Creating Music with Technology (1st part)

Two musical activities of utmost importance for the development of creativity are composition and improvisation. They are somewhat similar processes, but they differ, according to Kratus (1996, as cited in Bauer, 2014) in that as opposed to improvisation, composition implies the revision of the material produced. In that sense, improvisation is more of a ephemeral experience in which the communicative process bares more importance than the final product. It would be more accurate to say, though, that their final product is different in nature, since the product in the composition process is a fairly fixed piece of music, and in improvising the product is reflected in the evolving ability to produce new improvisation.

Both composition and improvisation share some features, and there are pedagogical practices that can be applied in any case. First of all, they both are types of creative process, which Wallas (1926, as cited in Bauer, 2014) has four stages: preparation, incubation, illumination, and verification. Secondly, and here we can see how some practices can be applied in both cases, Hallam (2008, as cited in Bauer, 2014) suggest that creativity can be facilitated by (a) developing aural skills, (b) imitating, (c) analyzing, and (d) engaging musically with more experienced people. Educators should be able to provide students with (a) creative opportunities, (b) necessary resources, (c) appropriated stimulation, and (d) sufficient time ( Hallam, 2008, as cited in Bauer, 2014). One way of facilitating the process is to deliberately putting constraints which give the process a framework.

The following video shows a basic exercise of improvisation which is limited to just a few elements

     

This exercise constitute part of the exploration level or level 1, a pre-improvisatory level according to a seven-level model for learning to improvise, described by Kratos (1996, as cited in Bauer). Exploration is also important for the composition process, which constitutes part of the preparation stage of the creative process discussed above (Wallace 1926, as cited in Bauer 2014), and helps to develop aural skills, the first facilitator described by Hallam (2008, as cited in Bauer 2014).

Technology (meaning digital technology) can be of great use to foster creativity in music. Some affordances of current technology are

• Developing aural skills

A variety of software might be useful to this purpose. Notation software allows one to associate notation to sound, providing the means to explore harmonies, melodic gestures, textures and so forth. The development of MIDI (see previous entry on Pixel Tune) protocol have resulted in an increase and diversification of software, from MIDI sequencers, to mixed media software as Pixel Tune (see previous entry).

• Developing an understanding of a particular style

Internet provide us with access to many resources in various formats, such as videos, audio recordings, music scores, even books and articles, which allows us to explore a broad variety of styles with practically no effort and almost at any instant.

• Understanding musical structures

A variety of software and web sites are designed to develop an understanding in such matters. The following website contains links to many such apps.

http://musicianswithapps.com/music-education-apps/

• Practice

Software such as Band-in-a-box are designed to provide a somewhat interactive environment that can be used to practice . Here a video on the specific software

     

• Live ensemble participation

Social media tools, which increasingly become more capable to provide multimedia communication, either previously recorded or in real time, is being used to produce virtual ensembles. The following video is a clear example of such a use of technology

     


The use of such technological resources, however, also has its limitations, and we cannot afford not have a critical perspective regarding its uses. According to Bauer (2014), the use of notation software may have a negative impact on the development of audiation (the ability to imagine musical sound, see http://giml.org/mlt/audiation/). Availability of notation software can also lead individuals to skip stages in the composition process, such as sketching (Bauer, 2014), therefore committing to the development of the musical idea too early, which might result in a more random decision making and less exploration of melodic and harmonic possibilities.