Week 4: Multimedia - Utilising Musical Creativity

The employment of media and modalities in the classroom is a way for students to engage more deeply in teaching and learning activities. Cognitively, having both visual and auditory information engages the learner and promotes stronger encoding of the information.

Using multimedia in the classroom even as simply as creating a multimedia presentation demonstrates higher levels of student satisfaction in the creative process, and engagement through the investigative process (Ostroglazova & Starostina, 2021). A simple example of this would be a visual PowerPoint with key points and images to be projected behind a presenter to engage the audience’s visual and auditory working memory.

Figure 1: Multimedia Presentation (Original Author Content, 2020).

Additionally, a technology that allows creative use of multimedia is BandLab. BandLab is easy to set up and user friendly. Students can access a variety of pre-set sounds of numerous instruments and combine them to create a piece of music. An activity which utilises this feature could be students creating their own backing tracks for their creations such as documentaries in any subject area (Hernández-Ramos & De La Paz, 2009).

Figure 2: BandLab Mixdown using pre-sets (Original Author Content, 2023).

Students can also record themselves and arrange it in BandLab. They can then use their instruments or voice and edit it, or create complicated arrangements that are entirely made by them. A way to utilise musical learning through this application of BandLab is students creating a composition entirely made by themselves when they play several instruments, instead of performing it live alongside others.

Further, students can use this feature to harmonise with themselves. This skill is difficult to learn, and this way they can practice layering their voice in harmonies, or create their own backing track entirely of their own voice. This can also be done on GarageBand, which can be more accessible for students with an Apple device through its app.

TikTok is another app that can be used similarly. The TikTok app has a function where you can duet videos; making it another way for students to add layers to a composition or harmonise with themselves. This duet feature can also be used on other people’s videos; allowing for duets with the instruments and harmonies of others. TikTok also has an inherent visual element that you would have to add with BandLab or GarageBand.

Figure 3: Layer 1 of harmony of 'Tenerife Sea' bridge by Ed Sheeran (Original Author Content, 2023).

Figure 4: All layers of harmony of 'Tenerife Sea' bridge by Ed Sheeran (Original Author Content, 2023).

Figure 5: Duet feature. Duet with Ed Sheeran 'Afterglow' (Original Author Content, 2023).

However, a massive limitation of using TikTok is its controversy surrounding the app security, as seen by a growing movement to ban the app.

Figure 6: Some headlines when searching 'TikTok ban' on 30/3/23 (Original Author Content).

Ultimately, the creative benefits of TikTok are largely outweighed by the controversies, so this style of creative tasks may be better suited to BandLab or GarageBand.

References

Hernández-Ramos, P. & De La Paz, S. (2009). Learning History in Middle School by Designing Multimedia in a Project-Based Learning Experience. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 42(2), 151–173. https://doi.org/10.1080/15391523.2009.10782545

Ostroglazova, N. A. & Starostina, N. V. (2021). Presentations in Lectures to Prompt Innovations in Higher Education. Vysšee Obrazovanie v Rossii (Print), 30(6), 97–107. https://doi.org/10.31992/0869-3617-2021-30-6-97-107