Music and Participatory Culture - Instructional Cover Videos

## Learning Within Affinity Spaces

*Many have argued that these new participatory cultures represent ideal learning environments. James Gee calls such informal learning cultures ‘affinity spaces’, and explores why people learn more, participate more actively, and engage more deeply with popular culture than they do with the contents of their textbooks.”(Jenkins)*

A essential component of Participatory Culture is the way community members interact and learn from one another. Members of the You Tube community who produce their own instrumental covers will often act as a teacher, student or performer. These many hats give a musician many perspectives and result in a well developed understanding that couldn't have been achieved by performing any of these three roles alone.

*The idea that learning involves a deepening process of participation in a community of practice has gained significant ground in recent years. Communities of practice have also become an important focus within organizational development and have considerable value when thinking about working with groups.“**Communities of Practice**,” (Lave and Wenger, 1991).*

### Instructional Videos Vs. Covers....Is there much of a Difference

Enculturation into this form of participatory culture can come via two methods. One method is by watch turtorial videos that are developed for learning purposes specifically.

Some videos are composed by amateur artists:

Others videos are associated with a more established tutorial source

*I have always felt uncomfortable with the phrase, “Do It Yourself,” to label the practices described in this book. “Do It Yourself” is too easy to assimilate back into some vague and comfortable notion of “personal expression” or “individual voice” that Americans can assimilate into long-standing beliefs in “rugged individualism” and “self-reliance.” Yet, what may be radical about the DIY ethos is that learning relies on these mutual support networks, creativity is understood as a trait of communities, and expression occurs through collaboration. Given these circumstances, phrases like “Do It Ourselves” or “**Do It Together**” better capture collective enterprises within networked publics. This is why I am drawn towards concepts such as “(Jenkins 2009)*

Another way one can learn this form of participatory culture is from the cover videos themselves. It is common for musicians who are performing a cover video to include their hands when making a video.

On top of this, functionality within YouTube allow viewers to slow down the speed of a video they are watching. Learning directly from cover videos has been more rewarding in my experience.

This is my favorite route to learning a particular song because cover videos will often include unique techniques and flourishes that are not usually included within tutorial videos bent on capturing the fundamental musical theory and notation of a song.

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If "learning" is what we are after, whether blended or totally online, then a move must be initiated from locked-in, content-driven packages to participatory knowledge-building experiences. Learners need to be free to work individually, cooperatively, and collaboratively, with the best information available in technology-rich learning environments.

## References

David V. Loertscher and Carol Koechlin, Online Learning: Possibilities for a Participatory Culture October 1, 2013