The mEinKlang research projects currently funded by the Hans Thomann Foundation under the direction of Dr. Markus Sommerer from the Nuremberg University of Music explore with the possibilities of enabling children and young people to express harmony and melody musically by means of an easily accessible, digital musical instrument in the form of an app (currently “Audanika”) and thus to make them more familiar with music and with learning acoustic and/or electronic musical instruments. In addition, emotional expression, personality development and violence-preventing factors in joint musical interaction are a focus.

The projects, which are implemented with large groups, each end with a performance with local music groups or professional musicians and music school orchestras, with which the students interpret current songs and/or present their own compositions on an equal footing. The pupils are mainly children and young people who, for a variety of reasons, have not yet had the opportunity to learn an instrument.

The research projects (including secondary schools in Geisenfeld, Zirndorf, and Erlangen), which will be funded through the end of 2022 by the Barbara Weidinger Music Foundation and the Bürgerstiftung Erlangen, among others, will generate a concept that gives instrument instructors and school music teachers the opportunity to design music lessons homogeneously, among other things: Often, only a few pupils per class are able to play an instrument or learn to play it, which makes it difficult to include all students due to their very different starting situations. However, since the project does not require any prior knowledge and only equipment which is already available in the schools (tablets), all pupils can make music together on an equal footing and find their own expression in music, regardless of social class and level of education.

Thanks to the support and encouragement of the Hans Thomann Foundation, technical challenges and hurdles in working with these new media and their use in large groups have been overcome, and performances with classical instruments have been made possible.

Author:
Dr. Markus Sommerer
Research Assistant at the Nuremberg University of Music
Dipl. Music Education
Music Therapist, M. A.
15 Nov 2022