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Abstract
In this paper, I draw on seminal literature from new media researchers to frame the broader implications that user-generated content (UGC), YouTube, and participatory culture have for music learning and teaching in online communities; to illustrate, I use examples from two contrasting online music communities, the Online Academy of Irish Traditional Music (OAIM, www.owim.ie) and the Banjo Hangout (www.banjohangout.org). The different ways people employ UGC such as YouTube videos for music learning and teaching in online participatory communities has significant implications for music learning and teaching in on and offline contexts.
Notes
1. This is closely related to the idea of social capital in online community, but a discussion of that topic is beyond the scope of this paper (see Bacon Citation2009).
2. There are a plethora of other UGC digital music videos/video sites available such as Vimeo that operate similarly to YouTube.
3. Since his introduction of the concept in 1992, Jenkins has written considerably more on participatory culture. He is – not surprisingly – the seminal author on the subject, and the following quote is an ‘update’ of his original definition: ‘Participatory culture emerg[es] as the culture absorbs and responds to the explosion of new media technologies that make it possible for average consumers to archive, annotate, appropriate, and recirculate media content in powerful new ways’ (2009, 8).
4. After Hine (Citation2009) and Kitvits (Citation2005).
5. Lessons are available on tin whistle, flute, fiddle, banjo, bodhrán, concertina, song, Uilleann pipes, bouzouki and piano.
6. Tablature (or tabulature, or tab for short) is a form of musical notation indicating instrument fingering instead of musical pitch (Waldron Citation2009).
7. The use of Web 2.0 here is implicit.
8. See note 7.
9. The idea of combining different modalities to learn vernacular music is not a new concept – however, as it has become easier and more commonplace for new learners to access large and varied amounts of UGC via the Internet, I found it appropriate to define and label the process in this discussion (Waldron Citation2011b, Citation2012, Citation2013).
10. To facilitate easy access to tunes on the Internet, musician Chris Walshaw invented and developed abc notation in 1991. Abc notation is also used by people who do not read standard written musical notation (Waldron Citation2009).
11. Here is one example to which Cathy referred: Toads in the Woodpile [YouTube Video]. Online: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QOQ1x9nrQM, accessed February 10, 2012.
12. The bouzouki, although of Greek origin, has been appropriated for use in the Irish music tradition (Vallely Citation1999).