What do you imagine in sound and imagery when thinking about video games and music education?
A theme I’ve explored throughout my writing and teaching related to video games and music education (O’Leary & Tobias, 2017; Tobias, 2012; Tobias & O’Leary, 2017) is that there are many more possibilities than focusing primarily on rhythm action games in connection to performing instruments.
Inviting students to create and perform dynamic and adaptive music for video games has so much potential. I have the sense that addressing this more non-linear approach to musical engagement is rare (at this point) in music programs. It is probably more common for students in music programs to perform arrangements of video game theme music in large ensembles than to create and perform their own music for video games.
When I saw this tweet by composer Austin Wintory, I wondered if the video clip he created could catalyze related projects in music programs:
Wintory’s video breakdown of a scene in the full-motion video game, Erica is very detailed and does a wonderful job of demonstrating the varied ways music integrates with video game play. The video also explains relationships between music and branching narratives in a video game. The video is worth watching even if just for Wintory’s explanation of the musical decisions that went into creating the music in connection to the game.
While the video is informative and interesting in and of itself, music educators can use the video and information as a springboard for designing related projects in music programs.
When it comes to creating original music in many music programs music teachers can often limit the scope of creating by having young people compose within strict parameters such as choosing very specific rhythm or pitch patterns within a specific number of measures or creating music that adheres to a particular musical form (usually within a Western European classical paradigm). In other settings, students might use a DAW such as Garageband or Soundtrap to create a song or produce a beat. How can we continue excluding the creation of video game music in music programs after watching this video?! By the way, there’s much research related to composing / creating original music, which is beyond the scope of this post but worth looking into.
Having young people create or perform original music in relation to branching narratives and dynamic gameplay, opens a new set of possibilities in relation to creating, performing, responding, connecting any number of other forms of musical engagement. This is also a wonderful opportunity to connect aspects of the music curriculum with multimedia and media arts.
For example, as part of the Consortium for Innovation and Transformation in Music Education’s Games and Game-Based Learning in Music Education initiative at Arizona State University, a group of Arizona music teachers and I formed a small ensemble in which we created and performed music to live videogame play of the game Flower. We even shared this live-created and performed music at a participatory event at the Phoenix Art Museum’s The Art of Video Games exhibit in 2013. It was a great experience and confirmed to me the possibilities of creating and performing music for video games in music education.
Looking for more information on music and video games?
To get a more in-depth understanding of the dynamic and adaptive aspects of music in relation to videogames, I highly suggest taking a look at the following books (affiliate links):
- A Composer’s Guide to Game Music – Winifred Phillips
- Game Sound: An Introduction to the History, Theory, and Practice of Video Game Music and Sound Design – Karen Collins
- Playing with Sound: A Theory of Interacting with Sound and Music in Video Games – Karen Collins
Check out this curated set of resources related to video games and music education.
Find out more about composer Austin Wintory.
Find out more about composer Winifred Phillips.
Find out more about Karen Collins, Associate Professor in the Digital Arts Communication and Experimental Digital Media programs at the University of Waterloo.
Have you tried addressing dynamic music and branching narratives in your music program? Why not start?