Final Project

For this final project, I chose a lesson plan that engages a student in learning how to read and perform music written in a new style of notation: lead sheet. This lesson plan, by the title alone, suggests having support from NJCCCS 1.1.12.B.2, “...performance of complex musical scores from diverse cultural contexts.” With the addition of extra teaching and student strategies and the integration of technology, many additional standards can be met in the lesson.

If you take a look at the technology matrix I have created, it connects standards and teaching strategies with technologies. Here’s a row-by-row breakdown for a detailed explanation.

Row 1 is the educational goal of the lesson. By the end of the lesson, the student will be able to not only read and perform a lead sheet but also understand its significance as a notation style, particularly in the pop and jazz music traditions. Row 2 houses the column titles: Standards (referring to NJCCCS and NETS-S), Strategies (both student and teacher), and Technologies. The final box in this row says “key” and that column lists two short notes about the matrix.

The matrix is organized in chronological order as the lesson progresses, and I will group the following into separate paragraphs.

Row 3 notates “Access,” referring to the following two rows. 4A and 4B note the music standard that is being achieved in this part of the lesson. 5A and 5B note the technology standards that are being achieved. 4C and 4D show the strategies, and 4E shows the technology. The teacher teaches the student about lead sheet, show the student an example written on Finale, and will playback the example to listen. The student will then be able to try playing the piece alone. Using Finale, the student will be able to edit, alter, and create their own lead sheet in the process and access different examples of lead sheet through Finale File Sharing.

Row 6-8 shows the “analyze” stage. The student will be analyze the chords written on the lead sheet (to play the correct notes and to transpose) and the teacher will engage in a discussion as to the analysis. This will be an assessment of theory analysis. Using Smart Music will allow the computer to check student work at home if the assignment is extended to a homework assignment. The student can also use the software to play back his/her analyzed music to check for comprehension.

Rows 9-11 dives into the “evaluate” section. Student will, after playing through lead sheets, research the history behind pop and jazz genres using lead sheet as a notation system.

Rows 12-14 explain the “produce” stage of the lesson. When combining the evaluation of the student’s past performance and the insertion of historical research by using the internet, the student will dive into researching the performance of lead sheet, finding live performances where lead sheet is being used. This portion can become a homework assignment, in which case the last section of the lesson will be pushed to the next lesson. The student will be allowed to use all forms of research media to explore how to correctly perform and read lead sheet. This will be student-driven research.

Rows 15-17 show the “communicate” section which will act as the true assessment of the lesson. Because this is an assessment (whether formal or informal), the student will perform without teacher intervention. The nature of lead sheet notation allows for improvisation and therefore covers the “improvise” standard. In the process, the performance will be recorded and the student will be able to edit mistakes through the edit options of Garage Band, which is a new technology being used. The student is assessed on their ability to play correct chords, sing correct notes and lyrics, and keep a steady tempo.

The technologies I’ve selected cover a broad range of technologies. Finale, a program used to notate and playback music, gives students the ability to read music and compose their own pieces. In addition, Finale offers an online file-sharing service, where anyone can upload their own music or download other’s compositions. The service is also beneficial for copyright purposes; once the piece is uploaded, the date is stamped and any copyright issues can be defended. Smart Music is accessible from any computer and checks student playing and work for accuracy. Many teachers use it to check student practice times and audition students over the summer. YouTube, while unreliable, offers students exposure to music and is a source of performance research. Although Garage Band is overused in lesson plans, it can be a great addition for students to edit out mistakes and make their work sound professional. 

Google Chrome

These are my favorite commercials, ever. Not only do they hi-light technology and its influences on our culture and America, it shows how music can enhance film. Watch any of these videos, then simply hit the "mute" button on your computer. Notice the difference? The plot line immediately suffers crucial developments due to the lack of music. Music expresses the emotion that the creators wish to invoke, and writing music to fit specific times and moods makes it easier to understand the point of the commercial. They're all fantastic commercials both in production and direction, and it show off how technology has clung onto our lives. The only sad moment is the end when you find out a private company funded the commercial, much like the Dr Pepper commercials which reveal personal flaws and experiences but ends with a crowd drinking up a soft drink. I pose the question to non musicians: How effective would film be without music? Would Titanic be the number 1 movie of all time? Would John Williams be a household name? Would Steven Spielberg?

NYU

NYU has been, on and off, my top choice graduate school for many reasons. When stumbling along the site this weekend, I found something I've never seen before; NYU offers degrees at all levels in music technology. NYU is known as being a place for philosophy and practicality and it makes sense that the school would have such a program. I'm interested in seeing their labs; they have phenomenal recording hardware and the location is rivaled only by USC's metropolitan location. I'm interested, however, how many careers can come from a music technology degree. Perhaps a mixer, recording engineer, even acoustician? I worry, though, that these graduates will end up competing with graduates of Berklee College, USC, UCLA, and more open-minded programs such as "music business" and "sound production" which are geared more directly to the field. Either way, here's their website!

The Internet

The internet has not only opened up sources such as YouTube for musicians but has allowed easy access to music history. As a performer, musicians simply convey what a composer says to. In order to correctly perform a piece, therefore, musicians must have a working knowledge of the composer and the context of the piece they are performing. The internet has given musicians instant access to thousands of resources to research such context. Just today while developing a lesson plan for Music Classroom Methods 2, I discovered the tune Yankee Doodle was originally a British fight song mocking the Yankee troops and Americans turned it into a patriotic slap-in-the-face to England. Without internet access, I would never have time to research music context and I not perform as well as I now do. Anyone else have this problem?

EastWest Software

EastWest is an umbrella program that produces high-quality digital recordings. Within EastWest there are various "plug-in" programs that work with each other to translate written notations into audible sounds. The recordings are almost indistinguishable as digital. Programs like the ones on this website are used by composers of all sorts, namely film and multimedia scorers. I'm still in the process of understanding it all and I've given up on the site and began to ask people to explain it. I'm making a trip to the music tech lab this week to learn more about it.

I'm interested in the program for composing. Although I bought my first notation software in 6th grade, I never really understood composing software. With software like this, students (and myself) can produce amazing results with their own compositions and market them along with live recordings.

One of the plug in programs, Symphonic Orchestra, has a number of demos you can explore by clicking on "Demos" on the lower navigation bar. Some of the demos even include choirs in the recordings. I recommend the tracks "Action Adventure," "Protector Of The Skies," "Journey To The Stars," "Chasing Sunrays," (awesome mallet use) "Goodbye," and "Eruption of Mount Jodesius" (***This one uses choir!).

Interactivity 5

Spreadsheet from Activity 4

The teacher I interviewed is a teacher of middle school science in Denville NJ. Middle school is grades 6-8. He was unfamiliar with the NETS. The initial reaction to the NETS was confused and he was unsure why they were necessary. Because of the environment that comes with the teaching science he felt that using technology was inevitable in the classroom. I asked the teacher if he would look at the standards and talk about one in particular and he chose NETS-T 2.B, “Develop technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to pursue their individual curiosities and become active participants in setting their own educational goals...” The teacher understands the pressure to teach for the student and let students guide their own learning, but fears giving middle school students too much power before they can handle the responsibility of determining their own learning. The teacher has been teaching for nearly 40 years yet makes it a point to use technology in the classroom including a smart board for in-class notes and reviews, computers for researching and conducting experiments, and dozens of science technologies such as Bunsen burners.

The district is apparently unaware of the NETS -T and -S. There is not much in the area of media literacy, as the district doesn't have money to buy the required materials to teach students. However the teacher expressed interested in the NETS-S 5. Like myself, the teacher feels that social media and new technologies require our culture of a responsibility we have not yet learned. Children can get into trouble for posting comments like “I’m going to shoot myself;” when written it is considered a suicidal thread but when said aloud is an expression of disinterest in an ongoing activity. Because text does not convey inflection, every person interprets text with a different idea based on his or her own way of typing. Due to my own curt way of expressing emotion via written text I am often mistaken for being rude or exerting power when I am simply using as few words as possible.

I wasn’t surprised at the teacher’s responses; I have known the teacher and district for some time and expected the answers I received. Because of the organization of school districts in New Jersey, small towns have their own districts with many less students than districts in other states. Therefore the districts have fewer resources in their community and their boundaries are much smaller. This created numerous budget-funding problems long before we entered the recession, which means technologies in many schools in the area are decades outdated. The only digital technologies in my high school music classrooms were a single PC operating on early Windows XP and an old CD boom box. As a future educator, I would collaborate with other music teachers and in cross-curricular projects to integrate technology into student learning. Once the NAEPs become active I feel it will be easier to understand technology in our schools.

How other countries rank

Because of my interest in world music, ethnomusicology, and especially the music of Ireland, I find myself reading Irish news sources more frequently than American news. I like to find things about music to learn the terminology and culture of how music is practiced on the Emerald Isle. I recently stumbled upon (not via StumbleUpon) this article and felt it was worth sharing. I like to call Ireland the "last" western European country; it tends to follow the rest of Europe in trends. The people of Ireland retain their non-western heritage through music and other artistic outlets despite heavy British influence over the centuries. Driving from one coast to the other it is easy to drive for miles upon miles without running into a small town, making the countryside much different from mainland Europe. Ireland, it looks like from this article, is also last in technology. Perhaps this is due to the collapse of the Irish economy or perhaps they never had enough resources to buy required technology but either way, it offers a good comparison; Ireland is in many ways a very small America.

Irish Technology