Didactic Sound Addition as Pedagogical Practice Around Film

Introduction

In many parts of the world there is despair around musical educational models (Savage, 2021), and the difficulty in obtaining tools that help teachers implement a realistic and valid educational framework for students (Ballantyne, 2006; Benedict & Schmidt, 2014), due to the constant need to adapt to changing contexts (Legg & Green, 2015; Stavrou & O’Connell, 2022). One of the main issues for music education teachers in the compulsory stages is to merge curricular content with the informal sound experience of the students (Cain, 2004; Green, 2008; Harwood & Marsh, 2018). This circumstance not only concerns musical style adopted, but also regards procedures followed within the classroom (Hess, 2020). In this regard, it is difficult to approximate musical pedagogies generated over the past century (DeVries, 2001) –which have great benefits, but were devised for other contexts–, with more current trends, derived from ICT (Della Ventura, 2021) and mass media (Pećanac, Jeremić & Milenović, 2016).

Consequently, we are immersed in a time of change that directly concerns music education (Clements, 2018; Jorgensen, 2003) where methods not only involve traditional materials from written texts (Williams, 2000). Therefore, there is no need to fear the use of audiovisual resources that though not always apparent, can become didactic (McKeague, 2018), as their potential is immense. Thus, it is pertinent to formulate questions on the type of musical education intended through the participation of audiovisual media, taking into account they are present in the lives of teachers and students. Questions on the use of technology in music education (Crawford, 2010) not only refer to implementation of cybernetic materials, but can also be answered by referring to cinema and education (Brand, 2001). Therefore, it is necessary to research the impact of its use on students, the need to change pedagogical practice and the pros and cons of these practices regarding music education. Despite existing studies based on films, especially for children, in order to address the creative impulse these can foster (Bae, Yoo & Youn, 2016), increasing knowledge in this field will bring benefits to music teaching, particularly in the K-12 classroom. After a long career working in both compulsory and university education, strategies are presented for the treatment of cinema in music education.

The careless use of cinema in education has often meant its potential is underestimated (Hobbs, 2006). Nevertheless, it will be argued that the approach to film music and other audiovisuals is of particular interest as an agent for generation of high-impact educational practices in students (Fleming et al., 2016). Moreover, it usually be explained that collaborative projects integrating several languages, such is the cinema case, are highly beneficial (Barrett, McCoy & Veblen, 1997). For all these reasons, one of the main aims of this text is to offer teachers of artistic education didactic tools related to film music, within the compulsory stages of education.

To carry out this approach to the compendium of audiovisual languages, several paths can be chosen (Lum, 2009). The possibilities found by Keown (2015), delimited by the sections of his study, are as follows: creating film music, singing the score, using temp tracking, teaching through film music, exploring disciplines outside music, developing production experiences and resources about this trend. The two most common practices are as follows: