4: Music Curriculum Perspectives with Brian Laakso

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Ideas and Themes

In this episode I speak with Brian Laakso about his experiences and perspectives on music curriculum and curriculum development. We discuss ideas and themes such as:

• Student input for curriculum and planning
• Comprehensive curriculum
• Designing new curriculum and courses
• The role of educators’ experiences in how they approach their programs
• Flexibility in curriculum design and development
• Determining what projects to design and facilitate
• The role of notation in music education
• An over-focus on performance in music programs
• What informs choices and uses of resources
• Specificity or openness of criteria and requirements
• Updating and changing curriculum
• Musical exploration as a goal of music programs

Notes, Resources, and References

• Early in our conversation Brian mentions educational approaches such as Reggio Emilia and Montessori

• Technology in Music Education (TI:ME) is a fantastic organization that provides music educators with professional development and community-building opportunities related to music technology.
  
• I mentioned some scholarship that provides a critical lens on “modern band”:
  • Bylica, K., & Dillon, J. E. (2024). Problematizing prescriptive methods in popular music education: Neo-liberalism, care and Little Kids Rock/Music Will. Journal of Popular Music Education, 8(1), 9-26.
  • Cremata, R. (2021). Evangelism in modern band. Journal of Popular Music Education, 5(3), 359-374.
  • Rathgeber, J., & Bernard, C. F. (2021). ‘When I say “modern”, you say “band”’: A critical narrative of modern band and Little Kids Rock as music education curriculum. Journal of popular music education, 5(3), 337-358.
    
• Orpheus Chamber Ensemble (conductor-less chamber group)
  
• Curious, Collaborative, Creative (CCC) Model for facilitating learner-centered ensembles

• At one point I think Brian mentioned Maslow (as in the hierarchy of needs) but it’s possible he may have been referring to Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy in terms the importance of students’ creative engagement.
  
• Here are some curated resources on project-based learning – we talk about projects a lot throughout the interview.

Books Mentioned

Brian mentioned several books throughout the podcast, here they are – some of these are affiliate links:

• Brian’s book Alfred’s Music Tech 101 A Group Study Course in Modern Music Production Using Audio Technology – Brian Laakso
• Electronic Music School: A Contemporary Approach to Teaching Musical Creativity – Will Kuhn and Ethan Hein
• Teaching Music Through Composition: A Curriculum Using Technology – Barbara Freedman
• Theory and Practice of Technology-Based Music Instruction: Second Edition – Jay Dorfman

• Here are some additional books and resources on music technology that I’ve curated.