As we have written about on our blog previously, there is a great deal of creative artistic potential in the act of collaborating with other people. Hashing out decisions and coming upon points of resonance as well as disagreement can be both a frustrating but immensely rewarding experience. Collaboration can nurture incredible creative leaps, but sometimes it can be hard to find that cooperative dynamic that clicks just right.
This is perhaps especially true in classroom settings. Differences in preferences and motivation between students can make group projects unbalanced. It’s a hard thing to encourage students to engage with creative classwork genuinely – let alone work together effectively with peers in this process! Given all the stress and pressure put on educators and students alike, it’s no wonder that passion for schoolwork may be hard to come across. In music classes, the disparity between students who get it right away and students who struggle may appear particularly stark. Barriers like lack of access to instruments and private instruction make understanding traditional music theory inaccessible for many. For students who don’t have an easy time grasping the material right away, they might end up discouraged, convinced that they’re just not musical.
Thankfully, as we have highlighted before, educators that use alternative techniques and tools like Hyperscore have found that these can motivate students who have been left behind by traditional music education, just as much as students with a pre-existing passion for music. In spaces around the world – from classrooms to workshops to summer camps, Hyperscore has inspired students at all levels to tap into their creativity and work collaboratively with their classmates.
Hyperscore in an Athens Classroom
One amazing musical result hails from a classroom in Athens, Greece, with the guidance of teacher Odysseas Sagredos. New Harmony Line Director of Education Cece Roudabush reached out to Odysseas after seeing his compositions featured on the Hyperscore Community page and his YouTube channel. He confirmed that these pieces were written entirely by his students working together as a classroom. Not only did his students compose collaboratively, but they did so within small groups and negotiated between these groups to create a single coherent piece. One composition that blew us away was the aptly titled “Salsa Song”:
How do they accomplish this impressive feat? Odysseas was generous enough to answer some of our questions and grant us some insight into his students’ composition process. His responses may give educators inspiration for how to use Hyperscore in their particular situations.
Q&A with Odysseas
To facilitate group composition, Odysseas uses an interactive touch board in his classrooms and a sequential composition style:
For example, two groups create melodic patterns, two others then work on rhythmic patterns, and a fifth group later composes the framework with harmonies. All of this takes place in succession, with each group making observations and improvements to the music creation. As a result, a collaborative musical creation emerges from the entire class, according to the musical preferences of the students in the class.
Odysseas Sagredos
All choices in the process were made by the students. They even chose their own groups, and resolved disagreements that arose. This speaks to the impressive maturity of Odysseas’ students, and also to the capacity of Hyperscore to facilitate the creative expression of all students. Odysseas shared that use of Hyperscore’s Harmony Modes, which move tones played in the Sketch window to fit a single diatonic scale or chord, ensure that “errors are avoided, and compositions that reward their efforts are produced.” The aesthetics and color palettes (and tone color palettes, so to speak) were also appealing to the students:
The students enjoy to intuitively visualize and edit musical structures. They love the themes, and the variety of the musical instruments.
Odysseas Sagredos on Hyperscore
Odysseas also teaches college students studying music education. He noted that, initially, the college students had a harder time with the non-traditional notation style of Hyperscore than his younger students who had less exposure to traditional Western music notation and theory. However, they came to love it over time – coming away from their time with Hyperscore with the “intention to use it in their future teaching as an innovative, effective, and functional educational music tool.”
The bottom line for Odysseas is that Hyperscore works wonders for engaging students and inspiring creative experimentation:
“As a music educator, I enthusiastically declare that Hyperscore has opened new horizons in music education, making music lessons more enjoyable, creative, and effective. The entire process of its integration into teaching gives learning a playful form, freeing students from the often burdensome weight of academic tasks.”
Odysseas Sagredos
We couldn’t have said it better. Check out the other amazing compositions that Odysseas’ students have created on his YouTube channel. And, whether you’re an educator or an individual interested in starting your personal composition journey, give Hyperscore a try for free today!