ABSTRACT. In this talk, I will introduce some of the ongoing research collaborations and student-led projects developing through the Centre for Practice & Research in Science & Music (PRiSM) at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. Focuses will include creative projects involving the use of PRiSM SampleRNN, a software tool developed by PRiSM which uses machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques to generate audio, as well as those linking mathematics with music.

Professor Emily Howard holds a Personal Chair in Composition at the RNCM and is Director of PRiSM, the RNCM Centre for Practice & Research in Science & Music. Howard’s music is commissioned, performed and broadcast all over the world. Her work is known for its inventive connections with mathematical shapes and processes: Antisphere – the latest addition to Howard’s ongoing series of orchestral geometries – was commissioned by the Barbican for Sir Simon Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO), and opened the 2019-20 season. Her music is the focus of a NMC composer portrait disc, Magnetite. BBC Radio 3’s Record Review noted that the scientific ideas were ‘brilliantly articulated’ throughout the collection.

ABSTRACT. This presentation examines the challenges facing teachers and students at a West London Catholic Secondary school for girls with a mixed Sixth Form during lockdown and the implications for these students entering Higher Education. I document the changes between the lockdowns in 2020 and 2021 and move towards hybrid teaching in 2022. Initially all work was on Google Classroom with registers taken for every lesson and the Pastoral team contacted home to find out why students were having problems and deliver laptops, Chromebooks and dongles. However, as Year 11 in 2020 had centre assessed grades, they are now facing their first public exams in Year 13 without any experience of this. In 2021 the school moved to a mix of pre-recorded and live lessons with appropriate safeguarding in place, with a normal timetable online. A key issue was the loss of learning in both lockdowns, so schemes of work were revised to address knowledge gaps. It was also vital to relaunch extra-curricular activities to promote social skills. In 2022 hybrid learning was offered to all students so that they could continue to learn, even if they were isolating. Staff were supported by new CPD to help them to support their students with retrieval practice and metacognition strategies. Some vulnerable students were offered online support through the National Tutoring Programme, with some positive results for Maths and English. Students were also offered online work experience to develop resilience, although many were suffering from low self-esteem and depression. Staff had to embrace a wide range of new technologies from jamboard, slido and whiteboard.fi. The key issues across all subjects included cameras off, not turning up to online lessons, distractions from siblings, lack of support from families and students playing games during lessons. The implications for Higher Education are that students will have very different experiences of learning and teaching during lockdown. In part, teachers only saw the tip of the iceberg: the gap in learning between socio-economic groups has widened, and this will impact these students as they move to university – both in terms of skills and knowledge, but also in terms of resilience and mental health.

ABSTRACT. Research into the effects of the COVID 19 pandemic have shown that some issues include teachers’ beliefs regarding eLearning (Sokal et al., 2020). Whilst governments demanded a rapid move towards eLearning, this did not necessarily encompass the needs of students, as Calder et al., (2021) report. Bonal and Gonzalez (2020) and Cahoon et al., (2021) identified challenges of the availability of hardware, software and access to Wi-Fi for families of low social economic status. This case study analyses the impact of lockdown upon secondary music education. Teaching online – KS3 Teaching online requires high energy levels and new ways of engaging students, including recognising pets and running hoodie competitions. Students using YouTube to support independent learning expect teachers to master TV presentations skills and use of visualisers with fluidity. There is a difference between staff who embrace new technology and those who resist eLearning, as echoed by Sokal et al., (2020) explain. (Video). Practical and assessment – KS4 Zoom worked well for practical activities, e.g. creating Leitmotifs. Students worked in breakout rooms. Whilst latency still proved problematic, the students demonstrated resilience. However, as one student explains, with five family members online together, bandwidth did not support real-time collaboration (Video). These experiences emphasize the digital divide linked to socio-economic status as Cahoon et al., (2021) report. Hardware, software and broadband Student access to apps was limited by the ability to pay for broadband, their mobile phones and access to laptops/tablets, although the school provided Chromebooks and laptops to disadvantaged students. Conclusion Music education in lockdown was well-meaning but bedevilled by access to hardware, software and Wi-Fi, particularly with underprivileged students. More research needs to be conducted into the provision of blended learning for music students to ascertain what support might be needed from schools and educational institutions and to ascertain the long-term impacts of lockdown on student progress. References Bonal, X., and Gonzales, S. (2020). The impact of lockdown on the learning gap: family and school divisions in times of crisis. International Review of Education 65: 635-655. Cahoon, A., McGill, S., and Simms, V. (2021) Understanding home education in the context of COVID-19 lockdown. DOI:10.1080/03323315.2021.1921010 Calder, N. Jafri, M.; Guo, L. (2021). Mathematics Education Students’ Experiences during Lockdown: Managing Collaboration in eLearning DOI.org/10.3390/educsci11040191 Sokal, L., Trudel, L E., & Babb J. (2020). Canadian teachers’ attitudes toward change, efficacy, and burnout during the COVID-19 pandemic https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666374020300169

ABSTRACT. This presentation explores the challenges facing a singing teacher working for a music hub in West London during lockdown as the provider of vocal lessons for students at Gumley House Convent School. You will hear both from the singing teacher, Celia, and some of our students. The initial challenge was to create a wealth of resources for students – from warm up exercises, backing tracks and individually recorded tracks with the melody or melody and bass line to support intonation. Sheet music had to be made available via pdf files. Students initially felt much more self-conscious and exposed when they were singing. Whilst all but two students continued with singing lessons, offering singing lessons to new students without knowing the music teacher was, at times, traumatic. Students had to grapple with the lack of a teacher in the room, poor Wi-Fi connections and disruptions from other family members. As many lessons were moved to the weekend for safeguarding reasons – the school required an adult to be present – there were also disturbances from other family members during lessons. The benefits, however, for continuing students, were remarkable. These students developed much more aural acuity, they were more resilient, they became better musicians, and this was evidenced by a very high number of entries and excellent results for ABRSM and Trinity singing exams. A key factor would seem to be the established relationship between the singing teacher and her students.

ABSTRACT. This is the Society for Education Music and Psychology Research (Sempre) Scheduled Annual General Meeting (AGM). All conference delegates are welcome to attend.

ABSTRACT. The Certificate for Music Educators Course (CME) Level 4 is a qualification for music teachers and educators. It has been created as a result of the Henley Review (2011) and the UK government’s 2011 National Plan for Music Education. It provides a teaching qualification and means of recognition for music teachers and educators working with children and young people, whether in the classroom environment or outside school, across various music teaching and learning contexts. The qualification is accredited by the Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) and validated by Trinity College London and the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. Approved course providers deliver the course and use a variety of delivery methods, ranging from in-person learning to online real-time or asynchronous delivery. Enact Music has been delivering this course to both UK based and international learners, entirely online using asynchronous and synchronous methods since 2017. In this paper, Enact Music CME course Director Dr Lilian Simones will discuss: the benefits and challenges on design and delivery of this qualification solely online; the advantages of working closely with learners to co-create an environment conducive to learning; and how to support and scaffold metacognitive skills in adult distance learners. It is hoped that this presentation will provide insights that can be applied in a variety of other online Music teaching courses while initiating discussions among other CME course providers on informed approaches to course design, delivery, and assessment.

References UK National Plan for Music Education, Department for Education and Department for Media, Culture and Sport (DfE and DMCS (2011). The importance of music: A national plan for music education. Department for Culture, Media and Sport. https://publications.education.gov.uk/ Henley, D. (2011). Music Education in England. Department for Education and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

ABSTRACT. Introduction This presentation draws on the author’s current doctoral study of vocal function and efficiency in the mature female singer and whether effective pedagogy can promote sustained healthy vocal production and competence. Caprilli noted in 2013 (p2), that ‘literature on pedagogical strategies for the ageing voice is lacking’. A search in ‘Journal of Voice’ reveals that literature on this subject is still not extensive and especially that written from the perspective of a professional singer and musicologist. Furthermore, the author draws on 30 years of experience, observation and reflection on working with the mature female voice. Like all instruments, the voice is subject to wear and tear; and it can become dysfunctional. The aging process can mean that the mature voice may become less resilient due to a decline in respiratory system function, atrophy or bowing of the vocal folds, decline of the musculoskeletal system, ossification and calcification of the laryngeal cartilages, and/or loss of stamina and mental function. Across a lifespan, the human voice is subject to environmental threats such as chemical pollution, smoke and any air-born irritants. It is also subject to emotional stress as the target organ for the experience and communication of emotion at a primal level. Over the past twenty years there has been a burgeoning body of research supporting the efficacy of singing as a means to sustain both mental and physical health and well-being. The over-arching implication of this author’s work is that it can support work on singing for health; logically, if a voice were to become irreparably dysfunctional, then the singer would not be able to experience the wider benefits of singing for health and well-being.

ABSTRACT. Introduction:

If physical activity was music, how would it sound? The daily physical activity of two elder subjects was recored. One recording shows more physical activity than the other. We measured and segmented the physical activity in different time-scales. Following this, musical sounds were mapped to the segmented data. This resulted in two short musical pieces, one for each subject. We carried out a survey to assess if a people would identify each by listening. Results from the survey indicate a majority of correct answers. This paradigm may also be extended to population groups. We propose musification of daily activity as a means of conveying information for clinical purposes, such as diagnosis and therapy, emphasizing the individual and community engagement that such a system might yield (see Buckingham et al., 2019).

Methods:

The data used in this study were recordings of accelerometers worn by elderly people during a day. These data were pre-processed to obtain two basic measures: Mean Absolute Deviation (MAD) of acceleration and activity (i.e., lying, sitting and upright position, walking). The segmentation of MAD and activities starts with integrating data and rescaling it logarithmically, as Chastin and Granat (2010) observed that the relation between time of inactivity and activity follows a power-law distribution. Then, this data is segmented in different time scales using a self-similarity matrix (Foote, 2000). Then the segmentation boundaries were rectified and redundancy was reduced. The boundary segments were mapped to bell sounds, where the average MAD affects the transition from a chromatic to a pentatonic scale. The average MAD of each segment was mapped to the appearance of percussion instruments, while the global average MAD was mapped to tempo. Two musical pieces were rendered, warping the whole day data to one minute for each piece. A survey using social media on Internet was implemented to assess the musical pieces. In the survey, participants are presented with piece one or two, and asked which music corresponds to the most active person.

Results:

The multigranular segmentation system produces segmentation boundaries that have a corresponding boundary at a lower granularity, occurring at the same point in time. Also the average activity within a segment describes the segment locally. These properties are useful to compress information and and to display the hierarchical structure of daily events embedded in larger events. This structure is akin to musical structure and the perceptual assessment supports the efficacy of the system.

ABSTRACT. This talk will begin with a short summary of big ideas that support music teaching and learning pedagogy in 2022. These ideas will be framed by social issues but also musical ones as we move forward in teaching music in the 21st century. Implications of these big ideas for online instruction and music technology will be suggested. Specific examples of current and future development will be offered as a basis for discussion.

Peter R. Webster is currently Scholar-in-Residence at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and is a Professor Emeritus of Music Education at the Bienen School of Music, Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. He holds degrees in music education from the University of Southern Maine (BS) and the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester (MM, PhD). He has taught for over 50 years at various levels of instruction. Webster was the 2014 recipient of the Senior Researcher Award from the Society of Research in Music Education of the National Association for Music Education. He is co-author of Experiencing Music Technology, 4th edition Updated (Oxford University Press, 2022). He has presented at many state, national, and international meetings and is a frequent keynote speaker. His published work includes over 100 articles and book chapters on music technology and creative thinking in music which have appeared in journals and handbooks in and outside of music.

ABSTRACT. Humanity loves music in all forms, but many people don’t actively play an instrument because of the time needed to learn the language of standard western classical music notation. Neurotypical persons often engage in years of practice to build skills reading music, but it is neither possible nor feasible for most people with intellectual or developmental disabilities, or for those recovering from trauma and going through rehabilitation, to undertake this challenge. The “Notes to Blocks” computer automation program produces a simple color-coded grid that can easily be interpreted as a map of sequential keyboard notes, thus providing an opportunity for persons who are unable to read standard notation to quickly learn to play a variety of songs by following an easy color/spatial graphic pattern.

An .xml music file serves as input into the Java-based program; the program deciphers the file and generates a color-coded grid, symbolizing each note in a straightforward visual configuration. The output grid format is contained within a .png file and therefore available for universal access on many different devices. (Typically, younger people read from tablets and older adults prefer reading from paper print; this output format is appropriate for either.) The graph design easily illustrates the rise and fall of a melodic pattern with a specific color representing each note. Individual notes on a keyboard are then marked with coordinating color lables so that the client can match the note with the color.

This project model falls into the intersection of technology, science, music, and health. The target goal of playing a favorite song on the piano can be widely utilized in educational and therapeutic settings for those with motor, speech, and cognition challenges. Examples of populations who could benefit from this method include persons affected with Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, stroke, autism, traumatic brain injury, or even neuro-typical individuals who don’t read music and want to play for their own enjoyment to create a social network in educational hubs or assisted living centers. Music is extremely motivational for the client or student, so this tool has an enormous potential audience in educational, non-profit, medical, therapeutic, and social service programs.

This paper will discuss the experiences that led to the idea of automation, and then outline the technical specifications associated with project development. Examples of resulting graphs will be shown for various songs, with accompanying instructions given for downloading the completed files for personal use at no charge.

ABSTRACT. This presentation is the reporting on decades long case study research into best practices for recording student original songs in classroom as studio settings (Randles, 2022). The presenter has been a part of developing a classroom environment where seven bands work in headphone hub environments to cover and write original songs for both live performance and recording. Ways to go about organizing the environment for success have been established. Strategies have been developed to facilitate live performances: equipment needs, acoustic considerations, and even technical tips like how to wrap cables that are beneficial for music teachers to consider. For music teachers to act like music producers in the classroom they must first become comfortable with creating, capturing, mixing/mastering, and disseminating their own musical works. This book will unpack considerations for doing all of those things. While manuals and helpful video links exist on how to do all of these things (Fink et al., 2018), research on putting creativity, technology, recording arts, songwriting, music production, and live performance into one work for music teachers is relatively sparse (Clauhs et al., 2019). The presenter has had the opportunity to give teachers interested in the future of creativity-infused recording and contemporary-performance centered music classrooms a place to start in their conceptualization and in their practice. Presentation topics will include: (1) defining a music teacher’s role in the classroom as someone whose primary role is to bring out the original music that exists within the students’ that he or she serves, about (2) giving them background knowledge and understanding on how to start setting up a classroom that nurtures student musical creativity in this way, and about (3) providing them with resources on how to record, mix, master, and engineer live and studio audio performances. The presenter will share information regarding his forthcoming book with Oxford University Press. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DfvFnmq-KFwroXp-I20cLBCoEGzFs7w_/view?usp=sharing

References Clauhs, M., Franco, B., & Cremata, R. (2019). Mixing it up: Sound recording and music production in school music programs. New York: Oxford University Press. Fink, R., Latour, M., & Wallmark, Z. (2018). The relentless pursuit of tone. New York: Oxford University Press. Randles, C. (2022). Music teacher as music producer: How to turn your classroom into a center for musical creativities. New York: Oxford University Press.

ABSTRACT. As a musician, I have engaged with music education from post-compulsory college to postgraduate levels. At multiple points throughout this journey, I have observed in an auto-ethnographical context how my learning practice has taken place in contrasting yet concurrent contexts: formal and informal. I have also noted the inter-relationship between my formal and informal learning practices was most significant in a specific context: music production technology.

The increasing ubiquity of music production technology has led to the prevalence of a new kind of musician: the artist-producer. The intrinsic use of evolving music production technology has altered these musicians’ learning practices in both formal and informal contexts i.e., learning institutionally or learning in a self-directed manner, respectively.

The interplay between the different modes of learning represents a complex conceptual exchange that cannot be conceived as polar opposites. They may be better understood as juxtaposed, dynamic entities situated within an interdisciplinary continuum. This model better represents the evolving nature of music production technology and its application in formal music production technology education.

The presentation reports on a current project that seeks to deconstruct the artist-producers’ formal and informal learning practices in macro- and micro-contexts. I intend to work with members of the artist-producer population to obtain primary data with a mixed-method approach using a survey, interviews, and observations. To further supplement the primary data, the research will be supported by concurrent documentary analysis of textbooks, online video resources, and undergraduate to postgraduate curricular documentation.

The concurrent evolution of the Internet has also had an effect on the way contemporary musicians learn. Online learning resources have become increasingly available. This new availability has conclusively changed the way contemporary musicians learn. I will also explore these new learning conditions in the presentation.

Having reflected on my own experiences I now want to understand the ways in which informal learning practices potentially support or disrupt contemporary music production technology curricula. I seek to explore how a synergy of both formal and informal learning approaches might augment future music production technology education.

When complete this study will help define and articulate the artist-producers’ evolving learning requirements and how they potentially manifest within formal educational contexts. This could potentially facilitate changes in music production technology curriculum design and policy and improve our broader academic understanding of educational practice and theory. Findings will have wider applicability in a range of creative, technology-based disciplines.

ABSTRACT. Several studies have shown benefits regarding the use of digital technologies in musical instrument or singing classes, mainly in relation to the application of visual feedback to increase students' awareness of aspects related to their performance and their learning processes. The use of digital technologies as a tool increased on a large scale in the year 2020 when, to follow the protocols of the covid-19 pandemic of social distancing. Piano teachers who knew face-to-face pedagogical practices had to adapt and adopt online piano teaching. Overnight piano teachers had to learn and to deal with softwares and develop basic extra-musical skills, such as conducting video conferences through platforms such as Zoom, Google Meet, Skype, to advanced ones such as learning to use OBS Studio with multiple cameras Since March 2020, piano teaching in Brazil has changed dramatically. Piano teachers have been looking for training courses to teach piano online, from the use of applications to the use of methodologies. Piano teacher WhatsApp groups were formed, and many exchanges of knowledge and support were formed. In Brazil, in the years 2020 and 2021 there were at least 3 international conferences in the online modality with a focus on piano pedagogy. In this article I present an experience report as a speaker at a Piano Pedagogy Workshop in Brazil about the use of Reaper in online piano lessons in order to enhance awareness of undergraduate piano students, pianists and piano tutors on their performances.

ABSTRACT. The present study developed in the Music Education graduate program at the University of Brasília (UnB) sought to understand Contextualized Instructional Design applied to online musical instrument classes and the praxis of sustainability in the same context. The background information includes research by different authors on the topics sustainability (GIORNO and ROSA, 2020); sustainability and music (FRANÇA, 2011; DU AND LEUNG, 2021), online education (CASTIONI et al., 2020; HODGES et. al., 2020; NETO et. al., 2020), online music education (UTERMOHL, 2020; GOHN, 2020), group music lesson (CRUVINEL, 2004), instructional design (FILATRO, 2015), learning community (SILVA and VASCONCELLOS, 2022). The research was characterized as qualitative and the methodology to be implemented is the so-called action research (SAKAMOTO e SILVEIRA, 2014). The participants in this study are students in the Music Education undergraduate program at the University of Brasília (UnB) in the first semester of 2022. There is a course called “Ensemble Practice” which involves the participation of students who play different musical instruments. With online classes being experienced by the majority of the academic community, new ways of producing and expanding the possibilities of online classes may emerge. Therefore, this work aims to understand the Contextualized Instructional Design in online music instrument lessons associated with the praxis of sustainability.

ABSTRACT. How to call for assistance when facing difficulties in voicing? People who had their voice box surgically removed, laryngectomy, often struggle to use communication devices to have social interaction, receive support from customer services or even in case of emergencies.

During the operation, the larynx is removed and the trachea or windpipe is brought forward into the neck. The lungs are no longer connected to the mouth. The most often used form of speech recovery is tracheoesophageal voice, in which a valve is placed to connect the trachea with the oesophagus or the food pipe. The air passage from the lungs then causes a part of the gullet to vibrate and produce sound. The sound travels up further into the mouth where is it is shaped into speech. This new voice however is non-sinusoidal and irregular of nature and therefore a challenge for traditional communication devices. The sound is also much lower and this causes even more problems for women, who are often mistaken for men.

Together with Respeecher, specialised in voice cloning, we explored the use of their technology on voice samples of tracheoesophageal voice and developed a prototype to offer real time (with a delay of <200ms) intelligible voice replacement that aims to improve support specific for individuals who have had a laryngectomy.