So I saw this video today promoting a new product, Songsmith, from Microsoft and while I have to admit at first I thought it was a joke. It looks a lot like something that is produced on the onion.
No it's not a bad musical either, even though it alludes to its aspirations to make the world a musical.
What do you think does this help us as music educators or does it make students lazy?
Personally if the songs are really as bad as these videos seem then I don't think we have a lot to worry about. But I am curious what everyone thinks.
http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/redmond/projects/songsmith/index.html
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I'm over on the Songsmith team @ Microsoft Research. I came across your post, and normally I don't jump in to forums like this, but I was sooooooo excited that it came up here in a community that might be interested in educational applications of this technology that I wanted to make myself available for any discussion people would like to have on this topic. (Don't hold back on criticism either; we can take it. :) )
ReplyDeleteClearly Songsmith is not going to replace musicianship or let anyone take "shortcuts" to becoming a better musician... but I _really_ hope there's a way that it can be used - especially with kids, and maybe you can speculate more on that possibility - to help get folks who might be learning to sing or play their first instruments also excited about creating original music at the same time. This seems like a great seed to plant early...
Similarly, many folks never get to learn about chord theory or chord progressions, and some of our early Songsmith testers suggested that having this little bit of exposure to chord patterns helped cement some basic concepts. I'd love to hear any thoughts people have about how we might recommend using Songsmith to introduce basic concepts in this area.
And yes, we know the video was ridiculous; hopefully it was ridiculous in a way that gets lots of people curious enough to try out Songsmith. :)
-Dan
http://research.microsoft.com/users/dan
Interesting idea. Is the software listening to both modality and tonal center to select the appropriate chord progress, or just tonal center? How many chord progressions are available, and how much direct control over them does the user have?
ReplyDeleteI think the technology is very useful for teaching improvisation for choir students. It gives vocalist a jumping off place for creativity. I am not sure of the programs capabilities, but wouldn’t it be great if choir students could access this program and share their improvisations in podcast form for others to hear. I think this could be a great way to meet the national standard on improvisation.
ReplyDeleteBonnie Chronister
Poland Ohio
Great feedback!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous: Songsmith looks at the notes you sang in each measure to choose appropriate chord progressions. It's trained on a database of popular music, so it has a mathematical model of what chords sound good with different pieces of melody, and what chords sound good with each other. Users can adjust a couple of simple sliders to explore different chord progressions, can ask for "suggested substitutions", or - if you're a musically-trained user - you can go and change chords directly if you like.
Would love to hear about any experiences anyone has trying this out with students in an educational environment...
Thanks!
-Dan
http://research.microsoft.com/users/dan
The video does look like it would fit between a couple of SNL skits, but I wonder how it would work for kids who do not sing in eight bar phrases let alone a tonal center. The fact Songsmith is using Garriton instruments definitely work in its favor. I may have to try it out on my fifth graders.
ReplyDeleteMight be nice to add a mode (?) that is trained operatically -- what fun THAT could be! Most of life is a soap-opera anyway.
ReplyDelete