This week Koji Matsunobu and I will be sharing some preliminary work on vocaloids as a medium for music learning at the Asian Pacific Symposium for Music Education Research in Malaysia. Here are a few resources for those interested to know more.

Here is a copy of our working paper, “Singing with Hatsune Miku: Vocaloids as a Medium for Music Learning.” [EdUHK Online Repository link]

These are our presentation slides, with the usual caveat that they’re not a stand-alone medium and are probably most helpful for those who saw the talk: Vocalo presentation slides PDF.

Here’s a brief sample of vocaloid work focused on Miku:

Our primary argument is that Miku can best be approached by educators as a medium for musical expression, development, and learning. Here, we follow those in sound studies who characterize a medium as a contingent network of people, practices, institutions and technologies. The recurring patterns also have implications for pedagogy as wants, needs, values, and practices change and are changed by enmeshment with the medium. Take, for example, how the ability to sing at very fast tempi has been taken up by utaite, singers who focus on emulating their idols (in this case, Miku):

Finally, if you would like to spend more time watching Miku videos, this is a personal playlist of videos that are either musically expressive or of other interest: