Journal of Music, Technology & Education - Volume 8, Issue 1, 2015

Students on the undergraduate degree in Primary Education in Spain took part in this inter-university experience within the subject of Didactics of Musical Expression. Eleven teachers and 307 students from four Spanish universities were involved in the experience, which took place in the academic year 2012–2013. The four universities were the University of the Basque Country, the University of Cantabria, University Jaume I of Castellon and the University of the Balearic Islands. The aim of the experience was to discover the traditional culture in various Spanish regions through an interdisciplinary and creative project. Based on cooperative methodology, each class in the four universities was divided into work groups of five to seven students. Technologies played an essential role in developing and coordinating the experience, as the students were able to interact and learn about the work being carried out in the other universities through virtual platforms and networks. The results of the evaluation process undertaken with the students and teachers showed that the experience had helped them to acquire basic competencies and knowledge about intangible cultural heritage and that it was a source of exchange and enrichment for both students and teachers.

Students often find sound-based music (sbm, an umbrella term created by Leigh Landy to describe music where sound is the basic unit rather than the musical note) difficult to understand when they first encounter it, and this article explores a practice-based method for increasing engagement through learning heightened listening skills. Accepting sound rather than notes as the basic unit of music can unlock access to a whole range of works and creative possibilities, but often this seems problematic for students. It therefore represents a ‘threshold concept’ in terms of the creative practice and appreciation of sbm. The approach outlined in this article utilizes a constructivist view of education, and it is suggested that overcoming ingrained preconceptions of what ‘music’ should be might be better achieved by allowing students to discover the potential of sbm through their own compositional work rather than through traditional methods of learning.

This article explores the general lack of specific course sequencing that measures critical listening skills designed for undergraduate students in music technology, commercial production and vocationally focused degree programmes. Although traditional music performance and education curricula prescribe a sequential examination of history, theory, keyboarding and aural skills, a comprehensive set of standardized listening competencies focused on preparing students for the realities of working in the commercial music, audio and media fields do not exist. This article envisions a balanced collaboration between industry expertise and peer institutional review to conceive a new rubric for evaluating critical listening in undergraduate music technology programmes that meets accreditation standards while preparing graduates for entry-level employment in media-centred fields. This article explores the potential collaboration of audio industry professionals and organizations with educational institutions to create a set of competencies that are workforce-specific, but suitable for academic purposes. This article explores such collaborations through cognitive apprenticeship and multisensory learning.

This study analyses the influence that new tools and resources in popular sequencing software have over the composition process. An analysis of the different resources of a software sequencer (Cubase 7) has been combined with a field study among 220 musicians from different countries that use this sequencer. A specially designed questionnaire has been used to collect information about the frequency use of different tools, the stage of use of them and the way the use of the sequencer influences their personal and professional development. The study has evidenced that certain tools have been fully incorporated into the composition process, while others are practically not used, or its use relies on different factors. The use of the sequencer has also clear positive effects on musicians and their creative process. Finally, the field research has helped to define and characterize different kinds of workflows in the composition process.

This study examines IT use by year-9 students performing in pop ensembles, drawing on eight weeks of video observations. The data are analysed with a sociocultural perspective on what tools are used, what meanings they mediate and how they are socially constructed. The results show that, while notations were exclusively down- loaded from the Internet and almost all students used mobile phones to listen to the songs they performed, other types of IT use were rare. To illustrate more extensive use, one case involving how to play the bridge in a song has been analysed in detail. This speaks to the broader finding of the study that the availability of IT and the potential for seeking information and creating music implies little on its own for how technology is used in music classrooms. Pedagogical implications are discussed in relation to the intersection between formal and informal learning and IT use in music education.

Soundweaving: Writings on Improvisation, Franziska Schroeder and Mícheál Ó Haodha (eds) (2014) Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle Upon Tyne, hardback, ISBN-13: 9781443853446; ISBN-10: 1443853445; £39.99