Music Industry: The Next Step for Music Technology Programs

Purpose & objective

Provide insight into music industry programs, including timeline of development, rationale, and citing growth over time

Encourage development of similar programming across all learning paradigms and idioms

Outline

Outline:
Personal Experience with Program Development
-Evolution from traditional music technology programming by adapting and including elements of modern band/music creating a platform of musical performance.
-Opportunity to develop and maintain student empowerment through the lens of agency/voice and choice, and the necessary management techniques to encourage success therein

Skills and Correlation between Music Technology (Production) and Modern Music (Performance)
-Music Technology (Production Focus): predominantly technical skills, including recording, mixing/editing, live sound, and performance-centric technical development (lighting, monitoring, etc.)
-Modern Music (Performance Focus): replicates elements of traditional band/string/choral programming, providing students opportunity to showcase their efforts completed in rehearsal
--Students lead the ensemble, make programmatic choices, and coordinate rehearsals and performance: primary opportunity to highlight student agency
-Combination develops a holistic approach that better equips students for application within the growing umbrella of musical opportunity

Impact of Music Industry Programming
-Immediate impact to reach a larger portion of student body than traditional programming
-Long term impact within the greater music community within school/organization
-Potential impact on traditional music programming (citing examples of increased new/returning student participation over a period of time).
-New opportunity within interdisciplinary studies:
--Management (Business): students coordinate performance elements, take the reigns for themselves in a meaningful way
--Media (Music Tech): students develop material for themselves and others, putting their newly developed skills to the test and creating meaningful material
--Marketing (Design/Advertising): students develop material for social media and advertising purposes; team designs merchandise and certain performance elements in conjunction with the Media team.
--Mentorship (Education): students work alongside educators to assist in development of skills with younger students. Presents opportunity for students to “test” music education. Additionally, provides context for how far students themselves have come in a few years.

Live/Livestream Performance and Panel
-If the student ensemble is selected to perform, the presentation will feature a live demonstration, highlighting student skill sets, and demonstrating how these skills can evolve over time (ie mixing using a simpler iPad interface vs traditional analog controls)
-If the student ensemble is not selected to perform, the presentation will feature the same performance, albeit in a livestream format. We utilized this method when the presentation was given at TMEA in 2023. The same possibilities are present, however, without students present for the actual instruction, but completing the same information virtually.
-Students will participate in a Q&A style discussion with presentation spectators. Their feedback and willingness to share their experience through this format has proven invaluable in previous presentation iterations
-Skills (adjacent to actual performance) addressed within the context of student performance:
-Live streaming/video considerations
-Live mixing
-Live monitoring
-Live lighting

Supporting research

Clauhs, Powell, Clements Popular Music Pedagogies: A Practical Guide for Music Teachers

Holley, Reinhart, Moir Action-Based Approaches in Popular Music Education

Holley Coaching a Popular Music Ensemble

Giddings Rock Coach: A Practical Guide for Teaching Rock Bands in Schools

Burstein, Hale, Claxton, Wish Modern Band Method - Teacher Edition: A Beginner’s Guide for Group or Private Instruction [SERIES]

Kuhn, Hein Electronic Music School: A Contemporary Guide to Teaching Musical Creativity

King, A. (1993). From Sage on the Stage to Guide on the Side. College Teaching, 41(1), 30–35. https://doi.org/10.1080/87567555.1993.9926781

Clauhs, M., &; Cremata, R. (2020). Student Voice and choice in modern band Curriculum Development. Journal of Popular Music Education, 4(1), 101–116. https://doi.org/10.1386/jpme_00016_1

Powell, Bryan, "Modern Bands Impact on Student Enrollment in Traditional Music Ensembles" (2019). John J. Cali School of Music Scholarship and Creative Works. 42.

Clauhs, M., &; Cremata, R. (2020). Student Voice and choice in modern band Curriculum Development. Journal of Popular Music Education, 4(1), 101–116. https://doi.org/10.1386/jpme_00016_1