| 1. |
- Hentschel, Linn, 1980-, et al.
(författare)
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Humor, gender and creativity in music education
- 2020
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Ingår i: The topology of music education as a field of researches, policies and practices.
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this paper we will discuss humor as a gendered resource which opens up spaces for creativity in music education. We will do so by re-analysing empirical material from our two doctoral dissertations focusing on music education in secondary schools in Sweden. Humor is often presented as something positive when it comes to education. Humor has for example been pointed out as a resource to create motivation within school-subjects otherwise not regarded as interesting among students. Humor has also been proven fruitful for teachers in order to create a friendly environment and to balance teachers formal position with a more familiar position. In other words, humor seems, within education, to be constructed as a resource to accomplish different educational goals within the classroom. In this paper though, we will discuss difficulties to keep in mind when humor appears in students interactions within the music-classroom. In the following we will draw the attention to some themes we want to discuss which have become visible in our material. When it comes to gender, humor does not seem to be a neutral resource. In studies conducted within the secondary school music-education, humor seems to be more frequently used to express masculinity. Students positioned as boys are also more expected to be humoristic and make jokes than students positioned as girls. Similarly, in research regarding the humor-business, humor seems to represent a masculine domain. Even if this is a hierarchical order that seems to change, it is a discourse that is still being reproduced and thus still have a possible explanatory power. Humor as a masculine domaine is in the material also apparent as students positioned as boys expressing humor are not being questioned, which is the case among students positioned as girls. Language creates binaries. These binaries are contextual and changes over time but are however inevitably producing positions in the particular context. Humor is in our material frequently constructed as the opposite to seriousity. This does not mean that making jokes could not be “serious business”, but rather that the distance to seriousity in itself could be used in interaction to create space, which we would like to discuss in terms of creativity. Making jokes in the different music classrooms can function as resources to create distance to seriousity. In other words, making jokes makes it possible to express yourself in otherwise not socially accepted ways without being criticized. When draped in humor, expressions such as sexism, violence, racism, homofobia etcetera could be articulated and yet not followed by criticism. Even if this could be understood as a somewhat negative way of using humor, it points towards the creative potential that comes with humor in social interaction. This kind of creativity is primarily connected to the positioning work that is being done in interactions. Even creativity connected to musical expression is, following our material, facilitated by expressions of humor. Singing in different ways in order to make other people laugh is connected to breaking (and thus at the same time expressing) musical conventions in different contexts. Singing in a funny playful way can also be used as a didactic method to encourage pupils to sing, or as a positive approach during the rehearsal phases of musical processes in school. In secondary school music classrooms the demands from public policy to teach creativity in music is not seldomly done by letting students write songs. In our material we have studied an example in which the students are seriously engaged in expressing humor within their composing. We will argue that this kind of humor increases creativity. Attempting to be humoristic can in other words be very closely connected to creativity. Humor could also be understood in negative terms, not in what it produces in terms of creativity in order to make a joke, but rather in what or who is the aim of the joke. Something or someone is always pointed out in jokes. Jokes have, in other words, a normative effect. In our material making jokes could be used to legitimize pointing out someone's mistakes for example, even if teasing is not socially accepted within the classroom. Finally, these different aspects of humor combined creates different opportunities for musical creativity within music education. These differences are, we argue, important to consider when using humor as a didactic resource.
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| 2. |
- Ahlbäck, Sven, 1960-
(författare)
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MITIS - Musical Information Technology in Schools : How can interactive music technology be used to support learning of music literacy?
- 2021
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- MITIS – Musical Informational Technology in SchoolThe aim of the MITIS - project is to explore possibilities to create interactive teaching materials where new technology is used to distribute knowledge about musical structure (i.e. notation) as well as content in an interactive and creative way. This is carried out as a collaborative project between a group of music teachers, the company DoReMir, and researchers and staff from the Institution for Folk Music and the Institution for Music, Pedagogics and Society at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm.The core foundation of the project is literacy in music – for example reading and writing notation (Asmus, 2004). Notation is for most musicians an important tool to use both for taking part of, interpreting, documenting and pass music on (Hultberg, 2000). In connection with the digitalization of society and digital tools to do things such as interpreting, documenting and pass music on made available to a broader public, traditional notation has got a more hidden place in music education in schools. In the Swedish curricula for the compulsory School, notation is explicitly mentioned in 1969. In the later Curricula’s, different kind of notation is mentioned, but not as explicitly as in earlier years (Skolöverstyrelsen, 1969; Skolverket, 2019). This also aligns with the development of society as a whole, and with the strategy for digitalization that was established by the Swedish government in 2017 (Regeringen, 2017) and can be seen as a development towards a wider view on different forms of notation. However, in the aesthetic program for the upper secondary school, reading traditional notation on a basic level, is required in the Curricula (Skolverket, 2020). Furthermore, to get access to higher music education in Sweden, the skill of reading traditional notation, is required. We argue therefore, that to increase music literacy, also in regard to reading notation, can be seen as an democratic issue. To make learning notation available and possible in an easy and digitalized way, with devices available to pupils in school, may be an important step to advance possibilities for every child to access higher music education.An important part of the project is to develop and support learning and interpretation of notation in different creative ways. One of the starting points for this project is the technique for digital music interpretation that has been developed by DoReMir Music Research AB. This technique has been used in an app called Notysing, for learning to read and sing traditional notation with a digital device such as a reading tablet or mobile phone. The project has been running since 2018. The first year the focus was to develop the app, test it within a small group of music teachers, and ensure good technical quality as well as pedagogical foundations for the design. In 2019 testing started in compulsory as well as in upper secondary School in Sweden, with focus on gathering qualitative data through a digital survey in the app. During autumn 2020 a qualitive study has been conducted, and in-depth interviews are in progress. Pupils in San Diego has been included in 2020, also as a part of finding new teaching strategies for distance education during the Covid19 pandemic. It has been developed and tested with over 200 pupils and music teachers.Preliminary results suggest that pupils and music teachers are positive to learn notation through an app that uses gamification to enhance and motivate learning, and that issues that arise are mostly technical, and that the equipment of the schools, and technical skills ana knowledge of the music teacher are crucial for success. Furthermore, the results indicate that regards must be taken todifferent systems for managing IT in different schools and municipalities. Last but not least, there are great school-cultural differences in how schools work with notation in San Diego and in Sweden, which once again raises questions about how to work with it in our context, and also, why we work with it the way we currently do.ReferencesAsmus, E. P. (2004). Music Teaching and Music Literacy. Journal of Music Teacher Education, 13(2), 6–8. https://doi.org/10.1177/10570837040130020102Hultberg, C. (2000). The Printed Score As a Mediator of Musical Meaning – Approaches to Musical notation on Western Tonal Tradition. [Doctoral thesis, Malmö Academy of Music].Regeringen. (2017). Nationell digitaliseringsstrategi för skolväsendet. Utbildningsdepartementet: Bilaga till regeringsbeslut I:1, 2017-10-19.Skolöverstyrelsen. (1969). Läroplan för grundskolan 1 Allmän del. UtbildningsförlagetSkolverket (2019). Läroplan för grundskolan, förskoleklassen och fritidshemmet 2011. Reviderad 2019. Skolverket. Skolverket.( 2020). https://www.skolverket.se/undervisning/gymnasieskolan/laroplan-program-och-amnen-i-gymnasieskolan/gymnasieprogrammen/amne?url=1530314731%2Fsyllabuscw%2Fjsp%2Fsubject.htm%3FsubjectCode%3DMUS%26courseCode%3DMUSINS01S%26tos%3Dgy&sv.url=12.5dfee44715d35a5cdfa92a3#anchor_MUSINS01
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- Ahlbäck, Sven, 1960-
(författare)
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”We hear what we know” - On the power of concepts : how traditional fiddle music in contemporary society can benefit fromfolk music theory
- 2021
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- ”We hear what we know” - On the power of conceptsand how traditional fiddle music in contemporary society can benefit fromfolk music theorySwedish fiddle music, just as many other fiddle traditions, has a strong connection to dance. Making people want to move their feet is one of the chief tasks ofthe fiddler, and this connection still influences the music today, even thoughthe music might be played on concert stages or be digitally streamed.So what constitutes this knowledge of the fiddler? What is important when playing a certain local styleof Swedish polska so people actually can dance to it? If you live in an isolated community with no contact with the outside world you might not have to reflect on what is the stylistic features of your tradition but today folk music generally lives in a multi-stylistic world where different value systemsthat originates from other music traditions than fiddle music dominates. Today’s fiddlers will have to relate to today’s world of music, whether we want it or not.In Sweden, since the 19th century, there has been a tradition of mystifying the knowledge of the fiddler, making the competence of playing a matter of socio-cultural background, geography and ancestry.The perils of this view is that the qualities of art of fiddling might be obscuredand actually might be lost when music transforms - as music always do.In this talk Sven Ahlbäck, who is a traditional fiddler deeply rooted in traditional Swedish FolkMusic and very involved in development of new ensemble playing and teaching, will talkabout how conceptualising stylistic qualities of Swedish fiddle music such as e.g.asymmetrical beats, swing, bowing and intonation have influenced the developmentof today’s Swedish folk music, even beyond the fiddle.
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| 5. |
- Backman Bister, Anna, 1976-
(författare)
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Spelets regler : En studie av ensembleundervisning i klass
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The aim of this study is to explore criteria characterizing music teacher’s strategies when trying to adapt their teaching to individual students. The interaction of three music teachers with their students was explored in case studies in different parts of Sweden (a pre-study, and the main study consisting of two parallel studies). The research interest especially concerns teaching class ensemble addressing teenagers in the tuition provided under the curriculum of Swedish secondary and upper secondary school. This study adopts the perspective of cultural psychology according to which learning is understood as being relational, taking place in a cultural context, depending on available cultural resources and affected by it. Cultural tools are considered mediators of meaning and crucial for learning. Of special interest to the present study are the ways in which teachers distribute knowledge to their students.Many-sided data were collected in all case studies: series of lessons were observed and video-documented; preliminary results were followed up in semi-structured interviews with the teachers, respectively.The results show similarities in the use of general strategies; e.g. peer-teaching and -learning in the classroom and flexibility in using and developing cultural tools. Results also show three diverging practices; rehearsal-room practice, supervisor-practice and ensemble-leading-practice.The results are discussed from a societal perspective, in light of Swedish School history. Issues concerning the government of the School and equivalence are addressed. An unexpected result is that the concept “individually adapted ensemble teaching” may be understood very differently among music teachers actively involved in teachers’ education. The need for development of professional concepts is further underlined by the findings that teachers develop new cultural tools within different practices. This is discussed related to the framing of the central curricula.
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| 6. |
- Falthin, Annika
(författare)
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Meningserbjudanden och val : en studie om musicerande i musikundervisning på högstadiet
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- AbstractAffordance and choice: performing music in lower secondary schoolThe purpose of this study is to elucidate affordances and meaning-making processes where students in Compulsory lower secondary education learn to play music together in music class. The data consists of a series of observed music lessons, performances and stimulated recall interviews in two 8th form classes, video recorded in the course of one term.The analysis focuses on students’ and their teacher’s musical interaction and sign making during music class. In order to explore multimodal aspects of sign making in teaching and learning, the study rests on a theoretical framework of social-semiotic multimodality and design theory of learning. Nine students, strategically selected, were observed more frequently than the rest. Excerpts of their singing and playing music on different occasions were transcribed into scores in which musical notation together with other graphic signs and written descriptions represent the events. The scores visualise mul- timodal aspects of musical interaction, which made a 'fine grained' analysis of meaning-making processes possible. Further, an analysis was made of how the students and their teacher expressed themselves about the playing and learning and how this related to their observed actions.The result reveals how the teacher’s physical and verbal communicative sign combinations and choice of repertoire conveyed several layers of mean- ing by means of instructions for playing and by references to different dis- courses and genres. During lessons the principle of recognition was present in all of the teacher's sign making but it might be expressed in different modes including expected actions that surprised, amused and helped students to link different musical parameters together. Through transmodal transla- tions of the teacher’s signs, students, linked short fragments of their parts together, and taking turns with the teacher, made longer musical lines. It was found that students’ activities and utterances indicated that a shared sense of meaning and acceptance took precedence over personal musical wishes and preferences.The study contributes to a close insight and understanding of how young people's meaning-making processes may be manifested in music 'teaching- and-learning' in heterogeneous classes, as well as of the significance of teachers’ sign-making in that process. The results of the study warrant a discussion of how musical learning is made possible and is restricted de- pending on how music teaching in schools is designed.Keywords: music teaching, musical interaction, meaning making, semiotic resources, re-design, transmodality, dialogue
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| 7. |
- Falthin, Annika
(författare)
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Musik som nav i skolredovisningar
- 2011
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Music as a hub in school presentationsThe aim of the study is to elucidate how making meaning is constituted when lower secondary pupils play music when giving accounts of other school subjects than music. The empirical material consists of four presenta- tions in the subjects of physics, religion and Swedish, which were filmed during ordinary lessons in a lower secondary school. In addition the data consists of nine filmed stimulated recall interviews with the pupils and their teachers, which were also filmed.Social semiotic multimodality constitutes the study’s theoretical and methodological point of departure. The perspective enables investigation of the pupils’ playing of music and music in its multimodal context, and of how different dimensions of meaning are constructed. The filmed presentations were transcribed into music scores in order to visualise the multimodal events of the presentations. Three different categories of meaning were used, ideational, interpersonal and textual meaning, to analyse how music relates to other modes of communication.The results show how the temporal functions of music serve as frame- work and motor, what the music narrates in relation to the subject content and what interpersonal relations the music communicates. The young peo- ple’s knowledge of music manifests itself in the different accounts as an ability to use and adapt musical knowledge to a context where another sub- ject than music is in focus. The presentations of Swedish are travesties of well-known songs and the pupils stick to the given form. In the other presen- tations the pupils themselves had compiled the music and the result was a form of musical works where the music does not follow any model or certain genre. The informants think that this working method implies that the work is experienced as meaningful both to themselves and to the audience.
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| 8. |
- Falthin, Peter
(författare)
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Goodbye Reason Hello Rhyme : a study of meaning making and the concept development process in music composition
- 2011
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis comprises two articles based on qualitative empirical studies and a theoretical introduction. All three texts deal with the same problem area concerning musical meaning making and the concept development process in the course of composition learning. Each text could be read separately. The composition tasks in the empirical studies are both in electroacoustic music but the research problems and findings concern a broader sense of composition learning and even musical learning in general. The corpus of music education research on composition, rarely takes the body of artistic research and development literature into account, which means that contem- porary techniques and aesthetic discussions commonplace in composition education practice are not considered in music education research. This the- sis contributes to the research field of music education by acknowledging some of the fundamental research on composition, and discussing it from an education perspective. As a consequence, a contribution salient in the arti- cles is to begin to develop research methodology accordingly. The introduc- tion takes on a quest to map out the field in a new way by bringing together research in music education with artistic research on composition, writings on music philosophy, semiotics and cognitive psychology. The boundaries and interplay between semantic significance and syntactic meaning are ex- amined and discussed, as is the relation between aesthetic meaning making and learning. The articles deal with these issues in the context of composi- tion learning at a music program in upper secondary school. The one entitled Synthetic Activity is about fundamental aspects of soundgeneration and hence directed towards semiotics in the form of phonology and significance in connection to musical gesture and spectral content. The learning and meaning making processes of two composition students are studied as they engage in additive synthesis to build sounds, musical phrases and eventually a short musical composition. One of the most striking results is that the pro- ject came to be as much a listening experience as one of creative music mak- ing, and that the concept development process included rehearing and reas- sessing familiar sounds and music. The article Creative Structures or Struc- tured Creativity deals with form and syntactic structure, as the students learn to develop and apply composition algorithms to further their creative think- ing. The results show that there are several different layers to the concept development processes in this project. One layer concerns to be able to struc-7ture musical parameters on an aggregate level; to learn to plan musical de- velopments as space of possibility rather than as a determined linear se- quence of musical events. Another layer comprises problems of learning the programming environment and how to embody the musical algorithms in working computer-code. A third layer concerns letting the algorithmically generated materials influence your creative thinking. Tokens of the concept development process as described by Vygotskij (1987, 1999) in language- based learning were prominent also in the music composition learning of these studies. Implications for further research include formalizing criteria for the developmental phases of the concept development process in musical contexts.
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| 9. |
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| 10. |
- Gullö, Jan-Olof, 1961-
(författare)
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‘50 years of “Smoke on the Water”: What can we learn?’
- 2023
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The song "Smoke on the Water", recorded by the British rock group Deep Purple in December 1971, had a global reach, and contributed much to Deep Purple's success and fandom. The song was recorded during a sound check when the band was jamming and trying out a location for a recording session and was initially not intended to be released. A turning point was a successful live album, "Made in Japan", in 1972, including the song. And over the years, the song has retained its popularity among many. But how can the success of Smoke on the Water be explained? The study includes interviews with music teachers, music directors, music students and musicians in different countries, as well as interviews with some original members of Deep Purple. The findings are empirically surprising and indicate tension regarding understanding what is most important in a specific musical performance and piece of music or recording, such as Smoke on the Water, between those who perform or produce and those who listen. In short, for many of those who study music and music production, the details of the music and various intrinsic aspects of musical content seem to be more important, compared to those who are more average listeners who seem to pay more attention to how the lyrics and music speak to them. Therefore, the results can help to highlight some possible areas of development. At least for those students who want to produce music and reach listeners who cannot analyse music and deeply understand various advanced musical aspects as well as they themselves can.
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