Hari Pal
BC, Canada

Perhaps a shift in educational focus from performance skills to compositional skills would help address this motivational issue.

Such a shift in forus would be very difficult to accomplish today, because music theory is such a complex subject. That leaves music educators with nothing to teach performance-related skills.

I propose that much of the apparent complexity of music theory can be eliminated through the use of alternative notations and instruments, as described in this draft paper:
http://www.igetitmusic.com/papers/JIMS.pdf

Its abstract reads as follows:
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Nearly a thousand years ago, Guido d’Arezzo imagined “sight-reading written music,” in support of which he developed new technology (including the staff and solmisation) and new pedagogy (including his use of the hymn Ut queant laxis and the exercise Alme rector) [Pesce, pp. 459-475]. Sight-reading enabled Guido to turn novices into proficient singers in just one year, or at most two—an efficiency improvement of at least 5:1, and perhaps 10:1, compared to earlier singer-training practices [Pesce, pp. 445-447].

As a “thought experiment,” this paper imagines extending Guido’s core innovations to enable “sight-reading music theory.” It is proposed that developing this skill may have the potential to increase, by a factor similar to Guido’s, the rate at which students become proficient music theorists. The thought experiment uses a hypothetical system for displaying and controlling musical information called JIMS Isomorphic Music System (JIMS).
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I have recently started developing online music education courseware based on JIMS. So far, I’ve developed only one (unfinished, buggy) component of JIMS: an interactive QWETRY-based JIMS keyboard:
http://www.igetitmusic.com/blog/2009/05/igetit-keyboard-v000002-with-source.html

My hope is that JIMS-based online interactive courseware will make music theory so transparently simple that musical novices will learn to compose and improvise TOO, from the outset, rather than focusing ONLY on performing other people’s music. Then, students’ studies can be more self-motivated: how can I make *my* song’s chord progression sound better? How can I improve *my* song’s voice-leading? What was that you said yesterday about “deceptive cadences,” and how can I use that in *my* song?

Furthermore, JIMS may also heighten students’ motivation be engaging them in the exploration of *entirely new* tonal frontiers, via Dynamic Tonality:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_Tonality
…and:
http://www.igetitmusic.com/papers/DynamicTonality.pdf

Dynamic Tonality gives music students the opportunity to extend the traditional facts and rules of tonality in entirely new directions. Dynamic Tonality’s “new frontier” is not littered with the dauntingly-brilliant works of long-dead musical giants; therefore, even a student could break new ground, discover new musical rules, and advance the state of the art, while still building on tonality’s time-honored foundations. Perhaps most importantly (to the students), Dynamic Tonality gives students the opportunity to create music that does NOT sound like their parents’ music…yet still “sounds good” (i.e., sounds comfortingly tonal).

The combination of faster learning and stronger motivation could, I suspect, prove to be significant. But…what do I know?

Your comments, and those of your readers, would be very welcome.

Thanks!

Jim Plamondon
iGetIt! Music

NEW YORK: On December 29, 2008, at 2:00 p.m., Phuong Nghi Pham – 13–year-old pianist – will perform a half-hour recital at TD Bank, 2 Wall Street. Phuong Nghi is the first recipient of The Max Reger Foundation of America’s John C Holtz Young Artists Award and studies music at the New England Conservatory Preparatory Division, in Boston. The program will include works by Bach, Chopin, Liszt and Reger.

Phuong Nghi Pham began her piano lessons at the age of five in Vietnam, where she won many prizes in competitions, including First Prize in the Yamaha Cup in 2004. She moved to the United States with her parents in 2004. Phuong Nghi studies piano with Clara Slater at the New England Conservatory Preparatory School where she is enrolled in the full Certificate program. In 2007 she was the only student from her elementary school to receive the Mayor of Boston Award for Academic Achievement and this fall, Phuong Nghi began her studies at Boston Latin School.

The program is free and open to the public.

The Max Reger Foundation of America (MRFOA) is a not-for-profit music organization, which helps musicians of all ages fulfill their dreams and goals. MRFOA’s programs offer assistance to less-fortunate children who wish to develop their musical talent and education, and to professional musicians for their outstanding achievements in performance and programming.

http://www.maxreger.org

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