Technology-enriched music education without resources

“What if you don’t have the resources to start using technology in your teaching?”

That’s a question I’m often asked by students and teachers when we talk about enriching music education with and through technology.

Let’s take a familiar piece of technology as our inspiration: a clock. You probably have one nearby.

A round object with hands and numbers

• The circular shape of a clock (as in the picture) can be taken quite literally as a compositional form. Give your students an assignment to create a percussion piece in rondo form using round instruments (drums, tambourines), perhaps contrasted with instruments of other shapes (triangle, cajón) or round everyday objects (plates, balls, hoops).

• The numbers on the clock (1–12) can also serve as a starting point — for instance, in a composition task in 12/8 time, a music history lesson on Schönberg’s dodecaphony, or a music theory lesson using the clock numbers to explain rhythmic notation (whole, half and quarter notes, or eighth-note triplets). And what happens if you count to twelve and clap accents on different beats — doubling or omitting some counts? (That’s the basic idea of a 12-step sequencer.) What if you work with two or more “clocks” at once, each with its own accents, rests and doublings?

Using the clock hands

The clock hands could be used as indicators in a performing activity (singing or body percussion) while standing in a circle. The arms of either yourself or a student in the centre act as the “hands” of the clock, pointing to which part of the circle may or may not play, or should play louder or softer.

The position of the “hands” determines the size of the group that can be heard. This focuses students’ attention, and varying the “hand positions” frequently keeps them alert. A command such as “reverse” can then switch between the group that is and the group that is not being pointed at.

The striking of the clock

And what about the striking of a clock? One extra strike every hour. There’s music, too, where something is added with each repetition — as in cumulative songs.

Which ones do your students know? Have them create their own cumulative song, or arrange an existing song so that each new chorus adds one more bar.

Making use of actual time

• You can use the ticking of the seconds as a metronome. A clock ticks 60 times per minute, so once per second. If a second equals a crotchet, what’s the metronome marking for quavers (120 bpm)? And what note lasts a second at 30 bpm (a minim)? What are the metronome numbers for crotchet triplets (90 bpm) and quaver triplets (180 bpm)?

• You can also use real time in improvisational group activities — for example, giving students 30 or 60 seconds to play their instrument or motif one, two, or three times. Add a restriction, such as instruments or motifs not being allowed to sound simultaneously. What do students experience then? Can they estimate time accurately? What makes the result interesting — and what could make it even more so? This activity can serve as an engaging introduction to twentieth-century Western compositional techniques.

Playing with the meaning of time

• You can also explore the meaning of time in your music lessons. Time never stands still — so what does music sound like that never stops moving?

• Time flies and symbolises the transience of life. Do your students know music or song lyrics that deal with this theme? Which pieces of music feel timeless? How does music sound when you have to hurry, or when you’re always late — or when others are always early?

The clock as a musical instrument

You could amplify the sound a clock makes and use it in a performance — or sample it, as Sting did in Russians. To what extent is that song still relevant today?

Try using the melody of the chime of a clock, such as the Big Ben, as a melodic ostinato.

Finally

The underlying principles sketched above can be applied to other technologies too — such as samplers, MIDI controllers and sequencers.

Do you already have examples of your own? Share them in the comments.