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Blog: Catalysts & Connections

Participatory Culture, Music Education, and The Choir Baton

It was a pleasure to join Beth Philemon on the Choir Baton to chat through aspects of technology, participatory culture, and music education. As with many conversations, there are several moments that I would love to go back in time and rethink or rephrase. Our conversation focused primarily on aspects of change, possibilities, and what choir or music education could be. Here are some resources and links related to things we discussed on the Choir Baton podcast: On Technology and… Read More »Participatory Culture, Music Education, and The Choir Baton

Music Learning and Teaching Online

In Process – Updated: 5/13/2020 Thinking about music learning and teaching online is important in general but possibly more so as we shift music programs from physical spaces to online learning and teaching. I’m compiling resources and some curricular considerations here to support people thinking through and engaging in music learning and teaching online. I started writing this post in March 2020 in response to schools canceling physical in-person classes and shifting to online learning and teaching in response to… Read More »Music Learning and Teaching Online

How do you program music for ensembles?

How do you program for ensembles? Jordan Randall Smith posted the following message on Twitter on 12/26/19 (along with some great connected questions): Many conversations about programming in music education tend to focus on the “what” (the repertoire). So, questions about principles and processes are refreshing! I suggest checking out the thread for varied perspectives on programming music. Here are some thoughts regarding programming music for an ensemble in an educational context. Consider these ideas as starting points to expand… Read More »How do you program music for ensembles?

Maker culture and music education: Programming a digital ornament with music and lights with MakeCode

How diverse are the forms of musical engagement that we support in music programs? I think music education, particularly in K-12 contexts could be much more expansive in terms of the types of musical engagement we include or address in music programs. Combining music education and maker culture as STEAM education has great potential. Here’s a post on combining music, computational thinking, and physical computing as a form of arts-driven STEAM education. TL;DR Last year (2018), I created a digital… Read More »Maker culture and music education: Programming a digital ornament with music and lights with MakeCode

Video Games & Music Education: The Potential of narrative & musical branching

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:

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