Around the corner in a small town in
southern Taiwan, a modern-looking school
hides itself in the rural streets and local
market. The oval style of school buildings
holds the sports-field yet opens the view to
the broad blue sky.
This is SinGang Senior High
With a poster that says“Future Producer
Workshop”, the door plaque says “Digital
Music Factory, next to another classroom
that says “Digital Film Factory”Some kids
in the room are working hard trying to
practice what the teacher has just taught;
some are playing with the plugins with
MIDI keyboards. “ It sounds soooo real!”, a
few kids cried out and laughing.
Paradigm Shift
The 3rd wave of computer revolution that
swept the world in the last few decades of
20th century, hasn’t stopped yet. All
aspects of life have been changed forever
since the birth of Personal Computer. In
the commercial music world such as
popular music, film/TV scoring, PC has
made everything change. No need for
investing millions in building a studio with
expensive hardware, nowadays people can
get good results using just one PC that
was once only possible to the huge
studios. PC is cheap, easy to use,
everyone can get his hands on a PC easily.
But who can teach about making music
using computers? Until recently, one can
only teach oneself. Now the official
education system is finally catching up with
the change.
The development of teaching computer
music has been very slow. The big change
pretty much threw the old paradigm out of
the window. But all the teachers are till
trained by the old paradigm. Nobody is
sure how to teach computer music, but it’s
unavoidable.
Combining Computer Music and
Education
David Chang came to SinGang from
Taipei. Chang was graduated from the top
engineering school in Taiwan. But instead
of making electronic consumer products,
Chang devoted himself to music. He
started writing books on Acid, Nuendo etc.,
since the late 90s. Chang has also taught
in all kinds of schools, ranging from junior
high to University. Naturally Chang comes
on board to become part of the official
team that is designing the curriculum for
the schools.
At the SinGang Senior High’s workshop,
young students listen to David Chang
explaining DAW to them. Even though
most kids have learned a bit of instruments
before, almost all of them have never used
a DAW before. Then, within a few hours,
the kids are already making their own
beats and painting their own melody. A
new door is open now.
“I’m just taking them to play it as a game”
Chang says. Chang even uses photos to
let the kids know that they can get a
random curve based on the objects in the
photos, and then use the curves as an
inspiration for the melody, then transcribe it
to the pianoroll in Cubase. “I’m just helping
them to see that one can find inspirations
everywhere.”
More and more local schools are inviting
David Chang to lecture or hold workshops.
Chang believes it’s caused by the
competition between schools due to the
newly introduced 12-year basic citizen
education program, along with the change
of demographic structure. The schools
have to work hard to provide better
curriculum and course. “At last, the day of
eruption has come.” Chang laughed.
Chang’s grandfather can play ErHu, GuQin.
Chang is familiar with these traditional
instruments. “Having these traditional
instruments available in the DAW, makes it
easier to combine the traditional and the
modern knowledge as one to the
students...Being traditional is modern. With
the revived curiosity to our own tradition, a
pastiche/kitsch of this kind can intrigue the
students’ curiosity and the desire to learn.
It’s good for their learning.”.
Arts in the heart, not mind
“In fact, during the phase of basic
education, distinguishing the disciplines is
not a good idea. It doesn’t matter whether it
is a music school or an standard class. Our
goal is not about moulding an artist, we are
not not preaching the art either. We are
trying to cultivate a person with the ability to
do general thinking. Once the basic
education is completed, college will be the
place to develop and specialize. What we
should do at this basic stage is to make
sure the art lives in heart of the students. “
Zhang concludes。
Integrating technology and life, can only be
achieved by the people of each land, to
make it part of the past and the future. Just
like SinGang High, it floats with the town’s
dream and our dreams for the future.
News
