Skip to content

popular culture

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

The Potential of StyleSwaps in Music Education

While looking up some info on Post Malone’s Better Now I came across Simon De Witt’s (AKA Blanks) 80s Version of Better Now. Here are both versions:


StyleSwap(s) and Music Education

De Witt (Banks) refers to his 80s vision of Better Now as a StyleSwap. In fact, Banks has a YouTube Channel of StyleSwaps I’ll post below. Whether you think of a StyleSwap as an arrangement, stylistic transformation, or creative cover or some other concept, from my perspective it has a lot of potential as a form of musical engagement for students in music programs.

Read More »The Potential of StyleSwaps in Music Education

Exploring “Mine” and “7 Rings” Through Public Forensic Musicology

Does Ariana Grande’s “7 Rings” copy Princess Nokia’s “Mine” ? I’m a proponent of music programs inviting students to engage in public forensic musicology or as “musical detectives” as a form of musical engagement and learning. Here’s a recent example of an artist accusing another artist of copying their music. In this case, Princess Nokia is accusing Ariana Grande of copying Nokia’s Mine with Grande’s 7 Rings. Some people are also suggesting that 7 Rings also mimics aspects of flow… Read More »Exploring “Mine” and “7 Rings” Through Public Forensic Musicology

Updating Music Programs Panel at SXSW 2019

Let’s get people talking about music education at the 2019 SXSW Festival! Please vote for the VH1 Save the Music Foundation’s SXSW panel: Remixing and Reimagining Music Education. As a panel member (with your help) I’ll share current thinking and great things happening across music education. We’ll discuss collaboration, contemporary musicianship, and technology. We’ll also consider how the music industry can help music teachers update and expand access to music programs. So, let’s make sure music education is represented at SXSW 2019!  Therefore,… Read More »Updating Music Programs Panel at SXSW 2019

Sonic Participatory Cultures Within Through and Around Video Games

O’Leary, J., & Tobias, E. S. (2017). Sonic participatory cultures within, through, and around video games. In R. Mantie & G. D. Smith (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of music making and leisure (pp. 541-564). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Sonic Participatory Cultures Within Through and Around Video Games In 2017, Jared O’Leary and I had our chapter, Sonic participatory Cultures Within, Through, and Around Video Games published in The Oxford Handbook of Music Making and Leisure [affiliate link].   The Oxford… Read More »Sonic Participatory Cultures Within Through and Around Video Games