An inside look from Chris Gander at some of the problems facing music teachers charged with the task of integrating the technology of music and sound recording into their classes.

As a music teacher, you might be tempted to ask what technology has to do with music at all, or even how it might help in the context of listening, composing and playing as outlined in the Final Draft National Curriculum for Music. But if you look at it logically, music has always relied on technology — even our traditional musical instruments were a product of the technology of their day. Furthermore, technology is evident in the way we currently listen to music; the majority of the music we hear is recorded, and someone has to record that music. In fact, technology has permeated just about every aspect of music, from its creation and manipulation, to its storage and reproduction.

Music Creation

Technology is not only used to manufacture traditional instruments, but to actually create many of the sounds we hear, especially in the pop music field. The main electronic instruments are derivatives of the synthesizer or the sampler, though it can be argued that heavily-processed sounds, such as those produced by the electric guitar, rely very much on electronics for their creation.

Synthesizers rely on a variety of electronic waveforms to create sounds that may be similar to those produced by traditional instruments or, equally, may be entirely synthetic and have no natural counterpart! The technology is now relatively inexpensive and a single instrument can recreate a wide range of sounds (often several different sounds at once), making it an ideal tool for the exploration of music composition and arrangement.

Samplers work on a somewhat different principle, in that individual notes are recorded from real instruments, stored electronically, and then manipulated so that they can be played back at any musical pitch from a keyboard. The first reaction of many a traditionalist is that this is tantamount to cheating, but in the context of composing, I would argue that it is no more unethical than writing a symphony and then paying other musicians to perform it for you; just because you have written a piece of music, there is no obligation to be able to play all the instruments involved!

The other side of samplers is that they may be used to take sounds that are not normally considered musical, tune them to pitch, and then make them accessible from the keyboard. With a little imagination and a sampler, virtually any natural sound with an obvious pitch can be used as a musical instrument. Good samplers are costly, but there are inexpensive software packages that allow computers to be used as samplers.

Manipulation

There are many electronic processes that can be applied to either real or electronically generated sounds to make them more interesting. Artificial reverberation is invariably used in pop music production, while synthetic echo has been around since the days of the earliest tape recorder. Aside from these basic effects, there are many others that involve the manipulation of time and pitch to produce a whole range of musically useful treatments. In the classroom, the listening element of the Music National Curriculum can be developed by listening to professionally made records and then discussing the recording methods and treatments that have been used to produce the sounds.

Storage

All of us are familiar with the storage of sound through tape recorders of one type or another. Without some means of recording, the only opportunity we'd have of hearing music would be to attend a live concert. Most schools have access to some form of tape recorder, and a variety of recording projects may be undertaken with even very basic equipment. So-called multitrack tape machines that allow compositions to be recorded in layers provide even more creative opportunities and more accurately reflect the way recording is carried out in professional circles.

There is a new generation of tape recorder which records sound in a digital format similar to that used by Compact Discs. The most common of these formats is DAT (Digital Audio Tape), but at the time of writing, these are still too costly to be considered by most educational establishments and too complex to be serviced by most local authority service departments.

But leaving tape recorders aside for the moment, MIDI also provides an ideal opportunity for music recording. For those not familiar with the system, MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) is a communication standard which allows MIDI equipment and instruments to share information. If this sounds like so much meaningless jargon, consider the old pianola, which enabled a specially-built piano to play back music from punched paper rolls — all the user had to do was pedal! These rolls contained information about what notes should play, when they should start playing and when they should stop — they did not store sound in the way that a record or tape does. MIDI does exactly the same thing electronically and, with the aid of a suitable computer and software, musical performances can be stored, edited and replayed via any MIDI-equipped instrument.

Unfortunately, the best software for this purpose is designed to run on either the Atari ST series of computers or the Apple Macintosh, neither of which has a very high profile in British education. And that is a pity, because the better software MIDI sequencing packages, such as Cubeat and Notator Alpha, not only enable you to construct a whole musical composition using several instruments, but can also be used to print out the music as a high-quality score! Don't worry if MIDI is still a complete mystery to you as, from the discussions I've had with the Editor of this magazine, the whole topic will be unravelled in as painless a way as is possible in the near future. Indeed, he is convinced that the main reason for the confusion surrounding MIDI is books that try to explain it!

Finally, what do you do with the music once it's been composed? Well, it's always good for morale to play these pieces at the end-of-term concert, in which case you'll need some form of sound-boosting equipment in the form of amplifiers, speakers and — if anyone is going to sing — perhaps microphones.

All of the above is Technology for Music applied to the classroom and, with a little thought, it can be seen how the technology crosses departmental boundaries and helps stimulate interest in other subjects as well as drawing on the expertise gained in other computer-related studies. But back to harsh reality; how is the traditional music teacher going to be able to apply this technology in the classroom when the lack of funding and confusion over the National Curriculum conspire (along with inadequate training time) to make the task as difficult as possible? Obviously we can't get all the equipment and training we need straight away, but I'd like to cite three cases where a little ingenuity overcame adversity to make a positive contribution to the role of technology in music.

"Technology has permeated just about every aspect of music, from its creation and manipulation, to its storage and reproduction."

Three Anecdotes

Here are three examples related to me by the music teachers involved, though their names have been omitted by request.

Story One: In a large comprehensive in Milton Keynes, some year nine pupils heard of a competition to compose a new carol. The music teacher and her friends used their English and Special Needs lessons to write the words and find the rhymes for the carol, and the music lessons to write the accompanying music. The musical backing was sequenced on a non-MIDI synthesizer, using the existing sounds and the internal drum accompaniment. One of the group played the instrumental break on a flute and a local studio was persuaded to record the girls (community links!) who all sang together. They didn't win the competition but in the course of their lessons, they composed, performed and listened — and this was before the Music National Curriculum. I don't think they would have been able to produce this quality of recording using conventional instruments, while the access to technology freed them from the mechanics of music making and allowed their creativity to blossom. In this example, the only special equipment was a relatively inexpensive keyboard synthesizer with a built-in sequencer and drum accompaniments.

Story Two: In a small secondary school in the Fens, the Music teacher and the Design and Technology teacher got together to produce a musical called Harold. The traditional Music teacher wrote an overture for the musical on the piano, while the Technology teacher brought his Atari ST computer into school and, using the Yamaha synths and Pro12 MIDI software, recorded the piece with different sounds. They then hired the use of a local recording studio for a week using INSET money and, by working late, managed to record the overture for the musical.

The overture was used in the musical for a dance sequence that the pupils choreographed under the direction of another member of staff. During the school day, some Technology lessons were given over to Music and some Music lessons changed to Technology. Years seven and eight were the main beneficiaries and they evidently enjoyed it. They were able to investigate manipulation of sound using a Yamaha effects unit, listen to themselves sing and be involved in a creative experience. Again, little special equipment was required, though one of the teachers had his own Atari ST computer and MIDI sequencing software, which obviously helped.

Story Three: In a medium-sized primary school, again in the Fens, a new teacher was very involved with music — indeed she brought a new meaning to the word in this school, and the children responded by turning in performances previously considered impossible. The parents responded by buying an amplifier and a small synthesizer for the school. It's used a lot, and if you want to attend one of their performances, you must get in at least half an hour before the start to get a seat. The technology is not in any way sophisticated by modern standards, but it works and it gets used — which is what counts.

The Hard Slog

You could be forgiven for thinking, 'That's all well and good but I haven't got an Atari ST (whatever that is) and my funding has been cut yet again. What's more, there's no way that 9CG are actually going to use that new synthesizer I've managed to get from the HSA. And as for the rest of it, I haven't got nearly enough time to learn how to use the kit before I teach the kids, so what's the point?'

I can sympathise with that view, and I don't pretend that problems such as funding and training time are going to go away overnight — but all is not gloom and despair. After all, you are reading this, and it's written by a teacher for teachers.

Technology for Music doesn't have to be the sole domain of the Music department. Why not persuade Science to implement AT12 and 14 by buying an effects processor? (Science have always got more funding than Music!) Why not let the Maths Department get involved in AT5? And I'm sure the English and Drama department could benefit from a small multitrack machine. (Mind you, with English only 40% course work now, I'm not so sure.) Why not think about an Atari ST as the next computer for the school to buy? (You don't have to stick with Archimedes now that LMS is here.) The prejudice that a lot of people still seem to have against electronic instruments can be countered by using the argument that the only really natural instrument is the human voice — all else is the product of some level of technology. Besides which, as I've outlined above, technology is not confined just to electronic instruments. Even classical records have to be made using the same basic technology as is used to record pop songs.

Get Informed

There are courses available for teachers to help implement technology in the classroom (from Gateway, TCA, and Reading University) — see the Times Educational Supplement for September 27th — and some of the major manufacturers hold equipment demonstrations at venues around the country. There are informative manufacturer and dealer-sponsored shows you can attend, but be prepared for a sales pitch at the end of it. There are also some quite helpful books on the subject if you have the time and energy to read them, but nothing really takes the place of hands-on experience. One approach to this might be to try to get a cluster meeting to have a training day and ask a local recording studio to give some help and advice. You can track them down via the local music shop, and many studio owners have children of their own, so they might understand what's required. If you have a large music department, you could use a training day playing with some kit that you've borrowed. (I have a programme for this if you're interested.) And don't forget all the parents out there who have home studios or electronic musical equipment. Much of the equipment is mobile, and even a simple demonstration to a couple of classes will introduce the pupils to something more tangible than tonic sol-fa and the treble clef.

If you're just starting out in this area, try to find out what you need and build toward it. Don't part with any budget until you have a good idea of what your future needs might be, because you can easily buy your way into a dead end. You don't have to use MIDI, but it's jolly useful and can be used on the Archimedes (though you will have to get the machine upgraded, and that's expensive). On the other hand, the relatively inexpensive Atari ST needs no modification and is a music-industry standard — the best music and scorewriting software runs on it. It will also double as a word processor, yet is only about half the price of an Archimedes.

If you can live without score writing, many of the cheaper synths have a sequencer (recorder) built in, so you don't need to go to the expense of a computer-based one. To put things in perspective, a reasonable piano could cost over £1500, it's heavy, it's loud and needs regular tuning. A good electronic keyboard, on the other hand, is likely to cost much less, many can emulate the sound and dynamics of a traditional piano, they're lighter, musically more versatile and easier to store. It makes you think, doesn't it?