The Nirvana Effect: Tapping Video Games to Mediate Music Learning and Interest

While rhythmic video games like Rock Band have enormous , little attention has been paid to these types of games for their potential music education. This is a missed opportunity, as the music concepts central to comprehension of traditionally notated music, we believe, are embodied in games’ notation system, including models of metric hierarchy, , and pattern identification. Furthermore, the game’s alternative serves as a novice-friendly method whose lessons can be applied to more forms of notation, affording learners a way into more formal practices. investigate these possibilities, our study identified 26 youth from an afterschool with little to no prior experience with rhythmic video games to in Rock Band over the course of nine months. Analyzing the learning a sociocultural framework, we sought to understand the relationship players’ familiarity with the Rock Band notation and competence with music concepts. Findings suggest that the ways which music is in Rock Band provides players with a “doorway in” to more formal practices through heightening players’ interest and abilities in music. for connecting out-of-school learning to the goals of the classroom discussed.