Griffith University, located in Queensland, Australia, has been offering a popular music degree through its music school, the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, since 1999. The pop program was initially located on the Gold Coast campus, 70km to the south of the principal Brisbane campus, as a standalone degree – the Bachelor of Popular Music. In 2019, the program transitioned to a popular music major within the Bachelor of Music on the Brisbane campus.
This move presented multiple challenges – the move to a smaller space and significant reduction in studio facilities and equipment presented a barrier to achieving the rich, 24/7 collaborative learning environment that had underpinned the pedagogy of the standalone degree. There simply was no longer space (physical and creative) to engage in the rich impromptu jam sessions that had enriched the peer learning environment so well in the past. The 24/7 access to spacious state of the art recording facilities, which had been active environments of self-directed learning and critical reflection were no longer available. With limited studio access, studios were now almost entirely dedicated to recording songs for assessment or potential distribution.
We have managed to overcome many of these challenges through innovative curriculum design, including online cross-year peer feedback video mechanisms and peer participation of all years at end of semester recital assessments. However, potentially the most significant positive element that emerged from the change was the access to hundreds of brass and strings students for collaboration. This was something that had been much desired for the 20 years of the popular music degree on the Gold Coast campus, but which never eventuated because of the tyranny of distance and clashing timetables.
However, 2021 was a history-making year. During what we call project week (a week of no lectures, to allow time to develop projects) we got together a core pop band, backing vocalists and a string and brass section for the inaugural “Con Studio Orchestra” gig. Students were given half a day to learn and rehearse their parts for two songs – Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer”, and the Eurhythmics / Aretha Franklin version of “Sisters are Doing it For Themselves”. The following day, they were allowed half an hour for a run through before the performance. These were pop students who had never played in a small orchestra, and classical and jazz students who had never played pop arrangements. Music Technology students recorded and mixed the sound and edited the video. This was an authentic collaboration of around 40 students across 4 different departments, and from all year levels at the Conservatorium, who had until then only ever performed largely in their genre and instrumental silos.
Students enroll into the Bachelor of Music with the mindset that expertise on one instrument is the pathway to a successful career. They become so focused on achieving excellence on their instrument and engaging in traditional ensembles (symphony orchestra, chamber music ensemble, jazz Big Band etc) that they rarely truly engage in the richness of musical variety that surrounds them, and opportunities outside of this are ignored as irrelevant.
However, the kind of cross-genre experience presented by our Studio Orchestra offers key advantages for students and presents them with real-world expectations. All students gained experience in rehearsing, communicating and collaborating with instrumentalists and styles outside of their range of experience. They experienced firsthand deadline-driven collaboration with industry-level outcomes and expanded their networking opportunities outside their specific areas, potentially leading to ongoing collaboration on personal projects. Engagement with a modern, hybrid environment and the performance attributes required for quality multi-track recording and multi-camera filming was a first for all students involved. While this event was a small, two-song gig presented in our foyer, the vibe in the building was palpable, and the buzz continued for days with both staff and students asking when the ‘next one’ would be.
This is just one part of our future vision – that students enroll in a Bachelor of Music – not a bachelor of pop, or violin, or technology. Every student should have the opportunity – and the encouragement – to engage in all of the musical possibilities that surround them, as part of their musical and professional development. Sadly, curriculum and outdated understandings of a career in music often stand in the way of this, and we hope our small step forward is a big one for music education in our institution.
LINKS (full credits in the links). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_BnySO5SKc
“Sisters”
“Sledgehammer”
Associate Professor Donna Weston is the Deputy Director, Learning and Teaching and Head of Popular Music at the Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia. She is a board member of the International Society for Music Education, and the liaison person for ISME’s Popular Music Education special interest group. She is also a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Donna has published in the areas of popular music higher education pedagogy, employability and livelihoods. She is also an active researcher in the ecomusicology space and is especially interested in popular music and environmental activism.