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Multiplicity as Tone Colour: Becoming Electronic Music Pedagogy

  • Author / Creator
    Batke, Robert R

  • In recent years, Information Computer Technologies have advanced significantly and are now more widely available to the average person. This has led to an emerging generation that is not only consuming media content, but also creating it. They are both producers and consumers, or, ‘prosumers’ (Waldron, 2013). The media that these prosumers create is made possible by Information Computer Technologies on personal computers, smartphones, tablets, and software applications. Currently, traditional music education is comprised of students learning and performing prescribed music, in which they are expected to accurately replicate the music piece. This has led to a suppression of creativity in secondary music education as students are typically not afforded the opportunity to generate their own original, expressive compositions. Recent technological advances have now made digital audio recording accessible to the average user, and it can be utilized in order to compose one’s own original, creative works. I will propose that Information Computer Technologies that include recording and editing software applications, Digital Audio Workstations, virtual instruments, and social media can be used in secondary music education programs in order for students to express creative ideas through their own original compositions as a form of ‘creative problem solving’ (Assey, 1999, as referenced in Nielsen, L. D., 2013; Crawford, 2010; Southcott & Crawford, 2011; Crawford, 2013; Kuzmich & Dammers, 2013; Order, 2015). Herein, I will be referring to music-based Information Computer Technologies as ‘Digital Audio Technologies’ (DAT) when referencing hardware and software applicable to creating, distributing, and listening to digital audio (Supper, 2015; Gomes, 2016; Shashank, Karthik & Preethi, 2016), and will refer to ‘Information Computer Technologies’ when referencing the technologies in a broader sense not limited solely to audio production/consumption, or when the research has referred to it as such. The purpose of this thesis is to challenge Digital Audio Technologies in a philosophical and audio/visual thought experiment so as to allow the capacities of these tools to afford new creative realities for the user, and not just to be used in a prescriptive way that would yield predictable results. I will be using the theories of Attali (1985) and Giroux (2010; 2016) to discuss the current state of music education, and how its structure is rooted in control and power, leading to “a pedagogy of repression” (Giroux, 2016, p.355). This control denies students a creative and expressive voice. Then, I will explore a thought experiment comprised of two parts in order to conceptualize a way to break the mould of traditional music education. Firstly, I will use Deleuze & Guattari’s (1987) theory of the rhizome—in which growth happens in multiple lateral offshoots—as the basis of the philosophical portion of the thought experiment. The rhizome will be utilized in order to reimagine a new reality in which students can generate their own compositions, leading away from the top-down methods of traditional music education. Secondly, in the audio/visual portion of the thought experiment, I have created audio/visual supplements that challenge the conventions of recording software and Digital Audio Workstations. This audio/visual experiment will be utilized in order to allow for creative offshoots as a “line of flight” (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987, p.9), so as to not merely integrate music technology into an already top-down way of educating.

  • Subjects / Keywords
  • Graduation date
    Spring 2018
  • Type of Item
    Thesis
  • Degree
    Master of Education
  • DOI
    https://doi.org/10.7939/R3610W69V
  • License
    This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.