The Nirvana Effect: Tapping Video Games To Mediate Music Learning and Interest

Abstract

Abstract. While rhythmic video games like Rock Band have enormous popularity, little attention has been paid to these types of games for their potential for music education. This is a missed opportunity, as the music concepts central to the comprehension of traditionally notated music, we believe, are embodied in rhythmic games’ notation system, including models of metric hierarchy, subdivision, and pattern identification. Furthermore, the game’s alternative notation serves as a novice-friendly method whose lessons can be applied to more traditional forms of notation, affording learners a way into more formal practices. To investigate these possibilities, our study identified 26 youth from an afterschool club with little to no prior experience with rhythmic video games to engage in Rock Band over the course of nine months. Analyzing the learning using a sociocultural framework, we sought to understand the relationship between players’ familiarity with the Rock Band notation and competence with traditional music concepts. Findings suggest that the ways which music is represented in Rock Band provides players with a “doorway in” to more formal music practices through heightening players’ interest and abilities in music. Implications for connecting out-of-school learning to the goals of the classroom are discussed.