Perceptions
of Songwriting in a High School Guitar Class
Christopher
William Bulgren, University
of Michigan
Multiple
authors have analyzed the benefits of songwriting in music education (McIntyre,
2011; Moore, 2013; Tobias, 2013). Reasons for including songwriting in the
musical classroom include the roles of creativity, self-expression, and social
meaning (Rodriguez, 2012). Other authors focused on the pedagogy, or how to
teach songwriting (Jaffurs, 2004; Moore, 2013; Simos, 2014). This includes the elements of songwriting
such as form, melody, and harmony.
While
authors have discussed songwriting, questions remain concerning how to best
facilitate and design pedagogy. The purpose of this study was to explore
perceptions of songwriting in a high school guitar class in order to guide
teacher preparation. Research questions are the following: (1) How is
songwriting taught and learned in this guitar class?,
and (2) How do participants perceive or respond to songwriting within this
guitar class?
This
study employed descriptive case study methodology as a means to deepen
understanding of songwriting in a high school guitar class. The 22 students in
the guitar class were ages 15-18. They came from diverse musical backgrounds
and abilities on the guitar. Pseudonyms were used for all references to
students or the instructor.
Sources
of data included two recorded interviews with the teacher, five observations of
the class, one focus group interview with the students, and collected artifacts
such as worksheets and assignments. Throughout the study, I acted as Òobserver-as-participant,Ó
sitting with the students, playing guitar, and engaging in all activities. In
this type of observation, the researcher acts primarily as an observer while
having some interaction with the participants (Glesne,
2011).
Once
data were collected and interviews were transcribed, I coded the data according
to research questions and developed codes to describe recurring themes in the
data. Trustworthiness was achieved through triangulation of data among
observations, informal interviews, focus groups, written student responses, and
the collected artifacts.
Findings
from coding revealed themes related to both research questions.
For
the first question, "How is songwriting taught and learned in this guitar
class?" the themes included Playing by Ear, Musical Content, and Pedagogical
Tools.
For
the second question, "How do participants perceive or respond to
songwriting within this guitar class?" the themes were Music Selection, Emotional
Reaction to the Experience, and Safety and Risk Taking.
In
summary, these themes reveal the ways that teacher preparation can accommodate musical
tastes and learning styles of a changing society. However, this change is often
demanded in the context of conventional classrooms and class sizes. Songwriting
in a large guitar class represents a way to teach new competencies in the
context of current classroom structures. In spite of the enrollment size,
students were able to develop creativity through songwriting skills. Advancing
a constructivist approach to musical selection and songwriting could
potentially accommodate creativity in a large group setting such as the one
examined in this study.
References
Glesne, C. (2011). Becoming qualitative researchers: An
introduction (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.
Jaffurs, S. (2004). The impact
of informal music learning practices in the classroom, or how I learned how to
teach from a garage band. International
Journal of Music Education, 22, 189–200.
McIntyre, P. (2011).
Rethinking the creative process: The systems model of creativity applied to
popular songwriting. Journal
of Music, Technology & Education, 4(1), 77-90.
Moore, P. (2013).
Songwriting together: Creating songs with your students reinforces many
valuable skills. Teaching Music, 22(2),
49.
Simos, M. (2014). Songwriting strategies: A 360
degree approach. Boston, MA: Berklee
Press.
Tobias, E. S. (2013).
Composing, songwriting, and producing: Informing popular music pedagogy. Research Studies in Music Education, 35(2),
213-237.