Persidangan Pendidikan Muzik Malaysia 2005 (MusEd05)

Music Technology in Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Education in Malaysia? Problems and Possibilities
Universiti Malaysia Sarawak By Dr Haji Hasnizam Abdul Wahid Faculty of Applied and Creative Arts Universiti Malaysia Sarawak 94300 Kota Samarahan Sarawak Malaysia ekusmatik@yahoo.co.uk awnizam@faca.unimas.my

Abstract An initial encounter with any unfamiliar medium can be problematic. Students who want to learn music technology in tertiary education need careful guidance when confronted with numerous technical and new challenges. This article examines current pedagogical issues in music technology in tertiary education in Malaysia and its impact towards our primary and secondary education.

Music and Technology

In music, Moore (1990), through his discussion on musical data and process, proposed three fundamental issues in musical knowledge base, namely listening, composing and performing processes. He suggested that these processes could be interpreted through actions made by human being, a machine or a combination of both through the acquisition of skills. Musical skills require practice, and for that particular reason, musicians will take a long time to learn about music. Lack of knowledge in music theory, compositional or performing principles and practice would place a limitation to the musicians. In performing music, for example, a performer may use a score as a guide to the performance of a particular piece of music. Therefore, performers need to use a great deal of knowledge about the theory of music to make decisions about what to perform and represent a particular composition (Moore, 1990). I would like to start my discussion about music technology education in our tertiary education by sharing my twelve years experience in teaching music technology at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS).

Persidangan Pendidikan Muzik Malaysia 2005 (MusEd05) Universiti Malaysia Sarawak Music Department In UNIMAS, our interest in music technology has lead to the setting-up of UNIMASs state-of-the art Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) studio in early 1996. Later, in 1997 the UNIMAS Electro-Acoustic Group (EAG) was formed which serves as a platform for experimental research that focuses on the merger between traditional and electronic based music. Most of our activities during those years reflected our multi-disciplinary profile, as the members (students and lecturers) were coming from various creative studies, such as fine art, electronic art, industrial design, cinematography and music. One of the main principles of the EAG, was to be a catalyst in convergence between traditional and technological oriented practices in the art. Technology, according to Wishart (1992), promises to revolutionize the process of musical learning in it wider sense. This is true from our experience in UNIMAS, as the ability to analyze and hear a piece of music, through interactive music programs available through MIDI for example, has helped our students to learn and understand music better. Problems Having involved in various technology and art related performing activities in many years locally and at international level, I develop a high interest in the pedagogical issues in music technology. Among those issues are how and what is the best way to accommodate students with strong interest in music technology. What are the prerequisite in understanding music technology? How can I introduce hardware or equipment, whose musical function is not immediately obvious? How much technical and musical skills can be delivered effectively within short period of time and what are those skills needed for? Is it possible to accommodate those who have no
whatsoever background in music, to be trained and become professional music technologists?

Music itself is a very technical subject. The ability to read and performed or to sightread a musical score are among many skills need to be addressed by the musicians before they can go any further. Alas, can a three years music program, as what we are practicing at this moment, allow technical and musical skills be delivered effectively? Minni Ang (2001) has raised some issue on why there is a lot of hindrances to the progress of music technology in Southeast Asia, particularly, Malaysia. She has defined the word hindrances as real deep-rooted factors obstructing the development and she introduced the word Pseudo-hindrances in which she later defined as factors that appear to obstruct progress, but which are actually easily addressable and thus surmountable in a definite period of time. She suggested that, among those hindrances in the advancement of music technology is the cost involved, religious beliefs, and our perceptions or mentality towards this discipline. Is this true? Some Thought on Electroacoustic Music Composition as The Platform of Expanding Music Education in Malaysia

Persidangan Pendidikan Muzik Malaysia 2005 (MusEd05) One of our attempts in developing music technology program in UNIMAS is to train those non-musically skilled students to focus straight into music technology with maximum foundation studies in music theory via electroacoustic music. Electroacoustic music as a whole can be defined as the exploration of sound. Between the late year 2000 and early 2004, I was personally involved with the Birmingham ElectroAcoustic Sound Theatre (BEAST) and Sonic Arts Network (SAN), I have seen how these two organisations contributed towards education program, particularly in schools and communities in the UK towards exploring music technology. One of the most interesting projects was the Sonic Postcards1. Aiming at young people in primary and secondary schools aged between 9 and 14 years, objective of the project, as indicated by the founder, is to inflate an awareness towards the impact of sound on our lives and as well as, opportunity for people to exchange information about their local environments and other cultures. From teaching perspectives, it permits teachers to incorporate their music and information technology subjects into Geography, English, History, and Art. As a whole, this project has been successful with 52 schools throughout the United Kingdom are taking part and benefit from the program. I can see the prospect of the similar attitude in Malaysia. I strongly believe that sound piece or electroacoustic music could be another perspective or alternative that yet to be experienced in Malaysia. My previous connection with some of the BEAST venture with schools in the UK, demonstrate that electroacoustic music are extremely useful and helpful in serving students at all levels to understand and appreciate music technology. Electroacoustic music are presently taught to the third year students in the Music Department of the Faculty of Applied and Creative Arts, UNIMAS. We started this in the year 2004. Since then, we have seen improvement in terms of appreciation and understanding towards music as well as developing students interest towards music technology. Why Electroacoustic Music? The history of Electroacoustic music can be traced back as far as 1948. Pierre Schaeffer coined the term musique concrte after an experiment with recorded material on magnetic tape. The genre turned into the medium of a tape recorder with several standard tape manipulation techniques, which later developed and established as classical tape technique. This became part of reference techniques in composing musique concrte. In electroacoustic music, all sounds can be musically organized. The sound are recorded, then processed, edited, mixed and structured, through the use of technology. The compositional method requires not only new compositional strategy but also new experiment, from technological point of view.

A Project organized by Sonic Arts Network, United Kingdom see http://www.sonicartsnetwork.org/postcards.htm 3

Persidangan Pendidikan Muzik Malaysia 2005 (MusEd05) Some Notion of How As an initial thought, Endrich (2003) gave some suggestions on how to approach the aesthetic and technical component of music technology through electroacoustic music. Some of his keywords are: parametrical thinking, continuities, timbre, randomized features, recognisability of sounds, use of text and evolution of musical forms suitable for sounds (Figure 1). In addition, from the technical point of view, he emphasized on several other key words namely recording, storing, manipulating, structuring process and presentation (Figure2).

Figure 1: The aesthetic component of music technology (adapted from Endrich, 2003.)

Persidangan Pendidikan Muzik Malaysia 2005 (MusEd05)

Figure 2: The technical component of music technology and sound design (adapted from Endrich, 2003).

Endrichs recommendations and his attitude towards the teaching of music technology through electroacoustic music are something that of we adapted in UNIMAS, and shall be confer in the future.

Persidangan Pendidikan Muzik Malaysia 2005 (MusEd05)

Conclusion New medium of expression has seriously enhanced the interest of merging the art and technology, so should the Malaysian education system. Electroacoustic music is relatively new and something of an experiment in Malaysia. However, the technology itself is becoming widely available. Even though the electroacoustic music is something unfamiliar in Malaysia, I would like to propose that the genre as the form of music to be further experimented and evaluated and become another stage for musical expression, at all levels in Malaysian education system. References

Ang, M. K. (2001). Recent and emerging work in music technology in Southeast Asia. Organised Sound 6(1): 3-9 Endrich, A. (2003). Study Guide for Workshops in Sound Design. Hither Gate Music, Chippenham, Wiltshire, England Moore, F. R. (1990). Elements of Computer Music, PTR Prentice Hall Inc. Wishart, T. (1992). Music and Technology: Problems and Possibilities. In Companion to Contemporary Musical Thought. Volume 1. Paynter, J., Howell, T., Orton, R. and Seymour, P. (eds), Routledge, London and New York.