Week 3: Reflection

I was really excited by the worksheet generator, and thought I'd have a play with it. I ended up using the worksheet template to make a scaffolded composition activity for a cello group that I teach. I think the generator is exciting in that it makes usually laborious tasks easy to create so that your kids don't miss out on things just because you don't know how to make it quickly.

Worksheet-in-progress. Hopefully will see how it goes next week.

Brown (2015)'s Chapter Six on "Music Publishing" has these 10 suggested Teaching Tips that I thought I could reflect with:

Teaching Tips (Brown, 2015, p. 88-89)

• Use computer-based notation tasks as a way to introduce students to music theory concepts and music representation conventions.

Probably not my first port of call for theory, but I do agree to an extent: I think in the same way that books and document writing software shows us why we do what we do to make things legible, notation software kind of is the proof that musicians all over actually DO care that the F sharp is the first sharp in a key signature, or that 5 beats cannot actually be in a 4 beat bar.

• Have students explore the editing possibilities of the software by correcting a score file that includes deliberate errors or incomplete sections.

As a student (and maybe in general), I loved calling people out on theory errors and I hope some of my students will too. This makes me think of the end of the How-to-Blitz-theory books with its "mark an exam" component. I think a lot of people can sense when something is wonky but won't know why and I do think this is a valuable way of honing in on musical rules.

• Use the entry of nonstandard notation symbols used by some twentieth-century composers as a way to discuss their performed interpretation.

Always fun to know more about the squiggly lines. I 100% seriously named my chamber ensemble that I made in school "SesquiAwesome" after learning what a sesquisharp and sesquiflat were. My argument being that we were sometimes only 75% there but we gave it our 150% anyway :')

The panel that started it all. 3/4 or 1 1/2 sharps and flats on the second last row.

My "Sesquiscarf" - spot the sesquisharp. Yes, we hand painted silk sashes to go on our blacks, yes we each had a colour and yes they made a rainbow together.

• Use music publishing software for styles of music usually represented as scores and avoid using it for those styles that are not.

Great idea. Yes. Ding ding.

• Use the editing and playback features of music notation systems to support sight- reading and transcription tasks by having students check their interpretation against the computer playback.

My impulse was to say no, but I guess it's a good idea. Especially if you made an XML version for students to do in their own time, and they could slow down the playback and play alongside it for sightreading.

Transcription I would kind of prefer that they learnt to sing or hum their version back. But it's better than nothing since the software won't lie. Interval practice, I would definitely be happy doing.

• Provide a range of notation input options so that students can find the method that works best for them.

Yes. Teacher just needs to be really well-versed in it and able to access the files as they are. As per last post, XML doesn't always work perfectly.

• Have students arrange pieces for different voices or instruments but aim to preserve or enhance the expressive effect of the music.

Personally I think this is a bit of a big ask because my experience with composers who compose or arrange on software is they have ZERO idea how this will translate to actual people, actual instruments and actual skills (see lots of bad examples on Musescore).

That being said if the teacher were to make available to her students a whole bunch of pre-transcribed bits and they just had to put it together and maybe add things here and there, experimenting with their chosen instruments/voices as they went, that sounds fine.

• Introduce percussion notation and guitar tablature by having students enter short musical passages into appropriate notation software.

Flat.io!!!!! would be AWESOME for this with their TAB feature.

• Use the table of supported articulations that can be found in the music publishing software’s manual as a stimulus for students to investigate what they all stand for.

Sounds good (except trills. Why do they always sound awful?). Might have to explain that playback isn't always great.

• Utilize the lyric function of notation software to support songwriting activities.

Sounds great. Often lyric setters don't realise they've played with the rhythm in their head until someone comes along and asks them why "the" is on all the downbeats. The playback doesn't lie so they'll be able to spot straight away when something sound weird.

Resources:

Brown A. (2015). Music Technology and Education: Amplifying Musicality.