Catalysts & Connections - Evan Tobias

Thanks to Peter Webster for bringing to my attention an article in the Chronicle regarding a new guide to using copyrighted material in the classroom. The Guide entitled ” The Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education” is free to download in pdf format. While focusing on media literacy, this guide offers extremely valuable information for music educators. While much of the public discourse on copyright focuses on violations and lawsuits, far less is discussed about fair use doctrine and  students’/teachers’ rights.  If you make use of media in your classroom it’s worth your time to take a look at the guide.  While you’re at it -take a look at popular music scholar Philip Tagg’s perspective and experience on the use of YouTube clips in music education and how he navigated fair use in terms of takedown notices he received. We can learn much from his experiences. Finally if you haven’t taken a look at the Creative Commons  project and discussed copyright alternatives with your students, now might be a great time to do so.

Today in my secondary general music methods class we discussed how one can use current events as a springboard for classroom discussion and lessons. In the spirit of that discussion I figured  I’d write about a recent set of issues relating to the discourse of copyright and the presidential election. I’ve written here about copyright several times before and I always look forward to updates on James Frankel’s “Copyright or Copywrong” series because it’s an issue that I think plays a constant role in our classrooms, especially if we make use of multimedia.

The current event I think I would be addressing right now if I were back in my middle school general music classroom is the recent exchange between Senator McCain’s campaign and YouTube in reference to videos removed from their service as well as the number of musicians who have invoked their copyright to demand McCain stop using their music in his campaign.  On one level it’s an interesting and concrete way to frame discourse around copyright and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act and on the other it’s a way to shift the discourse of copyright beyond the ongoing focus on the RIAA’s lawsuits over illegally downloaded music.

While a potentially tricky topic to discuss in class due to the political realities of a presidential election taking place, if facilitated skillfully, a discussion in a secondary general music class might provide students with a real life scenario to discuss copyright issues that might play a role in their own lives.   As music educators we could shift the focus from the political aspect of the issue to the notion of copyright, fair use and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. Larson & Keiper (2007) offer several approaches to having discussions in the classroom. Their “taking a stand” and “Issues/Values Continuum” approaches (pp. 236-239) could work very well with this particular set of issues.

Often the focus of copyright discourse in mainstream media locates copyright in the hands of the record industry rather than the artists themselves or the general public. In the context of McCain’s campaign several musicians began to demand their music not be used. This could lead to a discussion over who indeed has the right to use music and whether or not someone should be able to use existing music for their own purposes. Is this a financial issue? A legal issue? An ethical issue? A musical issue? A discussion of this sort could assist students in developing a sense of nuance and the ability to see the issue from a variety of perspectives. It could also provide students with an opportunity to work through a deeper understanding of what is or isn’t “Fair Use”. It may lead into questions regarding how they would like music they have composed to be used. Should you be able to use pre-existing music that fits your particular project whether it be a political campaign, film you are making, or artwork? How would students respond if someone used their music in a way that went against their own set of beliefs or values? By having students view the issue from each person’s perspective they might come to a better understanding of the multilayered complexities of copyright and fair use. If using the “Taking a Stand” approach to discussion, students are encouraged to develop an argument for a perspective with which they do not necessarily agree (p. 237). While potentially uncomfortable, this might assist students in seeing an issue from a variety of perspectives and to at the very least develop an understanding of how the world can be read in different ways.

In the case of McCain’s videos being removed from YouTube students might discuss their own perspectives after identifying each side’s position. This could assist students in moving beyond a political perspective to include issues if legality, ethics, and aesthetics.  Again, besides developing a more nuanced view of the issue at hand, this type of discussion might provide students with a concrete application of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act and the notion of fair use - two issues that might be extremely important to their lives.

How might a lesson extend beyond a discussion of these issues? Can you imagine students becoming invovled in the discourse outside of the classroom? Might students contribute letters to the editor of their local newspaper weighing in on the situation and proving to adults that adolescents can indeed speak on a national issue with nuance and understanding? This discussion could also serve as a foundation for students to begin working with others’ music in the context of remixing or sample-based composing. How might they approach these types of compositional processes after discussing the complexities of copyright and fair use?

Finally, it’s exciting to think how a discussion of this sort might play a lasting role in a student’s life. We never know which of our students may someday be engaging in discourse to determine policies, voting on those policies, or hey, even playing a direct role in the shape of copyright for future generations as  President.

And for any of my students reading this post (if you ended up reading all the way through!)… bonus points to the first person who emails me the outcome of the lawsuit I mentioned in class involving the Texas woman attempting to go to court instead of settling with the RIAA.

The company Noteflight is currently offering beta accounts for its flash-based notation application. According to a wired.com article if you sign up for the beta you become grandfathered into their system and can keep the account for free when they eventually start charging. Here’s  a video overview of the application. I’m sure you can start thinking of some fabulous pedagogical applications for this in terms of both your own and your students’ use of it. Enjoy!

This week I’m off to the ATMI (Association for Technology in Music Instruction) & CMS (College Music Society) Conference. I’ll be presenting on using blog systems in music courses at the ATMI Pre-Conference Technology Workshop and then presenting later on in the week on popular music pedagogy through web-based technologies. I’ll try to get the material posted here once the conference is over. I’m excited about the ATMI Pre-conference theme “Delivering music instruction with Web 2.0 Social computing tools and can’t wait to hear about the creative ways people are using these technologies. The rest of the conference looks fabulous as well.  One of the great things about CMS is the opportunity to hear from colleagues across various fields of music. With the theme “A Changing Profession in a Changing World” there are sure to be some inspiring presentations throughout the conference. It will be interesting to see what types of cross fertilization takes place with so many options to choose from at any given point in the conference. If you’re planning on attending say hello!

Kimberly James (who will be giving a showcase on Twitter during the pre-conference) has set up Twitter channels for people attending who want to tweet throughout the conference. If you can’t make it to the conference you can take a look at what’s happening in the channels. Here’s the info she’s provided:

To send a tweet to our “channel,” type #cmsatmiconferences at the
beginning of your twitter updates.  To view the channel, go to
http://tweetchannel.com/cmsatmiconferences.  Channels are a great way to
cut through the “noise” and connect with others who are interested in
following the same topics.  It could also be a valuable way for our
members who can’t attend the conference to tag along with us.

I’ll be tweeting from http://wwww.twitter.com/msomustek and
http://www.twitter.com/UMfreshtheory Hope to hear from you!

See you soon,
Kimberly

Thanks Kimberly for such a great resource!

I ended up spending most of my attention listening to the performance and engaging with the live chat but here is a collection of the few posts I wrote while live blogging the concert. I’ll write a post in the next day or two to reflect on the experience. Overall I found the live chat with other audience members and moderator wonderfully engaging and thought it added an entirely new layer to the concert experience.

I’m here in Gammage Hall at ASU live blogging my “E-volution of Experience” concert experience. Upon entering Gammage I saw the following sign:

There are options to listen to a play by play through a headset, sit in a discussion zone to discuss the piece either during or after the peformance, and  to live chat with someone on stage.

I’m attempting to live chat, live blog, listen and to the play by play at the same time so we’ll see how this goes. I pick up my free headset and find my way to the laptop chat zone:

Frank Zappa’s Dogbreath Variations are up and musicians are being elevated onto to the stage. I’m a huge fan of Frank Zappa. There won’t be any paper programs tonight, as the school of music has developed a series of initiatives to contribute to the sustainability of the University (and planet) by going green and using other means to share concert info such as projecting the program before the concert and providing pdf files online.

Here’s a quote from the moderator of the chat room:

“18/09/2008 19:34:50 ‹Moderator› Zappa, Frank. American composer, fl. 1940-1993. For further information regarding Frank Zappa and his music, please visit his official website at: http://www.zappa.com/  ”

I was just told (through the headset) that the ensemble is transitioning into Uncle Meat. He prompts us to listen for the bassoon solo….

There’s some discussion on the chat about the casual dress of the ensemble and whether or not the piece sounds “traditional”.     The group is doing a very nice job with Zappa’s music here. Some discussion on the live chat about the orchestration and a comment about the history of concert dress.

The piece is over and people are applauding. Very well done!

In transition for the next group some discussion on the play by play about the arrangement.

A different ensemble will be playing next..  The school of music has moved to an instrumental format in which students are in a large “pool” and switch ensembles every three weeks. There are several ensembles performing tonight.

I just gave my headset to the person sitting next to me so I’ll be participating in the live chat and live blogging - that’s enough to handle for now..[ I seem to be spending the majority of my time focused on the music and the live chat. ]

George Washington Bridge Overture - right now - beautiful piece. [The acoustics in the hall are phenomenal and its wonderful hearing these lush chords in the space.

Took a big break from the live blogging - working out some chat issues — I really like the live chat - it adds a really interesting layer to the concert experience and it is interesting to read what other people are thinking about — and except for the glowing screen and little typing sounds it doesn’t really interfere ..

Stage transition for a different ensemble  now…

Workers Union is up!!! Love the Bang on a Can performance [and looking forward to this ensemble’s interpretation]  The announcer is giving some info on the piece….there are no pitches provided in the score just rhythms.

In the middle of workers union by Andriessen — it is certainly generating a lot of discussion on the live chat:

Interesting debates and conversations on the live chat — it seemed a lot of people were not used to this style of music and there’s a lot of back and forth regarding questions of aesthetics and the performance. There are also a lot of questions about the performers’ process in rehearsing/performing the piece.

world premeiere –

=antiphonal brass in the wings… nice   The composer is speaking on the stage — More info later [I’m trying to share my attention between the speaker, liveblogging and the livechat –]

The antiphonal brass is great — wish there were more concerts and pieces that made use of spatial elements in performance - beautiful contrast between winds and percussion on stage with the brass in audience wings. Interesting how the music being performed really plays a role in the type of conversation and discussion the live chat —- [People discussing perspectives on the composition, on the acoustics and brass, the composer, ]

Schafer Mahoney’s dance machine was just performed —- [Great piece]

I’m giving up on the liveblogging for now because my attention is split between the performance and the live chat which I’m having a lot of fun with — I’ll write something up after I process everything.

So far I’m thinking live chat during concerts is great!!! -

More soon……..

Tonight I will be participating as a live blogging audience member at the “An E-volution of Experience, From Andriessen 2 Zappa: Ecstasy of Influence” concert at Arizona State University.   The concert will include multiple options for audience members ranging from the traditional sitting and listening to receiving play by play text messages during the performance. This format has some fascinating implications for school music programs and collaborative possibilities between students in ensembles and those in general music classes. If you can’t make it to the concert feel free to be a virtual audience member by reading and even commenting on the blog tonight. I’m not sure how I will approach the live blogging but it will surely be an interesting experience! The concert takes place 7:30 PM Mountain Standard Time.

Welcome back to those of you recently returning to teaching after a hopefully relaxing summer, and those of you who have been in school for the past few weeks, I hope your year is off to a great start. I’ve been extremely busy with classes, reading, research etc., but in celebration of evening temperatures creeping below 100 degrees and a wonderful short burst of rain a couple of minutes ago  I figured I’d write a quick post.

I was excited to learn about a new web-based music collaboration site called MixMatchmusic. Upon first look it looks like many other similar sites such as Splice or CCMixter but as I was reading a Wired article about the site I started to think about how the accumulation of these sites might eventually  lead to an expectation among young people that all music released will include  tracks and parts formatted for easy manipulation. I touched on this idea during my presentation at ISME this summer in terms of people in general participating with various multimedia texts beyond the role of consumption. The monetary system built into the structure of the MixMatchmusic site, for people to receive royalties based on their contributions, has interesting implication as well. It might be interesting to have students work with these sites (of course keeping in mind issues of privacy and inability to filter content), or the premise behind them, by collaboratively working on a piece, releasing it in an open format to another student group and then seeing/hearing/discussing what happens when the other group begins to rework their piece.

Besides the varied musical directions this might take, it could also lead to new ways of framing issues of copyright, artistic control over material, and the very notion of reworking someone else’s music.

On a completely different topic……

Thanks to Jonathan Savage for his Sept. 9th post pointing out and commenting on a provocative Times article. His point regarding music literacy and fluency is well taken. I wonder how we conceptualize music literacy in terms of the various curricula in our music programs and how that perspective (including its fluidity) impacts and/or informs our practice. In a similar vein, the other night I asked students in my Psychology of Music class for their definition of “musician”.  In thinking about the start of the year and the coming months it might be healthy to consider how our conceptions of music literacy and what it means to be a musician live out in our classrooms and possibly consider if they might benefit from some modifications and/or expansion.

Again, welcome back to school and have a great year!

Sorry about the recent hiatus. I am currently in the process of moving to Arizona to join the music education faculty at Arizona State University and am spending all of my remaining time writing papers and reading an exceedingly growing number of books and articles. I’m also preparing for some upcoming presentations.  I’m off to Bologna in two weeks to attend the International Society for Music Education Conference and present a paper regarding popular culture and music ed. In September I’m presenting on the use of Blogs as a tool for music educators during the CMS/ATMI pre-conference technology workshop. The presentation will fit within the pre-conference theme of: “Delivering Music Instruction With Web 2.0 Social Computing Tools.” I’ll also be giving a presentation on music tech and popular music pedagogy during an ATMI session later on at the CMS conference.

I wish I had more time to participate in all of the music ed blogging, Ninging,  MacGrouping, and post-conference Ninging taking place, but  things are a bit busy so I’m continuing my blog-hiatus for the remainder of the summer. I’ll be back in about two months or so. Enjoy your summer and if you are  attending ISME or CMS/ATMI make sure to say Ciao!

Creative Commons’s decision to sell CC mixter (an online remix community) might be cause for alarm, though it could also lead to a new and improved version of the site. The concept behind CC Mixter and resources it offers have important implications for music education. It provides both a space and means for legal remixing as well as a window into the many different ways a piece of music can be varied and remixed through the iterations shared on the site. Information released to the public notes that the third party purchasing the site must continue to embrace the Creative Commons philosophy. We’ll have to wait and see what happens. In the meantime it might be interesting to read the conversations taking place on the CC Mixter website.

Even if you choose not to take advantage of the site, (it can be problematic considering the inability to filter out comments, content etc.,) the concept behind it could work very nicely in music programs. It would be very interesting to have students from various school music programs creating and remixing each other’s music. I imagine a statewide effort incorporating the idea of multiple people remixing each others’ music could add an interesting twist to next year’s state music festival!

The Texas Tech Music Theory Department blog has some recent posts with interesting perspectives of ways to approach approaches music theory classes. They are definitely worth reading, especially for those of you who teach High School level music theory classes.

The first post discusses two main philosophical approaches being discussed in their department.

The second post includes some great questions to consider.

I found the end of the post particularly exciting. Three philosophical orientations are presented as alternatives to traditional approaches to teaching music theory:

• Music perception
• Performance studies
• Semiotics

The third post focuses on a music cognition approach.

I’m not so much suggesting we replicate these particular approaches as described but rather consider the ways these philosophical orientations might inform and possibly shift the way music theory is taught in secondary music programs. Many music educators probably haven’t had the opportunity to take classes in  these three particular areas. It might be a fascinating project though, to work with some colleagues to learn more about them or even invite an expert in one of the areas if possible as an in service or professional development guest.

For some interesting perspectives on music cognition take a look at Henkjan Honing’s Music Matters blog on the topic.

I don’t have time to add my own perspective to the discussion of approaches to theory classes right this moment but I’m looking forward to reading the TTTU’s next post on what a performance studies approach to a theory class might look like.

Speaking of performance studies, I had the opportunity to read some of Dwight Conquergood’s work this past quarter and am glad I did. He unfortunately passed away several years ago but his work still lives on. You can get a sense of it from taking a look at the Performance Ethnography chapter of Critical Ethnography: Method, Ethic, and Performance by Soyini Madison.