I don’t own a Wii and it is likely that the average music educator doesn’t either, however some of our students probably do. I have a feeling students would enjoy merging their video game finger dexterity with music mixing skills. Is this a look at a new possibility for integrating technology in the music classroom?
Yann Seznec aka The Amazing Rolo has made the software available on his blog. You can insert your own audio files to replace his. Students could hypothetically record their own music and load it into the program and then manipulate it with a wii controller.
For students who aren’t necessarily interested in using notation based music software this could be an interesting way to have them make use of other types of music technology. What types of skills might they develop? What musical concepts could they make use of? What problems might they run into? What might develop from students working with this type of technology?
Furthermore are students “performing” if they make use of this type of software and controller interface? What implications might the answer to that question have for our music programs?
Perhaps students that find limitations with the software and interface may be inspired to learn Max/Msp and begin creating their own music performance software.
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Evan,
As a music educator myself, I often find myself wondering about the future of music and music in education. I believe that we need, not only to address, but also to begin dealing with the music and music innovations of “our time” in the same classrooms we teach the three “B’s” and music “canon” in. There are so many of us wondering about the future of the ensemble, stringed instruments and wind instruments… will schools in the future continue the arts programs, what will the ensemble look like in 20 years?
What about all those ipods and mp3 players? What about new music- anyone can download, legally or not, literally any type/genre of music in the world and listen to it on demand (are there any new forms of music left to be discovered- or are the “new forms” just hybrids and fusions now?).
Garage bands are everywhere, heck we don’t even need them to “rock out”, just pull out the latest version of “Guitar Hero”- you don’t even need strings or fellow band members, just strum the air and make great band music. Just how do we connect the old with the new in this drastically super-charged technical time we live in?
My college music students are often baffled at how easy software can do things that they have taken years to master and understand. A non-trained musician can compose music without even beginning to understand the concepts of form, harmony, melody with todays software (I’m not saying it’s better!, but some of it is quite good). Technology is providing a means to produce something without having the very fundamental understandings of how the creation process happens or the rudimentary knowledge of “what is behind” “what is being produced”- whether it’s making a movie, creating a music video, writing a web log or composing a musical work. Not only “do we stand on the shoulder’s of giants”, we can have them cloned without even understanding bio-genetics (ripping the giant!)! It’s getting scary what can be accomplished without hardly any training, understanding or education at all.
Students like to see exciting things and be a part of current trends, especially with music. I am disappointed when I go to MENC’s site (of which I am a member); I see a totally bland (circa 1998) web site that states “bringing music to life”; it’s so lifeless itself. Where’s the FLASH, the COLORS, the MUSIC, where’s the excitement? I’m not bashing MENC, I think they are a great organization, but their “world” presence is less than stunning and not attractive to today’s BLING BLING and “hi-tech” students.
When students see something like this WII thing (or others like it), they get excited, they get interested because it’s part of their “world”. This and other programs like it can breath a little “fresh air” back into the classroom, at least as far as some of the students are concerned…
I’m certainly not advocating throwing everything we know and do “out” and going “technologically nuts”, I’m an advocate of using the technologies as a tool for better education, not the education itself. What i’m saying is that it’s nice to be able to have a conversation with the students and be able to talk to them about something they really like and enjoy plus be able to relate it to the classroom topics. Wow!, that got long, sorry for the length!
Short version: I like the idea of the WII software, haven’t used it yet, but I will be checking it out. Maybe we can use it, and other software like it to bridge some gaps with our students’ world and our older “adult” world. The cool factor is way high with this.
Cheers,
Joseph Pisano -MUSicTECHnolog.net
http://www.mustech.net
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