TLT Fellowship 2010

By: Ann C. Clements, Ph.D.

The Pennsylvania State University

Presentation at TLT Fellowship Meeting May 20, 2010

Music Participation….Why do people do music?

1)understand the nature of musical creation in terms of performance, consumption, and preference,

2)explore how music is transmitted, or taught and learned, within the confines of culture, and

3)seek the underlying meanings of musical practices and musicianship within the context of culture through ‘everyday’ musical interactions.

What is of interest to me…?

My research journey…

The World

My Community

My Basement

Defining games in education…

Gaming – Social Interaction Theory (Vygotsky, 1978)

– Social Learning or Social Cognitive Theory (Bandura, 1977)

– Constructivism (Bruner, 1966; Jonassen, 2006; Papert, 1998)

– Situated Learning (Lave & Wenger, 1991)

Games in music and music Education are nothing new!

The presentation and genre of games has changed.

Fun games AND Serious games- MMPO -CoTS -Created L and S

How games are studied…

Kurt Squire Constance Steinkuehler

Jim Gee

Guitar Hero Research

Project 1 Project 2 Project 3

Gaming’s Effect on Music Education

Imagined and Virtual Musical Communities(Clements, Cody, and Gibbs, 2008)

We believe this is due, in part, to the success of guitar based video games. Video 1

Musical gaming may be influencing students’ perceptions of their personal musical ability and may even be changing what it means to be musical. Video 2

Across the country there has been a surge of enrollment in middle

and high school level guitar classes.

Musical Notation Demonstration

Video

Transcribed from Guitar Hero World Tour

Musical Notation

Transcribed from Guitar Hero 3

Project 1 –

Nonmusical Element

Inability to create new music sounds/tunes within game play.

Guitar Hero - World Tour Music Studio

Additional Instrumentation in Game Play• Lead Guitar, Bass, Drums and Vocals

Music Studio• The ability to input original compositions• Lead guitar, Rhythm Guitar, Bass, Keyboard, and Drums• The creation of Guitar Hero based notation for playback by others

GH Tunes• The ability to share original compositions with others via the Guitar Hero platform

Virtual to Actual: The Use of Gaming as a Means to Broaden Pre-service Music Educator’s Perspective on Music Education

Clements, Cody, and Stubbs (2009)

Purpose: An action research study to introduce undergraduate music education majors to

the video game Guitar Hero - World Tour© in order to:– expand students knowledge and perception of video game use in the music

classroom and – to create sound pedagogical musical arrangements within game play to assist their

future students in transitioning from virtual guitar playing into actual guitar playing.

Guiding Questions:

1. Will use of musical video games alter pre-service music educators’ perspectives about the validity of gaming as a means for musical engagement?

2. Is it possible for pre-service music educators to create simple musical arrangements within game play to guide their future students toward actual guitar playing?

Project ParametersSubjects:

– two intact 7-week long beginning level guitar classes for music education majors (N=31)

– the instructor of these courses (Ann Clements),– a member of the Penn State Educational Gaming Commons who was on hand to

assist with the technology and to take reflective field notes on the process (Chris Stubbs), and

– a music theory instructor with musical gaming experience and professional level guitar playing skills who served as an outside observer (Tom Cody).

Traditional/FolkBasic guitar pedagogy and playing including I, IV, and V chords in the keys of G, D, A, and various strumming patterns.

RockThe formation of rock bands, including the arrangement of popular music using informal learning techniques.

VirtualThe Guitar Hero© Project.

Traditional

VirtualRock

Procedures1. A pre-experience questionnaire to determine their familiarity with video

game use and to explore their perspectives of musical gaming uses in educational settings.

2. Two in-class training modules on the use of Guitar Hero – World Tour© on a PlayStation 3TM with special focus on the Music Studio component.

3. A two-hour evening programming session in which the students were divided into small groups and given the task to choose a simple 2-3 chord song they can play on guitar and to arrange and input their selected song into the Music Studio. Each group was asked to create a:

1. Lead line (melody)

2. Rhythm line (chords)

3. Bass line (root), and

4. Drum line

4. An hour long performance of traditional materials, their individual rock band arrangements, and demonstration of the Guitar Hero © projects.

5. A post-experience questionnaire to determine their perspectives of musical gaming use in education.

Students

It was discovered that these particular groups of students played video games fairly infrequently.– 5 students had never played any games in the Guitar Hero © series.

Their initial perspectives about the use of gaming in the music classroom, or any classroom setting, were mixed.

– less than 20% of students indicating a possible use for gaming in education– only 2 students reporting having ever used games as part of any class

After their experiences playing and creating within the game structure, perspectives appear to have changed

– 94% of students reported that it is important for future teachers to understand games and the ways in which youth interact with them.

– 97% ranked the Guitar Hero© assignment as highly motivational in terms of guitar learning. – 87% of the reported a desire to use musical games in their future teaching.

Conclusions

1. Will use of musical video games alter pre-service music educators’ perspectives about the validity of gaming as a means for musical engagement?

– As evident by the data collected, it appears that even the most simple uses of gaming in educational practice can have a positive effect on the perceptions of pre-service music educators.

2. Is it possible for pre-service music educators to create simple musical arrangements within game play to guide their future students toward actual guitar playing?

– Due to the technological difficulties within Music Studio, it does not appear to be practical at this time to create meaningful lessons within the program.

• This is not to say that pedagogical ties between virtual and actual guitar playing

are not present, simply that the technology has yet to be developed within the game to allow for the precision needed to make arranging meaningful and consistent.

Educational Music Gaming: Pre-service and Middle School Perceptions

Clements & Stubbs (2010)

Project 31. What are the perceptions of preservice music educators and middle school general music

students to a musical gaming project?2. Is it possible to create meaningful music and guitar lessons for middle school level students

using Guitar Hero?– Intermediate level guitar preservice teachers created a new song in GH World Tour– Lesson plans combining virtual playing and real playing were developed– Preservice students taught the lesson over a two-week period in a local seventh grade general music

classroom.

Preliminary results– The preservice teachers interest in using Guitar Hero as a teaching tool lowered from second study, with

only 68% responding that the game enhanced their teaching.– 94% of middle school students ranked this activity as one of the most “enjoyable” they had experienced in

music class.– A strange dichotomy between the perceptions of the preservice and middle school students regarding the

worth of video game use in the classroom.

Project 4 (in the works!)

• Nintendo DS Rhythm Study, Spring 2010– Quantitative study to determine if the use of rhythm games on the Nintendo DS can result in gains is

students rhythmic production

TLT Fellowship Ideas…

Project 1 – Contributions to a EGC Gaming Research Warehouse/Archive

• Database for abstracts, audio, and video footage• Samples: http://www.eviada.org/default.cfm• Gather preexisting resources, archive creation, recruitment of materials, advertising

Project 2 – Modern musical play- Traditional musical play- What is modern musical play?

- Participants (N=10 Children/Youth and their Guardians)1. Guardian Pre-Interview2. 2 “in home” play visits with participants w/ interviews through play

– Modern - video games , Traditional, playground equipment and instruments

3. 2 lab visits with large group participants w/ group interviews through play– Modern - video games , Traditional, playground equipment and instruments

4. Guardian Post-Interview

Data collected becomes the first materials entered into the archive.