Jonathan Savage

Professor Jonathan Harvey thinks that we are depriving people of classical music because of the ‘stuffy conventions’ that surround the concert hall. You can read what he thinks here. In particular, he thinks that:

Young people don’t like concert halls… and wouldn’t normally go to one except for amplified music. … There is a big divide between amplified and non-amplified music. The future must bring things that are considered blasphemous, like amplifying classical music in an atmosphere where people can come and go, and even perhaps… and certainly leave in the middle of a movement if they feel like it.

My experience is that young people like going to concert halls for classical music gigs (and theatres to see Shakespeare for that matter). It’s all about how you present it to them. I read this article just before leaving to watch The Muse perform in Manchester last Saturday. It was a great gig, with three very different supporting bands and a really enthusiastic audience. As someone who has played in, and attended, hundreds of classic concerts the contrasts are obvious. But does classical music and its performance practice really need to change along the lines Harvey suggests? My experience last weekend make me think perhaps not.

Firstly, bands are amplified not solely so that everyone can hear what they are doing. It seems to me that they are amplified because that suits the musical style that is being presented; and, more trivially, so that you can hear what they are doing over the noise of other people having loud conversations about all and sundry! What you loose (and I find myself agreeing with a Lloyd Webber here) is a sense of nuance in the music. I really enjoy The Muse. But much of the subtlety of their recorded sound and instruments (particularly the piano) seemed lost on Saturday.

Secondly, popular music lends itself to a sense of to-ing and fro-ing. It fits that social occasion and gives the listener a sense of choice (I like that song, I don’t like that one, etc), allowing them to opt in or out as they seem fit. A live gig facilitates that process to a point. The Muse, interestingly in this respect, presented quite a clear marker to the audience in terms of the end/beginning of each song they performed.

Finally, and perhaps I’m just getting old, but I would quite happily fore-go many aspects of the popular music gig when listening to a classical music concert. Included amongst these would be the vacuum-packed audience feel, the commendably enthusiastic and extremely loud singing of certain individuals in close proximity to my ear, and trying to work out whether the liquid flying around you is Heineken (cold) or something much less desirable (warm)!

Seriously though, I told my 16 year old son about Harvey’s article. His response: ‘That’s stupid. They’re just different!’ Couldn’t agree more.

And a big thank you to James for pointing this great rendition of the Muppet’s theme tune out:

Here’s a lovely piece of video from Stanford University. It shows how the iPhone can be used as an ensemble instrument. I particularly liked the Ocarina instrument which utilises the microphone input as a wind controller. The best bit, for me, was when Ge Wang showed us how users could access music created by others using the instrument from around the world. Great stuff:

As part of our research group at MMU, we were asked to think about some interesting reading which could form the basis for a reading group. My thoughts returned to a paper by my friend and colleague John Bowers – Improvising Machines. You can download it from here.

This paper explores issues related to the improvisation of electro-acoustic music from musicological, aesthetic, practical and technical design standpoints. It contains three chapters. Chapter 1 is a survey of what it means to be an improvising musician. John traces back into musical history and gives his own take on how the performance practice of electro-acoustic musicians has evolved.

Chapter 2 contains an lively account of various musical performances John has given in Ipswich, Stockholm, London and Norwich. He reflects of these through his ethnographic account and draws some interesting issues together at the end of the chapter. This would also be good reading to understand John’s own artistic practices and how these have informed his design principles.

In Chapter 3 John writes about the human-computer interface within his work as an improvising musician. He argues that principles of ethographically-informed design should inform the development of new instruments (tools) for improvisatory practice. The middle part of the chapter is fairly technical but persevere here. Some of the audio accompanying this can be found at http://www.ariada.uea.ac.uk/ariadatexts/ariada4/index4.html for those that are interested.

I believe that John is one of the most interesting and provocative thinkers in respect of musical practices with new technologies. But his paper raises issues for many of us engaged in education. It informs questions such as:

How can the design of educational tools (in the widest sense) be informed by, and built on, processes of ethonographically informed design? and:

Within artistic practices (and I’d included teaching within this), how can an ethonographic approach to the documentation of human/computer interaction help us produce examples of effective practice and facilitate the building of these skills in our own work and those of our students?

I’ll leave it with you to see what you make of it! Happy reading.

Found this interesting video on the BBC Technology website about a hands-free musical instrument. It’s a work in progress but the researcher – Mick Grierson of London’s Goldsmiths College – is able to think about notes and trigger them on an instrument through an EGG interface. So far, he’s been able to get 6 notes out of 8 right. Perhaps if he shaved his head and got a better electrode/skin contact he’d have got 100% accuracy?

I’ve been writing a ‘think piece’ for the QCA website today. We were asked to take one new aspect of the new National Curriculum and explore it a little to provide a stimulus for debate in an online forum. Given that it is not going online for a few months yet, I thought I’d give it a go on the blog first. I’ll be interested to hear your comments!

One of the new components of the National Curriculum focuses on the application of technology to develop musical performance skills. The opening of the Curriculum Opportunities states that:

The curriculum should provide opportunities for pupils to:

a. Develop individual performance skills, both vocal and instrumental, including the use of music technology learning opportunities.

The purpose of this ‘think piece’ is to generate some debate about what these learning opportunities should be.

The use of music technology as a tool for musical composition seems well established. Whether it is through the use of sequencing technologies, notation programmes or other pieces of technology, many pupils at Key Stage 3 are introduced to musical composition through music technology in a way that enhances the opportunity for their musical learning.

The challenge facing us in the new National Curriculum is to extend the use of music technology to support the development of performance skills. This raises a number of questions that we could debate through this forum.

1. What are the performance skills that music technology could help develop? Are these similar to or different from those performance skills that we could develop through the use of traditional classroom instruments or pupils’ wider instrumental learning (whenever or wherever pupils develop this)?

2. What are the best pieces of music technology to use in the development of these skills? How would these pieces of music technology relate to the wider performance opportunities that pupils engage in? Would specific instruments need to be developed, or would pupils make use of traditional instruments that would link to pieces of technology?

3. How do the performance skills developed in this way relate to the wider performance, composition, listening, reviewing and evaluating skills that the wider curriculum should offer at Key Stage3? What kind of learning is embedded within these skills and how does it (or can it be) developed?

4. Finally, given the wider agenda presented by the new National Curriculum, how could these technological developments within the music curriculum relate to uses of new technologies in other curriculum areas? What opportunities are there for cross-disciplinary approaches?

Music educators are addressing a number of approaches to these questions. Gigajam is one notable example of technology-supported instrumental learning that makes use of traditional instrumental interfaces (keyboard, drums, guitar, etc) to support the development of traditional instrumental skills (both individually and through musical ensembles). At the other end of the spectrum, new musical instruments are being developed and used in classroom contexts. Cross-disciplinary approaches to musical performance can be seen in technologies that link together musical and visual elements. For example, consider some of the VJ-ing technologies like Edirol’s Motion Dive or Roland’s V-link technology (which allows musicians to trigger and manipulate video images). Perhaps more radically, Hand2Hand has taken a technology that many young people have considerably dexterity with (a standard playstation controller) and turned it into a musical instrument. Hand2Hand draws on ideas from a rich history of experimentation within the electroacoustic music community (as represented through conferences such as the International Conference on New Interfaces for Musical Expression).

But perhaps the ultimate musical instrument is the computer itself. There is no shortage of this technology in most high schools and there is plenty of open-source software around to facilitate the process of musical performance. Many musicians have described this as a ‘meta-instrument’ which ‘can change our entire perspective on the way we do things because it is not a machine designed for a particular task but a tool which may be fashioned to fulfil any task that we can clearly specify. It is a meta-machine. In particular, it offers the possibility of being a universal sonic instrument, a device with which we can model and produce any conceivable sound-object or organisation of sounds (Wishart 1996, p.325).

This gets us back to basics. Ultimately, any piece of technology is a tool that can be used skilfully, imaginatively and purposefully by its user. The success or failure of a tool towards a particular educational application will depend on our imagination as educators. Discussing and critiquing our ideas through this online forum could be a useful first step towards a more creative approach in addressing this important component within the new National Curriculum.

It was interesting (in that kind of paint-drying way) to read and hear the BBC reporting on a recent study investigating the instrument choices made by boys and girls. All the usual stereotypes came out, and the report only focused on Local Authority provision, but it all seems like old news really. The Guardian reported about this back in November and surely these things have been well known for ages. But having spent quite a while trying to find the original report which was written by Professor Sue Hallam at the IOE in London online, The Telegraph report indicates that it is published research in the IJME only. Do let me know if you can find it anyway please. So, time to badger the MMU library about an institutional subscription. But I’m not holding my breath … !

Here’s the advert for the Ford Focus for those of you who didn’t know what I was going on about below …

Perhaps, like me, you’ve been fascinated by recent advertisements featuring musicians playing instruments made from car parts! It was good to read this article in The Telegraph about the Car Parts Orchestra who play the piece accompanying an advert for a Ford Focus, on instruments made from the car itself! As well as the article itself, there is a lovely video interview with the composer of the piece of music – Craig Richey – and the inventor of all the instruments – Bill Milbrodt. What a fantastic project.  (Incidentally, the new National Curriculum for Music asks teachers to explore new applications of technology to help pupils develop their musical performance skills. There’s potential for a great new scheme of work here!)

This looks fantastic! A Korg MS10 synthesiser on the Nintendo DS. Thanks to the Music Thing for highlighting this one. It has two synth engines, a drum machine and a six track sequence. Welcome to stylus music! Perhaps that should be stylus music version 2 for those of you that remember the orginal stylophone?

Anyway, watch this video and be in awe …