Curtis F. Smith
Senior Instructor
Visual and Performing Arts, Music Program
University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
PO box 7150
Colorado Springs, CO 80933
719-209-3595
csmith@uccs.edu
Central Question
My computer composition students are faced with complex software that has a long learning curve and their ears have not been trained to know what sounds they can create. My central question is: “Would a comprehensive interactive ear training program increase creative production in college level computer music courses”?
Importance of Question
I have a very strong interest in developing the computer composition offerings for the students in my department, Visual and Performing Arts, and for the students majoring in Game Design and Development. Historically my classes have presented public concerts of their work with varying levels of competence. Leading students to a higher level of creativity and ability is the strongest approach to build the programs.
Investigation Plan
In the middle 1980’s, I programmed a series of innovative ear training programs. I started that work on the Apple II, but moved to the Yamaha CX5M, whose sound generators were the absolute best on the market. With that prior experience, I plan to create innovative ear training software that will be oriented toward electronic music with questions concerning waveform types, synthesis types, filter types and equalization settings among others.
My first step is to find and review music authorship routines that might function as a shell into which I can put my ear training examples and conduct tests. If an adequate authorship routine is not “out there” I can design one now that will work as well as my earlier work. Second, to make the software interactive, I plan to use the music software, MAX/MSP, for keyboard input and interactive manipulations of sounds and devices.
A student record disk is necessary to keep exam scores and chart aural progress. To keep records of aural progress, an entrance, midterm and exit exam will be included in the software. The central issue, “have the students grown creatively” is more difficult to test, and I will have to read articles on measuring affective domain. I would like to post the software on the course web site (which has not yet been developed) for the students.
An assessment of the outcome of ear training would fall in the area of instrument design and compositional competence. Having saved my student projects over the past two years, I have some basis for comparison. I expect instrument design to be more sophisticated and composition to rise above loop based cut-and-paste.
In terms of broader applications, I would hope that the ear training could “trickle” down to high school programs as well as college. The software shell will enable the development of other ear training topics.
Literature Review
There is a recording, “The Nonesuch Guide to Electronic Music” that presents some of the content I plan to incorporate. The Nonesuch Guide is vinyl and not interactive, but is a good source of ideas.
There are several very technical books on computer music:
Computer Music Synthesis, Composition and Performance, Charles Dodge and Thomas Jerse. Schirmer 1997
The Computer Music Tutorial, Curtis Roads. MIT Press 1997
Elements of Computer Music, F. Richard Moore. Prentice-Hall Books 1990
I look forward to finding current writings on screen design and user interface.
Innovative Teaching
I have a long history of innovation in the classroom and private piano studio. While teaching at Colorado College, I designed my piano class method around ensemble music, which led to my first publication. I have always incorporated my piano skills into all of my classes, and student FCQ’s consistently commend my ability (I have some tricks that show the overtone series, selective resonance and tone color). In the private studio, I have kept myself current with piano literature and I teach modern music including twelve tone music, minimalism and music that requires inside the piano techniques, . My eighteen teaching pieces, published by Boston Music call for silent depression of keys, which are excited to resonate by other keyboard strokes. The software I programmed and discussed in this proposal was innovative in that I used “real” music for demonstrations and tests with examples form J.S. Bach’s Well Tempered, Beethoven quartets, symphonies and sonatas, Tchaikovsky symphonies etc. Most ear training software is quite abstract and does not include the literature.