Contemplating practical and creative applications to utilise technology in music education has led me to an idea for my technology project due at the end of this semester!
Having worked as a guitar tutor in various music schools throughout Sydney and currently, as a peripatetic guitar tutor at an independent school in Sydney, I have experienced the "great divide" between different styles of guitar playing, both as a teacher and a performer.
As a teacher with a pluralist approach to music education, I'm an advocate for all styles of music to be taught and for appreciation of the diverse range of music that we as humans have to enjoy, to be fostered in the music classroom. More specifically, having completed the AMEB CPM guitar course as a contemporary musician, as well as being a Classical Guitarist from the Conservatorium whose achieved the Associate of Music, Australia (AMusA) diploma and currently working towards the LMusA in Classical guitar performance, I often find myself in a situation where I need to identify as either a classical or contemporary musician (Por que no los dos!).
So, in a 'nutshell,' my Tech project is designed to approach different styles of guitar playing highly diplomatically and to align the level of difficulty to the AMEB standard. Part of my research will involve understanding whether or not, for example, the Grade 3 Electric Guitar Rockschool syllabus aligns with the Grade 3 AMEB Classical and Acoustic Guitar counterparts.
The goal of my project is to:
- Give students exposure to many different genres through opportunity to play the electric, acoustic and classical guitar. Students will not be 'boxed into' one genre!
- Align the level of difficulty to the AMEB system of grading, specifically according to the Rockschool Electric Guitar and Acoustic Guitar syllabus and the AMEB Classical Guitar syllabus (first I need to determine whether or not these syllabi align with each other and go from there!) - I feel this is important as in my experience, the terms 'beginner,' 'intermediate' and 'advanced' in a guitar context holds very little meaning as different schools can have differing standards of musicianship.
-Visual Visual Visual (and Auditory!) As this is, after all, a Technology in Music Education project, I will record both video and audio of myself teaching a range of pieces and create backing tracks as well as supplementary resources to propel student's learning, enhance self-efficacy and facilitate enjoyment in learning to play the guitar.
The ultimate goal is for students to understand all styles of guitar playing as relevant and important in being able to truely understand how far six strings can take them with perseverance and passion.