Music/Learning Research- Carl Orff - Gassenhauer

This is usefull as Carl Orff is well known for developing influencial music for learning.  He created this for an age group of 12-22 which is similar to the target age group I am hoping to develop music for.

Music Research

When it comes to the testing I want to base it around three genres of music.  It was in my interview with Alan that he suggested that these be very different styles of music.  What I am looking at just now is picking the most suitable type of music that will represent the more slower calmer theme.  After a discussion it was pointed out to me that pan pipe music may be worth looking at as it can trigger certain emotions.  These emotions are more solemn, sad or reflective.  Some of the Robert Burns classic such as Ae Fond Kiss and My Love is Like a Red Red Rose can also fall into this category.  It isn't just music its the way it is portrayed by the artist(s) that can have a major factor.

 

Submission For Concept Development 31/10/11

Name: Calum Mclean
Student Number:1003309
Module: Concept Development
Module Code: AG1086A
Date of Submission: 31/10/11
Lecturer: Belinda Langlands


For this submission I have added this modules code to the titles of the blogs I believe to be the most relevant to this hand in.  However I feel that my blog as a whole is a much better representation of my development overall and feel that the other post have a lot of merit aswell.

Below is the links to the main blog entries for this module to make it easier to view. 

http://honoursyearprojectchoices.blogspot.com/2011/09/research.html

http://honoursyearprojectchoices.blogspot.com/2011/09/idea-1.html

http://honoursyearprojectchoices.blogspot.com/2011/09/concept-devolpoment.html

http://honoursyearprojectchoices.blogspot.com/2011/09/idea-2.html

http://honoursyearprojectchoices.blogspot.com/2011/09/mind-map-wednesday-28th-of-september.html

http://honoursyearprojectchoices.blogspot.com/2011/10/music-theory-research-tuesday-4th-of.html

http://honoursyearprojectchoices.blogspot.com/2011/10/concentration-music-research.html

http://honoursyearprojectchoices.blogspot.com/2011/10/music-and-psychology-reasearch-monday.html

http://honoursyearprojectchoices.blogspot.com/2011/10/music-and-psychology-reasearch-monday_27.html

http://honoursyearprojectchoices.blogspot.com/2011/10/mozart-effect-research-wednesday-12th.html

http://honoursyearprojectchoices.blogspot.com/2011/10/psychology-of-music-2010-aheadi-107-17.html

http://honoursyearprojectchoices.blogspot.com/2011/10/concentration-music-research-friday.html

http://honoursyearprojectchoices.blogspot.com/2011/10/testing-talk-with-colin-cartwright.html

http://honoursyearprojectchoices.blogspot.com/2011/10/experimental-music.html

http://honoursyearprojectchoices.blogspot.com/2011/10/interview-with-alan-grieve.html

Interview with Alan Grieve

On Friday (28th) I was lucky enough to arrange an interview with Alan Grieve who has had many years experience working in the psychology field.  Alan has a Post Graduate Diploma in psychology and spent a number of years working with local councils and schools as an educational psychologist and has used music before as an aid for learning and behavior.  Alan was kind enough to give me some advice on my own project.

Here is the interview:

AG1086A Experimental Music

Here is a couple tracks just to give an idea of what I'm currently working as ideas and inspiration.  One of the genres I am using for the test is electronic/techno music.  As this is not a style that I am used to composing in I am taking the opportunity to practice now.  Here is a 25 second clip that I have composed to give myself a starting point.  At this stage its only a very rough idea.

Another example I have is for the rock/pop genre.  It is a song that was written and recorded by my band The Vela Pulse.  It's an instrumental track as the vocals were never finished.  I don't plan on using this exact track but I aim to use it as inspiration for composing this style of music for my project.

Testing- Talk with Colin Cartwright

During the week (Wed 26th) I attended one of Colin's drop in sessions as I wanted to discuss some ideas/thoughts on how I should go about testing my project.  I started by telling Colin what I felt the main issues I had when it came to the thought process of planing the tests.  The main concerns I had was the-

• Amount of people to test.
• The amount of Genres used in the tests
• The use of vocals
• Different methods of testing
• Ways to get volunteers

I feel that Colin answered each of my questions really well and was able to give me lots to think about.  I think the main thing was he showed me that I was over complicating parts of my project when there was much simpler ways of achieving the same end result.  He told me that when it comes to the testing I can get away with using 20 people instead of the vast amounts that I have seen on other projects.  This mainly being down to resources and time.  Colin also suggested that when it comes to productive ways of testing that I make sure that I use more practical types of testing.  Colin also brought to my attention that I should be thinking carefully about the difference between attention and learning aspects of concentration and which side I want to focus on the most which at the moment I feel is the learning side.  Overall this meeting really cleared up the parts of the project that I was most worried about now allowing me to move forward with my research.

AG1086A Concentration Music Research

This is quite a useful site to research as it talks about the therapy side of music and the effect that has on us which I believe will be useful to know as it will give my idea room for expansion as time goes on.  I feel that my idea has loose elements of the therapy side as I am aiming to help enhance peoples ability to use music to aid learning.

http://www.emedexpert.com/tips/music.shtml

AG1086A Psychology/Mozart Effect Research

Here is a good pdf file that a class mate pointed me towards.  It will be useful to my research as it

talks about the Mozart Effect and its effect on non-musical and musical people. 

Psychology of Music-2010-Aheadi-107-17.pdf

AG1086A The Mozart Effect Research

 

After speaking to Kenny he suggested that I go away and look at the Mozart Effect.  Studies have suggested that playing Mozart to young children will enhance their learning and concentration abilities for the future and while looking at various videos I came across this one on a talk by Dr. Glenn Wilson who briefly talks about past studies.  The reason I find this useful is that he talks about the possibility of other genres of music and whether they have an effect which is what I am try to achieve with my own research.  From what he says there neither enough proven results or any good ones at all which to me shows that there is a valid cause for my research.

Music and Psychology Research

This is the second part of the music psychology video.  It concentrates more on the musical style and how music psychology works in relation to a player/musician.  As a musician myself I will find parts of this useful when it comes to recording and performing the music I compose for this project.  It also touches on the musical therapy side of things which in a way is kind of what my project is about in the sense that I am trying to find ways to enhance concentration and make it easier for my target audience.

AG1086A Music and Psychology Research

This is the first part of  a very useful tutorial on how music and psychology work together.  It briefly covers the concentration side and it also really helps to give an overview of how the brain processes music and what part of the brain is affected the most.  From this video it also comments on people who have carried out various different studies regarding music psychology so I hope to take a few pointers away and try and relate it to my own project.

AG1086A Concentration Music Research

This isn't really what i'm looking to produce myself but it gives me an idea of what is out there already and how it has been approached.  What i've noticed from this video and videos like this are they get referred to as illusions which isn't really the vibe i'm going for but hopefully there will be aspects that I can intemperate into my own work.

Personal Statement Friday- 7th of October

AG1064A: Professional Practice – Personal Statement

Proposer:	Calum Mclean
Student Number:	1003309
Programme:	Creative Sound
Specialism(s):	Composing music for learning applications.

Personal Statement

Inspiration and Interests

What really inspires me is music, both playing and listening and it’s because of this that I want my honours project to relate to music in a big way.  My idea for my project is to investigate how audio, most specifically music affects the brain and our ability to concentrate while carrying out various tasks.  I want to find out what genres of music have an impact on the way we concentrate and what it is about these specific tracks that make the difference.  In terms of my artefact what I want to develop is a piece(s) of music that are composed around my findings to find out whether or not this method of researching and creating audio is successful.  I want the end of year show to show my skills as a composer and producer as well as my engineering capabilities.

Career and Creative Aims

My main aim for when I leave university is to find work composing music and creating sound effects for games, apps and advertising.  Part of what I want to achieve from this year though is how to use the psychology and music theory side to enhance and develop the skills I need to be successful.  I am also interested in the learning and teaching side audio as well.

Current Skills and Abilities

Music- ·         I can play a few various instruments- Guitar, bass, piano, vocals. ·         I can write music in different styles. ·         I have a reasonable knowledge of music theory. Sound Production- ·         I can record a large variety of Instruments. ·         I have a good knowledge and practice of various microphone techniques. ·         I can operate a range of audio interfaces i.e Cubase, Garageband, Protools etc. ·         I have experience and practice in mixing.

Skill Gaps

One of the skills I want to address in this project is my ability to compose music in a completely different way.  I want to learn how to compose music that can serve some sort of purpose in a teaching/learning field. Another skill I would like to enhance continues on from last year and that is my use of sampling and Midi instruments in my music.

Project Aim and Objectives- Thursday 6th of October

Heres the aims and objectives for my project.

AG1086A Music Theory Research- Tuesday 4th of October

After speaking to Kenny on Friday (September 30th) I have decided that I am now looking at my project from less of a psychological domain and in a more creative compositional domain.  To achieve this I will need to build my musical theory back up a bit from what it was in Higher music.  After speaking to a couple people in my class I have been looking at some sites on the internet and have found a tool that I feel will come in handy when it comes to composing my music later on in the year.

The musical tool that I have been looking at is called the Camelot System.  It is a chart that lets you formulate what chords work together when it comes to harmonic mixing. 

Mind Map- Wednesday 28th of September

AG1086A Idea 2- Wednesday 28th of September

The second idea I have for my honours project is based are the same area of research.  For my second idea I have come up with a separate way to present my work practically.  The plan is to compose a peice(s) of music based around the results of my research in the hope that it can help with concentration and appeal to the wider audience.   What I will be looking at is-

Genre
Tempo
Structure
Instrumentation
Volume Levels
Melody
The use of vocals/lyrics

The aim is to try and pinpoint what it is about certain genres of music that help people conentrate and learn and create something that todays younger generation can relate to.

AG1086A Concept Devolpoment

Tuesday 27th September- Concept Development.


Spent today's class discussing in groups what inspires and motivates us when it comes to creating audio.  After brainstorming everything individually we discussed how we can use our inspirations in relevance to our own individual projects.

After mapping out everyones ideas I now have a better idea about how I am going to look at creating the practical side of my project.


My main influence for doing this research stems back to my time at school and even during the HND course.  I've always had a slight problem when it comes to concentrating on revision and researching and always found music to be the one things that made the most boring task more bearable.  I've always found that pop, rock, blues, jazz and folk genres helped me the most when it came to subjects likes maths, physics or digital audio theory etc and that's the big inspiration behind me wanting to use these kind of genres when it comes to composing for my project.

One of my biggest inspirations in terms of songwriting is John Mayer.  The thing I like about John Mayer is his ability to write pop, rock, acoustic and blues music which is a diversity I myself want to enhance as a songwriter.

This is John Mayer's version of the blues classic Crossroads.  With this song its the tempo and the melody that captures my attention and it songs like this that really inspire me.


This is an example of another John Mayer track but this time it is an example off one of his acoustic songs Stop This Train-

Although this is acoustic it has the same values and effect as the rock/blues genres.  Even though its just a guitar and vocals its still a good tempo and has a great hook/melody so it still catches your attention.


Another artist that inspires me is City and Colour.  This is his track What Makes a Man-

This again has a good steady tempo and great melodies but the main thing is that the song is constantly driving which is important when gearing people up to do a task that they may find boring without music.

AG1086A Idea 1

One of the ideas I have for this year is to research how music effects concentration levels and whether certain genres effect everyone differently.  For this I will carry out a couple tests using a heart monitor machine while volunteers try to do different tasks while listening to various music tracks.  By the end of the year I hope to develop an app that can help the end user to practice and enhance their concentration levels.  This is one of the ideas I have-

An App designed to enhance concentration and learning.

• A Variety of games and puzzles designed to challenge the mind.
• User can pick from a variety of

1. Musical Genres
2. Tempos
3. Audio levels

The app will monitor the users time and coordination and will inform the user which style and tempo best suits there concentration levels.  From this they can use this app to better develop their learning and concentration skills.

The app will best suit students but can also be used on the older generation to help keep up concentration levels.

Instead of telling people how to concentrate better by stats and figures they can figure it out for themselves through what musical genre best suits them.

The Platforms I have in mind for this are ipads and if possible any type of smartphone.  

AG1086A Research

Heres some of the sites that I have looked at so far on audio psychology-

http://www.brainhealthandpuzzles.com/effects_music_brain.html


http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n15/mente/musica.html


http://www.baatltd.com/newsletters/The%20Role%20of%20Music%20in%20Learning.pdf

Modules

The Honours Project has been split up into 5 sections. This is the list of modules for this Year-

AG1086A Concept Development
AG1085A Pre-Production
AG1084A Honours Project
AG1087A Research Methods and Dissertation
AG1064A Professional Practice

Hi

Welcome to my blog.  I will use this space to update ideas and progress about my Honours year project.