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INNOVATION, INTERACTION, EXPERIENCE AND

IMAGINATION IN COMPUTER MUSIC EDUCATION

Alessandro Cipriani Maurizio Giri

School of Electronic Music

Conservatorio di Musica di

Frosinone

Edison Studio – RomeVia Voghera, 7 00182 Roma

[email protected]

www.virtual-sound.com

School of Composition and

Electronic Music

Conservatorio di Musica diCampobasso - Italy

[email protected]

www.virtual-sound.com

ABSTRACT

This paper presents the “Electronic Music andSound Design” project, which explores innovativesolutions for teaching computer music, especially asregards the theory and practice of sound synthesis,signal processing and sound design. The projectuses integrated and interactive self-learning envi-ronments, leading the user on a journey from noviceto expert thanks to the interaction between theoryand practice, experience and imagination. A numberof activities (replacing parts of algorithms, comple-ting unfinished algorithms, correcting algorithmswith bugs, interactive sound-building exercises andreverse engineering) help lead the user to what JoelChadabe terms 'predictive knowledge' — the abilityto intuit what will happen to a sound before youtake a specific action to modify it. The authors’ ap-proach involves interactions between the perception of sounds and the knowledge and skills derivingfrom studying the theory and performing the practi-cal activities, as well as fostering the user’s ownindividual creativity.

1. INTRODUCTION

The “Electronic Music and Sound Design” projectpresents a series of innovative solutions for compu-ter music education and training in both the theoryand the practice of sound synthesis, signalprocessing and sound design. This project, based onthe Max/MSP software, consists of three books andinteractive multimedia environments, which the au-thors have developed over the course of the last 5years. The project combines pedagogical context-based paradigms with integrated and interactive self-

learning environments, taking the user on a road of exploration based on the interaction between theoryand practice, experience and imagination.

2. FROM CONTEXT-FREE RULES TO

INTUITION AND IMAGINATION

The bibliography of electronic music education isvery limited and a universal consensus regarding anappropriate teaching method has not been develo-ped. We adopted various methodological criteria,sometimes taking ideas from other disciplines (suchas foreign language education), in order to encoura-

ge learners to move away from reliance on theoreti-cal considerations and abstract or rigid rules, whiletrying to develop their intuition and interaction withtheir own perceptions. In electronic music learning the learners are often

too passive: they maybe understand all the patchesand the theory, but they are still unable to correcttheir errors, adapt, invent, and use the knowledge

and skills they have acquired in a personal, creativeand active way. At first novices often need to begiven context-free rules that they can adhere to, inorder to accomplish immediate goals and reinforcetheir confidence through following fixed procedures.On the other hand we believe it is particularly im-portant to promote context-based experience, deve-lop critical thinking and encourage the use of indivi-dual perception and creativity while acquiring newknowledge and skills. There should not be an exces-sive reliance on technology since software is alwayssubject to development and replacement. As onecommentator points out:

“There’s always going to be a new technology or a new version

of an existing technology to be learned. The technology itself

isn’t so important; it’s the constant learning that counts. The

body of knowledge is demonstrably not the important part. The

model you build in your mind, the questions you ask to build

that model, and your experiences and practices built up along

the way and that you use daily are far more relevant to your

performance. They’re the things that develop competence and

expertise. Mastery of the knowledge alone isn’t suffi-

cient.”[10].

Our integrated system gets the novice to imitate thesuggested practice while learning the theory, andspecific practical exercises of modification, correc-tion and expansion are immediately proposed, ac-cording to a “problem solving” approach. Thus themodel of an imitative and passive process is imme-diately challenged. Instead the activities and tasksare intended to set in motion the knowledge andpractical skills of the user in an active, practical andcreative way. When learning a foreign language,there is a gap between what one knows and what oneis able to use in practice. It is common for a stu-dent’s passive vocabulary (the total number of termsthat the student can recognize) to be much largerthan the active vocabulary that s/he can actually usewhile speaking or writing. The same is true when

Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference 2011, University of Huddersfield, UK, 31 July - 5 August 2011

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learning a computer programming language: a stu-dent can understand how algorithms work withoutbeing able to build them from scratch. We encouragethe learner to find different ways to replace parts of algorithms, complete unfinished algorithms, analyzeand correct algorithms with bugs, and practice rever-se engineering (in which the reader listens to a soundand then tries to invent an algorithm to create a simi-lar sound). Here is an example of activity:

Figure 1. An incomplete patch.

“This patch is incomplete. There are four objects that can be

found on the right that have no connections. Move these into

functional positions based on the following hint: the output of

the patch “random-minmax” is a message, not a signal, while

groove~ accepts only signals, used as a stream of multiplication

factors, on its inlet. How can we resolve this problem? For what

purpose can the *~ object be used? What signal should the

number~ object monitor? What does sig~ do? Complete the

patch and experiment with various changes to minimum and

maximum values, using both positive and negative numbers.

(Of course, the minimum value should always be less than the

maximum value!)” [6]

These activities (featured in the books and in theonline patches and interactive material) pose pro-blems to which users are encouraged to find theirown solutions. When learning a foreign language,students are given replacement exercises (e.g. “re-place the underlined verb in the following phrase: Iwish I could go”), correction exercises (e.g. “correctthe following phrase: I want to went home”), andsentences to be completed (e.g. “I’d like to ...home”). The student must intensively practice simi-lar activities, as well as listening and conversationexercises, in order to avoid an excessively passive

and “bookish” approach to learning. Our approach,likewise, involves interactions between the percep-tion of sounds and the knowledge and skills derivingfrom reading the book and doing the practical activi-ties, but it also integrates and complements all thesefactors with the user’s own creativity. The cycle of training in the martial arts known as Shu Ha Ri dic-tates that at first the student must copy the techni-ques exactly as s/he is taught. In the next stage thestudent assimilates and deepens his/her theoreticaland experiential knowledge. In the final stage the

practitioner innovates and offer his/her own originalinterpretations and thoughts. We believe it is muchmore effective to combine all these three stages fromthe very beginning. We intend for our course in elec-tronic music and sound design to lead towards a cre-ative use of technology, as much as possible in con-formity with the original, etymological meaning of the word education. In fact it comes from the Latineducare which means to lead out ; in the maieuticsense of drawing something forth from learners andgiving them the means to find their own “voice”.Emmerson’s idea about composition and pedagogyis very similar:

“It is my contention that composition has moved to too great a

degree towards 'objective' or 'knowledge-based' criteria and has

forgotten the role of shared 'subjective' experience and explora-

tion.”[9]

3. INNOVATION: COMBINING

THEORETICAL KNOWLEDGE AND

EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING IN THE SAME

SYSTEM

The theory in our books and interactive material isconceived and presented in such a way that the useralternates its study with practical exercises as s/heprogresses. The planning of the course takes accountof the learning process and the experience that thestudent progressively acquires in all areas (theoreti-cal, analytical, practical, etc.). The student thereforealways learns within a creative and motivating con-text, always in contact with the production and per-ception of sound and without ever having to tacklelengthy theoretical discourses or explanations of themechanisms of the software. The interaction betwe-

en perception and knowledge, and the interchangebetween deductive, inductive and creative processesis continuous. There are some similarities betweenthis kind of learning approach and learning to play amusical instrument, especially regarding the sonic feedback the musicians continuously receive in the“search for the right sound” guided by their techni-que and intuition, which leads them to graduallyimprove their performance using perceptual data.Learning to play an instrument and learning sounddesign are very far from a linear pedagogical processfocused on merely providing a reader with objectivefacts. Our method is intended as a holistic and inte-grated process of research and discovery. That is one

of the reasons why we started to look at foreign lan-guage teaching as a source of information about con-text-based, interactive learning. We found that manyactivities and ideas in that specific field can be use-fully translated into methods for learning a pro-gramming language involving sound production andmanipulation.

“In my view, the manipulation aspect of learning about sound

is critically important. It helps lead you to what Joel Chadabe

terms “predictive knowledge” – the ability to intuit what will


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happen to a sound before you take an action to change it. We all

have some level of predictive knowledge. For example, most of

us know that by turning a volume knob clockwise, the sound

coming from our amplifier will get louder. Once we enter the

realm of digital sound synthesis, things quickly get more com-

plicated than a volume knob, and we need the first-hand expe-

rience of manipulation and perception in order to deepen our

predictive knowledge. However, to educate ourselves fully about digitally produced

sound, we need more than predictive knowledge. We need to

know why our manipulations make the perceptual changes we

experience. This theoretical knowledge reinforces our intuitive

experiential knowledge, and at the same time, our experience

gives perceptual meaning to theoretical explanations.” [13]

But what kind of experience and what type of theoryare involved in our method? As regards the diffe-rence between teaching to scientific researchers or tomusicians/sound designers Giuseppe Di Giugno on-ce pointed out that for the former group “the realthing” is the formula, or the algorithm and makingsounds by the variation of parameters is just an exer-cise. For musicians and sound designers makingsounds is “the real thing” while learning the algo-

rithm is a means to reach their goals. As most of usare aware this boundary between the two approachesis becoming less and less clear. Our system is aimedprimarily at musicians and sound designers and be-cause of that we have tried to create examples which“sound good” and are stimulating for the practice of composing, so our patches are not just intended asexamples to illustrate the theory. Practical experien-ce combined with imagination and perception oftenchallenges the theory and expands its boundaries. In some cases the standard theory is unable to e-xplain some of the reasons why the “tips and tricks”that are commonly used in sound design work sowell. Thus we sometimes had to add some explana-

tions to the theoretical sections, as in the case of multiple harmonics, filters, and the “grey areas” be-tween the harmonicity and non-harmonicity of sounds. In this latter issue of harmonic/non-harmonic sounds and their connection to the conceptof periodicity/aperiodicity we tried to extend thetheoretical concepts and combine them with percep-tual events.

“If the lowest component in a harmonic sound is missing, but

the immediately succeeding components are present, the sound

will be heard as having a pitch equal to the missing fundamen-

tal. If, in addition to the fundamental, we start to remove other

lower harmonics, we hear the gradual loss of its harmonicity,

because at some point, our brain is no longer able to reconstructthe fundamental. A sound thus obtained is non-harmonic, but at

the same time periodic, because its period is still the inverse of

the frequency of its “virtual” fundamental. A non-harmonic

sound composed of partials at 100, 205, 290, 425, and 460

hertz, for example, has a fundamental of 5 Hz, and is therefore

a periodic sound that repeats 5 times per second (although it is

not possible to hear this fundamental). We’ve seen that you can

have a periodic sound that has no definite pitch. On the other

hand, is it possible to have a non-periodic sound that does have

a definite pitch? Certainly. It is enough to have components

whose frequencies are close to being integral multiples of some

audible fundamental. The partials 110, 220.009, 329.999,

439.991, and 550.007 hertz, for example can be heard unequi-

vocally as an A, even though their period doesn’t correspond to

the perceived fundamental, but rather to the greatest common

divisor of the components, which is 0.001 hertz. To be precise

about this, the period of this waveform is 1000 seconds, and a

sound with a period as long as this is psycho-acoustically equi-

valent to a non-periodic sound.” [6] 4. INTERACTION BEFORE PRACTICE

Clarke points out that:

“Simply reading a book or attending a lecture can lead to study

that is remote from the sound that is the key element in the di-

scipline. Lecturers may play musical examples and written

texts may direct students to scores or CDs, but for many stu-

dents this is not as stimulating as experiencing the music for

themselves, especially engaging with it interactively.”[7]

The interactive examples we provide in our projectconstitute a bridge between the study of the theoryand the interaction with perception. The path laid outin the theoretical sections of our books is accompa-

nied by numerous interactive examples, which areavailable on the website at www.virtual-sound.com/emasd. Thanks to these examples, theuser can immediately hear the sounds being discus-sed, as well as understand their design, without ne-cessarily having to spend time in programmingthem. In this way, the study of the theory is imme-diately connected to the concrete experience of sounds. Our objective is to integrate the student’sunderstanding and experience of sound design andelectronic music. This principle is the basis for allthree volumes, as well as for future online materialsthat will be used to update, broaden, and clarify theexisting text. The Interactive Examples Software Applicationcontains a set of examples for each theory chapter.A typical example consists of a custom interfaceallowing one to choose between a certain number of presets (pre-selected configurations of parameters)illustrating a particular technique of synthesis orsound processing.A spectroscope, a sonogram, and an oscilloscopeappear at the bottom of the window, and can be u-sed to analyze the spectral content and the wave-form of the sounds produced by the example. Gene-rally the first presets listed for each technique are“frozen”, i.e. the user cannot manipulate the para-meters, but can only hear and analyze the soundwith the help of the sonogram, spectroscope andoscilloscope. The last presets for each set of exam-ples are free configurations in which the user canvary and manipulate the parameters and experimentwith a particular technique.


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Figure 2. Interactive Examples, Vector Synthesis

on a segment

The picture shows the graphic interface of an inte-ractive example of a Vector Synthesis. Four wave-forms can be freely configured by manipulatingtheir spectral components with the mouse. The fourwaveforms are blended in different proportions bymoving a round cursor in the central window. Assoon as the cursor is moved, the resulting interpola-

ted spectrum appears, and the relative sound is pro-duced in real-time, thereby providing the user withimmediate feedback. In each of the three books,after each theory chapter and the correspondinginteractive examples, there is a practice chapter, inwhich the synthesis and processing techniques areimplemented in Max/MSP. In the practice chaptersthe user finds step-by-step instructions for realizingthe previously discussed algorithms, together withseveral ready-to-use patches, activities of analysis,correction and completion, and a library of Max/MSP abstractions (Virtual Sound Macros li-brary) created for this project.

5. CONCLUSIONS

It is perhaps not so important whether book andproject such as ours is physical or virtual. It is thethought that has gone into it that really counts, aswell as the effective integration with the softwarematerials (in fact we have supplemented the textwith hundreds of patches, interactive examples anduseful activities.)The goal of our teaching system is to create a fullyintegrated pathway of learning. It is not just a set of information on specific kinds of sound synthesis, aninformative Max/MSP manual or a collection of heterogeneous materials; its real value is the com-

plete and holistic nature of the whole project. Thusthe users learn the theory while also learning toprogram with Max/MSP and apply their knowledgeand skills towards creating the sounds they want.The users of our system can start from scratch andend up dealing with physical modeling, but in theprocess they will have acquired a method of criticalthinking and an experience that will also be usefulfor approaching and employing different computermusic languages (including those of the future) withan open and flexible mind.

6. REFERENCES

[1] Arveiller, J. “Comments on University In-struction in Computer Music Composi-tion”, in Computer Music Journal, Vol. 6,No. 2 (Summer, 1982), pp. 72-78, 1982.

[2] Badii, A and Mothersole, P. “MediatingRepresentations: Domain Knowledge toPedagogical Content Knowledge” in 2nd International Conference on Automated Production of Cross Media Content for

Multi-channel Distribution Proceedings,University of Leeds, UK, 2006.

[3] Bianchini, R. and Cipriani, A. “Three lev-els of education in Electroacoustic Music:The Virtual Sound Project” in ICMC Pro-ceedings 1998, Ann Arbor, MI: ScholarlyPublishing Office, University of MichiganLibrary, 1998.

[4] Bianchini, R. and Cipriani, A. “VirtualSound On Line - Computer Music Courseson the Internet” in ICMC Proceedings1999, Ann Arbor, MI: Scholarly Publish-ing Office, University of Michigan Library,1999.

[5] Bianchini, R. and Cipriani, A. VirtualSound Contemponet, Roma, Italy, 2003

[6] Cipriani, A. and Giri, M., Electronic Musicand Sound Design, Contemponet, Roma,2010.

[7] Clarke, M., Watkins, A., Adkins, M., andMark Bokowiec “Sybil: Synthesis by Inter-active Learning”in ICMC Proceedings2004, Ann Arbor, MI: Scholarly Publish-ing Office, University of Michigan Library,2004.

[8] Clarke, M. From SYnthia to Calma toSybil: Developing Strategies for InteractiveLearning in Music in Technology Sup- ported Learning and Teaching: A Staff Perspective ed. J. O'Donoghue, Informa-tion Science Publishing, 2006.

[9] Emmerson, S. “Composing strategies andpedagogy” in Contemporary Music Re-view, 1989 vol.3, Harwood Academic Pub-lishers, 1989

[10] Hunt, A. Pragmatic Thinking and Learn-ing. The Pragmatic Bookshelf, Raleigh,NC, 2008.

[11] Ng, K., Weyde, T., Nesi, P., “I-MAESTRO: Technology-enhanced Learn-ing for Music” in ICMC Proceedings 2008,

Ann Arbor, MI: Scholarly Publishing Of-fice, University of Michigan Library, 2008.

[12] Vishnick, Martin. “Electronic and Elec-troacoustic Music Composition in Con-temporary Education”, in Journal of Elec-troacoustic Music. Vol. 14. London: SonicArts Network: 28-35, 2002.

[13] Zicarelli, D. “Foreword “in Cipriani, A.,Giri, M. Electronic Music and Sound De-sign, Contemponet, Roma, 2010.


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