Category: Education

Rock Band 3 will revolutionize piano teaching

I’m guessing this keyboard is basically like an Oxygen or a Korg K25. Remember this?

It was a massive flop. Basically because it taught piano in the traditional context. Repeat after me. Play this scale. Learn this traditional melody. Learn how to read the notes and so forth.

Rock Band ditches all of this and gets to the real issue at hand (for the majority of people): play this song. The catch is that something like guitar or drums is pretty complex to visualize in a reaction-based game. Imagine tablature flying down those five ramps and you can see why they simplified the guitar.

The vocal visualization for Rock Band is a little better, in that it is basically a MIDI grid notation view of the melody. There isn’t much detail; just enough to get the gist of the melody, but it still is a more accurate model than the flying dots.

The flying dots are great by the way. I’ve seen many non-musicians play some seriously hard stuff using the flying dots – it’s a game, but it’s a skill too. Now Harmonix has decided to apply the popular flying dots model to a 25-key keyboard. Why is this earth shattering? Because for the first time, this game-y model of performance is actually being done on an honest-to-goodness instrument. Something where after playing some rounds of the game you could go up to a real piano and play, and it would sound like what you just did in the game. This isn’t just a cool idea for a game, this is the future of music education.

Think of all the tricks and traps and gimmicks music educators have tried over the years to get kids to learn piano. Much of that will be obsolete when this game comes out. Of course, I’m not talking about the long stretches of piano lessons that end in recital performance. I’m talking about the group and class piano methods that aim to teach masses of kids a modicum of basic piano skills. This game basically solves that old problem of “how do I get these kids to get over their fear of piano?”

In my classes, I tend to steer away from heavy piano playing, and address piano as more of a means to an end – an input device among many others for getting your musical ideas to become a reality. I may want to incorporate this game though, as this is the first game that *is* going to be popular, and *is* going to end up actually teaching a skill.

Be prepared, music teachers. Big changes are coming, and they’re coming faster than they ever have before.

LHS Music Tech LIVE at eTech 2010

Here’s a highlight reel from our historic first live performance as a Music Technology program. DJ’s, singing, rapping, EWI’ing – it’s all here folks.

Be sure to check out the video wall that allows the crowd to see all angles and closeups of the performers. I’ll post a tutorial on how to make one yourself using Quartz Composer here soon!

Live performance

What will a concert look like in 100 years? I have no clue but it will probably include some instruments that haven’t been invented yet. It will probably be performed using methods not yet imagined. Also, the music will probably sound vastly different than today’s music.

Next month I’m bringing a group of students to do some live performing at the eTech Ohio convention, in what I can best describe as an experiment to see what works well in this area. In my opinion, one of the big values of electronic music is the creative aspects – this will greatly influence how we present the music.

Let’s contemplate some of the reasons we do what we do now.


Figure one: the standard orchestra

This was the original “big” idea of a group that could provide enough versatility to play any kind of music. We can cover a big gamut of amplitudes, frequencies, and timbres with this group. The catch? You need about 80-100 highly trained individuals to pull it off.

Here’s an evolution of that idea: the broadway pit orchestra.

This is a hybrid acoustic/amplified/electric ensemble designed for the same purpose as a full orchestra, with the added pressure of space constraints and smaller player budgets. Most would agree a good pit can provide a similar range of sonic ideas, though they are highly tailored to the particular show.

Recent shows incorporate lots of electronics to this end. Look at the ridiculous technical specs for John Adams’ I Was Looking At The Ceiling and I Saw The Sky. Those are some serious tech requirements for “classical” music!

Which brings me to my solution for eTech.

We’re going to have a small ensemble of 5-7 students. One will operate the computer and the Akai APC40, while another two operate a 49 and 25 key Axiom keyboard/percussion pad combo. Another will add layers on an Akai EWI USB controller, which two more add live vocals. There may be others using the Alesis Pad controller or even a Wiimote if we’re feeling gutsy and reckless. We’ll play about 6-8 sessions worth of music (enough to fill 45 minutes while people come in for the keynote). The songs will be run out of Ableton Live sets, and will include a fair amount of improvisation and flexibility. If you asked us to play the songs twice it wouldn’t sound exactly the same either time but it would probably be recognizably similar.

And that’s the plan. Check back in early Feb. to see if it works out!