lucky enough to have a MAC lab so people could experience garage band and other music making software and I know some schools have iPads to do projects like this. But some schools don’t have the budget to do incorporate technology, a very important aspect to the current music trend.
After finishing this article I would like to ask the author if he is still teaching and has more kids stayed in music after incorporating these practises?
Rose, L. S., & Countryman, J. (2013). Repositioning ‘the elements’: How students talk about music. Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education 12(3): 45-64.
The focus of the article “Repositioning ‘The Elements’: How Students Talk about Music” takes a critical look on how teaching the elements of music through grade school takes away students creativity and gives music education a very Eurocentric view.
I have conflicting thoughts on this article. On the positive side, I absolutely agree that music education, especially in the elementary grades, shouldn’t have an entire focus on the elements of music and European classical music. The article states, “The musical passions that enrich many students’ lives, such as garage band jamming, electronic mixing, or intense listening to specific contemporary genres are usually not evident in our secondary school programs, confirming for these students that they do not belong, that they are not musical in the sanctioned sense of the word” (50). I couldn't agree more with this statement. In my high school, I never got the opportunity to learn how to properly record music, or how to edit music on software such as garage band. In the present time, learning these skills help market yourself when posting these videos online. I see so many posts on youtube or Instagram of people playing/singing music and it helps them get connections. I’ve also seen fellow students who are really good at mixing never get the chance to show it off in high school music. Not having musical diversity when teaching, leaves out genres of music that are just as important in the present day.
There are some parts of the article that I don’t completely agree with. To start, this article completely disregarded teaching the elements of music at all when there are definite perks of knowing terminology to express what you are hearing. Knowing the elements of music, allow for students to develop a new language that can be used to analyze music. I don’t believe that it is the elements fault for lack of diversity but it is the educators that completely depend on the elements to teach music. I think that they should be taught but not the sole purpose of the course. I also believe that the elements are important in preparing students for music in university. Although most students that take music in high school aren’t going into university for it, the students that do go, need a solid foundation and understanding of the elements. I’m just finishing my first week of university and I would have no idea what was going on if it wasn’t for my high school teaching me how to analyze music with the elements.
One thing that surprised me in this article is the fact that only 5.7% of students enrol in Grade 12 music when adolescents report that listening to music is their favourite activity (49). This pulls up a lot of issues as to why this is happening. One issue I know from experience is not being able to fit it in the time table due to the maths and sciences being mandatory. Another issue is the fact that you don’t learn popular music. This causes students to lose interest.
Finally, I would like to ask the authors:
What they thought of the way music is taught in university?
How we go about satisfying the curriculum when trying to bring diversity and self-discovery into music education?
Reading #2
Serres, D. (2014). Think Everything's "Normal?" Then it's Time to Reconsider a New Narrative of Disability. Retrieved, September 19, 2017, from http://organizingchange.org/think-everythings-normal-then-its-time-to-reconsider-and-promote-a-new-narrative-of-disability/
I had a lot of issues with this article.
I completely agreed with the beginning of this article. I agreed with the author when they talked about how society puts stigma towards people with disability especially when it is visible from the day to day (eg. Wheelchair, blind, deaf). We do have an issue in our society about wanting everyone to be normal. This was especially evident when the author mentions that “Parents or staff will often setup photos so that they hide the wheelchair and, thus, makes the kid seem “normal.” These small things that people do make it seem that people with disability are less then ‘normal’ and need to hide a part of them.
I was honestly shocked by the rest of the article. I found that most of this article romanticizes mental illness. In this article, the author states how people with mental illness don’t need help and in wanting to help them we are pressuring them into the social norm. THEY NEED HELP. Yes, in the past and present day, the ways people have tired to help haven’t been right but medication, different school tracks, therapy etc. help so many people live their lives and gives people the shot to live their best lives.
Furthermore, this article was all over the place. This article is about how we stigmatize mental illness and force people of disability to live a 'normal' life. However in this article the author puts random points about how people of colour and LGBTQA+ are more likely to be diagnosed with mental illness. This is a huge issue in society and it deserves to be fully developed and not just thrown into an article not about race or the LGBTQA+ community.
Also, this article puts a lot of emphasis on the education system and how the current system is causing children with mental illness to' go to jail'. In my experience through school, which was completely public education, the special education program is great. When my friend was given an IEP in grade 11, her life changed for the better. Before when taking tests, she would get into a thought spiral and normally end up having to leave early to deal with her mental health. After she got it, she was able to get more time on her tests and was given the option to test in a more secluded area not in the classroom. This helped. I have also co-oped at an elementary school where they had a “Life Skills” program that helps kids with disabilities learn how to do everyday skills like cook, clean, and live on their own. Something that they would never learn how to do if they were in the same track as most students.
Finally, I would like to ask the author why he would write an article about how no one is normal but put all people with disability into the same category and assume that everyone suffers with the same issues.
Reading #3
Hourigan, R. M. (2009). The Invisible Student: Understanding Social Identity Construction Within Performing Ensembles. Music Educators Journal, 34-38.
I enjoyed this article.
This article takes a look into ways teachers can help students that like staying in the back and not interacting with others.
I enjoyed the format of this article. The way that the author switched back and forth between Jason, a very specific example, to talking about ‘invisible’ kids in general was very effective in getting the point across. I also agree with what the author is trying to convey. It is easy to always have your attention on the loudest students in the class, both in a positive and negative manor, but it is just as important to spend time with the quiet ones because they will be the ones that slip through the cracks. In my high school music program, we have teachers that use some of these techniques and they work. For the first month of school, we would have icebreakers and get to know you games before every rehearsal, we went on bonding retreats, and students never picked their own roommates. All of these things worked at my school and I felt that because of this we were more of a family and even made better music because we had a group of dedicated peers that didn’t want to let the group down.
I was frustrated by how the teacher hadn’t talked to Jason in months. As someone who wants to go into music education, this surprised me. I feel like it is the band director’s duty to make sure everyone is included. I have noticed that sometimes band directors forget that they are more than just conductors and need to realize they are teachers first. As a teacher they need to notice when someone is being left out. If they don’t notice, it means they don’t care and as a student, I couldn’t imagine not having my music teachers support me when I have been having bad days. If my teachers didn’t notice, it would make me feel useless, unwanted and insignificant, nothing a student should ever feel especially in a music ensemble.
I was pleasantly surprised at how much I agreed with in this article. Hourigan does a great job at conveying his point. I appreciated that he gave solutions to issues and that he gave a real life example instead of just leaving it in the hypothetical.
I would like to thank the author for writing a great article and would like to ask how, as educators, do we go about figuring out a students needs when they don’t like talking?
Reading #4
Dawe, L. (2016). Fumbling Towards Vulnerability: Moving Out of the Familiar for Music Education’s Sake, Canadian Music Educator, (57)2, pp. 22-24.
This article articulates the vulnerability in being creative in the classroom and how a teacher’s education influences their ability to go “outside the box” in their teaching.
I can strongly relate with this author, as I have also had a very similar education. In my experience, I had to do an improved jazz solo in grade 8 and I was petrified of being wrong. Looking back at it after reading this article, I realize that you can’t be ‘wrong’ at soloing and I was looking at it as ‘black and white’. However, I also got to see the other side of teaching where in my Grade 11 vocals class I got to do a passion project. In it, I got to create anything as long as it retained back to music. I chose to arrange a song into a choral piece which is something I really wanted to do and others did an aural percussion song on Garage Band. It was a chance to explore things that got you interested in music in the first place. Having projects or classes similar to this really helped me rediscover why I love music.
I also appreciated that the author from the beginning says that this is her experience of dealing with vulnerability in teaching creatively and that what she has been doing isn’t perfect. In doing this, I could relate to her more personally and made me feel more connected with this article. She also points out how not everything works, by saying, “Only a small portion of our students go on to take music past Grade 8, and even with our collaborative approach to teaching and learning alongside out students, we still have some students who are disengaged from music class (23-24).” I found this really interesting because even with everything Dawe does as a music educator, the numbers going into high school don’t increase. It makes you wonder what other issues are causing students not to take music in high school.
The only thing I wish the author went into more was how she was creative. She did mention that “it would be easy for me to write a top ten list of ways to infuse more creativity or inquiry into their music classes, but the truth is that a lot of what I found to be successful has been discovered by taking a risk and experimenting (24)” but it would nice to get first steps.
One question I would like to ask the author is now that you have been teaching in this new style, do you feel more comfortable in your own music making to take risks? I.e. soloing, improv.
Reading #5
Bradley, D. (2006) “Music education, multiculturalism, and anti-racism: ‘Can we talk?” Action, Criticism, and Theory for Music Education, 5/2: http://act.maydaygroup.org/articles/Bradley5_2.pdf
The article “Music Education, Multiculturalism, and Anti-Racism – Can We Talk?” By Deborah Bradley explains her attempts to “decolonize” multiculturalism in music education.
I agree with this article. I believe that it is important not to be a ‘colour-blind’ teacher but one who notices race and “engage[s] in conversations[with students] that acknowledge the ways in which music and our discourse in music are racially coded.” Looking at this article, I can relate it to my learning in the history course I am taking this year. In it we learn about Eurocentrism and how a historians background can persuade someones perspective on events and how it ‘others’ different ways of life. This is very similar to what Bradley is attempting to educate us on. In the article, she explains how some music scholars look at western art music as being the “highest quality”, and that ‘other’ music is primal and has not yet evolved to Europe’s standard. Looking at music this way has created a very close-minded narrative that needs to change.
One thing that surprised me was how the MFYC’s experience with South African music moved me. As a choral student, hearing about MFYC’s experience with Haleluya! Pelo Tsa Rona is truly inspirational. At this story, I finally understood the importance of telling a songs origins. This reminds me of when the females of my high school choir sang a song called Prayer. This song was written to honour the memory of the victims of the 1989 University of Montreal massacre. I remember the difference in our singing and attitude once we heard what happened in Montreal. I realize that this song wasn’t about race or world cultures but it reminded me of the importance of context when learning a piece.
One thing that frustrated me about the article was the authors use of large unnecessary words. I found that the large words were taking away from Bradley’s argument and it took me forever to truly get what she was saying. Personally, I only started understanding and agreeing with this article when Bradely started talking about choir. One part that I loved in this article was when Bradley was talking about Diana and said, “Diana’s words sting like a slap in the face”. It was this phrasing that made me understand Bradley’s point, not the long words that I had to look up in order to understand.
One thing that I would like to ask the author is whether she has always had this way of thinking or was it some experience in her life that made her realize the need for an anti-racist praxis?
Reading #6
Williams, D. A. (2014). Another Perspective - The iPad is a REAL Musical Instrument. Music Educators Journal, 101(1), 93-98.
This article focuses on how iPad’s can play a significant role in a music classroom and how this helps look at alternative pedagogies when teaching.
I honestly don’t know how I feel about this article. As a musician who has only played traditional instruments, it feels odd to call something electronically produced an instrument. Looking at this article, the author makes very clear points that shows how an iPad is indeed an instrument and I agree with those points. However, I feel as someone who loves performing in ensembles, there is also a different skill set needed to play/sing live compared to playing an iPad live. One example of this, is the element of tuning. This is completely taken away when sounds are pre-made.
Although I don’t completely agree with using iPad’s, I like how the author connected it to different kinds of pedagogies that can still be used with the traditional band instruments. He mentions how classroom sizes effect how much creative input individual students can put into a class but we could alternatively “divide a class of forty students into eight or nine smaller groups… in small groups, students could be given significant opportunities to make creative decisions to guide how they solve musical problems, presented by their teachers.” This example, as well as others, are in my opinion, are great ways to get more class participation, creativity and possibly more interest into music classrooms.
Furthermore, although I still question iPad’s as an ensemble, I think they are a great tool to be used in the music classroom. They can be used with children with disabilities, giving them the option to create music. They can also be used for projects to remix a piece or arrange a piece with any instrument available online. Having iPads gives students a chance to be creative without the limitations of people in the class not having the technique to play the piece.
One other thing that kind of bugged me with this iPad ensemble, is that I listened to some of their pieces and it seems like a majority of the time they are just playing classical instruments on iPads when there is a whole other element of sound that can be used when using digital music.
One thing I would like to ask the author: You mention how your iPad ensemble is made up of musicians that are already classically trained, how do you think your techniques would change for a group with no classical training and do you think there is a need for a bit of musical background to ‘properly’ play an iPad?
Reading #7
Tobias, E. S. (2013). Toward Convergence Adapting Music Education to Contemporary Society and Participatory Culture. Music Educators Journal, 99(4), 29-36.
For this week in Music Ed we had to read “Toward Convergence Adapting Music Education to Contemporary Society and Participatory Culture.” This article talks about how music educators can incorporate new styles of music and new ways to interact with said music.
I found this article really interesting. I thought this article gave great examples on how a teacher could bring new styles of participatory music making into a classroom. The table incorporated into the reading clearly demonstrated ways that teachers could incorporate this way of teaching, including covering, arranging, parodying, satirizing, multi-tracking, remixing, sample-based producing, mashups, tutorials, remediating and commenting and discussing different music. I found it really cool when the article started talking about Into the Woods and all the things a teacher could do with that show. I never even thought about doing something like that in a classroom. Like in my schooling into writing, remixing and covering music. But writing music in the shape of ‘what would the giantess sing about here?’ Would bring a new level to writing music. It helps teach students about how music can develop character arcs and how the instrumental music can reflect whats happening in the lyrics. A project like this would also get students applying the elements of music without fully realizing wha they are doing I also feel like it wouldn’t be to hard to mark because you could base on the kids rationale as to why they choose to do what they did. It really showed me ways to incorporate creativity into the classroom.
I also was interested in how the author explained how copyright works because once a teacher starts working with sampling and popular music, they have to start being careful about copyright infringement, something that I never thought about before.
The only thing I would like to know more about is how can an educator go about doing some of these interactive participatory projects if they don’t have the budget. Like at my school we were lucky enough to have a MAC lab so people could experience garage band and other music making software and I know some schools have iPads to do projects like this. But some schools don’t have the budget to do incorporate technology, a very important aspect to the current music trend.
After finishing this article I would like to ask the author if he is still teaching and has more kids stayed in music after incorporating these practises?