Arts & Music: Technology Allows Young Composers to Hear and Discuss their own Music: Part II
By Mimi Rothschild
The MIDI Project began in the mid-1990s with support from the state legislature and a variety of grants. In a state with many rural communities, the idea of building a digital community had immediate appeal to music teachers. The project also addresses state standards by helping students develop music literacy, and it delivers professional development in music technology. What's more, participating teachers have become well acquainted and provide one another with ongoing support. "You can always get help from this group," Baker says.
She uses the Web site to help her students "take on the critic's role." Typically, her students "adopt" a work in progress that a student from another school has posted to the Web site. "We check in as the student makes progress, and listen to changes. The whole class practices writing critiques. It's fun to get a dialog going with someone from another school, and it's neat to see what other students are doing."
Five of Baker's students are currently revising a piece online. "They wrote it for two instruments, and now they're revising it to be played by a string quartet. That means these fifth-graders have to add a bass clef and an alto clef." They're working at an advanced skill level, "and the average fifth-grader might not know how to do that yet," Baker says. But because they're making the revisions in the forum of the Web site, she adds, "that lets others check in and see what's possible if they choose to learn more and develop their own skills as composers."
As valuable as the virtual community has become, it's not quite the same as hearing music played live. So twice a year, professional musicians perform a concert of student works that have been revised through the Vermont MIDI Project. This offers another opportunity for young composers to improve their works. "If a student has written a piece that's going to be performed by a string quartet, she has to answer the question: Is this playable by a violin?" Baker says. The student composer rehearses the ensemble, and learns how to tell musicians if they are interpreting the written music the way the composer intended.
The concert always takes place in a school setting, and the performers are careful to include a wide range of pieces in the program. "It's not a competition," Baker says. "They perform a number of songs, at least 20. Some are simple. Some are more elaborate," with composers ranging in grade level from elementary to high school. The opus events are recorded onto a CD, and all the young composers receive a copy.
The project has convinced Baker of the value of using technology in the arts classroom. "This is an almost ideal way to use technology in education," she says. Her music room is equipped with a lab of 12 computers, all donated. She was new to music technology when she came to the school, "but the technology for music is so user-friendly. And if you don't know something, the kids will figure it out." Given the opportunity to make their own music, she says, "you just can't hold them back."
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mimi Rothschild is a homeschooling parent, children's rights activist, author, and Founder and C.E.O. of online education company Learning by Grace, Inc. Rothschild and her husband of twenty-eight years reside in suburban Philadelphia with their eight children.
Feeling that “our current system of education has broken its promise,” Rothschild co-founded Learning By Grace, Inc. to provide families with Internet-based multimedia education to PreK-12 children all over the world.
In addition to her twenty years of experience as a homeschool mother, Rothschild has written a number of books dealing with education published by McGraw Hill and others. Her Home Education Websites Blog consists of helpful online content and activities for Christian homeschooling families.
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