Virtual Reality and Music Education in 2018

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The use of virtual reality in music education has grown in the second decade of the 21st century. It is has been used to augment learning, and in some cases to replace face-to-face teaching, in the areas of performance education, instrumental instruction, and music history. However, it still faces challenges in terms of making its widespread use economically viable.

Background

Music education deals with a multitude of topics: History, performance, theory, learning an instrument, ext. Schools and teachers aren’t always apt to presenting such a large ranging topic. There might not be enough tools, no performance venue, or little to no interest in the topic from the student body.

Teaching in 2018 is being pushed in the direction of technology. Many schools, classrooms and teachers in the United States have been fitted with Smart Boards and one to one laptops and computers. Music education though, has been untouched in the development of technology. Some schools have MIDI labs; other than that, music rooms are at a standstill.

Virtual Reality (VR) could be a real “game changer” in music education. Techcrunch.com writes, “Students could learn anything from basic scales to complicated pieces, all while pretending to be playing for a packed house as their favorite artist”. With this technology, students could have the opportunity to learn an instrument, study music theory/history in an immersive environment, write pieces, and play a "live" venue with their favorite artists.

Uses

Performance education

Queen and artists such as Dawn Richard and how they are working with Google Play and Enosis VR to create 360-degree virtual reality takes on groundbreaking videos. In 2016, live concert and festival specialist Live Nation also announced that they would be partnering up with NextVR to create a series of VR live events. Another artist, Christian Scott, is also pursuing VR technologies. Scott is developing a VR platform that will allow students to play along side him and watch his reactions to their music in real- time. This technology offers bands (or potentially students) the ability to perform live in a shared VR space freeing the band (or schools) from having to book expensive venues. Technology like this could even bring multiple schools together from around the world to collectively learn about culture and play in one VR space.

Instrumental instruction

In May 2016, two young students, Samanta Shi and Sean Kelly, from NYU Shanghai won an award at the TechCrunch Hackathon. The award was for a virtual reality platform they created for young students to learn how to play music on the drums and the piano. The two students used Google’s Cardboard VR device with an infrared sensor from PMD to allow hand gestures into the virtual environment. Students and users can reach out to “touch and play” their virtual instruments. They have also added in the ability to connect with one or multiple users in the same VR space through WiFi, which will increase the ease of a teacher student relationship. These two NYU students are not the only ones who are creating a VR space for learning. The Music Room is “a collection of instruments that you play in virtual reality” created by Chroma Coda. It can also function like a MIDI controller, which is great for teachers who already have a MIDI classroom in their music education program. Students will no longer be strictly tied to their MIDI keyboards. The Music Room offers a large range of instruments such as drums, laser harp, a unique chord harp along others. This VR product also encourages its users to explore different ways of songwriting that aren’t usually possible when playing with MIDI controllers. Users will be able to “strum chords or slide from note to note”. This can be implemented into a music program that encourage a lot of composition.

For students who are not interested in learning traditional instruments, there are many other developments in VR that offer a variety of newer musical avenues. Tribe VR, a company with holds in the VR education movement. Tribe VR is a “next-gen business” that helps people (or students) learn real-world skills through a VR environment. Their first class as of right now is DJ training. This VR platform teaches its students how to mix and perform music like a professional DJ. Tribe has partnered with Pyramind, a leading Music Production school in San Francisco and DJ Kryoman. Most public schools are unable to offer such a creative choice to their list of music education classes due to the cost of production gear and the cost of a teacher who knows the topic well enough. Music educators are not required to learn the basics of being a DJ, but this product, if implemented correctly into a schools system could let students learn a more unconventional music skill.

Music history

The Musical Journey is a development in VR that helps students learn about music history. It is aimed at audiences “from 9-11 years old, attending musical education classes in the 5th and 6th grade”. The concept of this VR program is to take students into a virtual museum or art gallery where students could explore rooms filled with content about musical history. Students can learn the evolution of music along with other art forms of that time. This ties students understanding of music to other important moments of society and culture. The Musical Journey VR experience can “enhance students motivation and engagement toward leaning on this subject, promote exploration, interaction and introducing of game-mechanic elements in the environment”. Musical Journey VR seeks to “harness young students apparent ability to deal with information technology and promotion new ways of learning by exploring and interacting within a gamified educational virtual world.” This could allow schools to take their students on regular “field trips” without leaving the classroom. It would also ensure an educational and relevant topic.

Challenges to implementation

While all of these possibilities are growing and underway, implementing them into an educational environment could be a challenge. Music Education and it’s extra curricular activities are usually the first things to go during budget cuts, so how will music educators be able to convince their schools on spending more money for these innovative devices and programs? Nicola K. Smith of BBC has stated “the challenge, as always, is making all the VR commercially viable." Mybronic’s Mr. Szirtes says “we need to have lighter, smaller, and more comfortable headsets that are cheap to produce combined with lots of great creative content that really understand the strengths of the medium."

Following technology has so far been the path of the educational system. Implementing new and exciting ways of teaching is part of every educators plan, but only if it is possible and the price is right. This new VR technology may be too new and too expensive for school board executives to justify as of 2018. With VR developing as it is, it might be a while before schools see them in classrooms. Individuals who wish to learn music could consider VR as a viable tool.

Further reading

• Crawford, Renée (2018). "Virtual reality providing an immersive musical experience". [der]. Monash University. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
• Hong-xuan Bian (2016). "Application of Virtual Reality in Music Teaching System ". International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning, Vol. 11, Issue 11, pp. 21–25. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
• Williamon, Aaron; Aufegger, Lisa; and Eiholzer, Hubert (February 2014). "Simulating and stimulating performance: introducing distributed simulation to enhance musical learning and performance". Frontiers in Psychology, Vol. 5, Article 25, pp. 1–9. Retrieved 4 May 2018.

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