Music Pedagogy Commons^™

Pedagogy Of Immersive Audio In Music For Collegiate Application, Nathaniel Q. Stansbury

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Academia has always struggled to keep up with the fast-changing audio industry. Recent developments in immersive audio have further widened this gap, and comparatively few pedagogical materials exist to assist in addressing the problem. This manuscript proposes a three-course curriculum designed to prepare undergraduate engineers for immersive music production. Course I introduces the history and terminology of immersive audio. Course II explores DAW signal flow, production procedures, and major immersive formats. Course III focuses on applied mixing, giving students hands-on experience. The curriculum acts as an opportunity for universities and educators to better equip students going into the music industry. …

Visualizing The Fretboard: Arpeggiated Patterns, Muscle Memory, And Neurocognitive Strategies For The 5-String Electric Bass, Matthew Alexander Woisin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Proficient navigation of the 5-string electric bass requires a comprehensive mastery of various techniques and a solid understanding of music theory. This includes a detailed grasp of arpeggios, chord extensions, and the development of deeply ingrained muscle memory for precise execution. This thesis introduces a structured methodology that refines existing fretboard visualization techniques and applies a unique manner of fretboard mapping, offering a more precise framework for comprehending and unlocking the full range of the instrument. By drawing insights from music theory, music education, cognitive science, neuroscience, and technology this approach is achieved by synthesizing research on visual pattern recognition, …

Metamorphosis: An Original Jazz Guitar Concerto Exploring Improvisation And Polystylistic Strategies In The Modern Concerto, Ronnie J. Whitt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The electric guitar is underutilized in large ensemble art music. Some composers have sought to alleviate this deficiency by expanding the literature through the electric guitar concerto. Few electric guitar concerti are written for improvised jazz guitar, therefore presenting a need for this research. In this thesis, I explore the development of the jazz guitar concerto and nine compositional strategies that benefit composers writing a multi-genre jazz guitar concerto. I analyze selected jazz guitar concerti through lenses, including phrase-level compositional devices, textural and timbral schema, and musical hybridity, to identify these strategies. These concerti include: D.J. Sparr’s Katrina, Jake …

Digital Orchestration In Media Compositions, Jimmy Bartley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As composers gain access to better tools, digital mockups have increasingly grown in popularity. Composers often aim to emulate an idealized orchestral sound in their mockups. By understanding the nature of acoustic orchestration and instrumentation, specific techniques and approaches for virtual instruments and sample libraries, and methods to process and manipulate MIDI audio, composers can achieve this idealized sound. This thesis will focus on the common techniques and methods that composers can use to achieve this in digital mockups. Concluding the thesis is an original work that combines digital and live instruments while exploring different techniques to achieve an ideal …

Engaging Students In Learning Music Theory Fundamentals And Preparing For College Level Music Theory, Marissa Aronson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this thesis is to provide teachers resources to prepare students for college-level music theory by using the keyboard. By providing visualization of patterns, the keyboard provides a superior tool to create a smooth transition between pre-college and college-level music theory instruction. In search of easing the passage between these levels, I interviewed numerous piano teachers who provided suggestions on how they include the keyboard to teach theory. After the interviews, I compared piano lesson theory books and college theory textbooks to compare their approaches. To assist with any gaps found in the theory books, I provide some …

Defining Recomposition Through The Works Of Gregson, Richter, And Peck: Creating A Dialogue With Vivaldi And Bach To Compose New Music., Amanda Peck

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Recomposition has been a commonly utilized compositional method for hundreds of years, yet there is no universally accepted definition in the musical community. The existing literature on the subject is limited, so this project will examine various sources to define this term more accurately. This research analyzes successful recompositions for string ensemble, Peter Gregson’s Bach - The Cello Suites Recomposed (2018) and Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi - The Four Seasons Recomposed (2012), and my two new compositions, Air on the G String Recomposed and Vivaldi Cello Sonata No. 3 in A Minor Recomposed. My compositions incorporate the …

Inner Song Phenomenological Description Of A Musical Object Of Phantasy, Ellen Moysan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is the phenomenological description of a musical object of phantasy I call “inner song,” i.e., the music that the musician “sings in his or her head” while practicing his or her instrument. It describes the specific inner song of a single musician playing a melodic instrument, and rehearsing in a solipsistic situation. The description is based on three resources: my personal experience as a cellist; the third person experiences of other musicians I have interviewed on that topic since 2010; and the Husserlian corpus. Each chapter starts with excerpts of interviews focusing on specific aspects the inner song. …

Embodied Cognition In The Music Theory And Aural Skills Classrooms, Leslie Thompson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Applying concepts of embodied cognition positively impacts pedagogy in the theory and aural skills classrooms. This thesis defines a holistic view of the student and identifies how classroom instruction from that perspective can benefit student learning as well as overall well-being. The opening chapters provide a brief scientific background and connect concepts of embodied cognition with specific music theory and aural skills examples from an interview. A select survey of the music theory pedagogy literature also illustrates principles of embodied cognition. Based on this background, the final chapter presents new sample lesson plans and discusses how to adapt to student …

Music Theory Pedagogy For The Violin: Cognitive Philosophy And Three Model Curricula, Morganne J. Mcintyre

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Violin playing promotes a connection between mind and body that allows the performer to internalize, or embody, tactile features of the instrument, such as the distance between strings, the feeling of the fingertips on the fingerboard, the interval size between notes, and many other aspects. This thesis designs a pedagogy that employs the violin’s physical attributes to provide the beginning through advanced player with a deeper understanding of music theory. The thesis suggests pairing of physical learning and musical theory at each stage of a violinist’s musical education. Chapter 1 surveys embodied cognition and cognitive artifacts. Chapter 2 applies these …

“This Rigid Curricular Way”: Evaluating Expectations In Collegiate Music Education, Sophie Ailsa Lewis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Conversations surrounding curricular reform are abound in music education today. Much of the literature on this topic explores how professors can adapt their teaching practices to the presumed needs of students in the classroom, but student voices are infrequently centered in these discussions.

This thesis examines the study of music in the collegiate setting from the student perspective. Using a survey which I designed and interviews that I conducted, I examine the disconnect between student values and those of the institutions they attend. I then put these student perspectives in conversation with existing literature.

I discovered that student experiences revolve …

Pedagogy Of Video-Game Scoring For Collegiate Application And An Original Score For The Nintendo Switch Title, Renaine, Mason Lieberman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Video-game scoring as an academic subject is quite new. There are limited opportunities for college-level students to study this field, and even fewer that are offered remotely via online sources. My goal for this thesis was to craft educational modules, courses, or other academically-based resources, that would develop a student’s musical skills, professional instincts, and educational groundings in the game audio world. These courses could then serve as an academic model for the development of other classes. After conducting research informed by my professional background as a composer in the video game industry (with a particular focus on my experiences …

Breathing Instruction Of Successful High School Marching Band Directors., Michael A. Alsop

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The breath is considered one of the most important factors of playing a wind instrument because it affects nearly every aspect of playing. The purpose of this study was to examine the breathing instruction of successful high school marching band directors. The researcher sought to learn about how often proper breathing is taught, what methods are most commonly used, perceived benefits for the marching members, and potential negative aspects or consequences of breathing instruction. Two-hundred-and-thirteen successful marching band directors were invited to complete a survey consisting of multiple choice, Likert scale, and open-ended questions. Seventy-six directors completed the survey. It …

Jazz Bass Method Books Versus Actual Performance : The Case Study Of Charlie Haden., Hamilton Pinheiro

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this research is to compare what jazz bass method books teach with an actual performance. For this end, I analyzed and summarized several bass method books regarding bass line construction and compared them to transcriptions of Charlie Haden’s bass lines, trying to find considerable discrepancies. Firstly, I found that Charlie Haden used all the techniques that all authors teach in their books. Beyond that, I found that Haden extensively applied two techniques the authors cover superficially (implied harmony and sequences) and also expanded the concepts of chromaticism and building tension and release that are found in the …

Score Study Procedures And Processes Among Instrumental Music Teachers And Students Of Varying Experience., Jacob Mark Mitchell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Score study is agreed to be an essential part of musical preparation by professional conductors. However, no single method for score study has been established. This thesis examines the score study habits of undergraduate music majors, graduate students with a minimum of five years of instrumental teaching experience, and highly-qualified instrumental music teachers with a minimum of ten years of experience. Qualitative methods are employed, and interview transcriptions are the primary sources of data. Findings showed that instrumental music teachers and those with instrumental teaching experience base many of their score study decisions on the abilities and needs of students …

Algorithmic Music Generation For Pedagogy Of Sight Reading, Ryan Stephen Davis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Autodeus is the name of the program that has been developed and was designed to aid guitar students in the attainment and betterment of musical notation sight reading skills. Its primary goal is to provide a very flexible tool that has the ability to generate virtually endless types of sight reading exercises at many various skill levels.

A complimentary 2 year-long comprehensive guitar sight-reading course syllabus can be implemented via Autodeus as it is capable of generating all the necessary exercises. It is able to generate these exercises quickly and efficiently through the use of a back tracking algorithm that …

Rnn-Based Generation Of Polyphonic Music And Jazz Improvisation, Andrew Hannum

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This paper presents techniques developed for algorithmic composition of both polyphonic music, and of simulated jazz improvisation, using multiple novel data sources and the character-based recurrent neural network architecture char-rnn. In addition, techniques and tooling are presented aimed at using the results of the algorithmic composition to create exercises for musical pedagogy.

“That’S The Way I’Ve Always Learned”: The Transmission Of Traditional Music In Higher Education, Alexandra Frank

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research examines the establishment of degree programs in traditional music in institutions of higher education. It defines traditional music and discusses the history of traditional and folk music programs at universities and conservatories in the United States, Finland, Scotland, and England. The institutionalization of American traditional music is compared to the institutionalization of jazz music in the United States. This thesis focuses on the Bluegrass, Old- Time, and Country Music Studies program at East Tennessee State University and features original ethnographic interviews with lecturers from the program. Two similar programs in Tennessee and Kentucky are also discussed. Some of …