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- All Subjects: Popular Music
- Creators: Kocour, Michael
Description
At the onset of my honors thesis, I laid out three goals for myself. The first and most significant one was to record and produce a full length album incorporating as many of the musical influences in my life thus far as possible. Having studied many different styles of music at various stages of my musical development, from jazz to punk to classical to styles of folk music around the world, I wanted this album to be stylistically diverse. This broad range of influences led me to my second goal: to present all styles of music as equally valid and without a hierarchy. By presenting disparate styles of music fused together on the same album, I would place those styles on the same plane of existence without judgement. Another result of
this stylistic fusion would be to show the similarities between seemingly distinct genres and how those genres could complement each other. The final goal I laid out was to build community through the recording process. This community would link together the different departments of the School of Music and extend outside of the School of Music into other social groups I interact with. My hope with this goal was that musicians of all backgrounds would be joined together on one cohesive project, and those musicians would be able to either play music not commonly found in the School of Music, learn new styles of music they may be interested in, or express
themselves in a format that they do not commonly use. The result of these goals was a nine track album, approximately 40 minutes in length, titled Wherever That May Be. In the following pages, I will explain the process I went through in composing, recording, and producing the album, and I will give a track-by-track explanation of the album to add depth to my audience’s understanding of the music and how it met the goals described above.
this stylistic fusion would be to show the similarities between seemingly distinct genres and how those genres could complement each other. The final goal I laid out was to build community through the recording process. This community would link together the different departments of the School of Music and extend outside of the School of Music into other social groups I interact with. My hope with this goal was that musicians of all backgrounds would be joined together on one cohesive project, and those musicians would be able to either play music not commonly found in the School of Music, learn new styles of music they may be interested in, or express
themselves in a format that they do not commonly use. The result of these goals was a nine track album, approximately 40 minutes in length, titled Wherever That May Be. In the following pages, I will explain the process I went through in composing, recording, and producing the album, and I will give a track-by-track explanation of the album to add depth to my audience’s understanding of the music and how it met the goals described above.
ContributorsMancino, Alexander (Author) / Kocour, Michael (Thesis director) / Solís, Ted (Committee member) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / School of Music (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
As the incorporation of popular music into secondary and university learning spaces continues to expand, of particular interest is how ways of learning and teaching popular music might be enacted in a school environment. Well-meaning teachers, music education organizations, and corporate entities, in an effort to codify these ways, continue to explore various methods of operationalizing popular music to fit within the paradigmatic structures and core narratives of music education. Given this climate, what might teachers employing popular music gain from developing a better understanding of the diverse ways popular musicians learn, create, perform, and teach?This narrative and multiple case study considers the stories of three professional musicians who, at some point in their performing career, also became music teachers. By exploring how the orientations (i.e., experiences, knowledges, beliefs, and practices) of these professional musician~teachers were cultivated through the diversity of their experiences encountered both on and off the gig as well as in and out of classroom, this study explores how these individuals blended their biographical pasts as professional musicians with their developing teaching practices in the popular music-focused classroom. Based on this exploration, the following questions guided this inquiry: 1) What are the individual orientations of professional musicians who also teach in popular music-focused learning spaces in secondary school settings?, 2) Where and how did these professional musician~teachers acquire their orientations during their time as student-musicians and as professional musicians?, 3) How do these professional musician~teachers approach teaching popular music in popular music-focused learning spaces in secondary school settings?, 4) How are their orientation(s) evident in their teaching practices?, and
5) How did their orientations evolve to include their newfound experiences as they developed their teaching practice?
Findings indicate these professional musician~teachers: 1) learned to teach by teaching and, through this process, developed a unique blend of content and pedagogical knowledge, 2) adopted a flexible perspective of classroom structures and teaching approaches and, 3) transferred evaluative skills gained from their experiences as professional musicians into the classroom as they sought out ways to improve their teaching practice.
ContributorsHolley, Steve (Author) / Tobias, Evan (Thesis advisor) / Stauffer, Sandra (Thesis advisor) / Schmidt, Marg (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023