BARTON POLOT

he architects who designed the National Standards for Music Education were determined not to create a document that merely endorsed the status quo. Rather, it was their endeavor to lead the profession into the twenty-first century by establishing a framework of lofty and ambitious goals for music educators, their schools, and their students. 

Among these goals, foremost is the fostering of creative musicianship for students at all grade levels. Wisely, the authors of the Standards did not prescribe specific methods or activities for promoting musical creativity, leaving the matter instead for individual districts, schools and teachers. For many teachers, however, this latitude is less blessing than curse: few music teachers have formal training as creative musicians, and few curricula afford teachers the opportunity to extend beyond traditional objectives in their ensembles and classrooms. 

Fortunately, technology has provided new and exciting options. 

Multitimbral sequencing involves the use of a synthesizer that can play eight or sixteen instrumental sounds simultaneously. Using MIDI technology, a musician connects the synthesizer to a computer running special software (or to a self-contained device), enabling the musician to record the performance of each instrument in the ensemble. Sequencing was revolutionary and new as recently as fifteen years ago, but is so no longer. Much of the music we hear today — in film scores, the theatre, popular idioms, and the concert stage — is being created by individual musicians who "play all the parts."

The process of sequencing differs from the traditional art of music-making, wherein musicians re-create the masterworks of others, wherein instruction focuses upon performance technique and musical literacy. Instead, sequencing is a creative endeavor, requiring the musician to simultaneously compose and perform by ear each instrumental part. MIDI musicians develop a unique skill, one that has no historical precedence: the ability to imagine all the instruments of an ensemble while recording the first tracks. 

In sequencing, the creative process is germinative: ideas emerge and evolve during the layering, editing and playback of multitimbral parts. To be successful, therefore, a musician must master the fundamentals of music, orchestration, artistic performance, creativity, and technology. Few musical endeavors call upon such a comprehensive set of musical tools.

For today's generation of computer-savvy students, MIDI technology is no barrier. To them, the button-pushing and mouse-clicking is intuitive. What they do need is the musical guidance that we, as teachers of music, have all been trained to give. An investment in MIDI technology and a commitment to teaching it can help our students meet the loftiest goals of the National Standards: creative musicianship.