Digital Musicianship in Post-Pandemic Popular Music Education

Cheng, Lee; Moir, Zack; Bell, Adam Patrick; Humberstone, James; Hein, Ethan

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about dramatic changes in popular music education, underscoring the importance of technology in both practice and transmission. Nevertheless, the celebration of technological integration as a one-stop solution has led to some challenges remaining overlooked and unsolved, resulting in an increasing mismatch between popular music education and the growth of online musical engagement among young people. Framed by the notion of digital musicianship, this position paper presents an overview of the adoption of technology in popular music education within and beyond the lockdown period, in the process raising concerns about whether such revisions can adequately address the challenges faced by popular music education. This leads to a discussion of a potential revamp of digital musicianship as a response to the continued and expanding presence of technology within popular music education and the post-pandemic teaching and learning environment. The authors assert that digital musicianship should encompass learners’ ability to perceive and adopt technologies for online and remote music-making, and critically evaluate their validity and quality in various contexts. Additionally, there is a need to critically address the homogeneity of musical cultures and technological determinism embedded within the design of music technology, alongside tackling the issues of inequality and accessibility.

Citation

Cheng, L., Moir, Z., Bell, A. P., Humberstone, J., & Hein, E. (online). Digital Musicianship in Post-Pandemic Popular Music Education. International Journal of Music Education, https://doi.org/10.1177/02557614241287558

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 13, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Sep 29, 2024
• Deposit Date: Sep 13, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 29, 2024
• Print ISSN: 0255-7614
• Electronic ISSN: 1744-795X
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/02557614241287558
• Keywords: Access, COVID-19, Diversity, Inclusion, Inequality, Pedagogy