Critique Ferguson

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Ferguson, L. (2005). Band-in-a-box for the general music classroom. General Music Today, 18(2).

This article provides a music educator with a wealth of information about a particular piece of computer software called “Band-in-a-Box” (BIAB) by PG Music. The author, Laura Ferguson, describes several ways in which elements of this software can be applied to the general music classroom in the elementary school, high school, and in the improvisational development of professional musicians.

Ms. Ferguson begins by describing how the computer program can be used to perform a piano accompaniment. This allows the teacher to walk around the classroom instead of sitting behind a piano as he or she helps students sing. The author explains that the software is able to manipulate musical elements of a particular type of computer file (MIDI) to alter the tempi, style or timbre of the music. This can be helpful when developing students’ listening and musical evaluation skills. Further benefits of this software extend themselves into almost all of the learning standards of music including composition tasks, music notation and improvisation. Regarding improvisation, a student – or a professional musician – can set the program up to repeat a particular chord progression. The musician can then develop his or her improvisation skills as BIAB performs the basic harmonies.

BIAB has a virtually limitless list of applications. It can be used to create a musical soundtrack to a video that might be a class project for high school students. It can be used to showcase student compositions at virtually all levels of school. Music created by students can be recorded to an audio CD and distributed to parents and members of the community in order to strengthen support for the music program.

The author offers the reader many different tips, tricks and instructions on how to efficiently use the computer software. These instructions seem to be quite comprehensive and understandable to the novice-intermediate computer user. The different tips and shortcuts that the author describes will most likely prove to be an invaluable resource to those who will use the program often.

The material presented in this article is very applicable to music education in this new world of technology. With user-friendly programs such as BIAB, Finale, Sibelius and others, educators and students are given great tools that were once only available to a select few. The implications of using BIAB in a general music or chorus class are great. In a classroom setting with one teacher and many students, a teacher can now focus on helping particular students or sections in their pitch or rhythmic accuracy instead of focusing on playing the piano accompaniment.

The author makes the software seem quite simple to run. She explains that all the user has to do is input the chord changes throughout the song and hit the ‘play’ button. The song can then be manipulated with regard to transposition, tempo and timbre. This can be put to great use in a variety of applications. One such application can be in a composition class in which the students are directed to write a melody to a particular harmony. This can be done at many different levels of education in slightly different ways. In the more advanced levels, strict voice-leading rules can be followed as the students compose on the computer itself. In the elementary level, the younger students can compose a melody using graphic symbols drawn on paper as they listen to a repeated harmonic pattern. Likewise, a harmony can be added by the teacher to a young students’ melody. This is a good way to show a student that ‘you wrote this’ and this is how good it can sound with a back-up band. I feel that this can build a students confidence as he or she learns to write his musical ideas.

The section of the article that dealt with writing soundtracks for movies or student-made video scrapbooks was especially intriguing for me. As a child, this was something that I thought would be exciting. This computer program and others like it can bring this opportunity to young children. The children can focus their musical ideas on the basic elements of music and melody and have the computer do all of the hard work in the notation and music-theory applications. As the students enter higher grades and are expected to be in more control of the elements of musical composition, the standards can be raised and the students will have to create more complex music.

As an educator in this ever-changing technological world, it is important for me to stay on top of new developments that will benefit my students educationally and that will maintain or heighten their interest in music. For some students, computer programs like this may intrigue them enough to want to compose or experiment with music more often. From experience, when I find a new computer program, I will play with it until I know how everything works. As the students experiment with all of BIAB’s features, they will undoubtedly be learning and enjoying the work that goes into their musical compositions. Once a student enjoys doing something, he will be hooked forever.