Creatve Music with Technology-An Overview of Creativity and Improvisation

Creating Music with Technology-An Overview of Creativity and Improvisation

 

 

Improvisation is a part of the creative spectrum and can be formulated collaboratively or on an individual basis. As an individual plays with a band there are times he or she may feel to step out of the normal live performance of the group. These are the times that improvisation takes place. These actions are not always of the conscious mind. Many times they just happen based on a feeling or some event that the individual may be experiencing at that time in their life.

As I explored during the second week of my Technology Assisted Music Learning class the focus was on acquiring knowledge and skills for creating music, with a particular focus on improvisation, affordances and constraints of technologies with application to musical creativity and applying technology to curricular outcomes.

Musical instrument digital interface (MIDI) allows instruments and computers to communicate. Through this, there are programs and applications that can assist teachers in introducing creativity and improvisation. The use of technology and the implementation of the 7-level sequential model for developing improvisational abilities by Kratus; awards opportunities for students in my steel band program to acquire the knowledge and skill to become creative (Bauer, 2014). This sequential model and examples of activities for teaching improvisation can be found in Music Learning Today by William I. Bauer.

Bauer, W. I. (2014). Music learning today: Digital pedagogy for creating, performing, and responding to

            music. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. 

www.oup.com/us/musiclearningtoday

 

The application I would explore with my students would be Noteflight because it is easy to open an account on line and share ideas with everyone in the group for feedback and suggestions. It is limited until you upgrade to where you

would have to pay. https://www.noteflight.com/

 

Musescore however, is music notation software that has a free download but the sharing process may not be as easy. It does allow students to save their work a file that could be open on or off the web for personal composing and creating development. https://musescore.org/

 

 

Following link is to an article about the importance of music educators being qualified. I think it is worth looking at: http://www.nafme.org/north-dakotas-answer-to-teacher-shortage-leaves-qualified-music-teachers-in-the-classroom/

 North Dakota’s Answer to Teacher Shortage Leaves Qualified Music Teachers in the Classroom

Posted on September 1, 2015 in Advocacy Groundswell Blog, NAfME News