Music Commons^™

Harmonizing Tradition And Technology: Exploring The Use Of Artificial Intelligence In Applied Music Instruction, Elizabeth Blanton Momand

Journal of the Association for Technology in Music Instruction

This presentation highlights how AI tools can enhance applied music instruction by providing real-time feedback, streamlining lesson planning, and personalizing instruction. Attendees will learn how AI fosters more effective teaching and independent student practice, while also exploring opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation. This session equips music educators with strategies to modernize teaching and improve outcomes in 21st-century music programs.

Build Your Own Chatbot For Any Music Course – It’S Easier Than You Think!, Art Brownlow

Journal of the Association for Technology in Music Instruction

Imagine a teaching assistant available 24/7 to answer students’ questions and support their learning—now, with custom GPT chatbots, that vision is a reality. This session demonstrates two AI tools created for music history courses: an Informational Chatbot for course policies, assignments and deadlines; and a Tutor Chatbot for mastering course content. These tools enhance learning, accommodate diverse schedules, and improve efficiency by automating routine tasks. Attendees will learn to create their own custom AI chatbots while exploring practical insights and best practices, inspiring them to integrate AI into their classrooms.

Don’T Do-It-Yourself: The Exquisite Corpse And Collaborative Play In Undergraduate Electronic Music Pedagogy, Josh Biggs

Journal of the Association for Technology in Music Instruction

In this demonstration, I focus on the Exquisite Corpse as a pedagogical tool for undergraduate electronic music production courses, and more broadly argue for the practical and theoretical value of integrating collaborative and iterative improvisational tools in undergraduate electronic music curricula. I share a four-week module that applies the Exquisite Corpse method as a way to reduce student overwhelm and to encourage community-oriented learning and making, while introducing simple subtractive synthesis and MIDI composition in the DAW. The audience will benefit both from the specificity of the teaching methods I outline as well as the motivating premise that electronic music …

Free Code-Based Software Music Classes As An Invitation To Fuel Students' Sonic Creativity, Problem Solving, And Community Building, Jorge E. Variego

Journal of the Association for Technology in Music Instruction

This workshop proposes the integration of free code-based programming software into music classes to expand students' sonic creativity, problem-solving skills, and community-building opportunities.

Digital Innovations In Group Piano Instruction, Chee Hyeon Choi, Chan Kiat Lim

Journal of the Association for Technology in Music Instruction

This presentation will explore the transformative impact of integrating web-based digital textbooks into higher education music programs, specifically focusing on group piano curricula. By moving away from traditional paper-based textbooks, this approach leverages interactive, multimedia resources to create a dynamic and engaging learning environment. Attendees will gain insights into how digital textbooks, such as the award-winning eNovative Piano, can enhance students' understanding of musical concepts, foster technical proficiency, and promote a deeper connection between sound, theory, and technique. By attending this session, participants will understand how a multimedia approach in piano education can cultivate adaptability, responsiveness, and creativity, ultimately preparing …

Sonic Ecosystems And Natural Cycles: An Immersive Multimedia Improvisation, Jorge E. Variego

Journal of the Association for Technology in Music Instruction

This proposal presents a 20-minute free improvisation based on the concept of natural cycles, performed by a student-led electroacoustic ensemble. The multimedia improvisation explores the ensemble as a creative sonic ecosystem where sounds emerge, dissipate, and reconstruct in altered forms, mimicking natural processes like growth, decay, and regeneration.

This performance proposal is deeply rooted in the collaboration between Brian Eno and John Hassel in Possible Musics, where acoustic and electronic elements interweave, creating music that is simultaneously otherworldly and rooted in global sonic traditions. As Brian Eno noted, “Music is a process, not a thing.” This performance proposal situates music …

Electro-Acoustic Dance Composition: Practicality And Pragmatism, Ian Evans Guthrie

Journal of the Association for Technology in Music Instruction

“Efficiency, expediency, and experimentation in Dance Compositions.”

In this presentation, I want to describe the practical difficulties in composing for dance and using live electronics, and how I have found a happy medium. The presentation will begin with an overview of common dance approaches as I have experienced at the Interlochen Center for the Arts, the Kansas City Ballet, and the Florida State University School of Dance, and other institutions. Then, I will discuss the limitations for elaborate electroacoustic setups, particularly in the “black box” theatres and variety of dance studios used at these places. I will defend my thesis …

Sound Of NangqêN, Jiayue Cecilia Wu

Journal of the Association for Technology in Music Instruction

Tape Piece is part of a series of single-sound-source daydream pieces, where a solitary object or family of objects is repurposed to create an otherworldly soundscape. This work uses tape--masking, scotch, aluminum, packing, and duct--sometimes recognizable, and sometimes heavily processed. The familiar is juxtaposed with the fresh, and what starts out with unrolling and tearing quickly unravels as sounds evocative of gunfire, of bombs and explosions, and of Geiger counters suggesting the downfall of civilization. New creatures emerge throughout, each trying to find their place in a world that has come unglued.

Tape Piece, Kyle Vanderburg

Journal of the Association for Technology in Music Instruction

Tape Piece is part of a series of single-sound-source daydream pieces, where a solitary object or family of objects is repurposed to create an otherworldly soundscape. This work uses tape--masking, scotch, aluminum, packing, and duct--sometimes recognizable, and sometimes heavily processed. The familiar is juxtaposed with the fresh, and what starts out with unrolling and tearing quickly unravels as sounds evocative of gunfire, of bombs and explosions, and of Geiger counters suggesting the downfall of civilization. New creatures emerge throughout, each trying to find their place in a world that has come unglued.

Human Vs. Transhuman: Act One, Cecilia Suhr

Journal of the Association for Technology in Music Instruction

This work investigates the conflict between human and transhuman; to that end, the performance employs visual representations of human and transhuman interaction. The music and visual realms interact in real time to enhance the immersive experience of understanding the tension between machines and humans. Voice improvisation also interacts with live processing to create a unique sonic landscape. Overall, this is a multimedia, experimental contemporary performance at the intersection of technology and acoustic music.

Consort Yu, Yao Hsiao

Journal of the Association for Technology in Music Instruction

In Consort Yu for voice and live electronics, the integration of hand gestures and the use of Leap Motion holds profound significance in presenting Peking Opera. Unlike modern acting conventions, Peking Opera performers rely heavily on hand gestures to convey emotion and narrative. With limited body movements, gestures such as the iconic "Lotus Finger" become essential tools for expression. These nuanced gestures convey a wide range of emotions and intentions, enriching the storytelling experience.

My creative process bridges the rich traditions of Peking Opera with the realm of contemporary electronic music. First, I imitated the timbres and rhythms characteristic of …

Dreamcatcher, Ian Evans Guthrie

Journal of the Association for Technology in Music Instruction

Dreamcatcher is a composition for piano and fixed media. Dreamcatcher is the organic result of a commission from and collaboration with a contemporary choreographer. Approached at a recent summer camp about composing music for a “dreamy” choreography, it became a work that synthesizes the sounds of our environment, the subconscious of sleep, the nostalgia of a cleaner world, and the hope of a better future.

Drawing Noise, Ivan Elezovic

Journal of the Association for Technology in Music Instruction

DRAWING NOISE is a collaboration between a painter, a composer, and a photographer-video artist. The main intention is to further explore the ambient music that painting and drawing produce. The approach of audio is correlated with the sounds of various hand-movements by color pens on textured drywall. The method of making and designing audio and visual documentation of the creation of the wall drawings serve as the raw material for the final video. The audio in the project originates from recorded artistic performance that portrays a series of circle-shape objects in real time. Furthermore, various layers of sounds are added …

Out Of The Ground (Into The Sky), Brad Decker

Journal of the Association for Technology in Music Instruction

Out of the Ground (Into the Sky) is written for clarinetist, with computer processing in combination with fixed audio. It is a multilayered performance project, that aims to memorialize a loved one. The performance (by both clarinetist, and the computer) is nuanced and visceral. This is intended to be a memorable concert piece.

Quietly, Kyong Mee Choi

Journal of the Association for Technology in Music Instruction

The composition Quietly is designed to incorporate music, poem, and 3-D animation.

Hearing The Wind Again, Linda Antas

Journal of the Association for Technology in Music Instruction

I love listening to the wind blow through the forests and mountains—hearing its pitch and timbre change, its approaching and passing, and its power. This piece was inspired by the sound of the wind, and my mother’s tears at hearing the wind. Before getting hearing aids, she hadn’t heard it for years.

Beyond Interdisciplinary: Igniting Transdisciplinary Thinking In Tomorrow’S Music Technology Graduates, Mark De Zwaan

Journal of the Association for Technology in Music Instruction

Outwardly, this presentation is an inquest into the structural quandaries of curricular design in music technology—a practical extension to the seminal discussion about music technology curriculum launched by Carola Boehm (2007). I recently pioneered a new BSc degree program in Digital Music Technology at my institution, obtaining the support of four departments across campus to manifest an interdisciplinary implementation, yet the curricular structure governing our degree programs was generally incompatible with Boehm’s foremost recommendations. This led me down the very curricular path she rejected as “modernist”: derived from 18th-century concepts of the university in which interdisciplinarity was realized through the …

An Inclusive Oer Pedagogy In Teaching Music Technology In Higher Ed, Jiayue Cecilia Wu

Journal of the Association for Technology in Music Instruction

As a Colorado State's Open Educational Resources (OER) funding award recipient, I will present the application of an OER approach in teaching music technology, utilizing free and/or open-source materials, tools, and textbooks/publications. Drawing on two courses I have successfully taught using this methodology, I will highlight practical implementation strategies and their impact. Furthermore, I will introduce national OER funding resources and guide the application process. I will enable music educators to adopt this approach in their teaching practices, enhance their scholarly publications, and secure funding support for academic initiatives.

Duotube: Inspiring Experimental Creativity In Common Digital Spaces, Ralph Lewis, Robin Meiksins

Journal of the Association for Technology in Music Instruction

This paper reflects on the ways an easy to access work for laptop has been of use to ensembles and music educators. It explores experimentalism and electronic music using technology typically found in a computer lab or a home computer and allows for playful exploration in group or solo situations. Near the end of the talk, an excerpt of the work will be demonstrated to help show how it relatively easy to onboard, try out, and ideally try it out at home/school later on.

Crafting Sonic Worlds: Developing A Comprehensive Curriculum For Sound Design, Igor Karaca

Journal of the Association for Technology in Music Instruction

In this paper presentation we will explore effective pedagogical strategies for engaging college students in the field of sound design. The presentation will outline a comprehensive curriculum that balances theoretical knowledge with hands-on experience, emphasizing the importance of creativity and collaboration.

Tools Of The Trade: An Exploratory Study Analyzing The Frequency And Potency Of Tools In Hip-Hop Music Creation, Performance, And Pedagogy, Drew X. Coles, Cato Zane

Journal of the Association for Technology in Music Instruction

This paper presents findings from a qualitative research study examining the tools most frequently used in the creation, performance, and teaching of hip-hop music. The study collected data from three key stakeholder groups: professional practitioners, music educators, and amateur creators. Through thematic analysis, the research identifies tools ranging from hardware such as MIDI controllers and turntables to software like DAWs and mobile apps, and explores their perceived effectiveness in facilitating musical creativity.

The study’s goal is to inform music educators about the tools that dominate the hip-hop marketplace and their various applications. By understanding how different tools contribute to beat-making, …

Integrating Visual And Sonic Experiences Through Modeling Affective Communication, Caua Cestari, Angelo Gabriel Tavares

Journal of the Association for Technology in Music Instruction

The authors present a computational interface designed to integrate affective responses arising from visual and aural stimuli into a unified audio-visual representation. This representation serves as a framework for applications in algorithmic composition and game development, facilitating the creation of cohesive, affect-driven multimedia experiences.

It’S Right Behind You!: Sound Object Depth Perception In Modern Horror Film Soundscapes, Nathan Ash-Milby, Timothy Hsu

Journal of the Association for Technology in Music Instruction

This presentation explores the use of spatial sound design within modern horror films, illustrating the efficacy of three-dimensional sound placement techniques on audience immersion within periphonic and binaural speaker configurations. Viewers will learn research-based methods and technical considerations to enhance audience immersion and engagement within spatial horror soundscapes, as well as spatial sound practices that can be utilized within different applications.

Ai And Creativity, Herbert Midgley

Faculty Publications

This article argues that artificial intelligence is best understood as a tool in continuity with earlier technologies like digital cameras, non-linear editing, MIDI, and desktop publishing, rather than as a magical threat that will erase creativity or employment. Drawing on historical shifts from film to digital video, manual paste‑up to graphic design software, and acoustic instruments to synthesizers, the author shows that new tools disrupt workflows and certain jobs, yet ultimately broaden access and generate new creative opportunities. Concerns about AI’s resource use are contextualized by comparing its water footprint to bottled water, agriculture, beef production, and textiles, concluding that …

Unveiling Devin Morrison’S Modern Jazz By Analyzing His Musical Techniques And Influences From Early 90s Gospel Music, Rashad C. Sylvester

Recital Papers

Unveiling Devin Morrison’s Modern Jazz by Analyzing His Musical Techniques and Influences From Early 90S Gospel Music

A Warm Embrace Amongst Isolated Tears, Gia Dreyer

Theses and Dissertations

a warm embrace amongst isolated tears behaves as an ekphrasis of Paula Rego’s triptych The Pillowman (2004). An anecdotal interpretation of Martin McDonagh’s titular play The Pillowman (2003), Rego addresses the story of the Pillowman through her father’s depression. This piece effloresces from the trace of the Pillowman into considering the remnants of suffering exhibited in both works by Rego and McDonagh.

The trumpet has been ontologically oriented to fanfare and pomp by peripheral structures of imperial order. The trumpet and the nation-state are intertwined through militaristic imposition. What does it mean to strip away the power of juridical dominance …

Of Cicadas And Ducks: Humor In Emmanuel Chabrier's "Les Cigales" And "Villanelle Des Petits Canards", Hope V. Dornfeld

Montview Journal of Research & Scholarship

This research project consists of a vocal performance of two songs from Emmanuel Chabrier’s “Barnyard Suite” (Volailleries), a song cycle on poems of Edmond Rostand and Rosemonde Gérard. It will be accompanied by program notes and a separate oral presentation that detail the research process and creative decisions inherent in presenting a work of musical performance art. The project will provide a broad historical context for Chabrier’s work, with special attention given to the role of humor in French art song. The first song presented, Les cigales, masterfully depicts cicadas and their raucous noises, while the second, …

Butterflies & You: Considerations Of Human Relationships With The Natural World, M. E. Colby

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Science communication only accounts for approximately 2% of the entire scientific output of 2017-2022 (Parejo-Cuéllar et. al, 2024). It is an under-researched and under-valued field, especially in an age that has devalued science as a whole. The delicate art of explaining complicated ideas to people who are unfamiliar with scientific jargon is vital to humans’ understanding of the world. Butterflies & You is a documentary film exploring the relationship between humans and the many different butterfly species that call Illinois home. Video-based science communication is important to research and practice because of its impact on environmental advocacy and the growing …

The American Eye And Greek Music: How Greek Artists Are Changing To Become Palatable To The Non-Greek Listener, Andriana Kourkoumelis

Capstones

International artists are trying to successfully bridge into the U.S. music industry, and Greek pop singers are finally making a dent. This year, some of the biggest names in Greece, along with a couple new faces, were working with their labels to rebrand as a means to connect with the American listener and expand their listenership. With three notable tours happening across the states from muscians like Konstantinos Argiros, Anastasia, and Marina Satti playing venues like the Barclays Center and Sony Hall, it's safe to assume that there is a shift happening in the world of Balkan and Hellenic entertainment. …

Developing Christian Artists: The Live Music Sphere, Camille Crites

Student Scholar Symposium

Christian/Gospel music was the fourth-fastest growing music genre in 2024, and many artists are seeking to enter the Christian music industry. This research seeks to examine the exploration of live music opportunities for Christian music artists in the developing stages of their careers. Every musical artist’s career consists of about five sectors: Songwriting/Publishing, Recording/Releasing Music, Live Music, Merch, and Sync (Film/TV). While parts like Songwriting and Recording are very accessible for new Christian artists, it can be challenging to know how to best approach the Live Music sector, one of the major sources of income for any performing artist. There …