Assistive Technology for Music Education

            Assistive technology refers to assistive, adaptive, and rehabilitative devices for people with disabilities.  Personally, it only seems right that everyone have the opportunity to somehow participate in music; it is a human right.  Also, federal laws such as IDEA 2004, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 ensure that students with special needs have equal access to education.  Therefore, it is no surprise that there is a wide range of resources available to increase the accessibility of music making.

            Based on the definition of assistive technology, one of the simplest examples that would help in music composition (or any context) is a pencil with a specialized grip for the student.  Another useful tool when teaching composition is a Velcro type board that allows students to physically place notes on a staff.  Musical instruments are an entire world of assistive technology.  These range from instruments such as the bells that are inherently accessible to students with motor skills issues to adaptations for existing instruments such as a trombone slide extender.  Further innovative examples include music reading devices that make music reading easier by magnifying and adjusting the brightness of scanned images.  These devices even include the ability to “write” on scores with a special stylus and have a foot pedal page turning option.  Another very interesting device in the Soundbeam, which maps body movement to sound production.  Regardless of how simple or advanced, assistive technology is a necessity in music education.

Jazz Festival Technology

            Two weeks ago, I attended the Princeton Jazz Festival.  It was a two day event held at Princeton High School that featured numerous middle school and high school jazz ensembles.  I went to the second night of the festival to see the high school bands.  While I was there, I was rather surprised by the extensive use of technology by both the performers and adjudicators.

            Some of the innovative technologies in use at the festival were the kinds that are always present in a contemporary big band.  This includes microphones and amps for the musicians on stage.  One of the most obvious technologies that I immediately noticed were the two large screens on either side of the stage with a live projection of the performers on stage.  Two cameras were stationed at either side of the stage and were operated by high school students throughout the performance.  I thought this was a great way to make the festival a cross-curricular event.  The most astonishing example of technology in use at the event, however, did not involve the students at all.

            Each of the three judges responsible for evaluating each group and their performance was equipped with a laptop and a smartpen.  Although a laptop is not particularly noteworthy, it is worth mentioning that the judges’ comments and scores were instantly sent to the control room where a fourth official collaborated and printed the results for the individual bands.  As for the smartpen technology, I still have not recovered from how cool it was!  The judges simply pressed the record button that was printed on their special notebooks and were able to take notes and simultaneously record verbal commentary; both of which were included in the packages given to each band at the end of the event.  It was expedient, efficient and very impressive!

Hooktheory

            Back in September, a friend of mine sent me a link to a blog titled “I analyzed the chords of 1300 popular songs for patterns. This is what I found.”  Although it is written in a somewhat conversational manner, the research and results posted by Dave Carlton are some of the most in-depth, serious and accessible about popular music available.  The first part of the study explores the popularity of certain chords; this includes the most popular keys pieces are written in followed by the most popular chords.  The second part of the study seeks to answer, based on statistics, “What chord should come next?”  This section takes any chord and provides the frequency that any other chord follows it based on the 1300 songs.  Since my original visit to the site however, the project has grown into a larger community of popular song analysis.

            This is a wonderful project with regard to music education; especially music theory.  Like almost any subject, one of the main factors that determines a student’s interest is relevance.  This is certainly true for music theory.  The Hooktheory website is a user friendly database that using music theory skills and applies them to understand popular music.  Not only is it simply interesting, it would also serve as an excellent teaching tool.

            You can learn more about Hooktheory and explore the analyses at: http://www.hooktheory.com/

Thinking Back to Music Technology

            After posting about the EAMIR project, I couldn’t help but think back to my experience in Music Technology class.  Almost all of the teaching apps available through EAMIR were created using a program known as Max/MSP/Jitter (which are the three programming languages).  We spent a majority of the second half of the semester focusing on Max.  I found the program and its capabilities to be captivating.  It is rather user friendly and relies heavily on MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) data.  For my final project, I chose to work with Max to develop an interactive begin trumpet method book.

            The early pages of the book cover the basics of holding the instrument and producing sound.  One of the fundamental aspect of producing sound on the trumpet is setting up your embouchure (the muscles around your mouth).  In order to demonstrate this, I made a patch that corresponded to a page in the book about the way your lips should look before playing the trumpet.  This consisted of a series of (rather silly) pictures of me demonstrating the wrong and right ways to accomplish this next to a live webcam stream of the student so that they can compare.  The second patch I made is called “Instant Accompaniment.”  As the name suggests, it provides the student with a basic accompaniment to practice along with.  The accompaniment is limit to drum tracks but student have the options of Latin, Rock, or Hip Hop in three different tempos.  It was fun and rewarding to use Max to create a resource I can utilize in the future.

EAMIR

            One of the most interesting and fun applications of innovative technology to music education is definitely the EAMIR project created by V.J. Manzo.  Manzo taught at Montclair State University when I took the course Music and Computer Technology in 2011 and it was an enlightening and enjoyable experience.  EAMIR stands for “Electro-acoustic Musically Interactive Room,” which is what Manzo referred to his classroom as when he taught K-12 music.  The project was born from two main obstacles: the diverse levels of musicianship among students and the ability to address the needs of students with disabilities.  Looking to technology as a resource, he developed a series of adaptive instruments to use in his classroom to facilitate learning goals.  Each of these instruments (primarily software instruments) were uploaded and available for students and their parents to download to use at home.  This developed into the project it is today.  EAMIR is now described as “an open-source music technology project involving alternate controllers, sensors, and adaptive instruments to facilitate music composition, performance, and instruction through a collection of interactive music systems. The EAMIR software apps have been implemented in classrooms, including special needs and disabilities populations, research projects, and composition/performance environments.”

            The apps use a variety of interfaces to work, each designed with the students in mind.  Many patches simply require a computer and a mouse, while others utilize touch screen computers, ipads, webcams and smart boards.  Some apps even feature the use of popular videogame controllers including Guitar Hero and Dance Dance Revolution.

            To learn more, visit the EAMIR website at: http://www.eamir.org/

Interactivity #5

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0As_udrC-Q8endEdTajJTYV9xZmt5WWxnZEw5dHFDSGc&usp=sharing

            For this interactivity I had the opportunity to interview a high school music teacher from a district in North Jersey (he requested that the district not be disclosed).  Although the district has not implemented the NETS, he is somewhat familiar with what they are.  Early on in our interview, he began to explain that the NETS or any similar standards pose a major obstacle to his discipline.  As an instrumental music teacher, he directs the school’s bands and smaller ensembles and finds that the instrumental music classroom or rehearsal space is a difficult environment to incorporate technology-centered standards.  This seemed discouraging at first; but as I introduced the example Student Profiles for grades 9-12, we both began to discover some of the ways an ensemble already fulfills these standards.  For example, he immediately remarked that performing in any ensemble requires every member to take part in problem solving in authentic (performance) situations.  That said, this process generally occurs without the use of innovative technology.  I then asked if he ever has students do listening assignments that required them to write about a performance or recording they listened to.  He said that they certainly did and we simultaneously realized that those assignments also tie into the NETS (3.Select digital tools or resources to use for a real-world task and justify the selection based on their efficiency and effectiveness. (3,6)).  Once again, however, this standards can only be achieved if students are conducting their research on the internet.

            At this point, the teacher explained that another of the obstacles that would hold back the implementation of a system like this is money.  His district, like many, constantly struggles with financial issues and shrinking budgets that he believes would hold the school back from purchasing the necessary equipment and software to effectively use the NETS.  At this point, the tools at his student’s disposal include computers with internet access, cd players and projectors.  This lead me to my next question, “Are there any other programs throughout the school that may already be using NETS strategies although they have not officially been implemented?”  After a moment of thought, he excitedly realized that the school’s sign language classes actually use a system of webcams to broadcast the class to another high school in a neighboring district.

            This lead to a brief brainstorming session between the teacher and me about other means of implementing the strategies involved in NETS.  One of the ideas we collectively designed was to broadcast a performance live to another band (similar to the sign language class) for them to provide feedback and vice versa.  Another idea was to take listening assignments a step further to incorporate “2.Create and publish an online art gallery with examples and commentary that demonstrate an understanding of different historical periods, cultures, and countries. (1,2)”

            As I mentioned, I was rather surprised at first by how unfamiliar the teacher was with the NETS and that the district had not implemented them or even a similar program.  I am unaware of the number of districts in the area that have began to incorporate the NETS, but I had imagined that most had some system in place.  As a future educator, I would introduce the ideas of the NETS to other in my school by first pointing out the elements of it that are already being fulfilled; such as those discovered during the interview.  I believe this would be a good way to ease the transition into a full implementation of the strategies.  These standards (or a similar set) are essential for the times we live in.  Luckily, the NETS are still a relatively “young” program.  As time goes on, I imagine they will gain wide spread appeal.

Interactivity # 4

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0As_udrC-Q8endEdTajJTYV9xZmt5WWxnZEw5dHFDSGc&usp=sharing

            I chose this particular lesson for a number of reasons.  At first, I was attracted to the lesson’s rather obvious use of technology.  The lesson relies heavily on technology and it is necessary for student to use it in multiple ways.  From that starting point, I was drawn in by the way students would be engaged in research, analysis of information as well as production.  The production element of the lesson crosses disciplines as the students must first complete a writing task before performing and recording for their final product.  Upon basic analysis of the lesson (as per the assignment), I gained even more confidence in my decision based on the great deal of student-centered strategies.  Throughout the lesson, students must think critically and make decisions regarding their final project.  I also particularly like that the final product is something that could easily be shared with peers and family members as well as the teacher.

            If there are any gaps between the goals, strategies and technologies used, they are very minor.  The class must individually research a musician of their choice using a computer with an internet connection.  Then they must write a report based on what they learned using a word processor.  The final stages of the project require the students to use multi-track audio software to record themselves reciting their reports and mix that with excerpts of recordings of their chosen artists.  One of the potential gaps is the fact that, based on previous lessons, students may not have the necessary skills to generate the final product using a program such as Garage Band.  That said, I imagine that issue is easily avoidable by planning appropriately.  The technologies references above and basically essential to achieving the curriculum goals.