Electrifying Music Col

Electrifying MusicA GUIDE TO USING ICT IN MUSIC EDUCATION

BY DAVID ASHWORTH

JANUARY 2007 SHAPING MUSIC EDUCATIONAN EMERGING VISION

Title: Electrifying MusicAuthor: David AshworthAim: To examine the issues surrounding using technology effectively in the teaching and learning of musicPublication: The Paul Hamlyn Foundation January 2007 ©The Paul Hamlyn Foundation (see Open Access statement)ISBN No: 1-905500-14-9Design: IglooPhoto Credits: David Ashworth, Clare Biggs, Paul Dale, Michael Walter/Troika photos, Musical Futuresproject staffMusical Futures is a Paul Hamlyn Foundation Special Project

The Paul Hamlyn Foundation is a company limited by guarantee (No. 5042279) and a registered charity (No.1102927). Its primary concern is to address issues of inequality and disadvantage, particularly in relation toyoung people, through the arts, learning and education.

department for

education and skills

This pamphlet sets out to examine the issues surrounding usingtechnology effectively in the teaching and learning of music. Itaddresses the challenges that using ICT poses, explores current goodpractice, and surveys potential sources of support for music teachers.

Publications• Musical Futures - an emerging vision - introductory pamphlet

(available on website)• Transforming Musical Leadership - a pamphlet and DVD

(October 2005, available on website)• Personalising Musical Learning – pamphlet, teacher’s pack,

CD and DVD (April 2006, available on website) • Supporting Young Musicians & Coordinating Musical Pathways –

a pamphlet (September 2006, available on website)• Redefining Music Training – a pamphlet (November 2006, avaliable

on website) • Electrifying Music – this pamphlet (January 2007)

All publications are downloadable from the Musical Futures website:www.musicalfutures.org.uk

In addition, we will be working with our partners to produce a finalpublication in January 2007.

Stay in touchWe hope to widen the dialogue with policy makers and music practitioners. If you have specific responses to any of the issues raised in this pamphlet or are engaged in work which might inform the subsequent pamphlet, please contact us at [email protected]

You can also sign up for our regular e-newsletters, receive furthercopies of the publications or follow the Musical Futures project byvisiting our website - www.musicalfutures.org.uk

Contents

Introduction

Section 1: A Little Help From My Friends

Section 2: Another Time, Another Place

Section 3: Bring It On Home To Me

Section 4: Come Together

Conclusion

Introduction and Acknowledgements

The Paul Hamlyn Foundation’s MusicalFutures project seeks to devise (inpartnership with Youth Music and the DfESInnovation Unit) new and imaginative waysof engaging young people in musicactivities for all 11-19 year-olds.

Thanks are due to:

• The Musical Futures Partners and Pathfinders;

• The Musical Futures Steering and Advisory groups for their comments and advice on the project.

The author wishes to thank all of the teachers who gave their time and shared their experiences, and David Price, Régis Cochefert and Abigail D’Amore for their help in preparing this publication.

The Musical Futures project is dedicated tothe memory of Jane Attenborough, whodied tragically in the Asian Tsunami. Janewas the arts manager at The Paul HamlynFoundation who, along with the projectChair, Lord Moser, gave shape to thetrustees’ original aspirations. Without her,there would have been no project.

Open access. Some rights reserved.As the publisher of this work, The PaulHamlyn Foundation has an open accesspolicy which enables anyone to access ourcontent electronically without charge. Wewant to encourage the circulation of ourwork as widely as possible withoutaffecting the ownership of the copyright,which remains with the copyright holder.This work is licensed under the CreativeCommons Attribution-NoDerivs Licence.The following are some of the conditionsimposed by the licence:• Musical Futures and the author is

credited; • The Musical Futures website address

(www.musicalfutures.org.uk) is published together with a copy of this policy statement in a prominent position;

• The text is not altered and is used in full (the use of extracts under existing fair usage rights is not affected by this condition);

• The work is not resold; • A copy of the work or link to its use

online is sent to The Paul Hamlyn Foundation for our archive.

(To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.5/)

E L E C T R I F Y I N G M U S I C W W W . M U S I C A L F U T U R E S . O R G . U K 1

MUSICAL FUTURES ADVISERS: Norinne Betjemann Arts Council England

Colin Brackley-Jones Federation of Music Services

* Régis Cochefert Programme Manager, PHF

* Christina Coker Youth Music

Ben Cole Youth Music

* Robert Dufton Director, PHF

Richard Hallam Oxfordshire Music Service

*Jane Hamlyn Chair, PHF

Valerie Hannon DfES Innovation Unit

*David Hargreaves Project Consultant

Marc Jaffrey Music Manifesto

Richard Jones Specialist Schools and

Academies TrustNicholas Kenyon

BBC PromsMargaret Martin-Griffiths

* Lord Moser Chairman, Musical Futures

Angela Overington DfES

David Price Project Leader, Musical Futures

Philippa Staff DCMS

David SulkinYouth Music

* Denotes Steering Group Member

INTRODUCTION“When given sustained opportunities forexploring and using music technologies,pupils acquire and develop skills, oftenusing them with individuality and flair. Toooften, though, they are given insufficienttime, or tasks are inappropriate to gainmore than a superficial experience of thecapacity of the resources and applications.Opportunities to involve pupils in the sametechniques and processes that are used bythe music professions are therefore lost, as is their understanding of contemporarymusic making. Their experience ofcurriculum music in these cases isdetached and irrelevant when comparedwith their experience of music beyond the classroom.” 1

When computers were first introduced intomusic departments, they generated a considerable degree of excitement asteachers could see the potential for usingICT in their teaching. Yet, affordablecomputers powerful enough to realise someof this potential have only been availablerelatively recently. Computers now havethe stability, power and available softwareto allow young people to work with digitalsound in new ways.

Having the technology is only the startingpoint, however. In this pamphlet, we coverthe issues teachers should consider in orderto harness technology effectively in theteaching and learning of music. We providesuggestions for addressing the challengesthat using ICT poses, showcase examples ofgood practice of ICT in music departments,and survey potential sources of ICT supportfor music teachers.

Using ICT has inevitable implications forteaching space and how that space is used.Laptop computers and wireless technologycan provide teachers and students with theflexibility and mobility they need forcreative music making. This, in turn, leads

to considerations of learning beyond theschool. Intranets, emailing and USB/MP3players enable students to access thesounds they are working with wherever andwhenever they want.

Digital learning materials offer studentsflexibility as they can be accessed forstudy at any time, enabling them to bemore independent in their learning. This means that lessons, courses andactivities can be tailored to the needs andcapabilities of the individual students. ICTdoes not necessarily mean students always working on their own. Technologiescan offer scope for collaboration and integration with other subjects and artforms.

There are many inspiring examples ofschool music departments using ICT in theirteaching and learning. Students often useICT as an effective aid to their learning aswell as to create and make music of thehighest quality. We aim to celebrate someof this work and to provide signposts forfurther investigation and innovation.

2

Digital learningmaterials offer

studentsflexibility as they

can be accessedfor study at any

time, enablingthem to be more

independent intheir learning

M U S I C A L F U T U R E S - A P A U L H A M L Y N F O U N D A T I O N S P E C I A L P R O J E C T

1 Music in Secondary Schools, OfstedHMI 2328, 2005.

SECTION ONE: A Little Help From My FriendsMany music teachers are reluctant to use ICTextensively in their teaching. It may be for anumber of reasons: lack of confidence intheir own ICT capabilities; fear that theirstudents know more than they do; lack ofawareness of the potential benefits of usingICT; concerns that technology-based musicmay take over from more traditionalapproaches; and insufficient funding forequipment and technical support. Or that thepressures of having to deliver a broader musiccurriculum, and the ever-increasingassessment and reporting demands, meanthat there is simply not enough time toaddress ICT issues effectively.

Notwithstanding the above, there is nowmore support than ever for teachers from anumber of sources. We suggest and explorethe following four principal ways in whichmusic teachers may plan to increase their ICTconfidence and capability: • Peer-to-peer support; • Expertise of external providers;• Expertise of students;• Web-based support.

Peer-to-Peer SupportMusic teachers who lack confidence with ICToften find that peer to peer support is themost useful way to address the challenges.Some schools have been successful inpromoting this type of networking. Accordingto Ofsted, teachers in these schools: “Knowthe professional support and developmentthey need and negotiate it using localnetworks, information from websites andmembership of national organisations.”2

A number of national organisations supportand encourage the formation of local networklearning groups, for example the GeneralTeaching Council (GTC) and National Collegefor School Leadership (NCSL).

Case study#1: NCSL NetworkSouth Cumbria Learning Innovation Networkschools work together in the urban centre ofBarrow-in-Furness. The schools wanted topool their resources and knowledge toorganise ‘Super Learning Days’ planned for aparticular year group by pairs of teachersfrom across the network. Teachers spend aday teaching within another school,suspending the normal timetable, such as onYear 8’s ‘Starship Enterprise’ learning day.

The impact has been felt by all involved. Oneteacher explained: “We had never worked inanother school and at first it was daunting forsome of us.” But by engaging together in anactivity which had a clear focus, a culture oftrust and collaboration developed. One teacherrecognised that working together was morethan just an opportunity, and “workingtogether became a need”. Another said: “whenwe realised we had something special to workon and we started to work in each other'sschools – that was when we started to see eachother differently. Before this, competition hadproduced quite hostile cultures, but these havebeen broken down easily.”

Through this network, teachers developed anawareness of what their peers were doing andcould share and foster good practice. Moreinformation about the Learning ExchangeOnline is available at www.nlcexchange.org.uk.

The National Association of Music Educators(NAME)3 has been promoting a series ofregional conferences where teachers canlearn from other local teachers on a widerange of music and ICT applications. Theseconferences highlight expertise in a regionand explore ways in which teachers canaccess ongoing ICT support in their area.

The Specialist Schools and Academies Trust(SSAT) Lead Practitioner programme also has the objective of teachers forming networks, sharing good practice and offering

3

By engagingtogether in anactivity which

had a clearfocus, a culture

of trust and collaboration

developed

E L E C T R I F Y I N G M U S I C W W W . M U S I C A L F U T U R E S . O R G . U K

2 Ofsted, 2005.3 www.name.org.uk

4

Lead practitioners are

innovativeteachers who

share their goodpractice and who

work creativelyto support and

disseminateinnovative

teaching andlearning

strategies


support ‘by teachers for teachers’4. Lead practitioners are innovative teacherswho share their good practice and who workcreatively to support and disseminateinnovative teaching and learning strategiesacross the Trust’s networks. Their workincludes building regional networks,authoring case studies, publications andresources, leading professional developmentworkshops and supporting/mentoring.

Informal networking opportunities are alsopossible. For example, many schools within aLocal Education Authority (LEA) have sharedschedules of training days. Music teachersfrom different schools could consider using some of this time to establish their own network for sharing and discussing good practice.

External ProvidersMany schools find it difficult to recruitqualified staff, especially those with skillsand confidence in working with musictechnology. Music became a shortage/prioritysubject on the Graduate Training Programme(GTP) from September 2006. It is thereforeimperative to look at ways of bringing moreexternal providers into the classroom.

The support structures provided by LEAs andMusic Services are often crucial in providingexpertise, especially where there is astrategic support plan in place. For example,Somerset Music Service offers teachers andpupils music technology workshops and grouptuition; training for teachers in musictechnology and opportunities to shadow ICT-confident practitioners among other things.Classroom teachers in Somerset are able tochoose support that best suits their require-ments. Many LEAs are now starting todevelop similar support provision.5

Musical Futures Nottingham works using apartnership approach. Musical Futures musicleaders and PGCE trainees are brought intoschools to deliver the music curriculum to awhole year group in Year 8, over one year.These ICT-confident practitioners work withteachers in helping the pupils to create theirown home pages on the Musical Futureswebsite. They go on to create music usingcomputers and upload the results onto the website.

One of the key elements of the Excellence inCities (EiC) programme is the establishmentof a network of school-based City LearningCentres (CLCs). There are over 100 CLCsoperating in EiC areas across the country.6

These provide state-of-the art ICT-basedlearning opportunities for the pupils at thehost school, for teachers and pupils in anetwork of surrounding schools and for thewider community. Teachers can learnvaluable lessons about how to set up andorganise ICT provision in their schools byinitially working in their local CLC.

Finally, many Further Education and HigherEducation institutions run music technologycourses where their students may have theopportunity to have placements in schools asspecialist teaching assistants.

These are only a few examples of theincreasing number of external providers thatare available and that could form useful relationships and partnerships with schools.

Expertise of StudentsIncreasing numbers of young people inschools have skills and confidence in ICT, andschools could explore ways of mobilising thisoften significant ‘resource’. Young peoplelive in a digital world where the norm isblogging, podcasting, peer-to-peer filesharing, downloading media, capturingsounds and images, emailing, chatrooms,texting and videomessaging. Most of themhave ready access to the technology requiredfor these activities, such as computers,mobile phones and MP3 players.

4 www.specialistschools.org.uk/practitioners

5 www.six.somerset.gov.uk/somersetmusic/default.asp

6 www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/sie/eic/clc/

5

For many years, students have had access tohome computers outside the control of theschool system and, more importantly, outsidethe dynamic of its internal mechanisms. Theyuse computers in the way that they want,rather than in the way that an organisationmight dictate. For instance, many youngpeople do not like to be shown how to use asoftware package or work through a manual –they would rather work it out for themselves,using an intuitive, trial-and-error approach.Many students develop high levels ofexpertise and use computers in complex,sophisticated ways. As Papert states, as aresult, they:“Are beginning to produce a pressure on theschool from within, a kind of subversiveforce coming into the system, not onlydemanding change but, most important,offering to help in that change.”7

Given this situation, it seems sensible toconsider the opportunities this affords andhow we can involve students in teaching aswell as learning. The advantages of usingstudents as peer mentors have been noted inthe classroom and beyond. Young peoplegenerally respond well to being taught bytheir peers and, for those students doing theteaching, there are the potential rewards ofincreased self-esteem and a greaterawareness of the teaching and learningprocess. The evaluation report on the DfES-funded Study Support Summer Schools noted that:“About half the schemes employed pupilmentors, who made a valuable contribution.Pupil mentors were good role models forparticipants and provided excellent supportfor the work of main staff.”8

Queen Elizabeth’s Mercian School inTamworth has a mentoring musicians scheme.Year 12 and 13 pupils, who have developedexpertise in the use of ICT, use some of theirfree time to support work in younger classesusing Cubase. Additionally, sixth formerswork with some of the non-notation readers

in GCSE classes using Guitar Pro – a software-based multi-track tablatureeditor/player. There is also an informal‘apprenticeship’ scheme where the olderpupils who run the sound and lightingequipment for all the school’s productionsand shows pass on their skills to youngerpupils, who will eventually take over from them.

Web-Based SupportThere are occasions when a more impersonalsource of support is appropriate. Usinginteractive online resources gives the usermore control over how and when they learn.The best software providers not only offeronline tutorials but also set up user groupswhere practitioners can share ideas and helpeach other with technical issues.

Choosing the Right SupportThere are clearly a range of choices practitioners can make when deciding on themost appropriate support for their particularneeds. A good starting point would be for apractitioner to conduct an audit of theirrequirements and research what support iscurrently available in the region. This couldlead to a personal action plan for ContinuingProfessional Development.

Lewisham’s ICT Training for Teachers website(http://ecs.lewisham.gov.uk/talent/secmus/TaLENT_MU1.htm) contains a section whichprovides a step-by-step approach to thisprocess. The purpose of this module is tohelp teachers assess what their own currentlevel of expertise is with using ICT and todevelop a plan for how they and theirdepartment could develop the use of ICT.Teachers are provided with guidance on:• Completing an audit of personal ICT skills;• Completing an audit of departmental ICT

resources; • Defining a rationale for using ICT in their

own school context.


Pupil mentorswere good role

models for participants

and providedexcellent

support for the work of

main staff

7 Papert, S, Child Power: Keys to the NewLearning of the Digital Century,

1998, available atwww.papert.org/articles/Childpower

8 Mason, K et al, Study Support SummerSchool Pilots, NFER 2000.

6 M U S I C A L F U T U R E S - A P A U L H A M L Y N F O U N D A T I O N S P E C I A L P R O J E C T

SECTION TWO:Another Time, Another PlaceSchool timetables, and the way that pupilsare grouped into rooms, were designed toenable a large number of students to be putthrough an educational process using limitedtime and space. The teacher delivers thecontent and the students are required toabsorb this information simultaneously – a‘one size fits all’ model.

Changing the way that time and space areused in schools opens up new possibilities fortransforming how and when teaching andlearning takes place. ICT gives us opportuni-ties for podcast lectures, blogging and wikis,online forums, anytime-anywhere access todigital learning resources and learning taskswhich are structured online.

Regardless of how much or how little use ateacher makes of ICT and music technology,there is a set of fundamental priorities foreffective music departments:• Practical music making - in order to gain a

real understanding of music, students need to create and play it;

• Space to allow practical music making to happen - good-sized, uncluttered classrooms to enable flexibility to move between teacher-led sessions, class participation in discussion, individual and group music making;

• Breakout spaces - where students can work free from distraction and intervention;

• Departmental resources that are available out of curriculum time - including extra- curricula opportunities, students working on extended tasks, and access by the wider community.

Unfortunately, few schools are able toadequately provide for such situations. Themusic room is traditionally a teacher-ledenvironment (teacher and resources at thefront, students facing the teacher). Moving toindividual or group/pair work can be timeconsuming because of resource

storage/retrieval issues. Opportunities foraccessing these resources out of curriculumtime are limited, often because of perceivedsecurity problems. This type of environmentalso creates problems for the assessment ofpractical work, again because of the way thespace is used. What do you do with the other29 students while you are trying to assessone student’s performance?

Many of these problems can be solved byeffective and judicious use of ICT. An ‘ICTenriched’ space offers the opportunity for:1. Integrating resources. Using standard

presentation software, teachers can now gather all the resources required for a lesson in one place. Text, pictures /diagrams, video clips, audio clips and web links can all be triggered from a single screen at the click of a button.

2.Mobility and student participation. Using a wireless tablet, keyboard or mouse or an interactive whiteboard can have a profound effect on classroom dynamics. The teacher can move freely around the classroom and continue to present a lesson and encourage students to engage interactively.

3.Using Internet/Intranet. This can significantly add to the range of resources available for use in the classroom and out of school hours and gives students constant access to store and retrieve work, and communicate or collaborate online.

4. Increasing range of software. New applications for music are constantly developed, including many open source and freeware/shareware applications. Recent improvements in software design mean that they are often more stable, more intuitive and run more efficiently.

5.Capturing student’s work. For example,through digital formats including text, audio and video. This can occur relatively easily during a lesson with minimum disruption, which in turn can make for easier and more accurate assessment and reporting.

Changing theway that timeand space are

used in schoolsopens up new

possibilities fortransforming how

and whenteaching and

learning takesplace

The besttechnologies

should aid bothteaching and

learning

7

6.Using other technology hardware in conjunction with computers. This is now relatively straightforward with USB and fire-wire ports. For instance, MIDI keyboards, controllers and audio interfaces can easily be linked to computers for use in performance and recording.

The vision of new approaches assumes thewilling cooperation of students, who may bemoving from a highly-structured educationalprocess to a system of increasing flexibility in where, when and how they work. They will also be expected to take on more responsibility for their work and suchtransition may need to be handled sensitively.

As an example, let us consider the currentdebate regarding interactive whiteboards andwireless technologies. Are these toolsdesigned for the benefit of teachers or forstudents? The best technologies, of course,should aid both teaching and learning. Someteachers use a tablet and projector andprefer this to an interactive whiteboard, asdo many pupils. For teachers, the classroomdynamics of being ‘at the level’ of theirstudents and facing into the group ratherthan turning their back on them are bigadvantages. Also, for many teachers andstudents, it is easier to work at normal scale,with something that feels like a normal pen,rather than on a large board. Older pupilsare often reluctant to go to the front of theclass to operate a whiteboard (into whatthey perceive as the ‘teacher’s space’). Ittherefore makes sense wherever possible toconsult students during the design and imple-mentation stages of new technologies beforethey are firmly installed in the classroom.

SECTION THREE:Bring It On Home To MeIn many curriculum subject areas, studentshave continuous access to the resources theyneed. In mathematics, most pupils will havea maths textbook and a calculator, so thatthey can work on their maths whenever theychoose. In music, however, students frequentlyhave little access outside the 50-60 minutesof their weekly curriculum music lesson.Students taking instrumental lessons aremore fortunate. They often have aninstrument they can take home to practiseon, and most extra-curricular provision isgeared to their needs. This gives instrumentalplayers a significant advantage over the restof the class: they have developed the habitof working at home because they have thenecessary equipment. Imagine trying to learnto play the flute if the instrument were onlyavailable for one lesson per week and wascompletely inaccessible during holiday times.

Even though many students have computersat home, we often make things harder forthem by choosing to work with expensivemusic software packages in the classroomwhich students simply cannot afford forhome use. There are some instances ofsoftware companies offering extended sitelicences so that students can use thesoftware at home, but these are few and farbetween. Many teachers are starting to usefreeware /shareware and open-source appli-cations in their teaching. Audacity9 is onesuch example of free, open-source softwarefor recording and editing sounds. It is stable, easy to learn and is now widely used in schools.

The most popular shareware search enginefor musicians is probablyhttp://www.hitsquad.com/smm/. Hundredsof shareware/freeware/demo products areorganised into categories which include audiosequencers, midi sequencers, vst plugins,software samplers and synthesisers.


9 http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

8

They areencouraged to

email their workto and fromschool and some work

independently onproducing some

high qualityremixes for use

with dancegroups in and

beyond school


10www.numu.org.uk11The following school intranets are

examples of schools giving students home access:

www.hitchams.suffolk.sch.uk/ictmusic/drums/index

www.callingtonmusic.co.uk12www.musicalfutures.org

Some companies produce entry level versionsof their commercial professional software.These are often stripped down but fullyfunctional versions of the full product and areusually freely downloadable from theproducer’s website. For instance, Sonydistributes a free version of their loop based music production tool, Acid, onwww.acidplanet.com.

Students in Nottingham, working with theMusical Futures Whole Curriculum Approach,create their own home pages on the website10

and go on to compose and upload dancemusic tracks using the freeware Acid Xpress.Many students download this freely-availablesoftware onto their home computers so thatthey can continue working on their projectsoutside the classroom. NUMU10 offers theopportunity for students and schools to‘publish’ in a dedicated safe space, wherethey can showcase their music, meet othersand learn new skills.

Schools are already starting to explorehome–school access via intranet sites andmobile technologies.11 This is especiallysignificant for music educators as it allowsthem to tap into the vast amount of musicmaking that goes on outside school, as wellas helping to address some of the currentissues regarding music homework. We nowhave the opportunity to extend music studyinto the home provided we tap into theculture, content and means of production ofthe young people. For instance, at The QueenKatherine School in Kendal, students areshown how to download free loop sequencersoftware and royalty free samples from theInternet and are provided with tutorialmaterial demonstrating basic sound-editingprocedures. They are encouraged to emailtheir work to and from school and some workindependently on producing high qualityremixes for use with dance groups in andbeyond the school.

Music departments that have managed to gettheir computers online are beginning to reapthe benefits. Some music departments usethe Internet for researching musical topicsand for accessing additional resources fromexternal providers. Linking up to the school’sdatabase or intranet can be of significanthelp in storing, assessing and reporting onstudents’ work. There are further opportunities that can be exploited. Studentscan use the Internet to collaborate andreflect on the work of their peers. In theMusical Futures Leeds ‘Bits and Pieces’project12, young musicians were engaged inonline collaborations, extending and remixingthe music produced by their friends. Theresults are ‘published’ – uploaded to a virtualperformance space on websites such as dbassand myspace.

Some schools are working towards providingwireless access, meaning that students willbe able to continue working on schoolprojects from any location in their region.

Six schools in Kent are taking part in a LEApilot scheme to supply 1,400 tablet PCswithin a county-wide wireless network. HughChristie Technology College in Tonbridge,Kent, has been turned into a wireless internetzone, and an entire year group has beentreated to their own tablet PCs. Studentstake the Internet with them into each lessonand when they have finished, they send theirwork across the network to their personalfolder on the server. When they get home,they can access their work where they leftoff using a broadband connection supplied bythe council.(From Shaping the Future of Learning in Kentwww.clusterweb.org.uk/home.cfm)

Teachers may also wish to work with mobiletechnologies that students commonly usealready, for example mobile phones and MP3players. A USB pen/MP3 player combination isespecially useful as it can allow a wide range

9

We need to find ways of

allowing mobiledevices to be

deployed in theclassroom


of digital data to be easily transported fromone location to another. However, studentsare often banned from bringing these mobiledevices into schools. We need to find ways ofallowing them to be deployed in theclassroom as they have a potential impact forthe students’ independent, personalisedlearning. Students have been shown todevelop a strong sense of ownership andlearning autonomy with their mobile phonesand MP3 players and are prepared to investconsiderable time in learning to use them.

Case Study#2: Mobile TechnologyAt Monk’s Walk School, one of the MusicalFutures schools in Hertfordshire, mobilephones and MP3 players were banned.Teachers had been told to immediatelyconfiscate all phones and MP3 players until aparent collected them from the office.

However, as part of the Hertfordshire MusicalFutures model, students were asked to bringtheir own music into the classroom, and theywould often ask to bring their MP3 playersinstead of CDs.

Anna Gower, head of music, has thereforeallowed students to bring MP3 players to themusic lessons; Anna feels that this technologyhas become an integral part of the informallearning work that is occurring in her school,and has challenged the school rules in orderto accommodate this. “I have walked intopractice rooms to find students with phonesout and have been about to challenge them,only to be told they are recording theirpieces to play to their mum, or videoing theirperformances. Students can now downloadtheir pieces onto MP3, blue tooth from my laptop to their phones and downloadother student's work from the Musical Futures website.”

Mobile resources are also being usedeffectively in Sonic Postcards - an innovativeproject that aims to explore and compare thelocal sound environments of young peopleacross the UK. Students record sounds in theirlocality, and then experiment with creatingsoundscapes through the interaction of thesesounds with technology. The results areuploaded on the national website (www.sonicpostcards.org).

These are just some of the ways in whichschools are encouraging young people toexplore music through ICT outside theclassroom in structured, creative andmeaningful ways.

SECTION FOUR:Come TogetherIn this section, we consider the potential forusing computer-generated music alongsideconventional instruments and in workingacross different artforms.

Music technology is taught separately frommusic in many schools. There may have beengood reasons for this in the past - usuallyconcerning problems of a technical nature,resource issues and so on. Because of this,technology has often been isolated from themainstream music curriculum, and used indiscrete music technology modules, or as atool to aid composition and theory/auraltraining. Much music produced in this wayrarely sees the light of day – it sits on thecomputer hard drive or is burned on to a diskto send off to an examining board. However,hardware, software and operating systemshave improved significantly and excitingmusical opportunities are being missed. It is time to bring music and technology back together.

It is not only the technology that hasimproved. Technicians in schools are startingto get a clearer idea of their musicdepartments’ computer-system requirements,enabling more teachers to explore the use ofcomputers as an integrated part of theirsubject provision. The most significant impactof this changing picture is an increase in theuse of ICT in live performance.

Case study#3: Technology in PerformanceAt a recent Specialist Schools’ ArtsConference, a group of young musicians fromPimlico School demonstrated how elements ofmusic technology could be incorporated intoan ‘acoustic’ performance. They did this byusing real-time sound processing and workingwith a laptop computer as a musicalinstrument. The musicians using thetechnology were playing alongside a guitarist, percussionist, saxophonist and akeyboard player.

Using a laptop running a piece of softwarecalled AudioMulch and a USB MIDI controller (inthis case Evolution’s X-Session), they createdan ‘instrument’ that gives the user control overelements of pitch, duration, dynamics andtimbre. The laptop musician sits with the restof the ensemble and responds to the visual andaudio cues that arise in ensemble performance.They used independent amplification, locatedclose to where they were performing, so thatthe player became associated with the soundsthey were generating. Balancing the sound wasdone by ensuring that students listened to eachother and worked together, so that the‘technical’ musician develops the samelistening and ensemble skills as their acoustic peers.

Using computers in live performance providesstudents working with music technology withthe same ensemble and performing skills asother musicians in their schools. Like anymusical instrument, the computer has its ownstrengths and weaknesses, but it is importantto acknowledge these and work within itscapabilities. This approach inevitably leads torefreshing new instrumental combinations,where students can experiment with newtextures and timbres. It is genuinely creative,because the music usually has to be devisedand improvised. This in turn helps ourstudents to become more fully-roundedmusicians, developing the essential skillsrequired in much contemporary music making.

Music is usually taught as a discrete subjectin the curriculum, yet outside school it rarelystands in this isolation. For example, contemporary music is often presented in amultimedia context combined with elementsof dance or video. In other historical contextsand cultures, music is inextricably linked withelements of dance, drama or ritual. To makemusic education relevant to a wide range ofcontexts in which young people encountermusic outside school, many of which aremultimedia, some traditional subject barriersmay need to be broken down.

10

Using computers in

live performanceprovides students

working withmusic technology

with the sameensemble and

performing skillsas other

musicians in their schools


11

There havealways been

opportunities for working

with music incross-curricular

ways, and musicproduced

digitally significantly

increases therange of

possibilities

There have always been opportunities forworking with music in cross-curricular ways,and music produced digitally significantlyincreases the range of possibilities. Threeareas which particularly suggest themselvesare dance, visual art and mathematics.

DanceMany dance groups in schools and the widercommunity work with electronicallygenerated music which has repetitive rhythmsand a strong beat. Dance students couldexplore using original music produced by theirpeers working with loop-based software.

Soundbeam13 is a device that sends out anultrasonic ‘beam’ which the user projectsacross the performing space. When studentsgenerate any sort of movement within thisspace, the ‘interruptions’ are captured by the device and converted into MIDI datawhich can control music, video or lightingchanges. Technology such as Soundbeamallows for live synchronisation of movementand music, and has great potential forperforming arts departments.

Visual ArtMany schools have art and design departments that are capable of creatinghighly sophisticated digitally-produced work.This includes: processing still images andvideo animations; using live performance toaccompany a sequence of projected stillimages; making digitally recorded soundtrackswhich can be edited and processed in thelatest sequencing software; and vjaying –where the performer triggers video clips topre-recorded sound samples.

MathematicsManor School in York recently did acomposition and performance projectinvolving elements of art, mathematics andmusic. Guided by their teacher, studentsanalysed the works of St Ives painter JohnWells and discovered that there was a mathematical basis underlying the structureof many of his paintings. This involved the use

of prime numbers and patterns based on theFibonacci series. A software programme(Music Generator) was used to translate someof this mathematical data into musicalfragments or motifs for use as building blocksin the final composition. Various softwareapplications were used for developing andarranging the musical materials generated inthis way. Sections of the paintings werescanned and animated using Microsoft PhotoStory and these video projections served as abackdrop for the performance. Theseprojections also functioned as a graphicscore, providing a series of cues for thosemusicians performing live.

CONCLUSION“The best ICT generates motivation andengagement, ensures impersonal feedback,provides scope for peer collaboration and co-designing of learning and teaching with staff.”14

Young people have always had the capacity toproduce original and exhilarating music in theright conditions. For today’s young people,ICT and music technologies can help providestimulating learning environments that enableand encourage students to produce work of avery high standard.

ICT hardware is cheaper and more powerfulthan ever before and the range of musicsoftware increases steadily. This equipment isbeing used effectively across a wide range ofgenres and there are countless examples ofexciting, original contemporary music whichcan be used as examples in teaching.

Many external music providers who have atradition of working with music technology,are beginning to make significant impact interms of their contribution to teaching andlearning in schools. This work is beingencouraged and to some extent co-ordinatedby the Music Manifesto who expect to see:


13www.soundbeam.co.uk14Hargreaves, D, Personalising

Learning-3, 2005.

“Schools, Music services, Youth Music ActionZones, community and youth music organisa-tions, the music and creative industries andothers – working effectively together to meetmany more young people’s needs and helpingthem fulfil their aspirations.”15

Some of our best music teachers are alreadyusing ICT to create truly inspiring learningexperiences for their students. For example,schools are using ICT and music to:• Encourage boys’ singing (Northampton

Academy);• Encourage independent working

(Archbishop Michael Ramsey School);• Use visual representation to support aural

understanding (Charles Darwin School);• Facilitate effective differentiation of

learning tasks (Djanogly School);• Reinforce and consolidate a

traditional music activity (Holy Cross Catholic High School);

• Support students with limited notation reading skills to engage with music at a higher level (Bluecoats School);

• Bring a range of resources together in engaging multimedia lesson presentations (Alcester High School).

Organisations such as the National Associationof Music Educators and the Specialist Schoolsand Academies Trust are working hard to helpdisseminate case studies of best practice viatheir websites and events.

But ICT also presents challenges for teachers.With the introduction of music technology,teachers are required to work across a muchbroader musical spectrum, often with studentswho may have a greater understanding of ICTin contemporary music than they do.

We conclude with three suggestions for teachers who wish to become more ICT aware:1.Become co-researchers with their

students. Learning about ICT in music together may encourage a sense of equality and a dialogue constructive for learning. Teachers could consider involving their students in curriculum planning and development and to listen to and act on their suggestions and ideas.

2.Explore examples of best practice, such as those given in this pamphlet.

3. Investigate software used by musicians. Most software can be obtained on a trial basis, either from magazines or websites. The best software allows and encourages the user to explore and create for themselves without being guided down one of a number of limited paths. New software/hardware applications which move well beyond the usual notation /sequencer packages found in schools need to be investigated.

ICT in music presents us with exciting opportunities to significantly improve theteaching and learning of music in schools, andto make music more accessible for students.

As ICT becomes more pervasive in education,we must acknowledge that the role for musicteachers is still a vital component in thischanging world. They will continue to have acrucial part to play in nurturing musicianshipand creativity in their students – and theywill use ICT to help them achieve this.

12

As ICT becomes more

pervasive ineducation,

we mustacknowledge

that the role formusic teachers is

still a vitalcomponent in this

changing world


15Music Manifesto Report#2, Departmentfor Education and Skills, 2006.

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING

BROWN, R and GRIESE, M, Electronica DanceMusic Programming SecretsPrentice Hall (2000)

COLLYER, A, Club Dance RemixPublished in Music Teacher,www.rhinegold.co.uk (March 2004)

DELANEY, M, Laptop Music: Create, Record,Perform or Just Listen to Music on YourLaptop Computer, PC Publishing (2004)

HARGREAVES, D, Personalising Learning – 3Specialist Schools Trust (2005)

KELLY, O, Digital CreativityGulbenkian (1996)

MASON, K, BHABRA, S and REES, F, StudySupport Summer School Pilots, NationalFoundation for Educational Research (2000)

Music in Secondary SchoolsOFSTED, HMI 2328 (2005)

PAPERT, S, Child Power: Keys to the NewLearning of the Digital Century available atwww.papert.org/articles/Childpower

PROCHAK, T, How to RemixSanctuary Publishing (2001)

A Curriculum for the Future: SubjectsConsider the Challenge, Qualifications andCurriculum Authority (2005)

TOOP, D, Ocean of SoundSerpent’s Tail (2001)

SAVAGE, J, Teaching Music with ICTin Finney, J. and Burnard, P (eds), TeachingMusic in the Digital Age London, Continuum(Forthcoming)

Recommended software• Ableton Live www.ableton.com • Acid Xpress www.acidplanet.com • Audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ • A Music Generator

www.musoft-builders.com/ • Audiomulch www.audiomulch.com • Hyperscore www.hyperscore.com • Reason www.propellerheads.se • Van Basco www.vanbasco.com

Recommended listening• Aphex Twin Selected Ambient Works vol II

(WARP)• Boards of Canada Music Has the Right to

Children (WARP)• Brian Eno Apollo (EG)• Fat Boy Slim You’ve Come a Long Way Baby

(Skint)• FSOL Lifeforms (Virgin)• Jah Wobble Rising Above Bedlam (OVAL)• Kraftwerk Trans Europe Express (Capitol)• Moby Play (CDStumm)• Orbital Work 1989(- 2002 Warner)• Various Pump Up the Volume (Channel 4)• Faithless Reverence/Irreverence

(Mushroom)• The Streets A Grand Don’t Come for Free

(Atlantic)• Smith Quartet Stephen Montague Quartet

no 1 (Continuum)• Sheila Chandra Monsoon (Mercury)

13E L E C T R I F Y I N G M U S I C W W W . M U S I C A L F U T U R E S . O R G . U K

Biography David Ashworth is a freelance education consultant, specialising in music technology. He is the Lead Consultant on Music and ICT for the National Association of Music Educators. Other recent work has included an online learning consultancy for Musical Futures; advisory work for QCA, BBC Jam, Sonic Arts Network and Teachers TV and CPD design anddelivery for the Specialist School and Academies Trust and many LEAs and Music Services. He is currently leading a number of projects in the North West of England and elsewhere on the use of ICT in live performance. He also teaches music part time at The Queen Katherine School, Kendal.

Musical Futures c/o The Paul Hamlyn Foundation18 Queen Anne’s Gate, London SW1H 9AAwww.musicalfutures.org.uk www.phf.org.uk

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