The objectives for Module 3 were as
follows:
(1)
Discuss research and best practices
related to the acquisition of knowledge and skills for creating music, with a
particular focus on composition.
(2)
Describe the affordances and
constraints of technologies with application to musical creativity.
(3)
Make connections among creative
curricular outcomes, pedagogies, and technologies.
(4)
Compare and contrast MIDI and digital
audio.
To support these objectives, we were
assigned to read part of Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 in the textbook, interact with
our PLN, tweet at least twice about music, set up an account at Lynda.com and
watch 5 videos, discussion, the weekly blog entry, and complete a composition
using Soundation.
In last week’s blog, I included
discussion on the topic of not only improvisation, but composition. Last week’s
focus was intended to be on improvisation; this week’s on composition. However,
there were certain aspects of teaching composition and utilizing technology to
facilitate the teaching of composition that I did not discuss in last week’s
blog that I would like to discuss here. As I stated in my discussion post this
week, there is a fine line when using technology in music teaching between
using technology to teach composition and using technology to create the
impression that composition was taught. I believe that, as Dr. Dammers states
in the website “Music Creativity Through Technology”, there must be music
before technology. Bauer (2014) states my concern with pointed language when he
wrote this:
However just because
notes and rhythms are properly formatted on the page doesn’t necessarily mean
that the notation represents quality musical ideas, that there has been musical
thinking behind its creation. (p. 66)
I will continue to assert my concerns
during discussions with my classmates for the simple reason of repetition:
repetition creates deeper understanding. Music teachers must be wary of using technology in creating music.
There are three guidelines for music
teachers in utilizing technology with students creating music in Bauer (2014,
p. 61). The first of these three guidelines is the importance of aural skills
for student composers. It has only been in recent years that I have acquired a
true understanding of the importance of aural skills in my own teaching. For
many years, I held a firm viewpoint that my role was to teach students to be
able to read music well enough so that no prior hearing of any given piece was
necessary in order to be able to play it – and play it well. It was a rare
instance when I would model even a small section of a piece for a student
before they attempted their own study of the piece. I viewed the Suzuki method
for the piano to be a terrible disservice to a student. I inherited many piano
students who had studied Suzuki, but because they couldn’t read music, their
parents, and many times the student themselves, would be distraught because
they lacked the skill of reading and could only play by ear. With these
students, I was rarely successful in my attempt to teach them to read music.
A few years ago, I adopted a new
approach for students who studied with me who could play by ear but could not
read music. I taught them in two distinct and separate methods. To provide the
student with satisfaction of playing a piece at their level of playing ability,
they always had one piece that they were learning by rote. At the same time,
they were obligated to learn three to five short and easy pieces each week to
increase their reading ability. This approach was more successful, but only
with a little over half of these students.
I have experimented with some students
by using method books that are accompanied with CDs. The student can practice
with or simply listen to the pieces they are assigned each week on their CD.
With some students, this method worked astoundingly well. My concern was that
the student would be playing more by ear than by reading the music. However, I
assigned relatively easy pieces and several of them each week to avoid this
potential issue. This has worked so well that I have expanded my use of CDs for
student practice. With literature that does not have a professional CD
accompaniment, I have begun to make my own CDs for my students.
Most recently, I have experimented with
audiation in various ways in my teaching. This change has come about because of
what I’ve learned through this Master’s program. With my college class piano
students, I have used audiation to assist with sight reading. Although all
music majors are enrolled in a separate sight-singing and ear training class,
one of the purposes of class piano is to support and enhance theory and
sight-singing skills. For example, this past week I asked a class to play by
ear the Happy Birthday song. Once the students were able to play the melody, we
determined the basic harmonic structure using the voicing of their cadences.
Another example was in my private teaching when I had a student who had
difficulty memorizing a simple piece at the piano. After several repetitions of
one two-measure phrase, asking her to repeat exactly what I played, and she was
still unable to remember the notes, I asked her to sing the melody with me.
Even though she was reluctant to sing, I assured her that I would sing louder
than she, but that she did have to sing with me. After three repetitions of
singing the melody, she was then able to play it on the piano from memory. I
found a new tool for memorizing!
All of this is to relay my recent
discovery of the importance of audiation in music teaching.
________
No activity within
the domain of music requires a more varied palette of experiences and
understandings than does composition. Composers work at the vast frontier of
music – a place where knowledge and possibility are always twisting and turning
in elaborate dance. In the act of creating music, the composer draws upon all
prior musical learning to construct works that uniquely represent perspectives
on and in music. (Kaschub & Smith, 2009, p. 7)
______
References
Bauer, W. I. (2014). Music
learning today: Digital pedagogy for creating, performing, and responding to
music. New York: Oxford University Press.
Kaschub, M. & Smith, J. (2009). Minds on music: Composition for creative and critical thinking. Lanham,
Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Education
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