Grant Proposal: Full Text

Proposal Summary:

I am proposing creating an enhanced teaching studio to provide music students with a more focused and efficient learning environment that will allow them to achieve a more complete understanding of fundamental drum set and stick control techniques. These techniques are sometimes neglected by students because they are so difficult to master and are often not required to play basic pop and rock styles. On the other hand, professional drummers are constantly striving to improve their fundamental techniques. Providing students the ability to solidify these techniques from the beginning will be a great advantage to them.

Understanding this new approach requires some knowledge of the shortcomings of traditional practices. Currently a student attends a lesson and is presented with written materials as well as physical demonstrations and verbal explanations by the instructor. The student is given as much guidance in the execution of the material as time allows and then expected to practice the movements by themselves over the ensuing week and come to the next lesson to receive feedback and correction on their progress. During the week of practice the students are left largely on their own with only notes and memory to guide them through often very complex and precise movements. Mirrors are often used to help provide the student a means of self analysis, but viewing angles are restricted and mirror images often create as many problems as they solve.

The first phase of the enhanced studio would entail giving the instructor the ability to record audio and video of key elements of each lesson with the individual student. This would enable the instructor to provide exact information about the student's own movements in an easily reviewable way and help ensure effective use of practice time.

This would also provide the instructor with a clear record of a student's progress from week to week. In addition it would allow the instructor the ability to create personalized work out videos for individuals which would focus on more long-term goals that would extend past the scope of one semester.

In addition to providing personalized recorded practice materials, this system would also serve to increase the efficiency of the live lesson environment. Getting a student to grasp the initial stages of new techniques is perhaps the most important and difficult stage of instruction. One of the most beneficial ways to do this is to have the student play along with the instructor and mimic movements.

This can be difficult when a drum set is involved because the size of the instrument can limit viewing angles and make simultaneous play impossible. It can also be extremely difficult to get a student to focus on the exact part of a movement that is necessary for proper execution. Both of these symptoms can also be complicated by the actual printed music itself, as some students feel that constantly looking at the page is a sort of safety net and will have their attention drawn back to the music stand and away from the instructors demonstrations.

By equipping the studio with several cameras connected to a computer and large LCD monitor positioned directly in front of the drums, the instructor will have the ability to display a live image of exactly the movement that needs to be seen as well as the student's movement in comparison. For the student who feels the need to always see the printed music, the instructor will also be able to display any exercise on screen, via notation software, simultaneously with the live view of both sets of movements. This can also be recorded for later review by the student.

All of this would be enhanced by the second phase of the project, creating a reference database of notated exercises in pdf format with accompanying audio and video clips that would be stored on the college web site and available for students to download. The video clips would provide different viewing angles of each technique to provide students with a complete understanding of each movement.

Methods and approaches:

The technology required to complete this program will be a large (26 to 32 inch) flat panel LCD monitor, 5 high quality web-cams, and cross platform, open-source software (freeware).

I expect this project to break down into three interrelated components which will require three full months to complete, approximately May 20th to August 20th, 2008. While these components will be started independently in the following order, once begun each will run concurrently with the next.

The first component of the project will entail the gathering, setting up, and testing of the software. It is my intention to use cross platform open source software, such as CamStudio ( http://camstudio.org/ ), to provide the students with a readily available and low to no cost software package to enable this technology. I also plan to take full advantage of the storage and web capabilities already provided by the university. Ideally the database will be stored on campus servers and accessible from our website by the students. I will, however need to test various file formats and distribution methods to determine the most efficient means of storage, access, and quality for the video and audio information.

The second component will consist of the hardware/software set up and of developing the human interface. Once software and file formats have been decided upon, I will need to set up the cameras and monitor. Camera and monitor position will be crucial to this project because they must capture and display the pertinent movements and yet not actually get in the way of playing the drum set. Discovering the correct camera angles as well as a means of repositioning the cameras quickly to accommodate drummers of different sizes without losing the proper angle or wasting lesson time will be imperative and will require experimentation. I will also need to practice to become comfortable and familiar enough with the hardware and software so that I may operate it efficiently while teaching at the same time. The technology and the teaching must blend seamlessly.

The final phase of the project will be the creation of the video database of movements and techniques, and the adaption of my existing lesson plans to the new technology. Each technique will be filmed from various camera angles to provide a complete overview of the movement, and will also be accompanied by a notated example of the exercise in the form of a PDF file.

Importance:

This project will have a significant impact on the way students approach learning and practicing a musical instrument. By using the technology and methods described above, students will become truly active learners in the practice room, and therefore better learners in the classroom. I also believe this will provide students with the tools they need to continue their development beyond the lesson studio for the rest of their playing careers.

Because this is designed to enhance student learning beyond the classroom, I feel that student input is imperative in the assessment of success, therefore I plan to design a survey to get meaningful feedback about the efficacy of this new method. Especially crucial will be the feedback of students who have studied with me in previous semesters and been exposed to the material through traditional methods. (I have always had returning students.)

Equipment

• LCD monitor
• Web-cams
• Digital camcorder
• Camera tri-pod
• Monitor wall mount