A web-based system for suggesting new practice material to music learners based on chord content

In this demo paper, a system that suggests new practice material to music learners is presented. It is aimed at music practitioners of any skill set, playing any instrument, as long as they know how to play along with a chord sheet. Users need to select a number of chords in a web app, and are then presented with a list of music pieces containing those chords. Each of those pieces can then be played back while its chord transcription is displayed in sync to the music. This enables a variety of practice scenarios, ranging from following the chords in a piece to using the suggested music as a backing track to practice soloing over. We set out the various interface elements that make up this web application and the thoughts that went behind them. Furthermore, we touch upon the algorithms that are used in the app. Notably, the automatic generation of chord transcriptions – such that large amounts of music can be processed without human intervention – and the query resolution mechanism – finding appropriate music based on the user input and transcription quality – are discussed

Music Learning with Massive Open Online Courses

Steels, Luc et al.-- Editors: Luc SteelsMassive Open Online Courses, known as MOOCs, have arisen as the logical consequence of marrying long-distance education with the web and social media. MOOCs were confidently predicted by advanced thinkers decades ago. They are undoubtedly here to stay, and provide a valuable resource for learners and teachers alike. This book focuses on music as a domain of knowledge, and has three objectives: to introduce the phenomenon of MOOCs; to present ongoing research into making MOOCs more effective and better adapted to the needs of teachers and learners; and finally to present the first steps towards 'social MOOCs’, which support the creation of learning communities in which interactions between learners go beyond correcting each other's assignments. Social MOOCs try to mimic settings for humanistic learning, such as workshops, small choirs, or groups participating in a Hackathon, in which students aided by somebody acting as a tutor learn by solving problems and helping each other. The papers in this book all discuss steps towards social MOOCs; their foundational pedagogy, platforms to create learning communities, methods for assessment and social feedback and concrete experiments. These papers are organized into five sections: background; the role of feedback; platforms for learning communities; experiences with social MOOCs; and looking backwards and looking forward. Technology is not a panacea for the enormous challenges facing today's educators and learners, but this book will be of interest to all those striving to find more effective and humane learning opportunities for a larger group of students.Funded by the European Commission's OpenAIRE2020 project.Peer reviewe

Exploring Real-time Visualisations to Support Chord Learning with a Large Music Collection

A common problem in music education is finding varied and engaging material that is suitable for practising a specific musical concept or technique. At the same time, a number of large music collections are available under a Creative Commons (CC) licence (e.g. Jamendo, ccMixter), but their potential is largely untapped because of the relative obscurity of their content. In this paper, we present *Jam with Jamendo*, a web application that allows novice and expert learners of musical instruments to query songs by chord content from a large music collection, and practise the chords present in the retrieved songs by playing along. Its goal is twofold: the learners get a larger variety of practice material, while the artists receive increased exposure. We experimented with two visualisation modes. The first is a linear visualisation based on a moving time axis, the second is a circular visualisation inspired by the chromatic circle. We conducted a small-scale thinking-aloud user study with seven participants based on a hands-on practice with the web app. Through this pilot study, we obtained a qualitative understanding of the potentials and challenges of each visualisation, which will be used to inform the next design iteration of the web app

Multimodal pedagogies and music students’ audio meaning-making

This thesis reveals the irrefutable value of research into music education for gaining insights into multiliteracies. The examination of multimodal pedagogies revealed the intricate development of student competencies in composition, metalanguage and technological capacities; through an exploration of the affordances of the audio mode, in and outside the music classroom

16th Sound and Music Computing Conference SMC 2019 (28–31 May 2019, Malaga, Spain)

The 16th Sound and Music Computing Conference (SMC 2019) took place in Malaga, Spain, 28-31 May 2019 and it was organized by the Application of Information and Communication Technologies Research group (ATIC) of the University of Malaga (UMA). The SMC 2019 associated Summer School took place 25-28 May 2019. The First International Day of Women in Inclusive Engineering, Sound and Music Computing Research (WiSMC 2019) took place on 28 May 2019. The SMC 2019 TOPICS OF INTEREST included a wide selection of topics related to acoustics, psychoacoustics, music, technology for music, audio analysis, musicology, sonification, music games, machine learning, serious games, immersive audio, sound synthesis, etc

Discovering the Pedagogy and Secrets of Gamification and Game-Based Learning Applied to the Music Theory Classroom

This research project aims to establish the credibility of gamification and game-based learning (GBL) in higher education and online education, specifically for applying digital game-based learning (DGBL) to the twenty-first-century music theory classroom. This research project aims to address the current Education Engagement Crisis, the historical need of engaging students, and adapting the music curriculum to the current technological age. This research project will propose an original digital game concept and framework for teaching music theory core skills and other areas of music-related study in higher education as its contribution to the field and research of music education and digital game-based learning. The proposed game, the Universe of Music Theory: Music Masters (UoMT), will be an immersive, engaging, fun, and interactive, online learning-centered game created for the music theory core curricula and designed to address the preferred learning methods of digital natives. This framework may work alongside any music-core program or course as a MIDI lab activity, course-facilitated, or independent supplemental teaching and learning tool. The UoMT will facilitate unique opportunities to teach, reinforce, and assess music theory concepts in a praxial manner that will enable students to practice music-core skills (Music Theory, Keyboard Skills, and Aural Skills) and explore interconnected music-related disciplines (music academia, natural and scientific sound and music phenomena, and psychology of music). What the student learns in class will increase their in-game efficiency and what the student reviews in the game will increase their in-class efficiency

Interpretive Reproduction and Informal Music Learning in the Grade One Classroom

This study investigated informal learning practices in music education as a pedagogical approach within the primary classroom setting. It aims to explore and expand knowledge in the new field of informal music pedagogy through an investigation of its application with Grade One students (ages 5-7). Using the new sociology of childhood as an analytic tool, this study examines children as agentic beings within the structure of childhood, interpreting and reproducing childhood culture. It therefore places emphasis on the importance to primary music education of providing spaces within which children can experiment with and re/create peer musical cultures. Qualitative case-study methodology was used with two classes of Grade One students (n=35) in a Roman Catholic elementary school in Southwestern Ontario. Audio/visual data were collected and analyzed along with researcher-participant observation, teacher observation, field notes and semi-structured interviews. The researcher was a participant-observer and designed three informal learning units delivered by the teacher as part of the study. Data were collected on social and musical behaviours of children, musical skills achieved or emergent (pitch-matching, specific rhythms, etc.), and child and teacher comments on their experiences. Findings suggest that the integration of informal learning in the Grade One music classroom inspires creativity in students and motivates independent and collaborative learning. Expectations of students and teachers are challenged, shifted and adapted as they work collaboratively with flexibility towards new goals. Harwood & Marsh (2012) have drawn significant connections between children’s playground learning and informal music learning as researched by Green (2008). Drawing on this comparison assists in bringing primary students’ musical cultures into the classroom, as Green (2008) has successfully done with adolescent musical culture. Building on childhood culture that takes place through playground and out-of-school practices may result in an innovative pedagogical approach with the potential to revolutionize how music teaching and learning is interpreted in the primary music classroom. This could possibly include an expansion of philosophical perspectives relating to music education of younger pupils and allow broader possibilities for students and teachers to engage in new pedagogies, thereby helping to redefine primary music teacher discourse and practice through informal learning approaches

Love Me, Love Me, Say (and Write!) that You Love Me: Enriching the WASABI Song Corpus with Lyrics Annotations

We present the WASABI Song Corpus, a large corpus of songs enriched with metadata extracted from music databases on the Web, and resulting from the processing of song lyrics and from audio analysis. More specifically, given that lyrics encode an important part of the semantics of a song, we focus here on the description of the methods we proposed to extract relevant information from the lyrics, such as their structure segmentation, their topics, the explicitness of the lyrics content, the salient passages of a song and the emotions conveyed. The creation of the resource is still ongoing: so far, the corpus contains 1.73M songs with lyrics (1.41M unique lyrics) annotated at different levels with the output of the above mentioned methods. Such corpus labels and the provided methods can be exploited by music search engines and music professionals (e.g. journalists, radio presenters) to better handle large collections of lyrics, allowing an intelligent browsing, categorization and segmentation recommendation of songs.Comment: 10 page

Possibilities for pedagogy in Further Education: Harnessing the abundance of literacy

In this report, it is argued that the most salient factor in the contemporary communicative landscape is the sheer abundance and diversity of possibilities for literacy, and that the extent and nature of students' communicative resources is a central issue in education. The text outlines the conceptual underpinnings of the Literacies for Learning in Further Education project in a social view of literacy, and the associated research design, methodology and analytical framework. It elaborates on the notion of the abundance of literacies in students' everyday lives, and on the potential for harnessing these as resources for the enhancement of learning. It provides case studies of changes in practice that have been undertaken by further education staff in order to draw upon students' everyday literacy practices on Travel and Tourism and Multimedia courses. It ends with some of the broad implications for conceptualising learning that arise from researching through the lens of literacy practices