Module 5 Blog Reflection

The focus for Module 5 was on responding to music through technology.  The word musicking, as pointed out by Bauer stuck out in this week’s reading.  The word was coined by Christopher Small and is defined by “the intersection of music and the human experience” (Bauer, 2014, p. 106).  This idea is at the center of what most music teachers do on a daily basis.  Ultimately, our goal is to help students understand their interactions with music that they already have on a daily basis.  When a student can be more educated about what they are hearing and be able to put words to what the music they already listen to is sounding like to them, then we, as music teachers, know that we have done a large part of our job.  

The readings from this week suggested several excellent ways in which technology can help with developing student response to music.  I thought that several of the ideas presented would be excellent for use in my own classroom.  The first idea that I thought would fit in well with my classroom was concept mapping (Bauer, 2014).  There is specific software that has been developed to help with this skill.  I will certainly be taking time to explore some of this software.  Concept mapping is a great way to help guide students through what they should be paying attention to while listening to a piece of music.  

Another idea that I thought would work very well in my classroom was the idea of posting play lists of music for students to listen to (Bauer, 2014).  I already pull up examples of playing on YouTube often for my students to listen to examples of excellent playing, but it would be beneficial to have this music in one place for students to easily access.  The Spotify project that we completed this week was an example of a great way to be able to post music for students to be able to easily listen to from school or at home.  

The affordances to having students are many.  Students who are able to actively listen to and critique the performances of others are going to be better at listening to and critiquing their own playing.  This means that they will have a more acute ear to issues such as tone, intonation and rhythmic accuracy.  The only constraint to incorporating this into the music classroom is time.  The demands of an instrumental teacher are many and finding the time to teach students listening skills would be difficult.  It seems, though, that the affordances far outweigh the constraints.  

Bauer, W.I. (2014).  Music learning today: Digital pedagogy for creating, performing, and responding to music.  New York, NY: Oxford University Press.