Gigajam News

Mike Woods explains how the School Improvement Service for Music and ICT worked together with Music Services at Bucks County Council to create a simple model for every child in the county to have access to musical instrument tuition.

Schools across Buckinghamshire are now able to offer all students the opportunity to learn a musical instrument, thanks to a project involving ICT, classroom teachers and music specialists across the county. This has been the first project of its kind in terms of creating dissemination centres and collaboration on such a large scale; utilising broadband technology as the delivery mechanism.

As Buckinghamshire County Council ICT adviser, it is one of my priorities to look for ways to develop the creative use of ICT across the curriculum. When I came across Gigajam’s Essential Skills Course, I could see the potential for rolling this innovative software out across the county via BucksGfL, the Buckinghamshire Grid for Learning Broadband Network, as a cost-effective way of linking ICT with music. Also, I envisaged that students would be able to develop their ICT skills using a practical application linked to our VLE (Virtual Learning Environment), either as part of their music lessons, or as an extra curricular activity.

We are a very rural authority with many small schools spread across a wide geographic area and the project also had to involve primary, secondary and special schools, so the solution I chose had to tick as many boxes as possible for all the schools.

Gigajam’s software-based curriculum for the guitar, bass, keyboards and drums provides high quality educational pathways that teach musical theory as students learn how to play a modern musical instrument. To make best use of the software, students progress through the lessons using a computer and a Yamaha MIDI-enabled musical instrument. The suite of instruments chosen for the schools provides students with access to keyboards, drums, guitars and bass guitars, and consist of PSR E403s, DD-55s and two EZ-AGs, to complement the software.

The user-friendly lesson instructions include ‘how to’ videos with professional musicians, audio files, backing tracks and an electronic performance assessment facility for immediate feedback. Students can select multimedia to suit their individual learning styles and the analysis software allows them to evaluate their own progress. The interactive courses are carefully structured so that students learning different instruments develop complementary skills, enabling them to play as a band from the very first lesson.

Thirty schools have been given access to the full Gigajam Essential Skills Course for all four instruments together with the Yamaha musical instruments to carry out the lessons. The schools were chosen in consultation with the advisers responsible for the Buckinghamshire Music Service, not only because of their enthusiasm for the development of music within the curriculum but also because of their interest in the use of ICT. Over an initial two year period we are providing training for them and working with them to develop sustainable curriculum models suitable for each school’s needs.

Five of the thirty schools were selected to take a lead role as mentor schools to become ‘music education hubs’ due to their geographic location across the county and their high level of expertise in music and ICT. Each of these mentor schools was nominated to be the hub for support and best practice guidance for five protégé schools, creating a web of support between all thirty schools. They were also tasked to provide further musical instrument opportunities for curriculum development, as well as after school and out-of-hours community projects.

Access for schools to Gigajam content is through BucksGfL, the County Broadband VLE (www.bucksgfl.org.uk). Gigajam created a website specifically for the project, which was then integrated into the VLE by Atomwide, providers of technical support for BucksGfL. This means that we now have an interactive music school sitting on our Virtual Learning Environment, and our ‘single sign-on’ user authentication system makes the software available to all Bucks students who can log on to the VLE at any time and from anywhere, whether it’s from school or from home.

Via the Bucks Grid for Learning, mentor and protégé schools also have access to a wide range of support resources, including the opportunity to use our Adobe ‘Connect’ video conference system to communicate with each other, as well as with Gigajam’s head office. We are also planning to provide Video Conference Master Classes, demonstrating both musical developments and the effective use of ICT. Schools within the project are already discussing joint rock band performances over the video conferencing link!

All of the other schools in the county who use the VLE have been provided with access to the first five Gigajam lessons for the guitar, bass, keyboards and drums. The Buckinghamshire Teaching and Learning Centre and Music Services Centre in Aylesbury also have full access to Gigajam content and software to enable them to support schools, and a set of loan instruments is also available to any school who would like to join in and ‘have a go’.

This is a huge project in terms of its collaborative elements, and as I write we are only just over a term into the project, but we can already see benefits for pupils and schools beyond those originally envisaged. Schools across all phases and of all types are working together in imaginative ways, delivering true personalised learning to pupils. A whole year of planning has produced a sophisticated, yet simple model of delivery that gives every single child within Buckinghamshire access to music lessons in a new and exciting way.

Feedback from pupils and teachers has been incredibly positive:

Staff have commented that:

“Gigajam has brought my music department into the 21^st Century.”

“The project has provided me with the chance to learn to play an instrument in an interactive way and at my own pace.”

“The software has enabled a different group of children to access music in a totally practical way - another pathway to learning has been opened to them.”

Pupils say that:

“It’s fun and easy to use.” Hannah yr8

“The software gives a good insight into new instruments and is great to use at home.” Nathan yr11

“I didn’t know that a PC could be used to teach an instrument, and my Dad’s a computer technician!” Maryam yr8

“It rocks!” Darius - yr8

We are redeveloping our Windows version of Xtractor to address a number of legacy issues, most of which are related to the use of Macromedia Director and the SequenceXtra plugin.

Here’s a sneak preview of what the new version of Xtractor “may” end up looking like.

You may notice a new feature or two in this screen shot, such as the ability to upload directly to your e-portfolio.

Please give us your thoughts.

We have recently cut the production costs of our Level 1 books by a considerable amount. We have decided to pass these savings onto our customers. So a Level 1 book now only costs £13.99 instead of £19.99.

The Level 1 books are a great accompaniment to your computer based lesson notes, allowing you to study away from the computer, laying in bed, sitting on the train, wherever you wish.

Visit our online store to buy them now.

Merlin John writes on Futurelab about the use of technology in teaching music.

http://www.futurelab.org.uk/resources/…/Web_Article930 

The search for an effective solution led Ian to the online music service Gigajam,
which became the digital ‘glue’ to hold together the learning and teaching and to
make the resources – PCs and instruments and rooms – go further. “I looked at Gigajam
for all sorts of reasons but particularly the

personalisation

,” says Ian. “In reality this is the first time children in our music lessons have
genuinely had the opportunity to work at their own pace, at their own level.

Being part of a broad music offering for students, and playing a part in providing
more music making opportunities is everything Gigajam was ever created for. Thank
you to Ian and his team at Tiverton.

Tiverton High School is one of the 400 schools in the UK using Gigajam regularly.

Gigajam’s early content (first five lessons) is freely available to the 4 million
UK school students in 6 of the 11 UK Regional Broadband Consortia (RBC).

1. London Grid for Learning
2. West Midlands NET
3. South West Grid for Learning
4. Northern Grid for Learning
5. Scottish Schools Digital Network - Glow
6. East of England Broadband Network

as well as across the following Local Authorities;

1. City of Salford
2. City of Sunderland
3. Buckinghamshire CC
4. Cheshire CC
5. Leicester City
6. Argyll & Bute

Please contact your RBC if you would like to try a few lessons out. Please also contact
your RBC or LA if they don’t have it yet, they will consider purchasing content and
services if they know their schools want it.  

–
Brian Greene

Involvement with music is very important to most children and teenagers – performing
and composing, as well as listening…..their engagement and level of motivation, depends
on the level of ownership of their music-making: on their autonomy within it and the
extent to which they can exert control.

(Hargreaves and Marshall)

In the last couple of years I have been saddened by the response of many music educators
and tutors to proposals to use ICT to widen participation rates in the learning of
musical instruments. The response has been essentially to reject the use of ICT because
it will, “put us out of a job.”

This complaint is reminiscent of the past and just as inaccurate now as it was then.
Let me explore the issues.

“The use of ICT will put us out of  a job”

The majority of tutors and peripatetic music teachers working in the school sector
are employed by Music Services who are members of the Federation of Music Services
(FMS). The following information was acquired from the FMS website (some of it no
longer appears on the current website) at http://www.federationmusic.org.uk/ .

The FMS is a registered charity that was created to provide a single effective voice
to help lead and develop national strategy and offer advice on music provision, particularly
through local music service partners. The organisation has agreed the following core
values:

• Access: opening the world of music to every child

• Progression: innovative, sustained and structured programmes that enable young people
  to realise their full potential

• Expertise: well trained professional staff

• Diversity: music to match all tastes, all backgrounds

So the FMS is interested in “all children”, in “innovative, sustained and structured”
programmes, and in catering for “all musical tastes”. Surely then, its members should
open to considering how ICT can help deliver instrumental tuition to all children
in innovative ways which help to cater for the interests of young people. 

There is plenty of evidence that members of the services do indeed strive to fulfil
the majority of these aims. However, the area in which they fall short is that of
reaching every child and in providing ’sustained’ support.

Great  work is being done under the banner of programmes like  ‘Wider Opportunities’
where whole year groups are being given the opportunity to learn a musical instrument.
The problem is providing for the children beyond that year. These programmes are expensive
of time and staff support and there are insufficient resources to allow all the children
to continue beyond the initial year, as the they focus on providing opportunities
for the next year group.

No matter how the current ’support cake’ is sliced, there is not enough money to pay
enough staff to provide continuing support for all the children, using current methods.

Let us have a look at the numbers.

FMS member services provide instrumental and vocal tuition for more than 750,000 children,
young people and adults each week and employ more than 10,000 instrumental and vocal
teachers, enriching the communities and schools in which they live and work.

[From the old FMS website.]

Doing the maths this means that each tutor deals with an average of 75 children per
week. One assumes that tutors do not change their pupils every week, so the average
number of pupils each tutor has on their books at any one time is approximately 75.

The FMS website states:

Currently, 147 Local Education Authority Music Services are members of the Federation
representing well over 500,000 pupils and 10,000 teachers.

The number of children in KS2 receiving instrumental lessons through their local service
has risen by 6% since 2002 – from 7% to 13%.  This is an increase of more than
116,000 children in three years.

In KS3 and KS4, the proportion of children receiving instrumental tuition is 8% and
5% respectively   Importantly, in most cases, the tuition extends over a
number of years.

Let us explore these figures and relate them to the number of students in the relevant
age groups in the population.  

Taking the situation in KS2 (quoted above):

If 6% = 116,000 then there are 116,000/6 x 100 = 1,933,333 children in KS2. Of whom
87% (100%-13%) or 1,682,000 are not receiving instrumental tuition.

Exploring the situation in KS3 and KS4 (quoted above):

Using government statistics (http://www.statistics.gov.uk/…/index.html).
Assuming that KS3 deals with ages 12,13 and 14 and KS4 with ages 15 and 16^[1];
of the 3,769,500 students in these age groups, 554,000 are in private schools. Therefore
in the state system:
KS3 (Ages 12,13,14 = 2,210,100 – 324,644 (private schools) = 1,885,456
KS4 (Ages 15,16 = 1,559,400 – 229,356 (private schools) = 1,330,044

Therefore, if 8% of KS3 and 5% of KS4 are receiving instrumental tuition (FMS figures,
above), then the numbers of those who are not receiving instrumental tuition
are (92% (1,734,620) and 95% (1,263,542 pupils) respectively.

So adding up all those not currently receiving instrumental tuition:

KS2: 1,682,000
KS3: 1,885,456
KS4: 1,330,044
Total: 4,897,500

4,897,500 children are not currently receiving instrumental tuition within the services
who are members of the FMS and for whom the majority of tutors operating in the school
system work.

Assuming a 50% error in the above (highly unlikely), this still leaves 2,448,750 
children not receiving instrumental tuition. At 75 pupils per tutor, this would require
an additional 32,650 instrumental tutors at a minimum cost (to someone) of £25 per
hour = £816,250 for a single hours lesson for these children, x 39 weeks (school year)
=  £31,833,750 per year.

All those children who do receive instrumental tuition outside of the state system
are being paid for by someone (usually the parents).

So, given an annual shortfall of 32,650 instrumental tutors at an absolutely minimum
annual cost of £31,833,750 (this figure does not include ‘on-costs’), how on earth
can tutors claim that the technology will “Put us out of a job” ???

Far from it.

Technology, used in conjunction with carefully thought out, “innovative”, “structured”
programmes provides a real opportunity to cater for the “tastes” of the majority of
children on a “sustained” and affordable basis.

It will require the combined efforts of every music teacher, every peripatetic
and other member of music services, plus the relevant programmes employing ICT to
begin to meet the challenge of delivering “instrumental tuition to every child”.

By embracing the use of ICT,  there are opportunities for every music educator/tutor
to support the learning to play instruments of many more children than they are currently
able to without the use of ICT.

Far from ‘threatening your jobs’ ICT is offering the opportunity to engage more pupils
in instrumental learning and give even more students the benefit of your expert knowledge.

Developing the skills of independent learners

Of course, the effective use of ICT to support instrumental tuition will require a
willingness  to embrace change by a “well trained professional staff”  of
music educators and tutors.  They will have to get to terms with the technology
and be able to support the students in developing the skills required to make effective
us of the ICT.

But this is not new. 

In the late 80’s and early 90’s there was huge interest in the emerging power of ICT
for supporting the development of ‘independent learning’. There were, arguably, 2
forces which drove this interest:

1. A recognition by far-sighted teachers that independent learning could ‘open up’ the
   curriculum - allowing learners to pursue their own areas of interest and effectively
   enable ‘individualised’ curricula.

2. A, mistaken, view by those responsible for budgets that ICT could be used to replace
   teachers.

The second view led to institutions building ‘independent/flexible learning centres’
and sending learners to them for hours on end. Results were not good. Gradually the
penny dropped, and the principles of ’supported self study’ / ‘flexible learning’ 
were taken on board.

The proponents of the first ‘force’ had espoused the principles of ’supported self
study/flexible learning’ for many years, and there were some exciting success results
in LEAs (the distant forerunners of LAs) as far apart as Somerset and Northumberland;
with student grades going up and learners actually ‘enjoying’ what they were doing.
The courses were devised with heavy teacher support/direction in the initial phases,
and this support was withdrawn gradually as the learners acquired the skills of independent
learners and became able to manage their own learning. This allowed pupils to progress
at their own individual paces without ‘holding back’ the other members of a class.

If the benefits of ICT are to be recognised and exploited within Music Education,
there are some challenges facing Music Teachers/Leaders:

1 We will have to recognise that the learners may well have higher levels of skills
in the technology than we do. Or, that the learners will more readily acquire the
skills. At a  NAACE seminar in 2006, a speaker addressed the issue of ‘technology’:

“Technology is what happens after you are born. To the students of today it is just
’stuff’”.

2 We will need to get to grips with the technology - at least at the level of understanding
its capabilities and limitations - so that we can make effective judgements about
how and when to use it.

3. Taking on board some of the points made by Howard Goodall in his speech at the
Music Manifesto Signatories inaugural conference - we need to:

“Start where the students are at”.

Their music, and the technologies which support the popular music industry, draw heavily
on the use of ICT.

4. The technology presents us with the opportunity to address issues of inclusion
by supporting a wider range of learning opportunities - from whole class teaching,
to individual learning, to after school activities, to mixed aged groups, etc.. In
a whole class environment, supported by adequate ICT resources and appropriately-enabled
instruments, the music teacher/tutor can support instrumental learning for larger
class sizes where the individuals are all learning at their own paces and on different
instruments. In the initial phases of such a situation, the teacher/tutor/leader will
need to direct the learning and ensure that the learners are able to manage the materials
and the technology. In other words, we need to help them develop the skills of independent
learners so that they become increasingly able to manage their own learning and progress
at their own paces.

The choice for music educators and tutors is simple:

Luddite or Learning Support?

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose!

–
Adrian Carey

[1] Not strictly accurate given the cut off dates for entry into the school system,
and thus year groups, but close enough to make the point.

Our
musical instrument partner, One Man Band of Banbury (OMB), has secured a supply of
EZ-AG guitars for UK schools.

OMB’s David Cooper said “We are really pleased to continue to support Gigajam by supplying
the hugely popular Yamaha EZ-AG guitars for Gigajam’s school users. We have made arrangements
to supplement our existing stock with a further 100 guitars arriving in March ‘08.
More guitars can be sourced to meet demand and any school interested in the EZ-AG
for their music department just needs to get  in touch with the Gigajam team.”

Gigajam’s Brian Greene said “We are into our third year now with David and his team
at One Man Band. It is great news for our customers for us to have such a great partner
- we started with the supply of 150 Yamaha instruments to the 30 participating schools
in the Buckinghamshire VLE project and OMB have now become our preferred supplier.
We created an online musical instrument store together for our Independent Newspaper
‘Learn to play the keyboard’ promotion in April ‘07,  and have continued to supply
instruments online through Gigajam’s Online Store (www.gigajam.com)
and TV Station (www.gigajam.tv).

Instruments are available for purchase by retail customers at www.gigajam.com and
by schools at http://schools.gigajam.com.
We like to support our customers in their development of learning spaces in music
classrooms, so please feel free to call 0800 055 6797, or email schools@gigajam.com 
to discuss your requirements.

We
often recommend the Yamaha EZ-AG as a way for a beginning guitarist to get the most
from their Gigajam lessons and software. Here’s a quick rundown on the pros and cons.

Pros

1. Is a midi controller- can be used as an input device for notation and sequencing
programs –guitarists do not have to input via a keyboard.

2. Has built in hardware synthesiser.

3. Is a very cheap midi input solution (approximately £140 ex VAT + £40 for Midi-USB
interface).

4. Is funky – kids like it

5. The buttons on the fret board do not hurt fingers – many children give up on the
guitar because the strings hurt their fingers. With the EZ-AG, they learn the fingering
and patterns, etc and succeed without sore fingers. They are then more willing to
‘put up with the sore fingers’ when transferring to a ‘real’ guitar.

6. It is always in tune.

7. It has a range of sounds

8. Can be used as a Bass guitar:

• It has a number of Bass voices – when used with a bass voice the sounds are transposed
to the correct octave and the midi data when analysed appears in the bass clef.

• The frets are closer together and smaller hands can manage it better.

• The bass patterns and knowledge can be learned and acquired and practised on the
EZ-AG.

• The performances can be analysed using Xtractor and Analyser.

• The learner can quickly adapt to the ‘proper bass’ fret spacing and feel.

9. Can be used with batteries/or with a mains power supply.

10. Can be used with a standard guitar ¼ inch jack lead to connect to an amp – for
performance purposes.

11. Has a built in ‘Capo’ function.

12. It works.

Cons


1. Is not a ‘real’ guitar – this poses some problems for some music teachers (esp.
guitarists).

2. Constantly sends ‘System Exclusive’ data as well as midi performance data which
can cause problems with various combinations of interfaces/OS/SequenceXtra (in Xtractor)
– e.g. will only work with MOTU Fastlane on Mac version of Xtractor.

3. Needs a power supply/batteries.

4. Is a bit ‘plasticky’.

5. Controls are in a daft place on the neck where everyone picks up the instrument
and triggers several keys at once causing the device to need a re-set (power OFF/ON).

6. Has only 12 frets.

7. Can’t bend strings.

8. Can’t glissando in an analogue manner – can do a ‘digital (i.e. stepped)’ glissando.

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All 45 episodes of Gigajam’s educational TV series for Guitar, Bass, Keyboard, and
Drums are now available online in time for Christmas, free, at www.gigajam.tv.

Gigajam previously broadest theses TV series’ across Europe on the Sky TV network.
Each episode focuses on one of the lessons from Level 1 of Gigajam’s award winning
Essential Skills Courses. The courses teach the fundamentals of music theory whilst
learning to play an instrument.

The skills learned in Level 1 equate to music grades Debut, 1, 2 and 3.

Gigajam felt that many websites, with both professional and user generated content,
provided only small snippets of learning, such as how to play a specific song. Gigajam’s
TV series, and the Essential Skills Courses they are based on, demonstrate a more
structured and progressive pathway of study. Students do not learn to play one song,
rather they develop the skills required to play many more.

Open College Network Credit4Learning, one of the UK’s national accreditation services
for learning and skills, has announced that Gigajam’s Essential Skills Courses for
the guitar, bass, keyboards and drums can now be studied to earn credits to gain entry
into further and higher education courses.

The courses contain learning outcomes, detailed lesson instructions that are supported
by ‘how to’ videos by professional musicians; play-along and record software to encourage
practice; and Analyser, Gigajam’s eAssessment software. This provides students with
a graphical representation of their performances and a score out of 100. Students
can then store their Analyser files in a personal e-portfolio.

The OCNcredit4learning credits will be awarded to students who complete each Gigajam
lesson. Students have to reach a required percentage score for each exercise to gain
the credits; and each lesson has been awarded a ‘credits score’ based on the number
of hours the average learner would take to complete the lesson. All students have
to do is present their performance to the required standard and have certain key exercises
witnessed by an approved assessor, who could be their school teacher, a private music
tutor, or by submitting performances via webcam to Gigajam.

Brian Greene, managing director at Gigajam said: “Gaining accreditation from OCNcredit4learning
is a major step forward for us. Studying and learning to play a musical instrument
is enough for many students, but giving them the recognition for their hard work that
can be put forward for future studies is a great incentive to continue learning. Many
of our students are school-based and a number of schools have expressed an interest
in some form of qualification or certification from us.”

Katherine Gillard, chief executive, OCNcredit4learning said: “We have worked closely
with Gigajam to establish the correct levels of attainment. For each completed Gigajam
level, students will be able to accumulate 14 credits at the corresponding National
Qualifications Framework level. Completion of each level is the equivalent of 140
hours of study recognised by the National Qualification Framework. Students completing
all three levels of a Gigajam course will now have achieved 14 OCN credits at each
of Entry Level, Level One and Level Two, forming part of the credits required for
entry into Further and Higher education.”

Schools, colleges and other organisations are able to register for accreditation of
the Gigajam Essential Skills courses through OCNcredit4learning. More details are
available on schools.gigajam.com or www.credit4learning.com

Schools across London have become the first in England to receive a Gigajam upgrade
via their local broadband network. London Grid for Learning hosts the first five lessons
of Gigajam’s Essential Skills Courses for guitar, bass, keyboards and drums, which
are freely available to schools.

The new-look lessons have been adapted in response to feedback from schools and were
developed to meet with the technical standards of Learning Platforms and anytime,
anywhere learning.

The five significant changes are:
• lessons now load much quicker, as they are presented through a web browser instead
of PDF files

• the ‘how to’ videos of professional musicians are embedded in the web pages, which
speeds up streaming
• all lessons are narrated, so that students can listen and read the instructions
• there are four lesson approaches to suit different learning styles;

o fully narrated lessons
o video and exercises only
o printable PDF book format

o TV shows

If your school is within the London Grid for Learning you are invited to use the new
lessons at www.lgfl.org.uk (http://cms.lgfl.net/lgfl/web/content/grid)