Left to right:

“Forestbots,” designed by Eric Singer.

Eric Singer with his “Sonic Banana.”

The “Shaper,” designed by Tod Machover for the Toy Symphony Project.

DSOKids website.

O n the ninth of October last year, nearly fifty professionals from the Greater Philadelphia music and performing arts community gathered at the Curtis Institute for Music for the Philadelphia

Music Project’s 2003 panel discussion entitled Music, Technology, and Kids. PMP invited distinguished panelists Tod Machover (moderator), Professor of Music and Media at MIT and director of the Toy Symphony Project; LeAnn Binford, Director of Education for the Dallas Symphony and producer of DSOKids.com; Michael Cain, composer, pianist, and profes-sor of improvisation and jazz studies at the New England Conservatory of Music, and director of Digital Playground; and Eric Singer, musician, artist, engineer, programmer, and founder of the LEMUR project. PMP convened these speakers in order to address the intersection of technology and music education, and, specifically, the potential for electronic instruments and internet and recording technologies to contribute to children’s musi-cal enrichment.

The morning-long panel discussion began with a brief introduction by Tod Machover. Machover noted the growing trend in education to approach music in new ways and commented that he became involved in the field because of his sense that, while music is omnipresent in the contemporary environment, its very ubiquity has led to audiences listening less carefully. He sees his work as revitalizing and refocusing the public’s attention to music. Machover advocates applying advances in technology to music education as a means of promoting students’ engagement in the creative process. Through emerging technologies and new pedagogical approaches, he said, children can feel not only closely involved as music listeners, but can also be active performers and composers in forms they might otherwise find intimidating.

Machover’s comments were followed by brief individual presentations by panelists. LeAnn Binford offered the first presentation of the morning,

PMP 23PMP 22

which was an overview of the DSOKids website. The rich and captivating interactive platform engages children and educators in the study of music, and intends to orient children toward live musical experi-ences. The site distinguishes areas for students and teachers, both filled with information on the orchestra and classical music generally. Teachers have access to curricula on instrument making and composition, as well as a music education bibliography and much more. In the “Music Room,” students can enjoy fun memory games, a listening library, and lessons on music histo-ry, theory, and orchestration. Binford emphasized the success of DSOKids: the site received over 730,000 visitors in a one-year period, averaging an internet session time of 3.5 minutes. She further discussed its growth, commenting that while the site is currently oriented toward middle school students, the Dallas Symphony intends to enhance its online format and content in order to engage older students.

Whereas DSOKids uses web technology to teach children about music, the Digital Playground, a pro-gram of the Native Drum Institute, functions as a comprehensive recording studio and learning site for at-risk youth. Michael Cain presents a progressive ed-ucational environment to his students. He grounds the Playground as an affirmation of culture; rather than asking participants to create a certain kind of music, he orients the program with questions such as: What do you like listening to? What is important to you in

music? What would you like to make possible? He also encourages students to recognize the extent to which our experience of music is filtered through technol-ogy, from the microphone that captures sound to the speakers through which the listener hears recordings. The site contains a spectrum of instruments, from shakers to keyboards, and appeals to a wide range of ages. Cain explained that kids age six to seventeen have used the Digital Playground to compose, learn, record, master, print to CD, and distribute their own music. And, said Cain, the Playground is expanding. It will soon be included in a charter school in Boston and several schools and YMCAs in the Chicago area. Plus, they will all be linked so that participants can share and co-create music online.

Eric Singer presented third, demonstrating what he calls his “music input devices,” electronic instru-ments that use software and sensors to generate sounds in response to a performing artist. One such music input device is the “Sonic Banana,” which can be pulled, twisted, and further manipulated to create sound. Singer also demonstrated robotic musical instruments that play themselves: the “GuitarBot,”

“TibetBot,” and “ForestBot.” All three of these already have been utilized in multimedia exhibitions and street performances with LEMUR, the League of Electronic Musical Urban Robots. Singer emphasized the acces-sibility of these devices to children — admitting that it’s adults who are stumped by his inventions — and he

hopes to introduce this technology to kids in classrooms. He envisions that his highly interactive Bananas and Bots will provoke students’ creativity in general, as well as interest in the study of acoustics, computer science, and programming.

The final presentation was given by the event’s moderator, Tod Macho-ver. Machover introduced instruments, technologies, and artistic concepts of his Toy Symphony Project. The primary aim of the Project is to engage students as quickly and directly as possible in music composition and per-formance. Like Mr. Cain, the Project employs constructivist — or learning by doing — methods for engaging children in a coherent musical context. Through the Toy Symphony Project, Machover seeks to foster collabora-tion between children and symphony musicians in which they can perform together as equals. Similar to Mr. Singer’s music input devices, the Toy Symphony Project uses electronic instruments called “Beatbugs” and

“Shapers” that are both tactile and interactive, and which often have the outward appearance of toys. Machover explained how children use these

“toys” to create music through expressive gesture and delicate touch, often before they are able to command traditional musical instruments. Mr. Machover also demonstrated “Hyperscore,” a computer application that enables students to create compositions graphically, rather than with music notation. Through the technological resources of the Toy Symphony Project, students feel they are contributing to real art, and not just to a

“kids’” ensemble. The presentations were followed by a panel discussion and question

and answer period in which panelists addressed a range of issues, includ-ing how best to stay abreast of the rapid advancements in technology, how new instruments might be integrated as viable and useful teaching tools, and how new technology-inspired pedagogical approaches might best be reconciled with more traditional music education.

Symposium Brings Interactive Technology to the Forefront in Music Education