![\"BLOB_OPERA-Music_Education\"](\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/01\/BLOB_OPERA-Music_Education.jpg\")
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Learning to make music\u00a0is a full mind-and-body activity. Whether teaching how to play a musical instrument, or how to sing, teachers rely on learners\u2019 physical cues to help them progress \u2014 cues that are often obscured either by watching someone on a screen or listening through a microphone. As a music educator, I\u2019d hazard that few school music teachers would opt to teach their students remotely.<\/p>\n
However, as many teachers and students have\u00a0discovered in the last two years of on-and-off virtual school, music lessons during the pandemic have unearthed some pleasant surprises.<\/p>\n
Going online has forced music educators to adapt existing ideas, or adopt existing technology, to discover, invent and share ways to reach students to keep music education alive.<\/p>\n
During the pandemic, most school-based music teachers have faced the challenge that elementary students don\u2019t have access to instruments at home. This often leaves online tools as the default. As school budgets are always stretched, it\u2019s important for programs to be very inexpensive or preferably free.<\/p>\n
At the elementary level, students can enjoy and learn from\u00a0apps such as Incredibox<\/a>, where students can explore beatboxing, combining rhythms and sound effects to create unique pieces. Beatboxing musicians who create\u00a0complete musical works<\/a> manipulating their breathing, mouths and throats\u00a0inspired this tool\u2019s development.<\/p>\n Or teachers can introduce students to choral exploration in\u00a0Blob Opera<\/a>, a \u201cmachine learning model<\/a> trained on the voices of four opera singers,\u201d developed by Google and AI artist David Li.\u00a0In Blob Opera<\/a>, students manipulate four operatic blobs \u2014 a soprano, alto, tenor and bass quartet \u2014 and can have them sing a variety of pieces on global stages. Students can \u201ctake the blobs on tour\u201d where they might sing\u00a0a Korean folk song in Seoul, or a piece by composer\u00a0Erik Satie\u00a0in Paris.<\/p>\n