Reviewing Existing Academic Literature

September 14, 2019

In this post, I detail my exploration into academic literature related to music educational video games, and educational video games in general.

By searching through Google Scholar, the following 32 papers found at the bottom of this blog post were identified as relevant to the work I’ll be doing this semester. 6 most relevant papers are highlighted; the subsequent 26 are simply MLA cited with links to where they may be found.

Highlight of Academic Literature on Music Educational Games

Tobias, Evan. “Let’s play! Learning music through video games and virtual worlds.” The Oxford Handbook of Music Education, Volume 2. 2012.

What: A paper examining how video games promote musical learning. It describes a framework that supports using games in music ed; and how games should be used to rethink the notion of musical literacy to include new, emerging types of musical notation and representation.

Why this helps me: This paper serves as a good primer as to the potential for video games to have an impact in the music classroom.

Kylie, Peppler, et al. “The Nirvana effect: Tapping video games to mediate music learning and interest.” (2011).

What: This details a 26-person study where “youth from an afterschool club with little to no prior experience with rhythmic video games” played Rock Band for nine months, observing specifically the effectiveness of learning traditional musical concepts from the game’s non-classical music notation.

Why this helps me: The importance of this paper to my work is the focus on Rock Band’s notation; I intend on using the more MIDI sequencer/tracker-style notation, similar to the notations found in games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero.

Denis, Guillaume, and Pierre Jouvelot. “Building the case for video games in music education.” Second International Computer Game and Technology Workshop. 2004.

What: This is a paper from 2004 that proposes that gamepads/traditional game console controllers would be good user interfaces for students to learn music performance concepts by utilizing a more standardized “instrument” that more students may be familiar with; it is based on research showing games increase motivation and foster collaberation, which are essential for music performance.

Why this helps me: This is important as it describes using gamepads for music education games, which I too am interested in exploring.

Gower, Lily, and Janet McDowall. “Interactive music video games and children’s musical development.” British Journal of Music Education 29.1 (2012): 91-105.

What: This 2012 paper details a study in which 9 children (aged 9-11 years old) were observed playing video games by two specialist music teachers. The teachers noted that video games have potential, but ideally the technology needs further development, specifically with more capacity to compose within the games.

Why this helps me: This is important as the paper explores specifically music composition education and the potential for games which encourage that.

Cassidy, Gianna G., and Anna MJM Paisley. “Music-games: A case study of their impact.” Research Studies in Music Education 35.1 (2013): 119-138.

What: This is another study into Rock Band (this time specifically Rock Band 3). The study found that music games are valuable as a bridge to popularize and create interest in music composition, theory, and formal musical performance.

Why this helps me: This paper is important as it explores music games from the perspective of engagement with the students who use them, and how games may be much more self-directed and inclusive than traditional classrooms for fostering participation.

Ghere, David, and Fred MB Amram. “Inventing music education games.” British Journal of Music Education 24.1 (2007): 55-75.

What: This paper discusses the history of music instruction games starting with the first British patent for a music educational game in 1801. It researches game design for music education, and notes that these games tend to be skill and performance based. Also comments on the influence of female patentees and inventors throughout history.

Why this helps me The importance of this paper is the exploration of various non-digital game designs for music ed; it may be useful to look at non-digital examples as well as the digital examples I explore.