Sociomusicology: Creative Experimentation in Music

1/18/08

Creative Experimentation in Music

Music teachers often find themselves stuck in hegemonic roles, expected to transmit orthodox performance techniques rather than encouraging creative experimentation among their students. What might happen if music education were opened to allow more room for creative musical experimentation? The examples below demonstrate how the simple act of experimenting with unusual techniques on instruments or found objects can lead to the emergence of new musical expressions. [NOTE: Updated 8/14/08 due to dead links. This website is best viewed with the Mozilla Firefox browser - downloadable for free - rather than Internet Explorer or Netscape.]

Alternative Approach to Guitar:

Andreas Oberg’s Guitar Solo via Harmonics:

Andreas Oberg has recently produced an excellent guitar instruction book with my former bandmember Michael Horowitz:

http://djangobooks.com/

Carlos Vamos playing Hendrix’s "Little Wing":

Piano Music of Medtner and Rzewski:

Pianist Brad Mehldau:

Airto's Solo Percussion and Voice:

Blowing on a Tree Leaf in Malaysia:

Glass Harmonica:

Mongolian Throat Singing:

Vegetable Orchestra:

Thai Elephant Orchestra:

And on an entirely different note, what happens when we support music learners in their pursuits within newer traditions, such as rock music? I used to play in a Thai music ensemble, a wind band, and even (briefly) in a klezmer band, with my friend Brian (a fellow jakhe player and trumpeter), who now plays bass and sings as a member of 3rd Culture, a band that performs original music in the heart of the rock tradition. It took rock many years to become viewed by music academics as a genre with any credibility. This band seems to embody all that is good about rock: http://3rdculturenation.com/

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Welcome to Sociomusicology

For over 15 years (since 2007), this website has offered musings on contemporary society and its music by David G. Hebert, PhD. He is a sociomusicologist specializing in global music education who has held academic positions with universities on five continents. Dr. Hebert is now a tenured full Professor with Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Bergen. There he leads the Grieg Academy Music Education (GAME) research group and manages the multinational government-funded Nordic Network for Music Education, which organizes annual intensive Master courses and exchange of teachers and students across eight countries. He is also an Affiliated Professor with University of the Faroe Islands and an Honorary Professor in China with the Education University of Hong Kong.

Professor Hebert's research applies an international-comparative perspective to issues of pluralism, identity, and cultural relevance in music education, as well as processes by which new music traditions emerge and change - both sonically and socially - as they are adopted into institutions. Born in the 1970s, he is among the most widely-published and globally-active music scholars of his generation (h-index:20; i10-index:30), with professional activities in an average of 8 countries per year across the past decade (2008-2020).