EDUCATION WORK
Photo by Edinburgh Napier University
Music Tech Academy
The Music Tech Academy is a new venture by Edinburgh Napier University which launched in September 2019. The aim of the academy is to provide creative and practical Music Technology courses for secondary school students aged 14-17. Few secondary schools in Scotland offer Music Technology as a subject. The Music Tech Academy is Edinburgh Napier’s attempt to address this shortfall.
Corin co-designed the year-long music technology programme and is a lecturer on all three courses offered by the academy (GarageBand: Film Music & Sound Design, Logic Pro: Electronic Music Production and Pro Tools: Studio Recording & Mixing). Designed to complement the SQA's (Scottish Qualifications Authority) Music Technology qualifications, the Music Tech Academy runs from September to June and is split into three terms. Students can choose to study the entire programme or opt in for a single term. In Term 1, students are taught how to use GarageBand to design their own soundtrack for a short film. In Term 2, students produce an original song or remix in Logic Pro, whilst setting up their own record labels. At the end of the term, the students' music is released on their labels and sent to radio stations for airplay. In Term 3, students record a band’s latest single in the university's recording studios before using Pro Tools to edit and mix the recording. Throughout the year, students are given access to exclusive materials on Edinburgh Napier’s Virtual Learning Environment, Moodle. Produced by staff, these materials include video tutorials, discussion forums, digital books and downloadable audio and video files. Please visit napier.ac.uk/musictechacademy for more information or to sign up for one of the courses offered at the academy. |
Creative Musicianship
Corin was recently appointed to oversee the delivery of Edinburgh Napier University’s new accredited ‘Creative Musicianship’ course, in conjunction with Newbattle Abbey College, to school pupils at Dalkeith High School and St David’s RC High School. He manages a team of seven instrumental tutors, whilst teaching classes involving composition, theory and technology.
Creative Musicianship is a Widening Participation programme by Edinburgh Napier University that is currently being piloted in two secondary schools in Scotland. The programme was co-designed by Corin, along with Dr Zack Moir and Bryden Stillie, in response to research (Moir & Stillie 2018) that uncovered problems with secondary school music courses in Scotland.
The Creative Musicianship programme is split into two levels of study and comprises of four overlapping units: Performance, Composition, Theory and Communication. This blended-learning programme was designed to prepare socio-economically disadvantaged learners for Higher Education-level study by enabling them to meet HE entry requirements and by mirroring an HE learning environment through use of a VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) and a flipped-classroom approach. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting lockdown in Scotland, the programme was moved online in 2020 and revised to enable project-based learning activities to be carried out at home, through the use of Moodle Community (a virtual learning environment), Webex Meetings (a video conferencing service) and Soundtrap (an online digital audio workstation).
Creative Musicianship is a Widening Participation programme by Edinburgh Napier University that is currently being piloted in two secondary schools in Scotland. The programme was co-designed by Corin, along with Dr Zack Moir and Bryden Stillie, in response to research (Moir & Stillie 2018) that uncovered problems with secondary school music courses in Scotland.
The Creative Musicianship programme is split into two levels of study and comprises of four overlapping units: Performance, Composition, Theory and Communication. This blended-learning programme was designed to prepare socio-economically disadvantaged learners for Higher Education-level study by enabling them to meet HE entry requirements and by mirroring an HE learning environment through use of a VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) and a flipped-classroom approach. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting lockdown in Scotland, the programme was moved online in 2020 and revised to enable project-based learning activities to be carried out at home, through the use of Moodle Community (a virtual learning environment), Webex Meetings (a video conferencing service) and Soundtrap (an online digital audio workstation).
Junior Napier Music
Corin was employed as a Music Technology lecturer on Edinburgh Napier University's Junior Napier Music programme - a Saturday morning music school for young people - until it closed in 2019.
Corin was employed as a Music Technology Lecturer for Edinburgh Napier University’s Junior Napier school, until it closed in 2019. He designed and delivered two nine-week Music Technology courses to classes of 16 secondary school students. Corin was tasked with teaching a class of secondary school students how to use Apple's Logic Pro software to produce their own music. He designed a nine-week blended learning course, that incorporated online learning with traditional classroom teaching, and created an accompanying workbook for the students to work through. The course introduced students to music production by exploring recording, editing and mixing techniques in Logic Pro. Students worked towards producing their own musical composition in Logic and, upon completion of the course, left with a recording of their work. Following on from this introductory course, Corin designed an advanced Logic Pro course and accompanying workbook for the Junior Napier students who had decided to continue studying Music Technology in their second year. This nine-week blended learning course built upon the skills learned in the previous programme and explored more advanced features of the Logic Pro software. Students were tasked with remixing a contemporary piece of music and, upon completion of the course, left with a recording of their work. |
An Introduction to Music Technology for Teachers
Instead of writing a dissertation for his university honours project, Corin chose to design an online course that gives music teachers the skills they need to teach Music Technology in secondary schools.
Background:
As a Music Technology Lecturer on Edinburgh Napier University’s Junior Napier Music course, Corin discovered a passion for music technology education. This experience inspired him to pursue a career in music technology education. However, after some research, he found that there was no clear path to becoming a teacher of music technology. Corin researched the current provision of music technology education in Scottish secondary schools and found that very few offered Music Technology as a subject. Many music teachers did not feel comfortable teaching the subject, due to not having received adequate training on the use of music technologies. After speaking with several music teachers, it became clear to him that a CPD (Continuing Professional Development) course would give them the skills that would enable them to teach Music Technology. Corin produced video tutorials on the recording, editing and mixing capabilities of five DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations). He then designed five creative projects and, after researching the pedagogy of e-learning, structured the content he had created into a coherent online CPD course on Edinburgh Napier University's Moodle site.
Abstract:
Music technology plays an important role in the production of popular music in the 21st century. The rise of the Digital Audio Workstation has seen many recording studios switch to digital recording setups. If music students are to be equipped with all of the skills required to navigate the music industry, they must have access to adequate training in the use of modern music technologies. Scotland’s secondary schools consistently present fewer candidates for examination in Music Technology than for Music. Whilst some music teachers have cited a lack of technical expertise as one of the reasons why they feel that they are unable to teach Music Technology, they have recognised the importance of the subject and expressed a desire to incorporate it into their lessons. An online CPD (Continuing Professional Development) course has been designed to give music teachers the skills they need to teach Music Technology, with the eventual aim of enabling more schools to offer the subject to their students.