Outline for a Presentation

Intro

• Reimagine music practice.

  • In the process of an overhaul.

  • There's a lot of great work being done

    • I want to join the ruckus.

• What got me here?

  • I grew up with talent and passion and access

    • but I didn't survive college as a music performance major

    • mostly because I didn't know how to practice

      • back then, teaching how to practice wasn't a thing

      • at least not where I went to school.

    • After college in the mid-80's, I went into IT; there until the late 2000's

      • having music as a side hustle.

  • In 2016 I had an experience of music practice being fun and rewarding

    • and I wondered - why did it feel like a game?

    • I had developed a system that had components of what I'd done in IT.

      • Decided I wanted to share it with people.

  • Now, my job is Reimagining Music Practice.

• I'm currently interested in working with music students ages roughly 13-25.

  • Old enough to think about thinking and to learn about learning.

  • Specifically, how they think and how they learn, as an individual

    • similar to yet different from others.

• Applying game thinking is not just awarding badges for reaching goals and calling it a quest.

  • There's probably value to that, but it's not what I'm interested in.

• My Golden Circle (Simon Sinek)

  • Why is music practice so difficult for music students?

  • What can move us from external motivation internal motivation?

  • How can we create deep motivation through success in building a skillset?

Music practice as design.

• Design and experience that is useful, creative, even beautiful, and worthy of admiration.

  • Something you love to use.

  • Think Apple.

Game thinking is Systems thinking and Design thinking (masquerading as Instructional Design)

• Player centric

  • Focused on what the individual student wants and needs

• What skills does the player want to learn?

• Player and Designer work together on a project

• Ideate and prototype a design

• Iterative loop

  • Design & test

  • User test & feedback

  • Upgrade design

• Milestone setting

  • Rewards for completion

Progression system: Levels and Loops

• Recursive and nested

  • Information, design, and skill "isomorphism" (information preserving transformation)

    • Melody - notes then rhythm

• Break down long term goals into manageable chunks

  • Levels of skills acquisition

  • Scaffolding

Reward system:

• Incentives for goal achievement

• Reinforces positive behaviors and keeps players motivated

Feedback system

• At strategic and tactical points

• Make it immediate and specific

• Acknowledge or celebrate incremental improvements

  • even if "failed"

• Players are informed and coached about progress and areas for improvement

• Frame challenges and failure as part of the game

Project management:

• Interaction of Progression, Reward, Feedback Systems

  • over a start-and-end certain period of time

• Goal setting

• Project planning:

  • Take apart in a strategic way

    • according to best current information

• Project tracking

  • Put back together according to design and progress

Application: Music Practice Design

• Learning a piece of written music

Additional aspects of game thinking

• Challenges and competition

• Narrative and Storytelling

• Autonomy and Personalization

• Collaboration and Team Play

• Adaptive Difficulty

• Social Sharing and Recognition

Benefits of Game Thinking

• Increased engagement

• Intrinsic motivation

• Fun and creativity