Stephanie G. Mathis Teachers can also introduce students to choral exploration using Blob Opera. This is a “Machine Learning Model trained on the Voices of Four Opera Singers” developed by Google’s AI Artist David Li. Blob Opera allows students to manipulate four operatic “blobs” — a quartet of soprano’s, alto’s, tenors, and basses — and have them perform a variety of pieces on international stages. Students can “take blobs to tour”, where they could sing an old Korean folk song in Seoul or a music composed by Erik Satie.
Google Arts & Culture video titled “Making Blob Opera With David Li”.
Students can share their live creations with teachers and fellow students on a variety of platforms. When we introduce technology, students often use it in unexpected ways. One of the students I was working with set up an Incredibox rhythm and played it to accompany a Blob Opera. It wasn’t a natural pairing, but it was a wonderful creative idea.
Learn to play instruments at home.
Before the pandemic began, music researchers wanted to help educators overcome challenges with online teaching of instrumental music and how online music lessons could benefit rural children. The biggest problem with singing and playing musical instruments online is the time lag, which some students call “glitchiness.”
Virtual instrumental music education can be frustrating due to technical issues. (Shutterstock)
Research conducted during the pandemic shows that online teaching of instruments can give music teachers the opportunity to redefine the curriculum, set new objectives for students, and consider new criteria to evaluate.
Music teachers can use an accompaniment app that is flexible, like SmartMusic, for students who are able to play instruments at home. Students can alter playback speed, change the accompaniment they hear, activate the metronome, and click on individual notes to see the fingering for the specific instrument.
The program is expensive, but the schools can purchase site licenses to make it available to more students.
Read more: Investing in Technologies for student learning: 4 Principles School Boards and parents Should Consider
Sound exploration
Google’s Chrome Music Lab offers learning for students in grades K-8. Teachers and students can use it for more complex electronica. They can also explore the elements of melody, harmony, and form.
Teachers can encourage secondary students to collaborate and explore Bandlab, a program similar to Apple’s Garageband. Students can create pieces in standard western notation using the web-based Noteflight. It is especially accessible as it does not require any downloads or personal information.
Online offerings can encourage healthy activity at home. Ollie, a British body percussionist and former STOMP member, hosts professional training for teachers and short lessons for children.
Ollie Tunmer, a body percussionist, leads a lesson online.
Teachers have also posted videos exploring form and motion in music. These clips are based on the Dalcroze Eurythmics approach to teaching rhythmic movements, listening, and embodied musical intuition, and later work by John Feierabend, an early childhood music educator.
Music education for all: Making it more inclusive
Online learning, which focuses on electronica, pop music and music with a lot of rhythm, tends to move the curriculum away from Western art music, such as “classical” music.
Margaret Walker, a music researcher, examines the ways in which education has historically promoted European superiority and exceptionalism. Walker is just one of the many music educators who promote music education that reflects cultural diversity. Researchers in music education Lucy Green have found that students with more choices about their repertoires tend to be more successful and stick around for longer.
In order to make music curriculums more inclusive, it is important to introduce new music forms and reposition canonical musicians like Mozart and Bach in a wider musical context. This will allow more students to succeed and enter the music world.
Read more: Handel’s ‘Messiah’ Today: How Classical Music is Contending with its Colonial Past and Present.
Learning about music
The curriculum for music includes not only creating but also learning about the music. Before the pandemic, online read-aloud — narrated stories accompanied by music — were available but probably became more useful for remote contexts. My students’ favourites include Sergei Prokofiev’s 1936 composition Peter & The Wolf and the 2015 children’s book Troy Andrews’ Trombone Shorty.
Actor Angela Bassett reads ‘Trombone Shorty.’
Students and music educators can also benefit from composite style videos, such as the Kingston Youth Orchestra performance of Cold Play “Viva La Vida,” when they cannot attend live performances.
Evan Mitchell is the conductor of the Kingston Symphony. He launched a children’s online music series called Harmon In Space! The series features Harmon, a fluffy dog puppet, who is isolated on a ship. Harmon has limited social interaction via chats with his musical friends and members of the Kingston Symphony. YouTube has seen over 11,000 views of the first episode. Mitchell told me that he had received many letters from concerned children about Harmon’s return to Earth.
