Role-playing game-based music history learning at Texas Tech University

1. C H R I S T O P H E R J S M I T H
V E R N A C U L A R M U S I C C E N T E R
T E X A S T E C H U N I V E R S I T Y
“WHAT IF IT HAD BEEN
DIFFERENT?”: ROLE-PLAYING
GAMES AS PRACTICE-BASED
TEACHING AND RESEARCH
Christopher J Smith
Professor & Chair of Musicology
Director, Vernacular Music Center
TTU Teaching Academy

2. INTRODUCTION

3. pattern recognition

4. pattern recognition

5. practice-based research

6. processes
(not objects)

7. processes
(not objects)

8. processes
(not objects)
not facts but tools

9. patterns in knowledge creation

10. patterns in knowledge creation

11. demonstration, imitation, critique

12. problem-based learning

13. critical perspectives within cultural contexts

14. “moments”

15. modeling “contingent thinking”

16. modeling “contingent thinking”

17. “Musicologists’ Creed” a/k/a #MCreed2016

18. “Musicologists’ Creed” a/k/a #MCreed2016

19. “Musicologists’ Creed” a/k/a #MCreed2016

20. “Isms”

21. Parsifal (1880)

22. Le Sacre du printemps (1913)

23. ludography

24. ludography

25. always-online

26. Query?

27. new and “post”-literacies

28. new and “post”-literacies

29. older competencies

30. clientele

31. clientele

32. clientele

33. MUHL3303 “Music as Cultural History: The Modern Period”

34. MUHL3303 “Music as Cultural History: The Modern Period”

35. MUHL3303 “Music as Cultural History: The Modern Period”

36. MUHL3303 “Music as Cultural History: The Modern Period”

37. content  context
The “Tristan chord”

38. content  context

39. SHMRG
“5 Questions”
Sound
Harmony
Melody
Rhythm
Growth
“Who’s playing?”
“Who’s listening?”
“Who’s paying?”
“How does it work?”
“What does it do?”

40. WI vs CI

41. WI vs CI

42. Practice-based research a/k/a/ Arts-practice research

43. Engaging the clientele’s platforms

44. Balancing “new skills” versus “meet them where they are”

45. Critical reading, writing, thinking, speaking, and listening

46. modeling behavior

47. modeling investigative processes

48. patterns & hypotheses

49. incrementalizing investigative processes

50. incrementalizing investigative processes

51. incrementalizing investigative processes

52. incrementalizing investigative processes

53. incrementalizing investigative processes

54. incrementalizing investigative processes

55. incrementalizing investigative processes

56. alternate history as teaching tool:
contingent analysis and “Devised” creativity

57. “Gaming history”

58. contingency vs inevitability
“great composers”
“great men”
“great art”
“the great works”
“works that have stood the test of time”

59. resisting canons

61. flipping classroom processes

62. pitfalls of team-based work

63. trial & error

64. Spring 2015: details

65. Spring 2015: hurdles

66. Spring 2015: closing loopholes

67. Spring 2015: closing assessment
The Ancient Overlords

68. Spring 2015: reflections

69. Spring 2016: iteration

70. Spring 2016: reconfiguring

71. Minds on Fire

72. Reacting to the Past

73. refocus: watershed events uniting content, context, & individuals

74. “moments”

75. The 3-part “Long Twentieth Century”

76. “moments”
“The Long 20th Century: c1857-c1980”
Part I: 1857-1914 Part II: 1917-39 Part III: 1945-80
MUHL3303 “Music of the Long Twentieth Century: 3 sections, 3 exams”

77. Inhabiting characters

78. “three premieres”
“The Long 20th Century: c1857-c1980”
Part I: 1857-1914 Part II: 1917-39 Part III: 1945-80
MUHL3303 “Music of the Long Twentieth Century: 3 sections, 3 exams”

79. staging the watershed event

80. Spring 2016: closing assessment
The Return of the Ancient Overlords

81. very preliminary observations and insights

82. reiterate: use platforms they know:
“flip” their presumptions

83. seek dynamic energy

96. Takeaway:
“Seeing history as an act of imagination, rather than of memorization”