The Future of YouTube in Music Education

     In my graduate class, Current Trends in Music Education, we were given the assignment to make 3 educational music videos for our students, and post them on YouTube. This assignment made me wonder how many music teachers already utilize YouTube as a teaching tool, and what do they use it for. So, I googled it and, immediately, came across a book entitled ‘YouTube in Music Education’ by Thomas Rudolf and James Frankel. I should not have been surprised but I was. I have not been working with children in a classroom for 3 years and, to me, this feels like a short period of time but, wow, do I feel like I need to get in touch with the times! There was a long list of similar books, but just to name a few: Technology Integration in the Elementary Music Classroom, Integrating Technology with Music Instruction, Making Music with GarageBand and Mixcraft, The Teacher’s Guide to Music, Media, and Copy Law, Pop-Culture Pedagogy in the Music Classroom, Teaching with Technology, Technology Guide for Music Educators, Technology Strategies for Music Education, Computers in Music Education: Amplifying Musicality, Spotlight on Technology in the Music Classroom, and the list goes on and on. How would I go about picking one? Is one more reputable than the other? I see that a few are sponsored by MENC, should I choose those books because they did? Hmmmmm. 

    Leila Viss, a piano and keyboard teacher for grades 2-8, founder of www.musicteachershelper.com , uses YouTube in the following ways:

• 1.     Uploads performances to track student’s progress from year to year.
• 2.     Uploads recital-ready performances to acknowledge work well done.
• 3.     Uses practice performance videos to aid students in mastering a piece.
• 4.     Shows videos to students for educational purposes, such as how the inside of the piano works.
• 5.     Uses ‘Favorite Composers’, a collection of videos that features performances of classical pieces for student reference and comparison.
• 6.     Uses ‘Favorite Arrangements’, where new artists and arrangers share their creativity. This inspires her students when looking for a new piece to play.
• 7.     Leila puts a video of herself playing on YouTube as a marketing tool.
• 8.     She puts her favorite artists, pianists, dances, etc. videos on to inspire and enlighten students.
• 9.     Puts on students original compositions and improvisations to showcase their work.

     Trafalgar Primary School is using Musical Futures, the resource book that we are using in our graduate class, and suggested that students and teachers use YouTube: to search for guitar, piano, bass and drum lessons online and use podcasts in the “ iTunes Store” for free, excellent online lessons that will download straight to iTunes.

     I can see how useful YouTube could be for me in the general music classroom, I could show: clips of musicians, an old musical clip, everything mentioned above, post lessons etc. I have a few fears; copyright infringements and how to know which sites are credible, are they who they say that they are, and is the information reliable. My supervisors will want to know how I am monitoring the credibility of the information that I am showing to the students, at least I hope that they would be concerned. 

    I realize that I have just scratched the surface of YouTube and how I can utilize it in the music classroom. I will start slow, but I will promise myself to use it in my next teaching experience. 

Elementary Music Education Teaching Methods, Why?

     Why do we use our current teaching method? I am thinking of going back to work in an elementary classroom teaching general music and want what is best for the students. Therefore, I am questioning a lot of my past teaching ideas and methods. From my experience, the teaching method in which each teacher or county adopts is, in most part, up to the teacher. If a teacher is excited about using a certain method, and conveys that to his/her supervisor, the materials are ordered and not questioned by anyone. Many teachers rely heavily on one of many instructional methods that emerged in recent generations and developed rapidly during the latter half of the 20th Century, as listed below (courtesy of Wikepedia, sorry about that, it was a concise list that I found to suit my purpose). Do we, as educators, use the latest thing coming down the pike because we were talked into it from our college professors, or do we use them because we truly believe in them? Do the colleges and universities teach only what is new, or are they offering courses in tried and true methods with the same amount of emphasis? Do we just use what our county purchases for us because we have little say or they have little money to replace what is already in use?

     In my experience, as a new teacher, I used what the county had on hand which was Silver Burdett and Ginn; World Of Music. When that was outdated, I went to our yearly conference and some of us really liked the look of Macmillan MacGraw and Hill; Music and You, so those teaching materials and books were purchased for us. Nobody researched what to use or why, it was spur of the moment with little thought. The materials had almost the same format as the first. Within those teaching manuals, there was a splattering of methods from Orff, Dalcroze, Kodaly and others but no concentration in one method. After 10 years with that county, I moved to another state and they adopted Musikgarten. This time, there was a supervisor of music, unlike the last, and some thought went into the choice of materials with which to teach our students. I still think that most of the teachers were not concerned with what was best for the students at that time, but were more concerned about how much that they would have to change what they were comfortable with. They seemed to be offended that the supervisor of music wanted them to try something new, as if he was saying what they were already doing was not good enough. Also, I think that money is a huge factor. Most teachers wanted to have Orff instruments with which to work, but they are extremely expensive. Speaking from experience, I was only allowed to purchase one per year due to insufficient funds and there was no way to have an Orff ensemble unless we were creative and made or borrowed instruments. I think that all music educators want to be told what works, for the most effective learning of the students, and have the money and resources at their disposal to be able to spend their time and energy on doing it. I am now coming around to a new way of thinking; we need to be super sleuths and dig for ideas and methods that work and be resourceful to find funding for it. Our energy cannot just be spent in the classroom implementing our programs, we have to keep our fingers on the pulse of what is new and proven to be working elsewhere. We have to keep learning and growing with our ever changing field. 
      If you are reading this blog and in the field, please give me your opinion and why that you chose the method in which you use.

Major international music education methods

Dalcroze method

The Dalcroze method was developed in the early 20th century by Swiss musician and educator Émile Jaques-Dalcroze. The method is divided into three fundamental concepts - the use of solfege, improvisation, and eurhythmics. Sometimes referred to as "rhythmic gymnastics", eurhythmics teaches concepts of rhythm, structure, and musical expression using movement, and is the concept for which Dalcroze is best known. It focuses on allowing the student to gain physical awareness and experience of music through training that takes place through all of the senses, particularly kinesthetic. According to the Dalcroze method, music is the fundamental language of the human brain and therefore deeply connected to what human beings are.

Kodály method

Depiction of Curwen's Solfege hand signs. This version includes the tonal tendencies and interesting titles for each tone.

Zoltán Kodály (1882–1967) was a prominent Hungarian music educator and composer who stressed the benefits of physical instruction and response to music. Although not really an educational method, his teachings reside within a fun, educational framework built on a solid grasp of basic music theory and music notation in various verbal and written forms. Kodály's primary goal was to instill a lifelong love of music in his students and felt that it was the duty of the child's school to provide this vital element of education. Some of Kodály's trademark teaching methods include the use of solfege hand signs, musical shorthand notation (stick notation), and rhythm solmization (verbalization). Even though most countries have properly used their own folk music traditions to construct their own sequence of instruction, America primarily uses the Hungarian sequence even though Hungarian folk music is completely different from American.
   

Orff Schulwerk

Carl Orff was a prominent German composer. The Orff SchulwerkOrff considers the whole body a percussive instrument and students are led to develop their music abilities in a way that parallels the development of western music. The approach encourages improvisation and discourages adult pressures and mechanical drill, fostering student self-discovery. Carl Orff developed a special group of instruments, including modifications of the glockenspiel, xylophone, metallophone, drum, and other percussion instruments to accommodate the requirements of the Schulwerk courses.[3]

Suzuki method

The Suzuki method was developed by Shinichi Suzuki in Japan shortly after World War II, and it uses music education to enrich the lives and moral character of its students. The movement rests on the double premise that "all children can be well educated" in music, and that learning to play music at a high level also involves learning certain character traits or virtues which make a person's soul more beautiful. The primary method for achieving this is centered around creating the same environment for learning music that a person has for learning their native language. This 'ideal' environment includes love, high-quality examples, praise, rote training and repetition, and a time-table set by the student's developmental readiness for learning a particular technique. While the Suzuki Method is quite popular internationally, within Japan its influence is less significant than the Yamaha Method, founded by Genichi Kawakami in association with the Yamaha Music Foundation.

Simply Music method

Simply Music is a playing-based music education institution. The program is primarily based on creating, developing and presenting playing-based piano and keyboard programs. The Simply Music method was created by Australian music educator, Neil Moore, and first released in January 1998. Simply Music first translates entire pieces into simple shapes and patterns. Simply Music does not diminish the importance of learning to read music. Instead, the process is delayed. Composition and improvisation are demystified, by introducing them very early on in the program as something natural and enjoyable. By drawing on some simple principles learned in the foundation pieces and developing these, students learn, through a playful process of experimentation, to create their own unique pieces and arrangements. The accompaniment program equips students with the skills to play in bands and ensembles, opening the door to playing a vast array of popular music quickly. The Simply Music curriculum unfolds over six to ten years and consists of the Foundation Program (unfolding over the first 3 to 5 years), the Development Program (unfolding over years 6 to 10), as well as an array of Special Programs that are woven throughout the curriculum from the earliest stages. Music used throughout the program includes contemporary, classical, gospel, blues, jazz and traditional styles. Students also are immersed in composition, improvisation, developing arrangements and contemporary accompaniment.

Other Notable methods

In addition to the four major international methods described above, other approaches have been influential. Lesser-known methods are described below:

Gordon Music Learning Theory

This method is based on an extensive body of research and field testing by Edwin E. Gordon and others. Music Learning Theory provides the music teacher a comprehensive method for teaching musicianship through audiation, Gordon's term for hearing music in the mind with understanding. Teaching methods help music teachers establish sequential curricular objectives in accord with their own teaching styles and beliefs.[4]

World Music Pedagogy

The growth of cultural diversity within school-age populations prompted music educators from the 1960s onward to diversify the content of the music curriculum, and to work with ethnomusicologists and some of the world's artist-musicians in establishing instructional practices relevant to the musical traditions. 'World music pedagogy' was coined by Patricia Shehan Campbell to describe world music content and practice in elementary and secondary school music programs. Pioneers of the movement, especially Barbara Reeder Lundquist and William M. Anderson, influenced a second generation of music educators (including Bryan J. Burton, Mary Goetze, Ellen McCullough-Brabson, and Mary Shamrock) to design and deliver curricular models to teachers of music of various levels and specializations.

Conversational Solfege

Deriving influence from both Kodály methodology and Gordon's Music Learning Theory, Conversational Solfege was developed by Dr. John M. Feierabend, chair of music education at the Hartt School at the University of Hartford. The philosophy of this method is to view music as an aural art with a literature based curriculum. The sequence of this methodology involves a 12 step process to teach music literacy. Steps include rhythm and tonal patterns and decoding the patterns using syllables and notation. Unlike traditional Kodály method, this method follows Kodály's actual instructions and uses a sequence based on American folk songs instead of using the sequence that is used in Hungary based on Hungarian folk songs.

Carabo-Cone Method

This early-childhood approach sometimes referred to as the Sensory-Motor Approach to Music was developed by the violinist Madeleine Carabo-Cone. This approach involves using props, costumes, and toys for children to learn basic musical concepts of staff, note duration, and the piano keyboard. The concrete environment of the specially planned classroom allows the child to learn the fundamentals of music by exploring through touch.[5]

MMCP

Main article: MMCP

The Manhattanville Music Curriculum Project was developed in 1965 and is an alternative method in shaping positive attitudes toward music education. This creative approach centers around the student being the musician and involved in the discovery process. The teacher gives the student freedom to create, perform, improvise, conduct, research, and investigate different facets of music in a spiral curriculum.

Self education

There are multiple software products which were developed to encourage easy and entertaining engagement of people into playing and learning music. The applications provide simulation environment where harmony, rhythm and just beauty of classical music are learned through the following automated music performance. [6]

Integration with other subjects

Some schools and organizations promote integration of arts classes, such as music, with other subjects, such as math, science, or English. It is thought that by integrating the different curricula will help each subject to build off of one another, enhancing the overall quality of education. Music education can play a vital role in the development of the whole child and their scholastic journey.

One example is the Kennedy Center's "Changing Education Through the Arts" program. CETA defines arts integration as finding a natural connection(s) between one or more art forms (dance, drama/theater, music, visual arts, storytelling, puppetry, and/or creative writing) and one or more other curricular areas (science, social studies, English language arts, mathematics, and others) in order to teach and assess objectives in both the art form and the other subject area. This allows a simultaneous focus on creating, performing, and/or responding to the arts while still addressing content in other subject areas.[3]

Music, Informal Learning and the School: A New Classroom Pedagogy by Lucy Green

     Lucy Green's pedagogical approach brings the informal learning practices of popular musicians into the formal environment of the school classroom.  I will attempt to summarize Green's book for those music educators that are looking for a new pedagogy for upper elementary, middle and high school students. Also, I must admit that after reading Green's book and the Musical Futures Resource Pack, I would be excited to try this pedagogy myself.

This project was organized on 7 stages (pg. 193-194):
Each stage lasts from 3-6 lessons of around one hour, once a week, in a normal curriculm time.

• Stage 1. Students bring in thier own choice of music, listen to it in small friendship groups and choose one song to play. They select instruments and copy the song by ear, directing thier own learning.
• Stage 2.  Students are given a recording of a funk track with 15 of its riffs played seperately and in combination. They listen, discuss and try to play the riffs through aural learning. They can also use worksheets with the note names but not pitch contour or rhythm. As a group they create their own version of the song.
• Stage 3. Repeat stage 1 with an attempt to build on the skills acquired during 1 and 2.
• Stage 4. Students compose, rehearse and perform their own music. directing their own learning in frienship groups.
• Stage 5. Students are introduced to a musical model of songwriting by a band of peer musicians or community musicians. They then continue to work on their own music, directing their own learning in friendship groups.
• Stage 6. Students are provided with recordings of 5 pieces of classical music drawn from TV advertisements. In friendship groups, they listen, discuss, select, copy, arrange, rehearse and perform the music as an ensemble.
• Stage 7. Students are given recordings of 5 pieces of classical music which is mostly unfamiliar. They also have recordings of individual melody and bass lines of the pieces, some of which are simplified. There are no worksheets. In frienship groups, they listen, discuss, select, copr, arrange, rehearse and perform the music as an ensemble.

Some of the results of using this appraoch instead of the formal learning approach were:

• The students were unusually highly motivated, and applied themselves to the task with more committment than normal.
• The students found the recording and peer directed learning less threatening to work with than the teacher.
• The students thought of this as play and not work, it was enjoyable.
• Instumental skills, singing skills, ensemble skills, and musicianship qualities were above normal.
• Student listening deepened and improved as the task went on and they were engaged in 'distracted' and 'purposive' listening.
• There was a rise in general musical appreciation.
• Autonomy was important to the students, they valued working things out for themselves. This enhanced their sense of personal responsibility and awareness of how to improve their own learning.  This led to self-confindence and satisfaction.
• Co-operation skills were acquired and refined, and the emergence of leadership qualities were higher.
• Students acquired knowledge of technical terms by using them.

     One teacher commented after using this approach "Using infromal learning practices in the classroom has generally changed my approach to teaching for the better"(pg. 181) and the other 15 teachers in the project either strongly agreed or agreed. Not only did the teachers think that this was a successful program, the students were staying after school and going to class at odd times just to work on thier music! Teaching materials can be downloaded from:  <www.musicalfutures/PractitionersResources.html>

    
     My concerns as predicted by others in the study, are lack of practice space, selling the idea to supervisors and money or resources for the instruments (which include drum kits, guitars, keyboards, microphones, amps and anything else that would be used in the popular music genre). I think music teachers always have to fight or jump through hoops to get the resources that they need or want. Unfortunately, I see this as another hurdle. I am probably jaded, however, from my 13 years of teaching experience of fighting to get what I thought would improve my music program for the better. I know that those teachers that never strive for anything more that what they are doing right now or have at the moment feel no stress because they have no hurdles. Therefore, I feel good that I was going above and beyond and my music program always reflected my efforts.  So, with that in mind, I will never let the challenges of trying something new with all of its red tape keep me from doing what I think will imrove my teaching and student learning.  I know that if you have made it this far, in this particular blog, that you feel the same way. Reading about new classroom pedagogies is not something that many people do for fun.

Why Beauty Matters a BBC sponsored video by Roger Scruton

     Roger Scruton, a writer of over 30 books and several novels, philosopher, professor and composer hobbyist who has written 2 operas, was commissioned by the BBC television station to contribute to a television series on beauty. I can see why, apart from the fact that he is easy on the eyes, he is a captivating speaker with points on beauty, that really make us think about our impact on the world and that impact on us as individuals and human beings.
   In Scruton's eyes, between the years of 1750-1930, the arts aim was beauty. The feeling was that through our quest for beauty we understand our own spirituality and "shape the world as a home".  Beauty was central to our civilization for 2000 years and seen as "the revelation of God in the here and now".  Sacred and beautiful were two words on equal planes. Artists of the past valued art as a thing of beauty, a way to bring peace from chaos, ease our suffering and help us celebrate our joy. Thus, there was a need for skill, taste and creativity. Ornaments, such as in architecture, music and art were reminders that we needed more than just practical things.
     During the 20th c., art aimed to disturb, originality was valued and beauty stopped being important .  As a result, we are now self-centered and our language, music and manners are increasingly "raucus.... as though beauty and good taste have no real place in our lives". We are surrounded by ugliness, including the architecture.  "No longer does art raise us to a higher spiritual or morale plane". "the world is disturbing so art is too". Today, art displays randomness and is meant to shock us, showing that anything can be art. This makes it a joke.  It is considered a work of art if the artist thinks it so. "It helps people see the world in which we are living". We value only the utilitarian, things that are useful. If art is thought of as being useless, nobody cares what they listen to, look at or read. Beauty has become a side-effect not a focus. "Todays works of art aim to create a brand even if they have nothing to sell". Speaking of music on a related subject, Ann C. Clements writes, in her article; Escaping the Classical Canon ;  "...keep in mind that popular musics are often popular because someone has paid big bucks for it to be that way......They are deliberate attemps at profiteering....".  Todays thought if you create a brand, a gimmick, with the popular dilineated meanings, it will appeal to the masses despite its' quality and sell. Scruton believes that if you only consider utility the things that you build will soon be rendered useless".
     Scruton states, from www.rogerscruton.com, that "postmodern culture emphasizes ugliness, despondency and desecration which is a betrayal of a sacred calling".  Beauty is a real and universal value within our nature and is indispensable in shaping the human world. It is his philosophy that if we lose beauty we may lose the meaning of life. We need to look for standards of beauty that has a firm base in human nature and build them into our lives. Esentially, what he is saying here is to look for art, and in our case music, that celebrates us as human beings instead of things that may aggravate or have negative meanings to us.
     My thoughts about this subject in relations to music. Should we be concerned about our students choices of music? And, what do we do about peer pressure that affect students' willingness to stand up for what they feel is beautiful when the majority of their friends do not feel the same.  As it states in our text by Lucy Green: "If such pressure does affect pupils' willingness to express certain musical allegiances, then that is clearly a cause for concern amongst music educators".  What about negative music that, by Scruton's view, does not exhibit beauty or add anything positive to our lives. How do we as a culture change the programming on the radio to play beautiful music, and who is going to be the deciding body of what is deemed "beautiful".  I agree with Scruton on many levels; I do not see anything beautiful in a toilet seat or an unmade bed with condoms, tissues and alcohol strewn around, I do not care if it shows reality in our world today. I do not want or need to see or hear negative things that do not elevate me to a higher plane or celebrate me as a person. I do understand that art is representative of the world in which we are living, but whatever happened to "keeping your skeletons in the closet" instead of on display for all the world to see or hear. I think that an add campaign would be nice "Bring Back Beauty", an all-out assault on all things negative and oppressive....something that shines a spotlight on, and places beautiful things in high public regard. I see this in commercials and presidential campaign goals. After watching Scruton's video, I see that it is a matter of great importance to humanity and for the children of our future. I do not want my child to think that art or music is a joke, I want him to have many beautiful and positive experiences, not time wasted in modern art galleries looking at the depressing way that the world is portrayed today, or listening to music that has no merit just made for the masses with no substance or anything that we can see as beautiful. I, on the other hand, question this stand because I feer that the term 'beautiful' in music will be taken as tonal and melodic. I fear that composers will feel a tying of their hands, afraid that their unique compositional style will not appeal to anyone because of the emphasis on beauty, and their music may not be seen in that light. This is a lot to think about but an extremely interesting and controversial topic.

    

Before The Music Dies

    I would like to thank Dr. Turner, my professor for my class entitled Current Trends in Music Education, for exposing us to this video; Before the Music Dies by Andrew Shapter and Joel Rasmussen, www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi3758949145/.  It is an eye opening video, written in 2006, about music today. I will summarize this video and insert some relevant correlations to some of the topics discussed in class.
     The main concern of this video is that music is losing its' heart and quality to commerce. Money is what is driving the music industry.  Radio inundates us with repetition of the same music and "dulls the senses" as Joey Burns stated. This is because of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which changed the ownership limits of radio stations. Before this Act was passed, a company was only allowed to own 40 or so radio stations. Now, parent companies of giant chains can own as many as 1200 stations. It is music for the masses. The advertising dollar is driving radio time and they, the corporation radio managers, decide how to fit the music in between the commercials. Erykah Badu stated when speaking of the length of music "they will cut it if it is over 4 minutes long".  A playlist of songs is made from music that gives the listener instant gratification, because, if not, they will change the channel and that radio station will not bring in the revenue that it needs to stay in business.  The music does not have to be spectacular, just good enough so listeners will not change the channel.
     Record labels are also more interested in money than talent. They let go of extremely talented musicians, because record sales are not large enough, instead of giving people exposure to new music and time to "catch up" to new music and also time for the musician to develop and find their own 'voice'.
The artists are expected to create something specifically for its' sale ability not quality. Lucy Green would say that this is poor music, music rooted in society and allowed nothing but interfering delineations. Many extremely talented artists are giving up on their craft because their self-worth is destroyed, putting their heart and soul into an album that does not sell. Their music did not celebrate them as musicians.
    Making millions does not require talent as our authors demonstrated; they had a songwriter write a song that took just a few minutes with which a teenager could identify, chose a pretty girl to sing and made a video. The chosen girl had intonation problems, which were easily fixed by a technology based program called Auto-Tune, and the end result was amazing. It was definitely something that would sell today using very little, if any, talent. We are studying delineated meanings and this is a clear example of the importance of the clothes, make-up, essentially the persona presented to the public in which the audience, in this case teens, will identify. Branford Marsalis stated that "superficiality is in and depth of quality is out". Bonnie Raitt said that looks matter if you want to make a million.  Talent used to be the focus, those days are gone.
     There is hope for the future. It is harder to find good quality music with heart than it used to be, for the reasons stated above, but the internet is a good resource. Many independent artists and independent labels are embracing the internet in order to gain exposure. Artists are understanding that their music is a business and want to form musician run music labels in which they get behind music that they believe in.  Music that is played and created from the heart and has autonomy; not concerned with fame, fashion or to make a buck.