Browsing by Author "Walzer, Daniel"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    Blurred lines: Practical and theoretical implications of a DAW-based pedagogy
    (Intellect, 2020-08-01) Walzer, Daniel; Music and Arts Technology, School of Engineering and Technology
    Digital audio workstations (DAWs) occupy a prominent space in the creative arts. Songwriters, composers, producers, and audio engineers use a combination of software and virtual instruments to record and make music. Educators increasingly find DAWs useful for teaching concepts in signal flow, acoustics and sound synthesis, and to model analogue processes. As the creative industries shift to primarily software-based platforms, the identities, roles, and responsibilities of the participants intersect and blur. Similarly, networked technologies change the space and place of creative activity. Now, the ‘studio’ exists virtually anywhere. For educators working with students, these changing paradigms present a series of challenges. This article explores the DAW’s possibilities across three areas: space and place, theory and identity, and pedagogy. The article advocates for a less technocratic model of teaching and learning with DAWs in favour of an approach that cultivates a balance of aesthetic awareness and creativity.
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    Exploring Human Adaptations in M-RTC (Music Real-Time Communications): A Qualitative Study
    (2024-11) Goot, Dana Kemack; Walzer, Daniel; Cafaro, Francesco; Drews, Michael; Palamara, Jason
    The research explored how musicians adapt to technology and how they adapt musically and cognitively within the technical and distanced environment of Music Real-Time Communication (M-RTC). Tracing its roots from the U.S. Air Force's 1950s SAGE radar system to today's high-speed Internet, the study highlights the crucial role of the Internet in facilitating real-time collaboration and music sharing. Understanding the technical requirements and challenges of real-time online musicking, alongside necessary cognitive and musical accommodations, addresses the problem of spatial separation and the perception challenges imposed by physical distance. Implemented through a qualitative observational study based on user experiences, the project included real-time online music sessions followed by post-project semi-structured interviews, identifying the adaptations musicians make during real-time online musicking. Case One involved participants from Israel and the United States performing John Lennon's "Imagine." Case Two consisted of observations from M-RTC sessions accessed through social media and platforms like JackTrip, JamKazam, Jamulus, and SonoBus. Case Three included sessions with musicians that I was acquainted with, either through professional organizations or friendship, that had some experience in M-RTC. Through these three cases, three overarching themes emerged: Adaptation to Technology, Adaptation of Sound Embodiment, and Social Experience. The theme of Adaptation to Technology emphasizes the importance of suitable instruction for implementing M-RTC, commitment to learning, and sufficient time for skill acquisition. The Adaptation of Sound Embodiment theme showcases how sensory awareness, spatial hybridization, and interaction dynamics intertwine through music technology tools in musicians’ cognition. The Social Experience theme highlights how collaborative musicking strengthens social bonds and transcends geographical barriers. M-RTC offers a consistent platform for teaching and learning, from music education to cultural exchange, ensuring continuity even when faced with world circumstances that may prevent in-person gatherings. This study's findings offer significant insights into the ways musicians adapt to and navigate the technical and social environment of real-time online musicking, contributing to broader implications for music practice and education in the digital age.
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    Fostering Trauma-Informed and Eudaimonic Pedagogy in Music Education
    (Frontiers, 2021-04) Walzer, Daniel; Music and Arts Technology, School of Engineering and Technology
    The arts and entertainment sectors remain fragile because of the global pandemic. Unemployment, physical and emotional stress, social isolation, a loss of purpose, and a problematic future are just a sample of the ongoing traumas that music educators and practitioners experience under duress. As an inherently social activity, music-making becomes especially difficult when the threat of infection persists, further exacerbating somatic trauma and decreased health and wellness. The sudden loss of daily contact with others, coupled with multiple kinds of crises, complicates matters for educators. How does one flourish when their livelihood, personal connections, and sense of meaning-making disappear? Likewise, how ought the music educator navigate such uncertainty when teaching others? To address these issues, psychologists have often turned to Trauma-Informed Care (TIC), a collaborative model between the practitioner and client that recognizes and validates the impact of painful memories and experiences. This article advocates for a compassionate eudaimonic pedagogy model that prioritizes healing and self-care for teachers and students and cultivating an ethos of critical digital pedagogy—itself a form of eudaimonia. Drawing on Noddings’ (1992, 1995, 2002) Philosophy of Care, the article concludes with suggestions on future connections between eudaimonia and music education.
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    MuSciQ- A Musical Curriculum for Math
    (2022-12) Tyson, Alan Blain II; Burns, Debra S.; Hsu, Timothy; Walzer, Daniel; Morton, Crystal; Sorge, Brandon
    Music and math are related in that 1) they both rely on the basic understanding of numbers, proportions, intervals, measurements, and operations and 2) both require levels of abstract thinking and symbolic notation. Studies link music and math by examining, for example, how music may play a role in math performance. There are, however, few studies that examine how a musical curriculum may impact not only math performance, but math related variables including math anxiety, math self-efficacy, and math motivation. This study sought to develop and assess the feasibility of MuSciQ, a music technology-based curriculum, and explore how it might impact math anxiety, math selfefficacy, math motivation, and math performance in twelve fourth-grade students. Additionally, acceptability of the MuSciQ curriculum was assessed by students, a teacher, and a school administrator by using the Technology Acceptance Model. Participants experienced large, significant improvements in math anxiety scores and significant improvement in math motivation. Math performance and self-efficacy showed small, non-significant improvements. When split by gender, only math anxiety scores showed statistically significant improvement in males. As expected, there was a significant positive correlation between motivation and self-efficacy before and after the curriculum was introduced. There was also a significant positive correlation between technology acceptance and motivation. Surprisingly, although there were significant positive correlations between the pre- anxiety and motivation measures, there were no significant correlations after the curriculum was introduced. There were no significant correlations found between anxiety and technology acceptance. There was, however, a significant correlation between technology acceptance and self-efficacy. Technology acceptance and additional qualitative comments provided by students and administrators suggest MuSciQ is an easy and useful platform to promote music and math learning. These findings point to a need for further investigation into the influence of MuSciQ on math related variables.
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    Towards an understanding of creativity in independent music production
    (Taylor & Francis, 2021) Walzer, Daniel; Music and Arts Technology, School of Engineering and Technology
    For years, creativity has been a topic of interest for scholars in psychology, human development, and the arts. Research on creativity has produced a growing body of literature in the art and science of music production. Correspondingly, the entertainment sector has undergone what business and entrepreneurship scholars refer to as disintermediation or a reduction of skilled labor affecting the roles and responsibilities of those working in music production. Research on creativity with independent music production (IMP) is less common. Little is known about creativity by those without access to particular domains. As the music and recording industries remain untethered, an increase in autodidactic and incremental learning processes seems likely along with the growth of new models of independent music production. Using a Bourdieusian theoretical framework, the article analyzes two skill areas in IMP, experimentation, and critical listening, and calls for a more equitable and imaginative analysis of creativity.
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    Transient soundscape production: Creative and pedagogical significance for educators and practitioners
    (Royal Danish Library, 2021-01) Walzer, Daniel; Music and Arts Technology, School of Engineering and Technology
    Over the past decade, there has been a steady increase of scholarly output examining the multidisciplinary, creative, and theoretical aspects of sound and music production in the recording studio and beyond (Zagorski-Thomas & Bourbon, 2020; Bennett & Bates, 2019; Hepworth- Sawyer, Hodgson, & Marrington, 2019; Thompson, 2019; Zagorski-Thomas, 2014; Frith & Zagorski-Thomas, 2012). Accordingly, a broad range of literature examines sound as a widespread cultural phenomenon (Papenburg & Schulze, 2016) and an essential source for pedagogical and ethnographic modeling in music technology education (Bell, 2018). Advances in technology make the “studio,” long viewed as a site of artistic and commercial production, available to a broader group of composers, musicians, and artists. Similarly, portable digital recorders afford sound artists and fi eld recordists an expansive range of choices to conduct soundscape research and creative practice. What emerges is a hybrid “composer- producer” identity and a studio’s function in the artistic process. This growth is the rise of an independent and transient practice in soundscape production among multidisciplinary composers and musicians. This article advocates for an updated notion of soundscape composition that integrates fi eld recordings, studio production, and collaboration from musicians representing a broad range of stylistic infl uences. Positioning the studio as a site of cultural production and creativity has implications for how soundscape production is taught to young composers. The author argues for a more inclusive, process-oriented view on both creativity and the places where musicians, composers, and producers work. The article includes a case study from the author’s recent album project, narrative analysis, concluding with a discussion on the pedagogical implications of independent soundscape production in education.