Click here to read an article about Karaoke Revolution in the classroom
I recently joined my roommate in a match of Karaoke Revolution, the PS2 game that simulates performing various pop songs for a live audience. I’ve never played guitar hero, but my understanding is that they are pretty much the same, only Karaoke Revolution has a microphone instead of the plastic guitar. True, there is little comparison to singing in real life, and true, Karaoke Revolution won’t teach you how to sing with the correct breath support and tone necessary to produce an appealing sound, but the game still has its own merits. Rhythm and pitch are the big factors in this game. It didn’t take me long to learn that you sing what it tells you to. There’s no room for improvisation, which was my first instinct. The words roll across the screen under a line that moves up and down to represent where the pitch is going. There is an arrow on the left of the screen that represents where you are in the present, and the arrow follows the rise and fall of the line as it passes by with the words. At its simplest level, Karaoke Revolution can teach an introductory form of music literacy, following the notation left to right and looking ahead to see if and when the pitch is going to change. It also gives the singer an objective indication on how thye match the pitch. It’s one thing for Simon to tell an American Idol hopeful that he’s “pitchy,” but usually when we sing, we can’t hear it if we’re off. In Karaoke Revolution, the arrow represents your voice in the now and if you are above or below the pitch, the arrow will hover above or below the line. Singers can see for themselves that they are “pitchy” and can adjust their pitch accordingly.
I think Karaoke Revolution would be a great tool to use as a reward. It would be great to work towards having a Karaoke Revolution party at the end of a unit or semester. It’s just one more way entertainment can be effectively used in the classroom.
This video can be used in a General Music or Music Appreciation class to open up the stutents’ minds to different vocal styles. Cross reference possibilities with World Culture and Social Studies.
In her Blog Posting, “Do We Really Need a Reason?” Debbie Cavalier, Dean of Continuing Education at Berklee College of Music’s online extension school, advocates for teaching music in the schools purely for the sake of music. Sure, the bulk of the post refers to statistics supporting music in the public schools, but the central point of her article was the very last sentence, “To me, the sheer joy of music making, for people from 0 to 100+, is reason enough! The rest is gravy!” (Cavalier, 2008) As a Music Ed student, I’ve heard quite a bit on this topic. There are the Music Education advocates who come up with facts, numbers, studies, and research that back up the importance/relevance/social benefits of music. There are also the lofty minded individuals that tire of trying to prove themselves to educational boards and, like Cavalier, claim music is beneficial because it is music.
I believe that while musicians can appreciate the pure aesthetic value of music, we need to be able to adequately defend our subject.“I like music because it’s music” works fine if you’re explaining to someone why you play the clarinet.“Students should be musical because I like music” doesn’t really fly when you are asking the Educational Board to preserve your program.
Today was the first day of Integrating Technology in to the Classroom and on this very first day, we were introduced to Clickers (I guess that’s what they’re called). The purpose of these little blue remote controls was to instantly assess the class as a whole. It was brilliant. What better way to ask a question in class and get an answer from every student? To instantly know how well the class as a whole is following along. Even the shy kids who would never raise their hands to answer a question would feel safe participating. And you have the power to know which kids are following along and which ones are lagging behind. Brizilliant.
Application: Show a picture of a quarter note, have kids tell me how many of these are in a measure. . . etc. Fast, efficient, fantastic.
