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Sophia Cury

Prof. Vazquez

ENC 1102

7 March 2021

Literature Review Outline

I. Introduction

a. The subject of inquiry that I have been investigating is different genres of

learning how to play the piano, how these genres are related in concepts of music theory,

and the effect they have on learning from a learner’s perspective. This is important in the

field of music because it facilitates the learning process of an instrument. Without genres

such as sheet music or youtube videos, learning how to play an instrument wouldn’t be as

easy and common as it is nowadays. Music genres are important when passing down

music knowledge. They hold song and theory information that passes down through the

decades for many people to learn from. I am interested in my research topic because I am

a piano player and have used music genres myself when learning how to play. I have

always learned how to play the piano the traditional way, through sheet music, but rarely

through the other genres. With the rise of technology and modernism, there are many

more ways that people can learn how to play an instrument. I am interested in analyzing

these different methods.

b. The first theme that I found in my research is genre theory and genre analysis.

The second theme that was noticeable in my research is how music genres have changed and

developed to conform to the rise of technology and modernism. The third theme is the use of
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multimodality in music and how multimodality is used in music instruction. The final theme that

is prevalent is multimodal example of music learning.

II. Theme A

a. The first theme throughout my research is about genre theory, and the

importance of genres in a community. The sources with this common theme lay

the foundation for my research on my specific genres. Therefore, it is important

first to understand the importance of genres in general before going into analyzing

the specific genres of my research question.

i. Source 1: Devitt, Amy J. “Genre performances: John Swales’ Genre

Analysis and rhetorical-linguistic genre studies.” In this article, Devitt

talks about the uniqueness of each genre. She states that each genre is

created in “a unique moment in a unique rhetorical situation” (Devitt 45).

She further explains how a student can benefit greatly from the uniqueness

of each genre, since each genre will teach the student something different.

She goes on to describe genres using swale’s definition that “genre

grounds it in rhetorical communication with shared communicative

purpose, purpose that is recognized and rationalized by community

(Devitt 46). This definition lays out the importance of genres. Genres

give a community purpose and meaning.

ii. Source 2: Hyland, Ken. “Genre, discipline and identity.” In his journal,

Hyland discusses the idea of communities. He states that “communities

can be seen as sites of engagement rather than of commitment, providing a

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shorthand for the practices and discourses routinely used by a particular

group” (Hyland 33). Hyland describes genres as “oil which keep

disciplines running” (34). Therefore, genres play a very important role in

keeping a community together and “producing agreement” (34). Hyland

concludes that to be apart of a community or to work in a discipline means

to “engage in these practices” (34) and use the specific genres of a

community.

iii. Source 3: Tardy, Christine M. “Teaching and Researching Genre

Knowledge: Toward and Enhanced Theoretical Framework.” Tardy

describes genre specific knowledge as “the knowledge that writers hold of

a particular genre or group of genres” (294). Just as genres are related in a

community, genres are also related to each other. Tardy describes

recontextualization as “a process through which writers draw on and adapt

existing genre knowledge each time they preform a genre” (300). This is

important when analyzing two genres under a similar category and how

they are related. Recontextualization requires utilizing previous

knowledge and applying it to a new situation.

III. Theme B

a. The second theme that I found common in my research is how music genres

have changed with the rise of technology. With the rise of smartphones and newer

cloud based technology, many older methods of learning an instrument such as

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through sheet music has become less popular and shifted to a more technological

way of learning.

i. Source I: Webster, Peter R. “Creative Thinking in music, Twenty-Five

Years On.” Webster begins his article by stating how with the rise of

technology, students and teachers have to respond to this change by

adapting and “broadening our conceptions of musical understanding.”

Webster acknowledges how these smartphones and tablets to create music

“are now a common place.”

ii. Source 2: Gall, Marina, and Breeze, Nick. “Music Composition

Lessons: The Multimodal Affordances of Technology.” This article talks

about how with this technological rise “technology can present a series of

trade offs where assets are offset by deficits or, in other words,

technological gain is often balanced against possible unforeseen

problems in its use” (M. Gall and N. Breeze 417).

IV. Theme C

a. The third theme that stood out to me throughout my research was of

multimodal music compositions, such as the different modes of these compositions and

how they work together.

i. Source 1: Gall, Marina, and Breeze, Nick. “Music Composition Lessons:

The Multimodal Affordances of Technology.” This article says how

“modes can ‘work together’ and that there can be a process of

‘transduction or transcoding between modes’” Multimodality consists of

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different “modes of meaning within multimodal texts,” the five being

audio, linguistic, visual, gestural, and spatial (M. Gall and N. Breeze).

ii. Source II: Muller, Meinard “A Multimodal Way of Experiencing and

Exploring Music.” In this article, Muller describes the three main types of

music representations that are popular nowadays. These types are sheet

music, symbolic score data, and audio recordings. He describes symbolic

score data as being “typically used for triggering synthesizers to create

music performances” (Muller). He describes further the process of music

synchronization which entails the transfer of information from one source

to another “thus coordinating the multiple information sources related to a

musical work” (Muller). This source discusses the transfer of going from

one music genre to another as well as the trade offs of this process.

iii. Source III: Yu, Pao-Ta. “Using a Multimodal Learning System to

Support Music Instruction.” This source provides examples of how

multimodal teaching methods aid learners of music. This source provides

information on how learners tend to remember visual images better than

they can remember notations or words. Yu states that “according to the

cognitive theory of multimodal learning, the synchronized mechanisms of

the 155 multimodal presenting approach plays an important role in helping

learners build referential connections” (Yu). The idea behind this is so that

learners can “infer the music elements” instead of simply memorizing

them (Yu).
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V: Theme D

a. The final two sources provide example of a multimodal platform that is used

for learning an instrument. These platforms are the Synthesia Application and the P.I.A.N.O

application. These two applications offer examples of other means of learning an instrument that

put multimodality into use.

i. Source I: J, Julia. “The Use of the Synthesia Application to Simplify

Angklung Learning.” This source is a study of how the application

Synthesia worked when teaching students how to play an instrument. Julia

states how in a report that she looked into on analyzing different methods

for learning how to play an instrument, “Synthesia was more useful than

the other three learning methods at allowing scholars to quickly mastering

beginning grade songs.”

ii. Source II: Weing, Matthias. “P.I.A.N.O: Enhancing Instrument Learning

via Interactive Projected Augmentation.” This source describes how the

P.I.A.N.O system works, “which offers an alternative sheet representation

to ease the introduction to piano playing.” This system offers a more

detailed way to learn the piano than a synthesia video without having to

learn complex sheet music.

VI. Conclusion

a. This literature contributes to the field of music and instrument playing by

providing valuable information to teachers and students of the process of creating

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and teaching music. The literature I used was very specific in the methods of how

these different genres work and how they are utilized.

b. The strengths of my resources are how specific they get when describing the

different ideas of my research topic. The resources describe the different genres

that I am looking into really well. I also think that my resources are all very

different and offer different facts and knowledge that is useful.

c. A weakness that I found in my research is how my sources don’t look much

into sheet music theory and how this theory is transferred between genres.

However, I am able to do textual analyze to answer this question myself.

d. Something that I am missing in my research is possibly the process of learning

how to play an instrument through sheet music.

e. Some next steps for my research are to address my research questions by

stating how there is a gap in research. I will address my research questions by

interviewing my piano teacher and friends to get there perspective on learning

from various genres.

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Works Cited