Creating Music - Audiation - Improvisation

Creating music has changed a lot since my introduction to music many moons ago.  My understanding of creating music was putting the song that resides in your heart on paper using common music notation, by hand.  

When I was in undergraduate, I was introduced to Sibelius and Finale.  This week, MuseScore and NoteFlight have been added to my arsenal for creating music.  The benefit of these two programs is that they are more accessible, and affordable to students than Sibelius and Finale.  The intricacies involved with learning both programs are minute in comparison to the paid programs and provide a good foundation for stepping up to either one.  

One of the constraints that my students would face is access to an internet or wifi connection.  Like many of my colleagues, we toggle or hotspot from our phones and students, and allow students the use of our personal computers during class time.  While this is not a recommended method, we know that as teachers we do what we must to get the job done.

 MIDI (musical instrument digital interface) and the explanations provided in the text, were really appreciated.  For years I have heard the term MIDI and had a basic understanding of how a MIDI device worked.  Prior to reading the MIDI section in Bauer (2014), my experimentation was by sound and sight.  The section from pages 26 to 30, cleared up a lot of my remaining questions.

                                      

                                  

Improvisation stirs so many memories in my mind of fear of failure, that subconsciously, it was not allowed in my classroom.  Kratus’ (1996) seven-level sequential model reminded me of the process one must take to successfully improvise and/or create music, which now provides me with an avenue of teaching my students to do the same.  The first level, exploration, was the main reason for my fears, however I have given my students all the avenues to approach improvisation with little to no fear.  When they leave my class, unlike the graphic above, they leave with the graphic below. 

                                             

Auditation personally defined – being able to convey through music that which has been internalized through hearing or learning in a classroom.

                   

                                      

Audiation can come through listening to the radio, YouTube or playing around with technological programs.  Good audiation will lead to good improvisation by utilizing programs like Online JamSession (where you can play along with accompaniment) to master the craft.  Improvisation and audiation will go hand in hand, but as educators we will all agree with Bauer (2014, p. 57) when he says, “the most important way to learn improvisation is systematic practice.”