Gaming in Education! Meludia

Gaming in education can have it's benefits and downfalls depending on how the information is approached or intended use of technology in gaming. I came across an interactive gamified form of learning music and music theory that is advertised for kids, young adults, and adults in various degrees of learning from beginner to advanced. My colleague, Kelsey (in photos), and I played around with the Meludia free program to test out some aspects of the game version of music theory. The program has a multi-level sub-category mini-lesson agendas to progress skill of listening implementations at the beginning level. It is unknown with the beginning levels to determine the depth of theory in written or aural comprehension.  

Kelsey is testing out the Ascending or Descending portion of the Meludia program. It is a click-based program that prompts students for the activity in a simplistic design. There are two choices of Ascending and Descending that are chosen after a pattern of pitches being played that start high and go lower or start lower and go higher. I find this to be partial effective, but not concretely a starting point for students studying beginning music. Why? The patterns include variations of Ascending and Descending patterns, but expects a determining relation as  whole instead of  part. A great ideal for large scale passage studies, but is only for aural fun. It could be used in classrooms to assess a students understanding of passage pitch redirection.

 In addition to Ascending and Descending identification, there is Rhythm, Melody, Density, and Stability. Melody consists of two tones being played in sequence to one another and the students have to determine if the second tone is higher or lower. This aspect of the program is fantastic and crucial for any level of musician in training, for being able to hear the reference of high and lower to another pitch is a foundation in the Kodaly methodology.

Density might be a bit advanced for students, even though this portion is very simple to navigate; just like the rest, but developmentally appropriate is questionable and why is it a beginning technical skill. In this the user has two choices, One note Or Many Notes. The program plays a single random note or a cluster of notes; typically a chord but not always, and the user chooses one of the two options. It's good for identifying single or multiple pitches.

The Rhythm section, in my opinion, is missing a major aspect and that would be the actively doing portion. It prompts the students to listen for a percussive beat, and how many do they hear between 1 and 8 at the beginning portion. This focuses only on the counting aspect, but does not address Beat concept which is the foundation to Rhythm, to which I believe is named incorrectly for the program.

Then we have Stability. To this I find to be completely out of the realm of understanding as a music educator. The program plays a chord and the students have to determine if the chord sounds Stable or Unstable. Now, if I were a child, what does Stable or Unstable mean? Other than clicking to find out what it is perceived to be by the program, there is no precursor understanding or model to what they define such concepts as.

Well, I could find this program being useful for students in a middle or advanced level music field in middle or high school that plan on entering a collegiate track of music theory, not performance as none of the objectives involve the manipulative aspect of music. Each segment could be used for a very specific form of assessing student growth, but because of the progress of the program the user would have to follow through all aspects of each level in order to progress.

If one wishes to use a level outside of the Discovery level, it becomes a pay-to-play program.

Perhaps you have a different thought about it. Please try it out for free at:

https://web.meludia.com/en/game/