The overarching theme of pages 44-51 in Chapter 3: Creating Music of William Bauer’s (2014) book, Music Learning Today, was how to cultivate creativity as a music educator so that “the other 80%” (p. 46) who are not involved in their schools’ music programs can still have active musical lives apart from school. However, Bauer also emphasized using technology to expand the creativity of those who are in their school’s music ensembles.
The first major idea Bauer addresses is the misconception that creativity is a rare gift that only some people are endowed with. He states that because of this misconception, it is all the more important that music educators find ways to develop creativity, especially through the use of technology, to prove that creativity is achieved through persistent practice. His four main steps to developing creativity are: preparation, incubation, illumination, and verification. This process is not linear, it is full of trial and error; a person can go back and forth between steps in order to fully develop their creativity. Finally, Bauer explains that the most beneficial method for facilitating creativity in students consists of certain constraints or frameworks, resources, and opportunities where the student can take ownership of their work. The students will also have to be motivated to develop their own aural and analyzing skills, in addition to imitate and informally learning from more experienced musicians. In a general music classroom, I would be sure to use Bauer’s idea of constraints to cultivate creativity. In that type of class there are many levels of interests in music, but as an educator it would be my goal to stir or increase excitement in the students toward music. Giving students a general format to adhere to would allow for rules, but would leave space for exploration of new sounds and ideas that they can take ownership of and become more interested in. In a collaborative maker space with music makers setting, I would allow the students to gain experience through an informal manner: modeling after their peers. Bauer explains that sometimes this can be the best way for a student to learn at times because they are experiencing the activity hands-on and making instant connections. In a creative space like this, I would not want my students to feel as if there are many rules in place; instead I want them to explore and find their own ideas. When using notation as a medium for composing, Bauer states that it is helpful for teaching students learn the ways of how musical notation works. Notation software can also show the pitch range of an instrument which helps with the technical portion of composing. Teachers can easily create composition templates for their students to follow, and teachers can listen to their work midway through the project so that they can provide ongoing feedback. The students can instantly hear their own work with similar sounding instruments and revise their own music continuously too. Some constraints would be that notation software does not allow the student to be actively thinking in sound or musically since the software puts out whatever is notated. Also, though sound can instantly be played back, the instruments may not have the right timbre and give students a misconception of what their piece will sound like live. Lastly, students will be more unwilling to change their musical ideas if it has already been notated, as opposed to if they had just jotted it down on scratch paper. My experience with notation software afforded me an easy way to notate my music and immediately hear back what I wanted it to sound like so that I could revise it right then and there. I could also easily change the notes that I wanted without spending extra time erasing and scratching out measures. I liked how easy the software was to manage and how I could easily find different items like dynamics and accidentals without too much trouble. First, it was constraining trying to make the beats smaller because it would take a lot of time or it would change the beat to rests when I wanted them to remain as notes. Sometimes the placement of dynamic markings was also strange and did not format well in the music. Lastly, the timbre of certain instruments was lacking and would not sound like what I imagined or wanted them to sound like. Overall, I think my experience with the notation software, Noteflight, was successful and I could easily compose without too many issues. My questions that I thought of when reading this chapter were, “How do you determine the extent of the constraints or how much critique is proper and still encouraging for the student?” and “What is the point of reaching the other 80% of students who are not involved in schools’ ensembles through notation software---is it to expose them to new things? If that is the case, what about the students who are not interested in notating music; what do you then do to connect them with music?” Comments are closed.
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Davina MiawOn this page, I will present examples of my scholarship in the form of reflective essays and philosophical assignments. Archives
November 2019
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