Technology (1)
(Performance Practice, Recording Tools, Live Electronic)

Christopher Chaffee (Wright State University)
Enhancing Woodwind Pedagogy with Recording Technology: A Self-Assessment Model for Intermediate and Advanced Students 
In this presentation, I will demonstrate how students and teachers can work together to create a self-assessment tool that utilizes readily available recording technology. Recording is a key tool for student success, but we often lack a methodical approach to analyzing mistakes and making improvements. In order to move past our initial reaction – usually, “oh gosh, that really sucked!” – and approach learning in a methodical fashion, I have developed a three-part self-assessment model.  After recording an etude, excerpt, or piece, we can listen critically in three distinct categories – 1. Instrumental Issues (tone, pitch, vibrato) 2. Mechanics (notes, rhythm, articulation, tempo) and 3.Expression and Musical Ideas. The purpose of this paper is to introduce this method in detail as a guide for all musicians to improve practicing and learning. To demonstrate the efficacy of this model, I will play “before and after” sound clips of students linked with their self-assessment diagrams.  

Milton Schlosser (University of Alberta) 
Enhancing Experiential Learning: The Online Music Practicing Log 
This paper will outline the development of an online music practicing log at the University of Alberta as well as examine the results of the log’s use from perspectives in  “experience-based learning” theory. As tools for self-directed learning, music practicing logs have been available until recently only in paper format.  While online versions now exist, they are limited in scope and format, being designed primarily for pre-university learners.  This university-funded research project situates the experiences of the university musician at the centre of teaching and learning through a series of innovations. The log not only tracks and totals practice times, but also isolates specific types of practicing for analytical purposes.  The design provides space for extensive critical reflection on issues related to practicing (e.g., mind, body) and allows for storage of video files.  A computer and video camera have been placed in each of the Augustana Campus’s practice rooms to promote the log as a ready tool in experience-based learning.  Ultimately, I will argue that the log supports the goals of experiential learning in applied music courses through its ability to heighten three key aspects:  involvement of the whole person, the valuing and applying of experiences past and present, and transformation.  
 
Robert Hall (Laurentian University) 
The Well-Tempered Disklavier: Pedagogical Resources of the Yamaha Disklavier Examplified in Teaching the Forty-Eight 
This presentation exhibits the resources of the Yamaha Disklavier as a pedagogical aid to teaching piano. While the Disklavier is often considered only in its role for delivering instruction via distance, it also has many features that are able to stimulate students and teachers alike in learning repertoire, developing a sense of the musical integrity of the work, hearing the work with historical perspective, and developing the technique necessary to master a composition. Using examples from the Bach Preludes and Fugues, the demonstration shows how such features as over-dubbing, separation of tracks, use of tone-banks, and playback features such as tempo and balance control, are potential tools for making the learning process creative and stimulating. The process of developing a sense of the work, assembling the parts as a whole, and the final playback are shown live, with an on-screen PowerPoint display to make clear the technical aspects of assembling the parts into a whole.  

Xenia Pestova (McGill University) 
Models of Interaction in Works for Piano and Live Electronic 
While a considerable amount of literature and pedagogical repertoire currently address performance practice challenges in works for acoustic instruments and fixed media, this body of knowledge largely excludes approaches to mixed works with interactive live electronics. Working with live electronics requires additional skills from the performer and the composer, and presents a different set of problems and solutions. As the repertoire grows, performers, composers and music educators must become acquainted with this emerging tradition.  This paper presents the basic concepts of interaction in live electronic music from the performer’s perspective in terms of the electronic transformations used, synchronization methods with the computer, and performance practice issues. The author introduces "Models of Interaction" in order to illustrate comparisons with traditional performance practice. The text is illustrated with examples from classic and recent repertoire.  The results of this research show that pianists working on live electronic repertoire must integrate new approaches in addition to building on existing skills. For composers, the creative process of writing for instruments and live electronics can entail working closely with performers in order to exploit the expressive possibilities of the instrument and successfully incorporate physical aspects of instrumental writing with technology. An establishment of a pedagogical approach and reference tools grounded in existing repertoire is of vital importance for both performers and composers in this fledgling performance practice tradition. The final observations are aimed at performers, composers and music educators wishing to develop an approach to integrating piano and live electronics.