Teaching Music Online
On May 14 2020, faculty from The Royal Danish Academy of Music presented the EU project ‘Intermusic’ on at the Teaching Music Online in Higher Education – Virtual Conference 2020 hosted by the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, University of Mebourne.
Associate professor of piano Christen Stubbe Teglbjaerg and Associate professor of Voice Eva Hess Thaysen presented the workshop 'The EU project Intermusic (INTERactive environment for MUSIC learning and practicing 2017-20) What we learned, what we produced, where we are heading to.' The workshop featured the project’s highlights, along with concrete experiences of blended learning, collected after three years of collaborations among the five partners, Music Conservatoire of Milano, Politecnico of Milano, LMTA in Vilnius, RDAM in Copenhagen, and AEC in Brussels. Associate professor Jesper Andersen followed up with the Q&A session 'Synchronous Distance Learning in Higher Music Education'.
Intermusic targets
The European Project Intermusic which is just wrapping up after 3 years of intense development and testing, aims to develop digital skills in the field of music higher education, by 1) implementing an online shared platform for distance learning dedicated to performing practices, theoretical and compositional courses; 2) designing specialised music training pathways that integrate lessons from different European music institutions, with sustainable development over time; 3) understanding the most demanding aspects of remote music interaction and communication in the context of chamber music, instrumental and vocal practice.
Voice literature pilot course
At RDAM, the Intermusic project has centered around developing an online pilot course for voice students, ‘Mastering Vocal Literature in Foreign Languages’ providing text, audio and video materials giving an all-round introduction to 60 songs in Italian, Danish and Russian. 20 songs in each language with recordings by native singers at various speeds demonstrating every tiny detail. This way, students who sing in a language otherwise foreign to them can meticulously study pronunciation as well as the meaning and background of a song before working with their professor. This saves valuable time giving students and their professors the chance to focus on perfecting vocal performance and artistic expression rather than basic linguistic and semantic instruction. Keeping in tune with the UN sustainability goals, Intermusic also effectively reduces travel time and CO2 emissions because it enables musicians to rehearse together long distance. The coaching sessions are done using Low Latency technology allowing singer, professor and accompanist to play and sing together online though physically separated. In light of the obstacles and mobility limitations currently caused by the corona virus, this aspect becomes even more relevant.
Intermusic shows great promise of enhancing cross-cultural music training and with help from partner conservatories across Europe the future ambition within vocal literature is to keep expanding the catalogue to include all European languages. This will, however, require additional funding and hopes are that, building on what we have learned so far, more research and development of effective online music teaching will be possible in future.
To learn more...
For more information about Intermusic, please visit the official website here.
