My Manifesto on The 21st Century Music Education

I KNOW THIS TO BE TRUE

Music embraces every culture

Music brings people together

Music stimulates a huge part of the brain

Music education in early years makes us better human beings

I BELIEVE

Education must be student centered.

It is important for educators to know their students, to know what are their strengths and to focus on their abilities.

The approach should be a mixture of the traditional way and the new

Spread sheets don't work on students as is used to. New methods must be incorporated in the Music Syllabus. A more popular and contemporary repertoire can be used to get students' attention and spark their interest in more elaborate pieces. 

Technology is here FOR us and not against us

Almost every student is connected to the internet through some digital device. Use it!

Everybody should have an opportunity to play an instrument and to get in touch with the technological breakthroughs

Music also enhances the connection between your brain and your body. Acoustic instruments and digital workstations play a huge part in developing this self awareness. 

I WANT TO

Use the technology available

Be it digital workstations, cellphones, tablets, computers, synthesizers or any other device. 

Use acoustic instruments

The students need to know the sound of unplugged instruments and explore them.

Present new ways of doing music

Use every sound source available.

Introduce technology

Keep students updated with the advances of technology in the music industry and, if possible, work with it.

Foster creativity, composing and improvisation skills

Promote activities in which students are able to let their creativity flow.

Music Education as a NEW Educational System

It is funny how we easily judge things that we don't know. Many of us musicians, specially the classical trained ones, that are not familiar with technological devices, misinterpret the ones that work with these technologies. Since the world is developing fast, technologically speaking, it has become important for the 21st century musician and music teachers to understand the principles of the DAWs (Digital Audio Workstation) and other softwares that can help them to do a better job.

In the other hand, there are musicians that are really into technology. Usually DJs are not seeing as "real musicians" just because they don't play "real instruments". But anything can be used as an instrument and now we have some controllers on the market that allow us to controle almost every type of sound as we can see in this performance of DJ Madeon and DJ Mad Zach. I guess we all agree that they know music, right?

Another thing that technologies brought us is the possibility to learn almost everything we want. In sites like WikiHow and YouTube we find endless things to learn. I myself have a YouTube channel, in portuguese, where I teach people how to sing properly (Gustavo Tassi). I get really amazed by the idea of having all these knowledge right there in the touch of a finger. Educational researcher Sugata Mitra explane how we could make a good use of this possibilities in one of his Ted Talks.

Now, if we combine that with the principles of Project Based Learning (PBL) we have a very effective educational method that engage students in learning, as seen in High Tech High. But musicians have an advantage! We already know how that works. We've learned music and teach music using that method without even noticing. We do the projects ourselves first, we learn about the history, rhythm and other aspects of the music we're playing.

So, let's help other subject teachers to understand how it works. Let's combine our way of learning and teaching with the technological achievements and star building a new educational system!

Technology in developing countries

For further reading on the use of technology developing countries' education.

The impact of technology to education in the developing countries

Technology can empower children in developing countries - if it's done right

You’ve got to try this new app (parody of "You've got to hide your love away" by The Beatles)

Here I stand ipad in hand

Testing my new app

Every instrument there for me

In the palm of my hand

Orff and Steiner they both said

Music is not a choice

Build up your brain strenthens your mind

Now I’ll record my voice

Hey you’ve got to try this new app

Hey you’ve got to try this new app

How could I even try

Something I’ve never seen

ipads and new technologies

I wonder what it means

Many of us don’t know how to read

I know it’s a shame

That’s how it is in developing countries

But who’s the one to blame?

When will I try this new app?

When will I try this new app?

The old and the new

According to musician and brain researcher Anita Collins the simple act of listening to music activates many different parts of our brain, like "fireworks" as she says. It also has a huge impact in our brain development if exposed to children until their 7th year. 

That being said, it should be mandatory for every school to have music education on it's curriculum. But how to keep the student's interest on that subject all the way through high school?

Francis Xavier, one of the founders of the Motorik record label, suggests that it should star with practice, to get the students involved on the activity. Professor Lucy Green, from the University of London, goes even further when she says that the repertoire should meet student's taste using popular music. But one of Australia's most famous conductor, Richard Gill, advises that we shouldn't stick with the popular music but take that as a starting point and expend it to other kinds of music. He also suggests that music education should start with singing, (just like the Steiner schools and the Orff method do). 

Meanwhile, there is a music training center called Liveschool that teaches music through technology using Ableton Live. Adam Maggs, founder of this school, says that it is possible, and more attractive to some people, to learn music using technology to manipulate sounds.

As you see, there are many different ways to approach music education but, as I said on the last article, the key is to balance everything. We can't forget the acoustic instruments and traditions, specially the one instrument that we are born with - our voice, and we also can't run away from technological achievements. If we could find a way to combine those methods the students would be much more interested in learning music. 

Thoughts on the 21st century education

(Este post é destinado ao curso The Place of Music in 21st Century Education)

It seems like we have no escape. The world is going digital!
I don't see it as a bad thing at all but the problem is that we are living in a transition era. We are conscious of the changes we're going through but we still don't know how to manage that, specially on educational matters.

Some schools keep their focus on content knowledge rather than "learning to learn" methods (Prof. Stephen Heppell). The Steiner schools (or Waldorf schools) are proud of their educational method, created by Rudolf Steiner, that leaves the children free to learn on their time with an holistic approach and focus on the process of learning to learn. In one of the articles from the Canberra Business News they point out that this is one of the most important aspects for the 21st century workforce. They need to became thought leaders. The bad part of this method is that some schools take it almost as a religion, as pointed by researcher Anna Canningham on her article about Steiner schools, leaving the children no place for technological devices until the age of 12, which, in my opinion, is almost impossible nowadays.

There are alos schools like Northern Beaches Christian School in Autralia that are based on technological achievements. Believing that there the students will find a place that reflects the world that they are living in, the school leaves not much space for the kids to experience the world.


The japanese architect Takaharu Tezuka came up with wonderful building where kids can be kids as seen on his Ted Talk.

I'm sure one day we'll have a worldwide educational system with the best of each method. Until then, we can only choose the one that we identify more with.

Cursos on-line gratuitos

Independentemente da sua área de atuação profissional, é extremante importante estarmo atualizados e procurarmos sempre aprimorarmos nossas habilidades. Foi buscando isso que me deparei com os sites COURSERA e OPEN2STUDY. São 2 sites que fornecem uma vasta quantidade de cursos em diversas áreas do conhecimento com certificados de universidades internacionais e a maioria deles são de graça!

                          

Eu, por exemplo, estou cursando no momento Early Childhood Education (Educação para crianças nos primeiros anos de vida) e World Music (Música mundial) no Open2study e The Place of Music in 21st Century Education (O lugar da música na educação do século 21). Estou gostando bastante e tenho certeza que isso contribuirá muito para o meu desenvolvimento profissional.

Que tal, então, investir o seu tempo em conhecimento? Afinal de contas, isso é tudo que levamos dessa vida.

Um grande abraço!

Aulas e vídeos de técnica vocal online: funcionam ou não?

Esse é um tema bastante comentado e criticado por alguns professores de canto, mas pouco discutido. O fato é que eles estão aí e são a base de estudos de diversos aspirantes a cantores no Brasil e no mundo. Outro fato que deve ser salientado é de que NADA SUBSTITUI A AULA PRESENCIAL COM O PROFESSOR. Por melhor que o vídeo seja, ele não vai tratar das particularidades de todo mundo. As possibilidades e caminhos para o desenvolvimento da voz são muitas e só um acompanhamento direto pode tratar realmente da SUA voz.

As aulas online, como por Skype, se aproximam desse cenário ideal com bastante exercícios que podem ser passados e que resultam num bom desenvolvimento do aluno, mas ainda assim não são como as aulas presenciais por conta das limitações impostas pela conexão (atrasos no som e na imagem, qualidade do vídeo e do áudio). Para que esse trabalho seja realizado, é necessário um mínimo de equipamento (computador com microfone, ou smartphone/tablet e fone de ouvido) e uma conexão banda larga. Alguns profissionais ainda exigem uma certa qualidade nesses equipamentos, mas isso, ao meu ver, acaba excluindo muitas pessoas por falta de condições financeiras para adquirir tais equipamentos. É possível identificar diversos problemas no canto do aluno e corrigí-los mesmo com o equipamento mínimo. Além disso, na minha opinião, o valor cobrado pelas aulas online não pode ser o mesmo da aula presencial pelas rasões já descritas anteriormente.

Os vídeos de dicas, macetes, sacadas, etc, também são muito criticados por alguns que dizem que eles confundem a cabeça dos alunos, o que, em parte, é verdade. Na internet, todo mundo quer falar sobre tudo e cabe ao aluno identificar o que é válido ou não. Se tiver ajuda de um professor de canto, melhor ainda. O negócio é que os vídeos têm o poder de tirar dúvidas momentâneas sem que o aluno precise esperar até a próxima aula, ou pior, tenha que pagar uma aula só pra tirar aquela dúvida.

Quando decidi fazer meu primeiro vídeo de dicas eu nem pensava em fazer outros. Só queria tentar esclarecer alguns pontos sobre a respiração, pois todos os outros vídeos que encontrei eram em inglês (graças a Deus e a meus pais isso não era um problema pra mim) ou passavam informações incorretas a respeito da voz. Queria tornar essas informações mais acessíveis. Já me acusaram de me achar o dono da verdade, mas é o preço que se paga pela exposição.

Enfim, aqueles que não têm professores de canto na sua cidade ou região, ou que não têm dinheiro para pagar aulas presenciais, acharão nos vídeos e aulas online bons materiais para darem início ao aperfeiçoamento vocal. Só é preciso saber garimpar as informações. E aqueles que já fazem aula presencial podem achar nos vídeos informações de grande relevância para futuras discussões em sala de aula. Agora, se seu professor não estiver aberto a discussões...

Lembrem-se: NADA SUBSTITUI A AULA PRESENCIAL COM O PROFESSOR

Segue o meu primeiro vídeo de dicas. :)

Eu também dou aulas online!
Para conhecerem um pouco mais sobre as minhas aulas cliquem aqui.

Um grande abraço!