MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Middle Tennessee State University attracted popular music educators
from throughout the nation to the Blue Raider campus this week for the 2018 Association for Popular Music Education
Conference.
The College
of Media and Entertainment, in conjunction with the School of Music and several other campus partners,
hosted the event, which kicked off June 24 and ended June 27. It drew 175 music
educators — secondary and post-secondary — from across the country to
attend four days of intensive learning, demonstrations and networking.
Odie Blackmon,
coordinator of MTSU’s Commercial
Songwriting Program in the Department
of Recording Industry, oversaw this year's conference and described hosting it as a
“campus effort” where academic colleges pitched in with help ranging from
hosting tours and moderating panels to printing signs and providing coffee.
Blackmon
said holding conferences focusing on popular music is important because
“traditionally, a lot of music schools and recording schools have jazz and
classical programs … because this is a newer field in higher education, there’s
not as many resources.”
Topics ranged from bridging classical and pop in music theory courses to
using technology in composing and producing music to incorporating rap,
Broadway, rockabilly, hip-hop, heavy metal and world music into classes for all
ages.
“Roughly
25 percent of attendees are from high schools,” said Blackmon, who also is a
producer, publisher, songwriter and Grammy nominee. He said the APME conference
was “a great opportunity to recruit” people to come to MTSU as well as expose
attendees to a host of talented workshop presenters.
Each day included an array of education sessions with
titles like “The Ch33rios: Songwriting with Middle School Modern Bands,”
“Hip-Hop Music in Elementary School? Exploring DJ Culture and the Artwork of
Jean-Michel Basquiat” and “Hammer of the Gods: Capturing the Style of Led
Zeppelin in Performance and Life.”
Sessions enlightened presenters as well as the attendees.
“I’ve
learned that a lot of other people are doing songwriting, and I need to connect
with more of them,” said Robin
Giebelhausen, an assistant professor in music education at the University
of New Mexico and one of the many presenters.
In her
session, entitled “Grooving and Producing:
Popular Music Education,”
Giebelhausen discussed how she’s helped her students in their musical journeys,
noting that her students have been able to help her as well. The professor,
whose courses include showing students how to put an entire concert together,
shared how her students helped her start a band.
“I
started with just me playing solo while the students played in their groups,”
she said. “Then, over time, I’ve created my own band, which is made up of
former students who’ve come back and help every year with the show.”
Rick Palese, an assistant music instructor at
the University of Texas, Austin, led another interactive session entitled “Whom Do You Want on Your Gig? Visions of an Accomplished Popular Musician.” He discussed the
importance of having good chemistry with your fellow performers.
“The
more I talk, the less you learn,” Palese told attendees, who paired up to talk
about the kinds of musical partnerships they would want to have.
The
conference wrapped up its last day’s activities in the State Farm Lecture Hall inside
MTSU’s Business and Aerospace Building. Along with the College of Media
Entertainment and School of Music, MTSU campus partners for the event included
the Department of Theatre and Dance,
Center for Popular Music, Office of the University Provost, Tucker Theatre and the MTSU Experiential Learning Program.
APME
was created “to
advocate for popular music education and its advancement as a discipline. It
provides educational opportunities for teachers and students, honors the rich
history of popular music, and develops innovative ways to create, perform, and
teach it,” according to its website.
APME President Gareth
Dylan Smith noted in the conference program:
“Music and music education
are always deeply political, whether we experience them as such or not.
Musicking can be democratic, imperialistic, colonial, community-focused,
anarchistic, punk, conservative, liberal, deleterious, or uplifting (and often
several of these at the same time). Musicians can change the world.”
For
more information on the Association for Popular Music Education, visit https://www.popularmusiceducation.org.
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