by ingrid.hjelm-hansen -

Final Prototype Video

To wrap up the two semesters, I want to repeat the defined problem statement and aim for this project.

Problem statement

Absence of social community and musical experimentation makes it challenging for young musicians to maintain motivation.

Aim

Inspire and encourage musicians to improvise and play by ear.

The product can be used as:

  1. An education tool to compliment classical training
  2. A fun game for sharing musical exploration with friends

Key phases of development

Research phase

  • Reading about the topic
  • Analyzing existing solutions
  • Looking into other disciplines
  • Conducting interviews

Design phase

  • Early stage prototypes
  • Structuring of problems
  • Defining problem statement
  • Defining concept and aim
  • Creating technical prototype
  • Conducting user tests
  • Creating visual prototype

It has been exiting to work with this project. I have gained valuable insight within the field, and learned how I can research and develop prototypes in an effective manner. It has been challenging to work alone, but it also made me more aware of my own workflow and how I perform best. As the topic music education is within the field of my interest, I have been inspired all the way to create a concept that makes a difference.

by ingrid.hjelm-hansen -

Power and Problem Statement(s)

One of the most important tasks for me this semester was to make a clear problem statement. I also wanted to get an overview of all research gathered in the winter semester and sort out the most important findings. 

The last couple of days, I have been using post-it notes to get a deep understanding on why exactly people decide to quit music education. This question has been repeated since the very beginning of my project, and I have gathered a wide variety of answers. The notes work as a summary of my research findings, and creates the base for an affinity model. 

Writing the answers down on paper helped me get an overview of the complex problem. Thereafter, I decided to sort the post-it notes into different categories. I wrote one power statement associated with each category: 

  1. A supportive community is needed to maintain motivation
  2. Wrong difficulty level and focus on performance make music seem too serious
  3. Difficult logistics make the threshold higher
  4. Motivation is dependent on goal-orientated practice and continuous improvement
  5. The structure of lessons should be adapted to every individual student

In the next step, I wanted to ideate solutions for each category. This helped me understand which statements I was more motivated to work further with. 

In the end of the session, I finally concluded with a problem statement: 

Absence of social community and musical experimentation makes it challenging for young musicians to maintain motivation. 

The statement concludes the problems I want to attack. Based on my research, it is crucial for musicians to feel belonging with a supporting community, as well as having the opportunity to experiment with improvisation instead of just following strict rules. The challenge is not to make people start playing an instrument, but making them stay in music (prevent quitting). 

by ingrid.hjelm-hansen -

Research Summary

Throughout this semester, I have gathered a wide range of research related to music education. I have read numerous articles and talked to users with real experiences within the field. The focus has been on the visual part connected to colors and symbols in musical notation, but also on music education as a discipline in general. I wanted to find out what works well, and what needs improvement. In my last blog post of the semester, I will try to summarize my findings so far. 

I started my first blog post with this goal definition: 

“The goal is to simply make music education more user friendly to newcomers.”

I wanted to make it easier for children and beginners to learn how to play an instrument. The idea was to work with the use of colors and symbols, to make music more fun and uncomplicated. I quickly realized that the discipline is complex, and I needed to broaden my scope to understand how to solve the right problem. After reading a guest essay from Sammy Miller, I understood that music education in general has some areas to improve. 

Things I have learned

Sammy Miller made me comprehend the importance of music education. According to the Grammy-nominated drummer, studies show that students who play an instrument may have less anxiety and do better in English, science and math. Quoted directly from his essay: “The fact that many children don’t stick with music is bad news not only for the state of self-expression and joy but also for education.” (New York Times, 2023). It is important to clearly communicate these benefits to children that consider quitting music lessons. They should know what they are letting go of. 

It is crucial to let music learners experiment and have fun. If it becomes too serious, it quickly turns demotivational. On the other hand, if the students enjoy playing, they will be more interested in practicing and unintentionally improve their skills. A lot of children think they need to work very hard and do boring exercises to be successful. The truth is that you could become a good musician just by having fun and playing around. Experimenting and improvising can lead to a higher sense of achievement, which is an important factor. Music teachers should encourage students to play around and not be afraid to be terrible. And acknowledge hard work. 

Through my research, I also realized how important the social aspect is. Especially for children, sense of belonging is critical. If you are the only one in your family or friend group that plays an instrument, it could be hard to maintain motivation. Other activities such as football and handball offer a higher level of team spirit. I knew this in beforehand, but got surprised when understanding how big of an impact it really makes. I have been writing about pros and cons with digital music education, and the social situation is an important aspect to consider. 

Conflicts – what makes people quit?

This became one of my big research questions. It seems like a lot of people quit music education because of a lack of time. This means that they find other activities more valuable. But why are they prioritizing football over piano lessons? Throughout my research, I found eight answers to this question. To a great degree, they summarize my learnings written in the paragraph above. 

  1. Lack of social aspect
  2. Wrong difficulty level
  3. Too little focus on the benefits
  4. Time-consuming transportation
  5. Practicing becomes boring
  6. Too much focus on performance
  7. Low attention span
  8. It gets serious too quickly 
    – it is important to have fun and play around

Reference

Miller, S (2023). We’re Teaching Music to Kids All Wrong. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/23/opinion/teach-music-better.html

by ingrid.hjelm-hansen -

Colors in Music Education

Research shows that use of colors has a significant effect on memory. In the article The impact of colors on human memory in learning English collocations: evidence from south Asian tertiary ESL students (2020), J. Khan and C. Liu got their hypothesis confirmed. They wanted to test if students remember words better when they are written on colorful paper. The participants were parted in two different groups and thereafter tested in English collocations. The first group read the glossary on yellow paper sheets, while the second group practiced with normal black and white paper. According to the article, the first group outperformed the second. 

Colors are used as tools all over the world. Personally, I have used color-coding to structure my notes and remember glossary for tests in school. In my head, different words and numbers are still connected to specific colors, and I believe it is a result of the use of colors in my notebooks. I associate several sociological glossaries with the color yellow, and picture some religious terms as red. Using colors as a memorizing technique has been helpful throughout my education. 

How could this technique be used in music education?

One of my best friends used to have stickers on her piano as a child. Small pieces of masking tape with written letters were placed on the different keys (C-B). I always thought it was sort of stupid. For some reason, I considered it cheating, and thought she would never really learn the placement of the tones when she always relayed on the stickers. I might have had a point, but I now have an easier time also seeing the advantages. 

I started playing the piano when I was 10 years old. Because I had been playing the trumpet for 3 years, I already knew how to read sheet music by that time. This made it easier for me to understand the placement of the tones and how they were connected. In retrospect, I truly understand that this part would be a lot more difficult for younger people without any musical knowledge. Especially children with developmental disabilities or learning disorders such as ADHD and dyslexia could struggle to read, understand and remember musical notation. I believe that stickers and the use of colors could help this group getting musical knowledge and motivation for further learning. 

Children xylophones are often covered in 7 different colors. Each bar has its own color, all the way up to the second C (that shares color with the first C). When researching this topic, I quickly discovered that the color pallet is somewhat universal. The C is red, D is orange, E is yellow, F is green, G is blue, A is purple, and the B is pink. Just like the colors of the rainbow. The colors could also contribute to a better understanding of “half steps”, if the black keys were given a shade between the colors on each side.  

Colors stimulate brain activity and provoke creativity. According to the Psychology of Color, all colors have different meanings and activates different parts of the brain. When implementing colors in education and connecting different tones with colors, it is important to choose the colors wisely. Certain colors contribute to improved mood, health, motivation and concentration, while other are not good for us in the long run. For instance, use of the color white in public spaces and schools has been linked to increased stress levels and reduced concentration (Grube, K.J. 2014). If colors are too intense, they can also be irritating and exhausting to look at. However, with the right wavelength, colors help us memorize and recognize differences. It also has the potential to positively address the growing issue of attention span among today’s youth. 

References

Grube, K.J. (2014). Detrimental Effect of White Valued Walls in Classrooms. Educational Planning, v21 n2 p69-82. 

Khan, J. & Liu, C. (2020). The impact of colors on human memory in learning English collocations: evidence from south Asian tertiary ESL students. Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s40862-020-00098-8

Koltuska-Haskin, B. (2023). How Colors Affect Brain Functioning. Psychology today. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/how-my-brain-works/202301/how-colors-affect-brain-functioning

by ingrid.hjelm-hansen -

Touchpoints to other Disciplines: Language Education

In the last part of my research phase, I want to search for inspiration in other disciplines. Language education is a discipline that can easily be compared to music education, and I believe that there are several different touchpoints that could influence my approach to the topic.  

Before the 20th century, language teaching methodology could be divided into two different groups (Celce-Murcia, 2011, p. 1): 

  1. Focus on using a language (speaking and understanding)
  2. Focus on analyzing a language (learning the grammatical rules)

This division can also be shown in language education today. 

One of the most famous language teachers in the 17th century was a Czech methodologist with the name Jan Comenius (Celce-Murcia, 2011, p. 2). Between the years 1631 and 1658, he published several different books describing his teaching techniques. Five of these were the following: 

  • Use imitation instead of rules to teach a language
  • Have your students repeat after you
  • Use a limited vocabulary initially
  • Help your students practice reading and speaking
  • Teach language through pictures to make it meaningful

Similarities

Both language and music are fundamental forms of communication used globally. When analyzing the different disciplines, one will find surprisingly many similarities. In addition to evoking emotions, connecting people and being used to tell stories, both language and music are based on the use of sound and rhythm (Owens, 2023). Sounds are used to create words connected in a rhythmic pattern in sentences. For instance, difference in the tone of voice in a statement versus question makes an important effect. To learn how to speak a language fluently, one would need to adapt to the sounds and rhythms used. This helps to convey meaning and emotion in the sentences. 

Language and music are also similar in terms of structure. Grammar and syntax are used to structure words in the same way as musical notation is used to structure melodies. Both disciplines require the ability to understand the meaning of symbols and signs. This makes it possible to express and perform complex thoughts in a clear and organized manner. 

What can we learn from language education?

In the beginning of this blog post, I listed two different approaches to language education. Throughout these studies, I have understood that music education can be divided into two similar groups: 

  1. Focus on making music (experimenting and improvising)
  2. Focus on theoretical background (following the rules)

Personally, I find the first approach more fun and appealing. But I also believe that to become a good musician, a combination of these is to be preferred. Music theory should work as guidelines, but it is important not to underrate the effect of experimenting and improvising. Both to develop musical skills and having fun while doing it. 

Lastly, I would like to translate Jan Comenius teaching techniques in language education. I find them meaningful, and believe a translated version could be used as framework in music education: 

  • Encourage students to learn through experimenting
  • Make students repeat sounds and rhythms without looking at notation
  • Start with simple scales without too many sharps or flats
  • Assist students actively while playing
  • Find songs that excite and encourage the students

References

Celce-Murcia, M. (2011). Language Teaching Approaches: An Overview. Retrieved from https://t.ly/Bt5VD

Owens, A. (2023). EXPLORING THE SIMILARITIES BETWEEN LANGUAGE AND MUSIC. Retrieved from https://www.tlctranslation.com/exploring-the-similarities-between-language-and-music/

by ingrid.hjelm-hansen -

Key Findings from Interviews

I have spent the last week planning and arranging two interviews related to my topic. It was interesting to conduct primary research in this way and talk directly to people with experience in the topic. In this seventh blog post, I will present key findings from the interviews. 

Interview subjects

  • Women in the age between 23 and 25
  • Went to music lessons for 1-3 years in primary school
  • Mainly piano, but also other instruments such as the clarinet, guitar and drums
  • Busy time schedule with handball, football, horse riding and choir

Why did they start?

They both have a parent with musical talent and interest. One of them also has a sister that went to piano lessons and got inspired by her. Both interview subjects also grew up with a piano in their house, which made them curious on the instrument. 

During music education

The first interview subject stated that it was much more difficult to learn the instrument than predicted. She never learned musical notation, but had another technique that worked out in the beginning. The different notes in the C major scale got a number from one to five, representing the different fingers on her hand. When the number 1 was listed, she played a C with her thumb, without knowing the actual name of the tone. After some time, it was difficult to adapt the system to more complicated songs. Without knowing how to read music sheets, she struggled to progress. She quitted practicing at home between the lessons and did not get a big feeling of mastery. 

The second interview subject had a slightly different experience. She learned how to read musical notation, and felt that she mastered how to play the instrument in the beginning. She practiced at home approximately once a week, but did not find it genuinely fun or motivating. The music school arranged a competition for the pupils, to make them practice more between the lessons. This did not motivate the interview subject, because she felt that the whole intention was wrong. They had to use a stopwatch to time how long they were playing for. After a while, the songs also got more difficult which made it less fun for her. 

Why did they quit?

For both interview subjects, it was mainly a consequence of a tight time schedule. They went to other arranged activities that was more active, fun, and social, which made them easier to prioritize. For the first interview subject, it was challenging to get to the piano teacher. She had to walk for a long time along a road not suitable for pedestrians. None of the subjects had a lot of friends doing music lessons, and because they did not find the actual practice motivating anymore, quitting was an easy option. The second interview subject also dreaded the concerts that were arranged once every semester. She did not look forward to them and thinking of them made her rather afraid and unwell. 

Subsequently, both interview subject state that they now wish they were better at playing music instruments. Nevertheless, they do not regret prioritizing more social and physically challenging activities. 

Music lessons at school

In addition to attending arranged music lessons, both of them took part in music education in school. They learned basic guitar chords and rhythms on drums, which they found both fun and challenging. The second interview subject especially enjoyed playing drums, but none of them liked the guitar lessons. They did not get along with their music teachers and felt like they were very much left on their own. To get a grade in the course, they had to perform with the guitar. The second interview object found that significantly scary and uncomfortable, it did not give her any feeling of mastery at all. 

Thoughts about digital music education

None of the interview subjects have been trying out any form of digital music education. One of them said that she could picture herself using YouTube tutorials if she was a child now. She also mentioned that she thinks Duolingo Music has a cool approach, but do not think she could commit to doing it regularly. The other interview subject said that it is crucial to be truly motivated for digital music education to be efficient. It is not very social, so the students will be more left on their own. One would need to be dedicated, and she states that digital music lessons would definitely not work for her. 

Additional input

Both interview subjects told me that they love music. They consider it being a big part of their life, and a source to a wide range of emotions. They would love to be good at playing an instrument now, but they still do not consider learning one now. It is apparently too late. Even in middle school, learning a new instrument or starting a new leisure activity was considered too late. 

The first interview subject enjoyed playing around and experimenting on the piano as a child. The second one stayed with the music sheets and did not challenge herself to improvise in any way. At home, they were both allowed to play when they wanted to and was not very restricted. They also remember to like their piano instructors, and do not know if other instructors could make them stay longer. For the second interview object, it could possibly have made a difference if the concerts were voluntary instead of obligatory.  

They agreed on the fact that inner motivation is crucial. It does require a lot of hard work to become good, which is impossible if you do not enjoy practicing. It would be easier for them to stay in music education if they were surrounded by people who did the same. Both friends and family had a big impact on them. They wanted to do the same as their siblings, and not miss out on the social arenas handball and football practice offered. One of them mentioned that it would be harder to quit if the piano lessons was more collaborative and social. According to her, group rehearsals to make piano harmonies could be a good idea. 

by ingrid.hjelm-hansen -

Musicca – The Free and Fun Way to Learn Music

Musicca is a free music educational platform, providing lessons, exercises, and different interactive tools. Their goal is to help people across the world to learn skills essential for understanding music, reading music and playing an instrument. In this sixth blog post, I will research their platform and how they achieve their goal. 

BACKGROUND

Musicca was founded in 2019 by Lasse Grubbe, a Danish musician with a Master of Arts in Musicology. It has its origin in Denmark, and is now one of the most popular music learning platforms in the world, according to their own website. They state that the platform has several million monthly users in more than 150 countries. Musicca has been multilingual from the very beginning, for the purpose of making music education freely accessible to everyone. 

STRUCTURE

The content is divided into four sections: Exercises, Lessons, Tools and Dictionary. Each section is then divided into different categories, and each category contains different difficulty levels. 

Exercises

There are in total 1 030 different exercises, starting on a relatively easy level. If the user already has some basic knowledge in music theory, there is also a possibility to move straight to more complex exercises. The layout is clean and the green color is used to reward the user when a task is completed. It is possible to do most of the exercises without any subscription or user, but to save the progress and skip advertisements it is necessary to create an account for free. 

After completing a few exercises myself, I discovered that there is a wide variety in the cool and interesting tasks. The most complex exercises have a high difficulty level, which means that the platform can be used by well-trained musicians to develop their skills and theoretical knowledge further. Most of the exercises mainly focus on the piano as base instrument and reference to the notes. 

Lessons

The lessons section is a collection of important music theory. The different chapters are connected to relevant exercises, so the user easily can practice simultaneously. The lessons are divided into the following categories: notes, the staff, clefs, accidentals, intervals, chords, scales and keys. They are supported by describing images and audio files, in addition to a short written explanation and some examples. The attached images are often photos of piano tiles with marked placement of the different tones. It is all well-structured and easy to read. 

Tools

The tools section is a nice place to play around and have fun with different instruments and equipment. It is possible to play piano, guitar, bass and drums with different shortcuts, as well as using a chord player, drum machine, metronome and tuner. These are fun gadgets to experiment with, but could also be useful tools when making music and practicing other instruments. The tools page also has note, interval, chord and scale finders, and a chapter for circle of fifths and other musical terms. 

Dictionary

The music dictionary contains over 1 000 terms from the world of music. The user can use it to look up difficult terms and navigate to info pages in an easy and effective way. It contains short explanations to different notes, chords, scales and other musical terms. To find them, the user can either enter a term in the search bar, or use the links in a side menu.  

SUMMARY

Musicca is a great example of accessible and fun music education. The page is very informative for musicians on every level, as well as it gives the users a great opportunity to discover the fun parts of music. It is well organized and easy to use for newcomers, and the fact that it is for free is a great advantage. I absolutely think they achieve their goal to provide high-quality music education in a great way, and will consider using it in the future for personal music purposes. 

Reference

https://www.musicca.com

by ingrid.hjelm-hansen -

Pros and Cons with YouTube Piano Tutorials

In my last blog post, I mentioned some disadvantages with digital educational platforms. I stated that I find it hard to believe that an online music platform could displace the feeling of escape one gets from analog sheet music. For that reason, I will use this blog post to summarize pros and cons with one of the most popular educational music platforms: YouTube piano tutorials. I am basing the reflections on findings from recent research. Why are they so immensely popular? What can we learn? 

PROS

Ease of use and accessibility

In comparison to traditional music education, YouTube tutorials are free and easy to access. Everyone with a mobile device and internet can find tutorials and choose between an endless selection of videos. Sheet music is, on the opposite, often behind paywalls with regulated admission, which makes free YouTube tutorials more appealing. 

Adaptability

The endless selection of YouTube videos also offers tutorials to a wide variety of musical levels. As a beginner, it is significantly easy to find videos suitable to your own skills, also as the competence improves. Because the user can pause the videos as often as they would like, they also get the opportunity to watch the videos in their own pace. This might be less stressful than adapting to the music instructor’s preferred pace, who also evaluate every move of the student thoroughly. 

Inner motivation

To find joy in music, it is crucial to find your own inner motivation. For some people, traditional music educations means being forced to play music pieces chosen by the instructor. When people use music tutorials, it is most likely because they really want to learn to play a specific song. They are not being told what to do or forced to play someone else’s favorite music piece. They make their own choices as a result of inner motivation, which then again makes it easier to improve musical competence. 

Fun and easy to understand

YouTube tutorials instruct both which key to press and when to press it (timing). The user interface is easy to understand, and they do not use any new difficult symbols that could scare beginners. This means that near anyone could learn how to play a song on the piano without any prior competence. To learn sheet music, you need to start slow and often with the easiest children’s songs to get used to the different symbols, which could feel demotivational for some people. The use of colors and effects in YouTube tutorials also makes it look more fun and like a game, which appeals to the brain’s reward system. 

CONS

Lack of social interaction

According to the Grammy-nominated drummer Sammy Miller from my latest blog post, it is advantageous to learn music together with other people. Social interaction and especially cooperation motivates students to achieve musical goals. YouTube tutorials are most often used by individuals alone, which means that the positive effects of co-playing and learning are not being achieved. 

Zero digital escape

Use of traditional music sheets gives the brain a break from screen devices and stimulates the brain in a different way. It is easier to concentrate and escape from the digital everyday life. When using tutorials on YouTube, the valuable time spend in front of the piano could be also disturbed by advertisements and notifications. This distracts the deep focus and possibilities to improve musical skills without getting exhausted too fast. 

Lack of self-esteem and feeling of mastery

In my third blog post, I wrote about the findings of Toril Siksjø’s master thesis at the Norwegian Academy of Music in 2015. The article researched the use of YouTube tutorial videos in musical education. The most interesting results from her article was how the different students evaluated their own musical competence after following YouTube tutorials instead of traditional teaching. It seems like digital music education such as tutorial videos result in a lower self-esteem and feeling of mastery among the students. 

Lower level of theoretical comprehension

As mentioned earlier, YouTube tutorials show the user which key to press and when to press it. But it does not require any understanding of which musical tone the key corresponds to. This means that a user can learn how to play numerous songs, without actually knowing what they are playing. They get used to the placement of keys and typical patterns in different songs, but one could argument that it does not give them the fundamental musical understanding. This means that it does not necessarily get easier to learn a new song after spending hours on the first. The curve of skill development may not be affected by the number of hours spent in front of the piano/screen. 

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

To conclude my findings, digital education in form of YouTube tutorials leads to both good and bad effects for the user. For beginners, it is a good way to learn new songs in a fast and easy way, not requiring a lot of money or prior competence. Because of the visual appealing user interface, it appears fun and motivating. On the other hand, it does not help much with the theoretical musical understanding and competence improvement. It could work great as a quick fix, but in a long-term perspective, music education in an analog format probably works better. 

by ingrid.hjelm-hansen -

Reflections: Strict Music Teachers and Online Educational Platforms

In this fourth blog post, I will use the opportunity to reflect around my chosen topic and contemplate recent discoveries. I recently came across a student opinion article in The New York Times, and it made me think about the importance of good music education and how to measure it. 

The article is based on a guest essay from Sammy Miller, a Grammy-nominated drummer and founder of a music education company. He states that “We’re Teaching Music to Kids All Wrong”, which results in children losing their excitement and enthusiasm for music. He mentions several different advantages children could get if they stick to music, such as being better in math and physics and getting a higher level of conscientiousness. Nevertheless, lack of interest results in plenty early ended music careers. He is wondering why parents and educators are not better at encouraging children to continue, because they never seem to be expressly thankful to have quit music at an early age. In his guest essay, I want to point out this paragraph: 

In my 15 years as a musical educator, talking to countless teachers, I’ve learned one thing: There is no magical fix. Making music education more successful doesn’t need to involve expensive digital accessories or fancy educational platforms (and I say that as someone who developed an online educational platform). There’s no technological or financial program that will convert children into lifelong music lovers.

Even though he has participated in the development of the online music educational platform Playbook, he states that it would not have the capability to convert children into lifelong music lovers. He continues writing that it is necessary to rethink how we teach music from the ground up, and emphasizes the fact that children should be allowed to play around. According to Miller, we should encourage children to be terrible. Many children associate music with a difficult undertaking they cannot hope to master, which in the end leads them to giving up. It should not be like that. They should be thought the usefulness of failure. 

Kanioko

Now back to the student opinion article written by Jeremy Engle. The reason why he writes about Millers guest essay, is because he wants to research out if his statements are based on true stories. He asks students: Do we really need better music education? He wants to find out if students agree with the statement that we are teaching music the wrong way. He lists 6 questions related to the topic, and students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. 

After reading the comments, I truly understood the frustrations and difficulties children goes through while learning new instruments. The article now has 153 comments and as far as I can see, all the commenters agree with Millers statements. They write about how it is to be forced to learning new instruments, and how challenging it is to face strict, perfectionist music teachers. Many of the students commenting ended up quitting music themselves because of low feeling of mastery, which they subsequently find sad. 

I think the numerous advantages of music may disappear if the performer ceases to find joy in the experience. The children need to find their own motivation, and the job of the teacher is to develop it further. Strict rules and perfectionist goals do not contribute. 

I also want to highlight Millers statement about online educational platforms. Personally, I learned to play the trumpet and piano in a traditional way. Even though it was hard to concentrate at times and I truly relate to some of the students’ comments, I also enjoyed the analog format. Throughout my youth, I used music to escape from everyday life and the digital society in general. After staring into my computer and mobile device for hours, the fifteen minutes I spent in front of the piano was used to completely disconnect from digital platforms. It might be a bias while researching this topic, but I find it hard to believe that a digital educational platform really could displace the feeling of escape from analog sheet music. 

Some valuable thoughts and reflections entered my head after reading this article and the attached comments. I do not know what I will end up doing in this project, but now I know that it is important for me to research the possibility to make something fun and playful, preferably in an analog format. 

Reference

Engle, J. (2023, September 29). Do We Need Better Music Education?. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/29/learning/do-we-need-better-music-education.html

by ingrid.hjelm-hansen -

Can Piano Tutorials Compare to Traditional Music Education?

That is what student, piano and music teacher Toril Siksjø asked herself while writing her master’s thesis at the Norwegian Academy of Music in 2015. The thesis is a comparative study of leaning effects and motivation in internet-based piano instruction for high school students. She researched the differences between piano tutorials and traditional teaching, and how it affected the pupils. The research questions were: 

  • Is there any difference in learning outcomes between students taught in a formal context at school and students acquiring knowledge in an informal context through the internet (tutorials)?
  • How do students experience the different pedagogical approaches in terms of motivation? 

To answer these questions, she concocted research in a music program at a high school, specifically in the subject area of instrument/choir/ensemble. The participants were between the age of 16 and 17, and had a basic knowledge of music in advance. She divided the class in two: Group one received traditional instruction, while group two received instruction exclusively through tutorial videos Siksjø produced herself. The content was the same and the only thing that differentiated the groups was the teaching method. Both groups were tested on their learning skills in the very beginning and at the end of the semester. The participants also had to attend interviews and answer several surveys throughout the semester, asking about their learning motivation and assessment of own skills. 

Screenshot of one of Siksjø’s self-produced YouTube tutorials. In addition to the videos, she also created a private Facebook group where students could ask questions about the content of the videos, post comments, and engage in discussions with her and the other participants throughout the project. 

Results

After the project, one of the pupils from group two stated (p. 82): 

I could take it home, and then I could work on it alone. I could go at my own pace. I found it very enjoyable to be able to rewind because it’s not very fun to ask the teacher many times about what this and that is; instead, I could just rewind and watch it again a few times. 

On the other hand, another pupil said (p. 83): 

The day I went home, I thought I would really excel at this, but then I watched the video, and I have a bit of difficulty keeping up. I will never learn what’s in the video, and then I bring myself down, lose concentration, put it aside, and think, if I relax, I can do it later, but I didn’t. Then, there was very little time left, so I actually postponed it quite a bit.

I general, the motivation in group two was declining throughout the semester. Oppositely, the answers from group one was mainly positive, and most of the pupils were satisfied with their own effort. 

When it comes to the theoretical outcome, there was no big difference between the two groups. On the test, they scored on the approximate same level. However, this was not supported by their own feeling of mastery and self-esteem. The participants on group one rated their own level as significantly higher than group two. Siksjø concludes: 

My conclusion is that students who do not receive feedback on their learning process evaluate themselves lower than those who have traditional instruction, which can affect their self-efficacy in future learning processes.

This is a very interesting finding, that I will take in consideration when further exploring the use of different music teaching methods. 

Reference

Siksjø, T. (2015). ”Kari lærte å spille piano da hun sluttet i kulturskolen” .

Musikkpedagogikk, Norges musikkhøgskole, Oslo, Norway. Retrieved from https://nmh.brage.unit.no/nmh-xmlui/bitstream/handle/11250/2379133/Toril_Siksjø.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y