My OperaMusic Education at a Crossroads
Wednesday, February 9, 2005 8:05:24 PM
With inventions and advent in music technology, course offerings and possibilities for the creative and imaginative music educator have greatly expanded. It is always interesting to reflect on history and to see what is currently taking place, and a very rapid, and to some, alarming pace. Music education to date has been largely based upon training performers. Music education pedagogy, including as noted in the article "Will Technology Transform Music Education?" (Beckstead, 2001), the pervasive pedagogies of Orff and Kodaly, have been predominantly focused upon technical instruction. Composition, among many important yet lacking curricular areas, has been a recent addition to music curricula.
The body of human knowledge is growing exponentially around the world. To master all known information 100 years ago was possible. Those graduating from a "high school" (which was rare) would possess a large percentage of the knowledge humankind wielded. Today, even those with multiple PhD's, do not scratch the surface of knowledge in the world. Education must serve a different function. Depsite the proliferation of standardized tests, what is important to function in the world is not how much information you possess, but how rapidly you can find answers and how creatively you apply them. The addition of creativity instruction, which includes musical composition, musical songwriting, and many applications of music technology, are key to students functioning in the world of tomorrow.
I have limited exposure to Garage Band. I do, however, have a rather extensive experience with Master Trax (Encore's old sequencer), digital recording hardware, and Musicator Audio. I personally have had great fun, joy, and experienced my creative side with this software and hardware. Garage Band, with its preformatted tracks, looks like an excellent way to introduce younger, less experienced, students to musical composition. I do hope, however, that it does have a high cieling for possibilities for personalizing the content. Certainly, students need a starting place. they cannot easily start with a Tabula Rasa on the computer screen and come up with a composition they can be proud of (thereby increasing self efficacy), without a serious, intentful, composition class. Garage Band seems to be a program that gives an excellent, professional product, serving as a great first step in a young composer's life.
Looking at the Ti:ME book, "Teacher Accompanies a class with MIDI accompaniment." The days of Jamey Aebersold Play Alongs are numbered. If it had not taken so much time, and if computer sounds had been better, I would have invited making my own accompaniments to work with my past students. I can see so many possible implementations of MIDI that would have filled gaps in my past music curriculae.
The body of human knowledge is growing exponentially around the world. To master all known information 100 years ago was possible. Those graduating from a "high school" (which was rare) would possess a large percentage of the knowledge humankind wielded. Today, even those with multiple PhD's, do not scratch the surface of knowledge in the world. Education must serve a different function. Depsite the proliferation of standardized tests, what is important to function in the world is not how much information you possess, but how rapidly you can find answers and how creatively you apply them. The addition of creativity instruction, which includes musical composition, musical songwriting, and many applications of music technology, are key to students functioning in the world of tomorrow.
I have limited exposure to Garage Band. I do, however, have a rather extensive experience with Master Trax (Encore's old sequencer), digital recording hardware, and Musicator Audio. I personally have had great fun, joy, and experienced my creative side with this software and hardware. Garage Band, with its preformatted tracks, looks like an excellent way to introduce younger, less experienced, students to musical composition. I do hope, however, that it does have a high cieling for possibilities for personalizing the content. Certainly, students need a starting place. they cannot easily start with a Tabula Rasa on the computer screen and come up with a composition they can be proud of (thereby increasing self efficacy), without a serious, intentful, composition class. Garage Band seems to be a program that gives an excellent, professional product, serving as a great first step in a young composer's life.
Looking at the Ti:ME book, "Teacher Accompanies a class with MIDI accompaniment." The days of Jamey Aebersold Play Alongs are numbered. If it had not taken so much time, and if computer sounds had been better, I would have invited making my own accompaniments to work with my past students. I can see so many possible implementations of MIDI that would have filled gaps in my past music curriculae.
