The Routledge Companion to Music Theory Pedagogy

Leigh VanHandel, Leigh VanHandel

• Editorial: Routledge
• Año: 2020
• ISBN:
  9780429012723
• Edición: 1
• Categoría: Media & Performing Arts
• Categoría: Music

Today's music theory instructors face a changing environment, one where the traditional lecture format is in decline. The Routledge Companion to Music Theory Pedagogy addresses this change head-on, featuring battle-tested lesson plans alongside theoretical discussions of music theory curriculum and course design. With the modern student in mind, scholars are developing creative new approaches to teaching music theory, encouraging active student participation within contemporary contexts such as flipped classrooms, music industry programs, and popular music studies.

This volume takes a unique approach to provide resources for both the conceptual and pragmatic sides of music theory pedagogy. Each section includes thematic "anchor" chapters that address key issues, accompanied by short "topics" chapters offering applied examples that instructors can readily adopt in their own teaching. In eight parts, leading pedagogues from across North America explore how to most effectively teach the core elements of the music theory curriculum:

• 
  
  

• Fundamentals
• Rhythm and Meter
• Core Curriculum
• Aural Skills
• Post-Tonal Theory
• Form
• Popular Music
• Who, What, and How We Teach

A broad musical repertoire demonstrates formal principles that transcend the Western canon, catering to a diverse student body with diverse musical goals. Reflecting growing interest in the field, and with an emphasis on easy implementation, The Routledge Companion to Music Theory Pedagogy presents strategies and challenges to illustrate and inspire, in a comprehensive resource for all teachers of music theory.

PART I
Fundamentals

1

MUSIC THEORY AND WORKING MEMORY

Leigh VanHandel

In 2012, I published an article in the Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy, “What can music theory pedagogy learn from mathematics pedagogy?”, in which I examined the relationship between achievement in written music theory fundamentals and mathematics ability. I discussed research showing that the best predictor of success in the music theory fundamentals classroom was performance in math-related areas, suggesting math and music may have similar underlying cognitive properties; I also provided some teaching strategies from mathematics pedagogy research for use in the music theory fundamentals classroom.

Since writing that article, I’ve become increasingly convinced of the critical role of memory, and specifically working memory, in education in general and in music theory learning in particular. In this chapter, I discuss how working memory works, why it is important, what happens when a student has a working memory deficit, and what we as instructors of music theory can do to minimize the working memory burden on our students to help them learn more effectively and efficiently.

Further Evidence for a Math/Music Connection

In my 2012 article, I investigated the relationship between the cognitive processes involved in learning mathematics and learning music theory fundamentals. This relationship is supported by research into factors contributing to student success in the music theory classroom; there is a strong correlation between student performance in mathematics, specifically the math portion of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) exam, and performance in first-year written music theory classrooms.

Additional evidence of the music theory–mathematics connection has been found in recent studies conducted by researchers at Florida State (Rogers and Clendinning 2015; Barroso et al., 2019), where they studied a wide spectrum of potential factors influencing performance in undergraduate music theory courses; their factors included high school grade point average, scores on standardized tests, prior theory knowledge and experience, measures of confidence and anxiety for both math and music theory, a measurement of spatial skills, and an music “aptitude test” designed to test recognition of music notation and ability to complete notation-based pattern-matching tasks. They found that the best predictor for performance in the first-year music theory curriculum was the American College Test (ACT) math score.¹ They also found that performance on the music aptitude test predicted performance in both semesters of first-year theory, while traditional placement tests measuring existing music theory knowledge only predicted performance in the first semester of music theory.

Working Memory, Math, and Music

There are different kinds of memory, each with different but related functions. Long-term memory is our stable, durable reference memory for information and skills. Short-term memory and working memory are similar to each other, but with one critical difference: short-term memory is our capacity for holding a small amount of information in our minds for a short period of time; working memory is our capacity for holding and manipulating a small amount of information for a short period of time. For example, immediate recall of a list of words uses short-term memory, while the ability to recall the list of words in reverse requires working memory.

While long-term memory is theoretically unlimited, working memory has limitations in both amount of information and the duration it can be held (Miller 1956). If those limits are exceeded, the higher the likelihood of forgetting information or making an error. Learning happens when there are enough mental resources available to process information in working memory and integrate it into pre-existing knowledge in long-term memory; in order to get information into long-term memory, it has to go through working memory first.

Baddeley and Hitch (1974) proposed a model of working memory with three components: the central executive, which controls the flow of information to the other components; the visuospatial sketchpad, which is responsible for visual and spatial information, and the phonological loop, which is responsible for verbal and other auditory information. Later, Baddeley (2000) updated the model to include the episodic buffer, which facilitates the communication between working memory and long-term memory.

Working memory ability is important for learning in a number of ways. It correlates with performance on higher-order cognitive tasks including reading comprehension, complex learning, and reasoning (Engle 2002). Deficits in working memory are considered to be a primary source of cognitive impairments, and students with working memory deficits are more likely to get distracted during a task or be labeled as disruptive or inattentive (Klingberg 2009). Working memory deficits may make learning new facts or skills more difficult; the burden on working memory is always the greatest at early stages of skill development because the material is unfamiliar (Kyllonen and Christal 1990, 427). Students with working memory deficits may have difficulties processing new information or skills, and may face challenges incorporating new knowledge into long-term memory.

There is a strong correlation between mathematics performance and working memory ability in general. Visuospatial skills are an important contributor to and predictor for mathematics ability, both in children and adults (Bull and Espy 2006; Peng et al. 2016); however, there is some indication that as mathematics expertise is developed, the role of visuospatial working memory appears to decrease (Dehn 2008, 112).

Reading, writing, and interpreting music notation also require visuospatial processing, which is not surprising given that music’s symbolic notation system is fundamentally dependent on a two-dimensional space, with time represented on the x-axis and pitch on the y-axis. Studies have shown that music reading tasks activate the visuospatial network – areas of the brain active during spatial localization, visuospatial attention, spatial memory tasks, and attentionally demanding tasks (Gromko 2004; Sluming et al. 2007). Thus it appears as though visuospatial working memory is important for reading and interpreting musical notation; this is supported by the findings of Barroso et al. (2019), who found students with better performance on the spatial skills assessment and the pattern-matching music aptitude test tended to have higher grades in first-year written music theory. Students with low visuospatial processing and/or working memory in general may be at a disadvantage in the written music theory classroom.

Memory and Schema Development

The goal for learners is to create a schema, or a representation of information in long-term memory, which may contain a large amount of interconnected information. Having material available in a schema avoids the limitations of working memory by treating the schema as one single automated source of information (Paas and Ayres 2014, 192). A student with working memory deficits, however, may have difficulties forming a schema, instead relying on more inefficient or less accurate strategies for coming up with basic information.

Working Memory and Schema Illustration

In music theory, a schema might contain related fundamentals topics such as notes, scales, key signatures, intervals, chords, and chords in a key – information that must be available for immediate recall and manipulation.² Expert musicians may find it difficult to remember or understand what it’s like to have your working memory taxed by something as simple as theory fundamentals. This is known as the “curse of expertise” (Hinds 1999), in which experts in a topic routinely underestimate the difficulty novices face in completing a complex task and the time it will take a novice to complete the task. This is due to anchoring and adjusting, in which experts anchor their difficulty estimates on their own abilities and fail to adjust for the novice. In the fundamentals classroom, this can take the form of instructors not allowing enough time on a timed test, not spending enough time on a topic, or assuming students will be able to figure something out on their own.

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