Interactive technologies in the instrumental music classroom: a case study with the Music Paint Machine

In this paper we describe a nine-month longitudinal study in which twelve children (1st and 2nd grade) learned to play the clarinet. Six of the children received instruction with an interactive music system, called the Music Paint Machine. This educational technology allows a musician to make a digital painting by playing music and by making various movements on a coloured pressure mat. The aim of the system is to support instrumental music teaching and learning by stimulating musical creativity, by promoting an embodied understanding of music and by supporting the development of an optimal musician-instrument relationship. The overall goal of the longitudinal study was (1) to integrate the Music Paint Machine in instrumental music instruction in order to develop good practices with the system and (2) to investigate the possible effect of instruction with the system on the learning process. The study adopted a non-equivalent control groups design with several pre-tests and a post-test. To measure the effectiveness of instruction with the system, children were administered the Primary and Intermediate Measures of Music Audiation (Gordon, 1986) as preand post-test. Furthermore, pre-tests were organised to map possible confounding variables, such as personality, home musical environment, motor skills and self-regulation skills. No statistically significant differences were found between the control and intervention group. Dealing with the complexity of a real-life educational setting and with the requirements of the quasi-experimental design, this study has provided insights on methodology (design, measures, analysis) in music educational technology research. As such, it can contribute to the further development of this branch of educational research.