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Hyperscore: Traditional or Inverted Pedagogy?

This icon features a circular process in which the composer is allowed to create, listen to what was created then react by editing or moving back to creating until the piece is completed
The Inverted Pedagogy Composition Process

Cecilia Roudabush, Director of Education

Click here to view this page as a downloadable PDF

Traditional or Inverted Pedagogy?

My Grandfather’s Clock was written at our Second Saturday Composition Workshop in May, 2023 using the “Create, Listen, React” cycle of composing with the Hyperscore graphic interface. One participant from Boston suggested much of the melodic, rhythmic and harmonic material. When he heard the result, he reminisced fondly about a folk song of the same name. The lyrics created a feeling of nostalgia for the passage of time for a loved one. We were thrilled with the final result. We hope you enjoy this introduction to Hyperscore!

Hyperscore exports to programs like Garage Band or Finale in order to print the piece in standard notation. The goal is to play what was created. Scroll to the bottom of this document to see an example of Hyperscore followed by the piece printed in standard notation.

The Development of Hyperscore:

Hyperscore was created in the MIT Media: Opera of the Future Lab by doctoral students Mary Farbood and Egon Pasztor under the guidance of professor and composer Tod Machover. Drs. Farbood and Pasztor were combining research on computer-assisted composition of counterpoint and visual interfaces with the goal of allowing young children to compose music. Hyperscore was developed into a composition software in 2012, then updated for the web by Dr. Peter Torpey, who also received his doctorate at MIT Media Lab after using Hyperscore as a graduate student. The web-based application was released in 2022 through New Harmony Line with Dr. Torpey as the Chief Technology Officer and Executive Director June Kinoshita as our visionary and voice, sharing Hyperscore with the world. Our organization’s mission is to allow anyone of any age or ability, with access to the internet and a device, to tell their story through composing music.

As part of Hyperscore’s development, Dr. Kevin Jennings, an MIT doctoral student at the time, created the blue line that runs across the center of the sketch window. The Harmony Line, as he called it, creates areas of tension (green), release (blue) and drama (yellow) using principles of music theory embedded in the programming. During a 2022 Zoom meeting showing Dr. Jennings the updated web-based version, he shared a philosophical methodology with us that we have completely embraced called Inverted Pedagogy.

Hyperscore methodologies:

1. TRADITIONAL

Teach an Elements of Music concept then show the students the Google Slideshows provided for Hyperscore tool training and then have them work individually, as partners or in small groups of no more than 3, if possible. Their task is to demonstrate understanding of the concept by creating music with that tool [Teaching the Elements of Music]. Modified materials are provided in all tasks for students with varied learning styles. For example, choosing between high and low with eye gaze or yes/no strategies is effective, if the student has enough time provided to make choices.

Each time you present a new concept, all students return to the same composition and add the new component until they have a completed piece. This method is an excellent way to check off their demonstration of understanding the elements of music. A good place to introduce the workspace themes, a unique feature of Hyperscore, is after they have created one rhythm and one melody which “unlocks” the wonderful reward of choosing a theme and note shape!

Fulfilling the National Core Arts Standards

The goal for the composing unit, other than to fulfill many of the National Core Arts Standards, would be to have a portfolio of work that shows progress from Kindergarten to the last year of general music. Naming the piece is important for ownership–if they’ve begun with a prompt the name might be suggested by that prompt or the action demonstrated. However, there is nothing wrong with “Untitled” or their nickname as the title.

Hyperscore can be taught as a short yearly unit in elementary and a unit or elective class offering in secondary schools. Student pieces may be shared in concert form, as a carousel activity in the classroom and/or shared through the online classroom to parents and families and then placed in their Hyperscore portfolio. The student can choose to have their piece shared in the Hyperscore Community. The greatest achievement for the student composer would be to have their piece played by actual instruments (see printed notation at the bottom of this page)! This author has taught Hyperscore Pre-K-12th grade with students of all ability levels, enjoying great success for more than 18 years.

2. INVERTED PEDAGOGY

Dr. Jennings challenged us in 2022 to think differently about how we ask students to create–to flip the methodology from “sage on the stage, to guide on the side” (Allison King, 1993). Inverting the pedagogy means allowing student composers to create purposefully first, then discussing/expanding on the musical rudiments present in their creative work afterwards. The emphasis on knowing theory in order to compose is reversed–create then learn about what you composed so that the concepts have greater meaning.

Inverted Pedagogy gives access to music making for anyone who might otherwise find barriers to composing due to lack of experience or knowledge. In this methodology, one would teach the tools of Hyperscore by creating a group composition based on a prompt such as a story, artwork, or character/actions. Through this group composition, students would be exposed to the available tools and learn valuable tips such as having each of the motifs be a different color or how to delete.

After group composing, students have individual/partner work time with a prompt to kickstart their process. You become the facilitator and have the ability to check in with everyone over time. Imagine your students spread across the room composing, some on their bellies, then begging you for more time as the period ends with them showing you that their piece is saved as their exit ticket! Headphones are valuable for behavior management. However, most students will be completely absorbed in creating and will not be distracted by others. If headphones are not available, invite students to bring in their own earbuds if they have and want them.

Fulfilling the National Core Arts Standards

After the unit, present pieces as suggested in the traditional method above. The author has had the greatest success sharing class compositions by having students set up their computers on the outside of the room and rotating around, listening to each piece (carousel). Make sure there is a prior discussion about what kind of comments would support their personal creations and the works of their peers.

The Hyperscore Community is another option as well. If students move their pieces into a personal profile, they can continue to work on their pieces and compose more or remix the work of others that have given permission to do so. The end goal, again, would be to have a portfolio showing the student’s growth over their school years in understanding how to manipulate the concepts of music in order to tell their story AND to become someone who sees themselves as musical!

Take a Look, by Peter Torpey, first in Hyperscore notation and then in standard notation:

"Take a Look" printed in standard notation

"Take a Look" page 2

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Meet the “wildlife DJ”

Chatting with Ben Mirin was one of those unforgettable meeting-of-minds moments. Ben has recorded a Noah’s ark of animal sounds in the wild and then remixes this non-human chorus with his own beat boxing. It’s entertaining, but it’s more than that. Ben is on a mission to use music to make people care deeply about our natural world–protecting endangered species and restoring habitats.

This resonated with us. One of the core ideas we emphasize in our work is “active listening” — opening up your ears to hear the world around you fully. We want you to become attuned to the wealth of information that sounds carry to our brains but also to become aware of the feelings these sounds stir in us.

In our 45-minute conversation, we cover some of the diversity of Ben’s output. He shares video from Indonesia of the amazing vocal prowess of male birds of paradise. We get to enjoy a video of Ben’s beatboxing video from the National Arts Center of Canada’s Great Orchestra Field trip, featuring sounds from the rainforests of Kalimantan. He walks us through “BeastBox,” a game he created with the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, where you too can be a wildlife DJ. (Visit Ben’s website and click on the BeastBox link.)

We talk about his journey using music technology to create his work. I ask about an idea to create a Hyperscore instrument set using bird songs with varied pitches and timbres and Ben launches into a discussion of the “acoustic niche hypothesis.”

Now working on his PhD at Cornell, Ben shares stories about his field research in Java, where there is a booming trade in songbirds. The local people prize their feathered divas, training and entering them in American Idol-style contests complete with judges, cheering spectators, and prize money that could support a family for ten years. It’s a big business that brings jobs and money into the local economy, and people are passionate about their birds, but it’s also having a devastating impact on wild bird populations. “We all love birds,” he says. He wants to build on the shared love of these wonderous creatures to “plant the seeds of conservation.”

Click on the image below to watch.

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Music, meaning-making, and machines

A silver robot sits at a keyboard and its fingers play the keys.

What does making music actually mean? Why does music matter to us? What goes on in our minds when we write, perform, and listen to music, and how is that different from what happens when a generative AI program creates a song? What does that gap mean for our relationship to AI-generated material? And just how did we get to this point with generative AI? In an August interview with Chamber Music America on the pitfalls and potential of AI as a tool for creating music, innovative composer & New Harmony Line Board Chair Tod Machover gives his perspectives on these nuanced and tricky questions.

Machover delves into the history of AI, including as it relates to his own groundbreaking work into the nexus of technology and classical music since the 1970s. He discusses early hopes for AI as a means of understanding and modeling how human minds work, and the divergence into what AI has predominantly become – generating replicas of the end result of the human creative process rather than engaging transparently or meaningfully with the process itself.

Is this isolation from the process such a problem? According to Machover, it can carry with it the risk of losing what makes original music meaningful in the first place: the expression of a person’s lived experiences, feelings, and hopes. If machines are uncaring, then they cannot imbue creative work with meaning themselves. Meaning-making, and thus music-making, must take place in close collaboration with people who do have intention, and who care. In its current predominant form, AI digests and replicates work in ways that are virtually unknowable for people interfacing with it on the user end; the process by which the work is generated needs to be shaped by human users who know what they want. What we have now is very potent, but it is not a substitute for the music that human users who bring their own meaning and care to the process create.

There is certainly great potential in the realm of artificial intelligence as it relates to making music. Machover shares ideas for ways this may look, using as an example the process of composing a piece and collaborating with an AI to generate iterations of mood and instrumentation for that piece. AI is very powerful indeed, and the prospects of human cooperation with AI are vast. These possibilities are diminished, however, if we do not pivot to designing and implementing these technologies with intentions and goals that center the creative process itself.

Read the full interview on the Chamber Music America website, and share your thoughts with us!

Cover image: Possessed Photography via Unsplash

Office Hours with Lisa Pierce-Goldstein

An image of Lisa Pierce-Goldstein next to a text box reading, "Office Hours with Lisa Pierce-Goldstein. Lisa Pierce-Goldstein, a speech language pathologist and opera singer with 20+ years of experience working with students, shares her perspectives on educating with Hyperscore."

7:30 pm ET | 6:30 pm CT | 5:30 pm MT | 4:30 pm PT

Lisa Pierce-Goldstein is a speech language pathologist and opera singer who has worked with students with complex communication needs for 20+ years, in New York City Department of Education’s District 75, and Boston Public Schools.  She has presented at the ASHA Convention, ABLE Assembly (Berklee), Kennedy Center VSA Intersections, and has been published in VSA Intersections: Arts and Special Education, Exemplary Programs and Approaches Professional Paper Series, The ASHA Leader, and Music Therapy Perspectives.

Office Hours are held via Zoom on the first Tuesday of every month. Our staff will share tips and updates to help you get the most out of Hyperscore, and we’ll answer your questions. Sessions will be recorded and posted on our YouTube channel. Click on the button below to register.

Iowa City Senior Center Hyperscore Workshops

This is the front cover of the Nov/Dec Iowa City Senior Center activity guide
Nov/Dec. Activity Guide

this is the logo for the City of Iowa City announcing that it is a Unesco City of Literature due to the famed Iowa Writer's Workshop at the University of Iowa
The University of Iowa, located in Iowa City, is the location of the famed Iowa Writer’s Workshop

When your city supports the people of their community at any age, wonderful things happen for the seniors of the community!  Iowa City, Iowa is such a place.  The local Senior Center provides daily weekday activities and a place to connect with others 8 am to 5 pm Monday through Friday.  

this is the class description for our very first Hyperscore workshops at the Senior Center in Iowa City, Iowa
Let’s make music together!’

New Harmony Line will be hosting our first, of what we hope to be MANY, workshops at the Senior Center starting in November.  If you are in the Iowa City area, come join us.  Everyone else, let me come join YOUR senior center via Zoom!  Anyone with access to a device and the internet can make music, even with no prior experience.  Contact me to schedule your senior center, nursing home or community center workshop at:          cecilia.roudabush@newharmonyline.org

Let’s make music together!

 

 

 

 

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Asserting our humanity through music

beautiful picture of cello resting against a bare chair in a lovely meadow on a cloud day
Photo by Janderson Tulio on Unsplash

Cecilia Roudabush, Director of Education

Connecting the people of our world through music

Musical diversity is a part of your daily life, even when you’re not expecting it. Today’s music varies in the short musical segues between shows on your radio, the music in the elevator or on hold. How about that podcast theme song or the celebration and festivals in your town? Hopefully, like me, you celebrate the old and welcome the new. How lucky we are today to connect to anyone from anywhere at any time through music!

What was your first musical experience after the world shut down for COVID? Mine was as a music teacher who loved YouTube! I found my first experience in March 2020 through a video of the people making music on their balconies in Italy. Amazingly, these people gathered nightly with whatever they had in their homes and made music together. Wonderfully, their voices echoed across the streets below and they joined their humanity together through music. What power music has to enrich our lives!

Finding comfort and healing through music at home and around the world

Vedran Smailović performs in Sarajevo’s partially destroyed National Library in 1992. Created: 1 January 1992 by Mikhail Evstafiev.

Last weekend I was going through a box of those things you’re going to use someday, and found an article I’d pulled from Reader’s Digest in 2013. In accord with our month’s theme, it was about a man, cellist Vedran Smailovic, that inspired a musical diversity connection from Sarajevo to England and beyond.

On May 27, 1992 during the Sarajevo Civil War, a particularly brutal attack occurred that killed 22 people at 4 pm in the afternoon. Sadly, they were simply waiting in line for flour near a local bakery. Smailovic, a cellist in the Sarajevo opera, spent the next 22 days, at 4 pm, in full concert attire playing for his townspeople. With great courage, Smailiovic played Albinoni’s Adagio in G Minor to an empty chair near the bakery despite the fact that the shellings continued.

From Sarajevo to England to Yo Yo Ma

In 1992, Englishman David Wilde composed The Cellist of Sarajevo, Op. 12 for unaccompanied cello. Wilde hoped to honor the feelings created by his own understanding of Smailovic’s act of bravery and in solidarity with his cause. Someone who heard and understood the importance of the piece was none other than cellist, Yo Yo Ma.

Extending the chain of international musical connection, on a stage bare except for a single chair across from him, sat Ma. It was 1994 as he played Wilde’s piece at the International Cello Festival in Manchester, England. A story is told that in the poignant silence that followed Ma’s last note, he reached out and gestured an audience member forward. Ma met Smailovic in the aisle with the audience on their feet and everyone weeping. How lucky those audience members were to be exposed to the musical diversity of our world. How lucky was I that Reader’s Digest shared that richness with me!

New Harmony Line is making music across the world

Speaking of international music experiences, we are happy to be hosting our Beta pilot teacher Odysseas Sagredos from Athens, Greece as our Office Hours guest next Tuesday, November 1st at 7:30 pm ET. During his pre-recorded interview, he talked with such passion about what his students were doing with Hyperscore. When he shared their work to post on Hyperscore’s YouTube, I realized with glee that one of their songs was a remix of “The Final Countdown” by Swedish rock band, Europe. Everywhere, every day, we are all connected through music!!

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Native pop fusion

Jana Mashonee, a 28-year-old Greenwich singer/songwriter, is making national buzz with her new single, "Stay With Me Baby." She has performed for presidents Obama and Bush, taken home a slew of Native American Music Awards. She is working on her new single at her Greenwich studio.

Our colleagues at MusicFirst were out of the office on Monday, October 10th in observance of Indigenous People’s Day, which is not yet a state holiday in Iowa, where I live. Thank you MusicFirst for celebrating the day and giving me an opportunity to learn. This week, I’d like to celebrate Indigenous People’s Day through Native American artists’ contributions to the world of music.

Musical diversity in my classes

Last week, I mentioned that I could fill blog after blog with the composers, performers and cultures my students studied. This week, I am happy to remember finding Jana Mashonee to share with my students. Jana, who is of Lumbee and Tuscarora descent, has been nominated twice for a Grammy, and performed for both the Bush and Obama families during their respective presidencies. As a multi-talented artist, she has also written her first book “American Indian Story – The Adventures of Sha’kona” and starred in the movie “Raptor Ranch”. Mashonee has a charitable foundation for Native American Youth called “Jana’s Kids”. Most importantly, she received nine NAMMYs (Native American Music Awards) for her singles and albums.

Fusing Native traditional music with modern pop

The first piece that I found to share in my classroom was Mashonee’s single “The Enlightened Time“, which was from her second Grammy nominated album. As the video begins, we are seeing her and others in traditional dress with traditional instruments and lyrics. Then a pickup truck pulls up and she begins singing in English. My students found this combination very interesting, and this piece remained my example of this genre the rest of my teaching career.

Mashonee performed this piece at Coastal Carolina University in South Carolina. Mashonee was quoted in their newpaper, the Sun News. “I pride myself in being able to be influenced musically by many other cultures and styles of music. It is my mission to break down the stereotype that all Native musicians perform just pow wow style music. There are a lot of Native musicians out there today who are performing hip hop, country, and blues but put their Native twist on it.” I know as a teacher that I really appreciated sharing Mashonee’s style!

New Harmony Line will continue to celebrate

Our fall pilot introduced us to Odysseas in Greece, Frederico in Portugal and Carroll in Toronto along with all of our pilot teachers in the U.S. No doubt, we will continue to meet people around the world as Hyperscore is shared across the web! Please continue to enjoy the pieces we upload on our YouTube channel include the latest from Odysseas’s students in Greece. Odysseas will be our pre-recorded guest for November Office Hours and we hope to pre-record with Frederico for December. Thank you for bringing your own background to your musical contributions, Hyperscore users!

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Celebrating diversity in music

Celebrating musical diversity with a 2002 picture of Celia Cruz of Cuba with her 3-foot white and blue teased hair and radiant smile!
Celia Cruz, 2002. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Celia-Cruz#/media/1/144914/243145. Accessed Oct 3, 2022.

by Cecilia Roudabush, Director of Education

Recently, I was looking at a webpage that mentioned that October is Global Diversity Awareness Month. Putting that date on my Google Calendar led me to see that Hispanic Heritage month is September 15th-October 15th. This gave me pause, because I was not aware of these two important events, yet I listen to globally diverse music daily!

Celebrating the rich musical diversity in our world today is easy with access to the internet’s resources. Have you ever paused to think about your ability to listen to diverse music from anywhere, any time of the day? Let’s take this moment to celebrate these musicians that enrich our daily experience.

Musical diversity in my classes

In my 32 years as a music teacher, my students listened to, played along with, danced to and sang songs from across the U.S. and around the world. In my last 18 years at junior high, access to content providers like YouTube gave me the music of the world with actual musicians from their countries of origin. When we talked about tonality, I played Idjah Hadidjah’s Tongerret from Java. Erghen Diado was our exciting example of harmonic and melodic shape performed by the Bulgarian State Radio and Television Female Choir (Global Divas: Voices from Women Around the World is a “don’t miss!”). Of course, when we were learning to play 12-bar blues in the guitar unit we started with the great Robert Johnson and the students new favorite song, Joe Turner Blues. This celebration list, covering a 32-year career of sharing musical diversity, is absolutely endless…trust me!

Students sharing musical diversity with me

My last year of teaching, I had the privilege of having a brand new student who had just immigrated from Honduras. Imagine his amazement that I could sing the great oldies like Celia Cruz’s hit “Quimbara” from Cuba. Yes, I found Celia on YouTube when searching for an example of Latin music. My students loved her beautiful hair, clothes and radiant vibrancy!

My new student shared his favorite Hispanic pop stars Ozuna and Maluma with me. Fittingly, they have become part of my daily soundtrack. Of course, they played along with my long-time favorites Camila Cabello, Enrique Iglesias, Shakira, Gloria Estefan, etc. I listen as I blog or do daily tasks with my toe tapping and my body moving. Do you want to put some fun in your work day? Try Reggaeton! How lucky my students were to be exposed to the musical diversity of our world. How lucky was I that they would share that diversity with me!

What will New Harmony Line celebrate next?

As you can see on our Projects page, New Harmony Line has also experienced great musical diversity connections. City Symphony projects using Hyperscore motives as the basis for the arrangements were completed in Philadelphia, Lucerne, Toronto, Skaneateles (NY), Perth, Detroit, Armenia and, currently, in Bilbao. Fittingly, our Hyperscore YouTube Channel contains original pieces from the United States, Greece, Portugal and anonymous contributors that could be from anywhere. With music as our universal language, we could have musical diversity connections every day. A great reason to celebrate, don’t you think?!!

CreatedBy Festival: A Celebration of STEAM Creativity

9:00 – noon and 1:30 – 4:30 p.m.

Join the New Harmony Line team at this year’s CreatedBy Festival at Boston Children’s Museum. Massachusetts STEM Week kicks off with a hands-on festival celebrating the inspirational work of local artists, technologists, innovators, and creative do-ers. We’ll be offering hands-on demonstrations of Hyperscore. We’re proud be joining this year’s carefully curated group of exhibitors and partners, including Artisan’s Asylum, New England FIRST, Brandeis Maker Lab, and more.

For more information and tickets, visit CreatedBy Festival.

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Collaborative Composing

This is a picture of the Perth Youth Orchestra practicing together
West Australian Youth Orchestra, conducted by Chris Van Tuinen, recording selected Perth Hyperscore pieces

by Cecilia Roudabush Director of Education

Collaborative composing for band, orchestra or choir is something that would seem unfathomable to me if it weren’t for the City Symphonies work of MIT Opera of the Future Professor, Tod Machover. Hopefully, you’ve seen Hyperscore and understand the beauty of its simple design for the individual composer. However, if you are a visionary like Machover, all individuals who lead a musical ensemble would be clamoring to have their musicians compose together with Hyperscore, or as an arrangement of individual’s motives. Following that, the leaders would print the work in traditional notation using the export feature and, finally, perform their work for an adoring audience. What a challenge, and amazing experience, that could be!

If you took piano lessons, band, orchestra and/or choir like I did throughout my school years and into college, it was rare to play contemporary and diverse original works of music. As we learned in a July 2022 NPR online article featuring Dr. Rocque Diaz, Ms. Daria Adams and GSHARP, we should be playing original music from every culture and genre in addition to the Classics. I came across this 2014 Reddit comment thread when searching for a discussion on the benefit of playing the Classics of every genre and era as compared to composing and/or playing original work.

Stick with the Classics? Write original works? Collaboratively Compose?

Under the comment title below, it says “Posted by u/zamboniman06 8 years ago”

“Don’t get me wrong, I like to learn songs whether its tab or someone teaching or my earz (sic), but I get such a thrill creating a tune that it makes me [happy?] more often writing songs than learning songs… if that makes sense. EDIT: discuss.” Astoundingly, this one simple comment from u/zamboniman06 brought a long discussion thread of 135 comments.

To argue the benefit of learning music that’s already been created, JeeBusCrunk wrote, that “Great songwriters like Billy Joel, Elton John, and Stevie Wonder think the Beatles are the most important thing that ever happened to pop music (I tend to agree), and I believe you’re doing a great disservice to yourself as a musician if you don’t truly understand why they feel this way (even if you disagree)”. Anonymous, however, simply stated the opposite point with the simple words, “I don’t really create the songs I write, I hear them”. Sounds like something John, Paul, Ringo, George and Wolfgang would have said! Similarly, many of my students have said that when they use Hyperscore they never really know what they’re going to do until they start composing and like what they’re hearing!

The joy of an original composition

Probably, my favorite Reddit thread commenter was alividlife. This person stated Hyperscore’s philosophy to a T:

“…I’ve noticed in writing my own material, as soon as I take it seriously, and try and write something “awesome”, it’s a struggle of frustration. What has been proving a better way, is to almost be joyful…

It’s just a matter of getting the basic idea.
Verse.
A Hook of some sort.
A chorus.
Then maybe a bridge.

…Keep it simple, and as it becomes refined, work on creating each part as a breathing whole. But ideally stick to the real simple fundamentals of harmony, and simple melody…I think a huge issue with creation in general, all art forms, is that inner-critic…Enjoy yourself, and your audience will appreciate you for it.”

Raise your hand for collaborative composing!

New Harmony Line is looking to emulate the work of Professor Machover with a visionary ensemble leader who is interested in collaborative composing, guiding their musicians to create and perform an original work. Realistically, in today’s work world I wouldn’t know a single ensemble leader who would have time to run the unit then arrange the resulting piece. Thus, we are looking for freelance arrangers as well. Raise your hand if you are the visionary! Raise your hand if you are the arranger of that future collaborative piece! Then contact me, cecilia.roudabush@newharmonyline.org, and we’ll write about your work in the New Harmony Line News blogs to come!

Empower kids to tell their stories through music.

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