WK3-TECH: Creating through Composing

“Inspiration is an awakening, a quickening of all man’s faculties, and it is manifested in all high artistic achievements,” (Puccini). While fostering musical creativity, composition can challenge students to understand the world in new ways as well as being a process that allows children to grow, discover, and create through meaningful engagement with sounds (Bauer, 2014). After reading this week’s assignment, I have decided to reflect on certain guidelines that teachers (including myself) should utilize when conquering a composition project in the elementary music classroom.

The two most common approaches include standard musical notation and non-notational compositional strategies (Bauer, 2014). Teachers who choose the standard musical notation approach believe it is essential for students to be musically literate (be able to read and notate music). While I agree with this approach, it tends to lose popularity with non-music students (those not in chorus, band, etc). At an elementary level, it is essential for students to know the basics (rhythms, pitches, solfege) but I also agree with the text when it explains how the non-notational approach is more successful with non-music kids. I have a mixture of students who are obsessed with music and others who want nothing to do with it. So, the non-notational approach to creativity, usually facilitated through technology, can be used as an entry point to further the development of non-music students’ understanding of music while holding their interest at the same time. Programs that would be useful include: Noteflight, Soundation, MuseScore and Soundtrap.

Music-COMP: Music Composition Online Mentoring Program is an online program that encourages & supports students in composing and arranging music (Bauer, 2014). In the text, Music Learning Today, it lists several guiding beliefs that can be used as a generic timeline when begining a compositonal project. The second belief says to begin composition with structured guidelines. When creating these guidelines, teachers should make sure there is a healthy balance of constraints and freedom of choice. While providing limiting options does facilitate creativity (especially during beginning stages), there should still be some freedom of choice. Gradually allowing students more decisions during the compositional process can eventually lead to more independence as composers and in music. The third belief of Music-COMP is that teachers should critique and reflect frequently. “Feedback is an important component of all learning” (Bauer, 2014). Feedback shows students and teachers to what extent learning has been successful and what strengths and weaknesses are apparent.  Students will need to learn the basic three-step critique process if they are not familiar already.

3-Step Critique Process (Bauer, 2014)

1. Student is given a positive comment
2. Student receives constructive comments regarding areas for improvement
3. Student receives another sincere, positive comment

Music-COMP Teachers also have guidelines that are provided in the text, Music Learning Today, that I believe are very significant to consider before starting a project. Students need to listen and discuss music in order to build an aural vocabulary, teachers must start at a point that is appropriate for the developmental level of students, and starting with small projects that are highly structured. The second guideline is one that I personally struggle with especially when you have students that are at different developmental levels because they learn at different rates. I suggest a pre-test that covers all the basics (rhythm, meter, melody, etc) to screen a baseline before starting any compositional projects.

After reflecting more on the subject of composition, it forced me to take a step back and look at the process in which I take when doing these projects. I could blame time constraints on my lack of structured guidelines but I now see how I can make this possible and what steps I need to take in order to be successful. Just knowing that I can take a non-notational approach (without feeling guilty) which can foster musical understanding in the long run makes the idea of doing a composition project less intimidating.

Listed below are some starter tools for beginner compositions. After completing projects such as these, you can extend the project by having your students put their compositions into a web-based program such as Noteflight or Soundation (both are free versions) :

TeacherspayTeachers:

MUSIC- Composition Task 1

by Music Teacher Resources

Composing in Pentatonic

by The Yellow Brick Road 

References 

Bauer, W. I. (2014). A conceptual framework for technology - Assisted music learning. In 

                 Music Learning Today: Digital pedagogy for creating, performing, and 


                 responding to music. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Week Two: Composition & Improvisation Tech Ideas

Creativity is a puzzle to many people as well as students. How does a new piece of art or music come to exist? In the text, Music Learning Today: Digital Pedagogy for Creating, Performing, and Responding to Music, (Bauer, 2014), Bauer states  “A reason for these perceptions of creativity as magical and mystical may be that people experience only final creative products; they don’t witness the process used in developing those products.” This is a process that can be achieved through technology. For music educators, we are presented with a monumental amount of activities that can cultivate a student’s creativity. Bauer offers broad ideas such as developing an interpretation of a musical composition which involves creative thinking, however the focus is developing musical ideas through two strategies: composition & improvisation.  After reading week two’s assignment, it has compelled me to reflect on my own strategies of teaching those two strategies (composition/improvisation) and how to improve the success rate with a new technological insight.

Over the short course of five years, I have gone from seeing my classes once a week to barely once a month. Due to shortage of substitute teachers, my elementary music classes are constantly being canceled and I am put into a regular education classroom to cover. After reflecting on this week’s reading, I was able to think of a strategy to work with these time constraints by using composition projects. Although, this would only remedy the grades who are able to use notation software, it would also provide a way to continue their music education through the use of technology. The Noteflight program from this week’s Music Notation Assignment would be a great example to work with. After creating project ideas & producing rubrics, my students can access their projects at any time and share them with me on a regular basis. I can still cultivate their creativity this way and my students won’t have to wait until the next time we have music. The introductory lesson in the computer lab would occur before the chart below. Also, another helpful idea would to add tutorial videos for each assignment. Here is a generic example for the first month.

Fifth Grade Weekly Composition Assignments

Week One: Notate Row, Row, Row Your Boat (example would be provided)

Week Two: Add voices & bass line to Row, Row Your Boat (example would be provided)

Week Three: Create an ostinato (list requirements- voicing, measures, rhythms, key)

Week Four: Create a melody to go with ostinato - Share & Peer Review

The following weeks can focus on recreating pieces, composing original works and critiquing other students’ works.

During the school year, I teach saxophone in an after school program called Students in Concert. The program offers private lessons and large ensemble opportunities. It is also keeps me up to date in the instrumental world by interacting with band directors and participating in the festivals we host. Two years ago, high school students in the band volunteered in our program by helping with things like playing along during sectionals, provided one on one time during group lessons and ushering at festivals. I had a small group of high schoolers including two alto, one tenor and one baritone sax. They were all obsessed with jazz and were excellent at improvisation. When it comes to jazz improvisation, I had a good amount of experience in college but I hadn’t the opportunity to teach it in this way. So as a reward at the end of our large group practice, we would do mini lessons on jazz improvisation and had our own “jam” sessions where we would go around the circle taking turns improvising. It was beneficial not only to the younger students but to the high school kids and myself as well. I would love to take that idea and incorporate technology into it especially since it only lasted a year and it was so beneficial to everyone in the room.

After doing some research, I have discovered a few strategies to bring back jazz improvisation to the saxophone ensemble. In the text, Bauer lists common curricular outcomes for musical creativity some of which include: echo rhythm and tonal patterns, perform familiar melodies and/or their bass lines by ear,  improvise rhythmic and/or melodic variations on a familiar melody, and improvise an original melody to a given accompaniment (Bauer, 2014). This particular outcomes will be the focus of the lessons. The following are two useful tools/strategies for implementing improvisation into band lesson:

Teacherspayteachers.com -

          Jazz Lesson: Who Stole the Cookies from the Cookie Jar

          - Detailed and sequential lesson plans to introduce Jazz improvisation, scatting and swing feel.

          - Includes mp3 files to enhance game play and swing feel

Youtube -
           Jazz Listenings & Backing Tracks Lesson
           - Listen to various artists perform one jazz piece
           - Find instruments parts (museScore)
           - Study and practice
           - Go to Youtube - search for backing track for the instrument including chord progression
           - Example: Misty
                 

When I reflect on how I am implement these tools for composition and improvising into my own classroom and how technology can play a role, I believe there is going to be a significant improvement on student success. Even with time constraints, there are ways to provide students with some form of music education and technology can be the tool to I need to survive. Using compositional projects and web based sharing, I can maintain a musical relationship with my students. Improvisation has always played a role in my general music classroom for years but discovering new ways to implement it outside the classroom will add to productivity of my curriculum.

References

Bauer, W. I. (2014). A conceptual framework for technology - Assisted music learning. In Music learning today: Digital pedagogy for creating, performing, and responding to music (pp. 16-17). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

     

Noteflight Reflection & Project

After using Noteflight, I found several possibilities to utilize it in the classroom. I have been looking for a new project for my fifth and sixth graders for the second half of the year. The fifth grade project can be an introductory project with multiple perimeters such as only use certain rhythms, key and instrumentation. The following year can let loose of some of those constraints and perhaps letting them choose a specific genre in which they have to stay true to.

Noteflight presents several benefits for building student creativity. For example, the program allows students to create their own account which means access anytime at school and home. I know several of my students who used the Soundtrap web site were actively working on their projects at home and sharing their work with others. The sharing option in Noteflight lets students share with other classmates as well; this could turn into peer critiques, group composing, etc. The sharing option would also make submitting their project easy and convenient.

While using the free version of Noteflight, I found the tutorial videos were helpful only to an extent. The premium version seems to have easier and clearer access to some of the features such as notating and sharing. The free version did not include the small notating widget unless it does but it is not clear if it does. Because the video only addresses how to share in the premium version, I had to find an alternative way to share my score by linking the url of my project and linking it below. MuseScore seems to be more user-friendly for notating. The layout is less complicated which for elementary students, would be easier to use.

I would not completely dismiss Noteflight notation program. The fact is that it is web-based in the cloud is a big positive. And if you have students who are familiar with notation software, I would highly recommend this web site. If not, I would definitely refine an extensive introductory lessons and assignment.




Look what I made with Noteflight:

Noteflight Reflection & Project

After using Noteflight, I found several possibilities to utilize it in the classroom. I have been looking for a new project for my fifth and sixth graders for the second half of the year. The fifth grade project can be an introductory project with multiple perimeters such as only use certain rhythms, key and instrumentation. The following year can let loose of some of those constraints and perhaps letting them choose a specific genre in which they have to stay true to.

Noteflight presents several benefits for building student creativity. For example, the program allows students to create their own account which means access anytime at school and home. I know several of my students who used the Soundtrap web site were actively working on their projects at home and sharing their work with others. The sharing option in Noteflight lets students share with other classmates as well; this could turn into peer critiques, group composing, etc. The sharing option would also make submitting their project easy and convenient.

While using the free version of Noteflight, I found the tutorial videos were helpful only to an extent. The premium version seems to have easier and clearer access to some of the features such as notating and sharing. The free version did not include the small notating widget unless it does but it is not clear if it does. Because the video only addresses how to share in the premium version, I had to find an alternative way to embed my score. I do not have much experience with it but now that I have figured it out, next time should be easier.  MuseScore seems to be more user-friendly for notating. The layout is less complicated which for elementary students, would be easier to use.

I would not completely dismiss Noteflight notation program. The fact is that it is web-based in the cloud is a big positive. And if you have students who are familiar with notation software, I would highly recommend this web site. If not, I would definitely refine an extensive introductory lessons and assignment.




Look what I made with Noteflight:

Reflections on Reading & Lecture 

 The world of technology is constantly growing and integrating itself into our everyday lives. Through my own teaching experiences, technology plays a significant role in order to achieve success for my students. Keeping students engaged can be very stressful, but by using technology, even as simple as showing a Youtube video of Lang Lang playing Rhapsody in Blue or a beatbox flute player, students will stay engaged and motivated to experience music in different ways. Using websites such as Soundtrap.com can allow students to create music that is more relatable to them and take ownership of something that can be shared with the world. In the lecture video of Integrating Technology into the Classroom, it discussed how technology helps students create, lets everyone learn at their own pace and a considerable amount more of one-on-one teacher time with students. It is also vital to “keep up with the times” in this ever changing technology world and on what interests these kids in order to maintain a creative and enjoyable classroom. 

 Nearly everyone has had to embrace technology into their lives even though the country has been in recession. According to the text, Music Learning Today: Digital Pedagogy for Creating, Performing and Responding to Music (Bauer,2014), in 2009, consumers spent over $106 billion on technology (NPD Group, 2010b). The text refers to the word “technology” in relation to computers and digital tools that are used to develop strategies of understanding concepts the skills necessary in creating, responding and performing music. Music has been greatly impacted by technology and the way we assess, create, perform, and understand it as musicians. Every concert I direct, has some form of technology integrated in. Sound systems and audio tracks have helped me survive my first five years of performances. It’s cheaper than hiring an accompanist and way more convenient to survive the insanity we call concert season. In Chapter two, it discusses various ways that technology can be available to music students such as scheduling time in the computer lab or some schools have tablet/laptop carts. In my district we have both those option and I have used the computer lab on several occasions however I have not had access to the cart. Next year, I’d like to inquire into using the iPads especially after taking this course. 

References 

Bauer, W. I. (2014). A conceptual framework for technology - Assisted music learning. In 

                 Music Learning Today: Digital pedagogy for creating, performing, and 

                 responding to music. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

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