Rationale

Authentic music, artifacts and study materials are increasingly available online for music study worldwide, however the material may or may not be (a) accurate; (b) authentic; (c) authorized or legal to use; (d) stable (consistently available online). Novice and experienced music learners alike can become overwhelmed when locating and evaluating materials for music new or unfamiliar to them.

FORUMS provides a space to access and share authentic music performances and scholarship regardless of style, genre, culture, or geography. Materials are evaluated and contributed by experts as authorized and legal posts, accurate and authentic, and as generally stable links.

Initial content of the pilot project (FORUMS v.1.1) is directed to music faculty and students of the City University of New York, specifically Brooklyn College where the project began. FORUMS intends to be useful for students and faculty outside of CUNY. To contribute information and materials specific to your course or to your college, please Contact us.

The materials-selection process for FORUMS v.1.1 (collecting scholarly and authentic resources through established institutions such as museums, academic libraries, and performance organizations) has resulted in a troubling lack of diversity--underrepresentation of women, musicians of color, and music traditions other than western classical music. FORUMS actively seeks evaluated contributions by experts in music worldwide, across genres, styles, time, and peoples. Please Contact us to contribute authoritative, authentic, authorized materials to help diversify FORUMS.

FORUMS is open worldwide for comments, contributions, and suggestions for development and revision.

Rationale for the Repository of Authentic and Scholarly Collections and the Media Collections Repository Sections

Undergraduate students rely on Wikipedia and YouTube content because they perceive the search results to be accessible, easy to understand and factual. They avoid scholarly material accessed through an academic library because they consider the access and search process too difficult, and the material too detailed (Palmquist, 2014, unpublished data).

Yet an astoundingly immense and growing amount of excellent authentic music materials—video performances, interviews, photos, manuscripts, letters, other artifacts—is available online for free. FORUMS’ repositories acquaint students with authoritative materials appropriate for college level study and their studies as lifelong learners.

The Repository of Scholarly and Authentic Collections and the Media Collections Repository sections provide links to scholarly and performance collections. The sites are easy to access and navigate and are free and open. The material has been vetted by the experts of the libraries, museums, performance organizations—and is appropriate for adult learners (i.e. not educational sites for children). Notable individual links and sites are included in other locations of FORUMS.

Rationale for the FORUMS and community and Teaching Resources sections

Teachers of music in general studies include graduate students, contingent (adjunct) faculty, full-time faculty specializing in teaching music in general studies, and full-time faculty specializing in areas other than the teaching of music in general education. Music in general studies faculty and courses may be housed in or outside the music department—in Core, Interdisciplinary, or even the Folklore. The courses we teach also vary--from surveys of western European art music, popular music, rock music, or world music to music fundamentals, iPad ensembles, class piano and more. This variability can contribute to faculty isolation or fragmentation. However this need not be. Given this wondrous array of courses, music, and faculty appointments, and the broad spectrum of students we teach, we have much to share and learn from each other. We all teach students music. We need not work in isolation or reinvent the wheel.

The FORUMS and community section is intended to spur discussion and to develop ideas and techniques for teaching music, and to provide support and community to all music-in-general-studies faculty regardless of experience or discipline. Lesson kernels (incomplete lessons, ideas, promising materials), playlists, calls for research subjects or co-researchers are posted in the FORUMS and community section for discussion and development. The Teaching Resources section is intended to share more fully formed lesson plans or materials for adaptation and use by others.