The London College of Music at UWL is is creating opportunities for a number of 3-year fully funded PhD Scholarships. These will be available for all eligible UK/EU students. Although we are accepting proposals on a broad range of topics, we have 8 target areas that are:
1. Pedagogical practices in one-to-one instrumental and vocal tuition
2. The non-subject-specific benefits of music education in primary and secondary schools
3. Integrating the teaching of expression into grade level instrumental and vocal tuition
4. Part learning in popular music performance: tacit learning of tacit knowledge in a popular music ensemble context
5. An embodied / ecological approach to audio mixing
6. A creative practice-as-research approach to exploring issues of gender, music and technology
7. 3-D Audio Production
8. Interactive Recorded Music
The University welcomes applicants who wish to study for a PhD research degree. Successful applicants to the Vice-Chancellor’s Scholarships will join a vibrant and challenging academic environment where innovation, insight, and knowledge creation feeds into high quality research.
For further information about the Vice-Chancellor’s Scholarships please visit our website:
https://www.uwl.ac.uk/research/graduate-school/vice-chancellors-phd-scholarships
Application deadline: Sunday 10th March 2019
Further details of the LCM specific topics:
Research Area 1: Pedagogical Practices in one-to-one instrumental and vocal tuition
Drawing upon the resources of LCM Examinations’ extensive network of instrumental and vocal performance examiners and tutors and the instrumental and vocal teaching staff of LCM Junior College and LCM itself, this project will use a process of interview and/or observation to identify themes, techniques and strategies used in this field of pedagogy. By triangulating these findings with current pedagogical theory, the aim of the project would be to develop a musical performance-specific theoretical framework at the cutting edge of current education theory.
Dr Elizabeth Pipe; LCM; elizabeth.pipe@uwl.ac.uk
Liz’s career spans performance, business and education; working as a musical director, performer, teacher, examiner, and business owner. Her research interests centre on communication in popular music performance, notably through the use of persona, interaction and gesture, and have been integrated into the popular performance curriculum at LCM.
Research Approach 2: The non-subject-specific benefits of music education in primary and secondary schools
There is a good deal of fragmented and disparate research which provides evidence of the benefits that music education can provide for school-age children. This study would seek to collate, coordinate and consolidate the existing research into a series of themes and to design and conduct an additional survey, set of interviews or experiments that extends this knowledge and would contribute to the national debate about music in schools.
Professor Simon Zagorski-Thomas; LCM; simon.zagorski-thomas@uwl.ac.uk
Simon Zagorski-Thomas is a world-leading researcher in the field of record production who has been instrumental in building the subject’s international research community. He is extensively published and his monograph, The Musicology of Record Production, won the 2015 IASPM book prize.
Research Approach 3: Integrating the teaching of expression into grade level instrumental and vocal tuition
Current music performance education is far more focused on technique than on expression and interpretation. While the growth of performance studies in recent years has helped to redress this imbalance, there is still a good deal of work to be done in this regard. This project would combine recent musicological work in this area with work from acting and theatre studies to develop and test a series of practical approaches and strategies for integrating the teaching and assessment of expression more fully into grade level instrumental and vocal tuition. The project would work in collaboration with LCM Examinations.
Dr Elizabeth Pipe; LCM; elizabeth.pipe@uwl.ac.uk
Liz’s career spans performance, business and education; working as a musical director, performer, teacher, examiner, and business owner. Her research interests centre on communication in popular music performance, notably through the use of persona, interaction and gesture, and have been integrated into the popular performance curriculum at LCM.
Research Area 4: Part Learning in Popular Music Performance: tacit learning of tacit knowledge in a popular music ensemble context.
Much of the process of part writing and arranging in popular music ensembles is unspoken and often even unconscious. Using a process of filmed rehearsals, interviews and stimulated recall, this study will seek to explain the ways in which popular musicians acquire this form of tacit knowledge and synchronise their actions into a ‘head arrangement’. The study will use theories of situated learning, embodied / grounded cognition and network- or system-based creativity. This approach to learning will then inform a series of proposals for incorporation into ensemble-based performance pedagogy. Ideally the candidate will propose ways in which the impact of this research can be exploited in conjunction with LCM Exams and their international network.
Dr Elizabeth Pipe; LCM; elizabeth.pipe@uwl.ac.uk
Liz’s career spans performance, business and education; working as a musical director, performer, teacher, examiner, and business owner. Her research interests centre on communication in popular music performance, notably through the use of persona, interaction and gesture, and have been integrated into the popular performance curriculum at LCM.
Research Area 5: An Embodied / Ecological Approach to Audio Mixing:
Building on LCM’s world-leading research into the notion of sonic cartoons this project would explore the connections between the complexities of ‘real-world’ sonic phenomena and the use of audio production and processing tools to create schematic representations that afford related metaphorical interpretations. This project will explore these metaphorical connections through analyses of the ‘real-world’ phenomena and the construction of instrumental timbres, audio panoramas and musical narratives that utilise schematic features from the analyses. The analysis techniques will combine spectrographs, musicological description and audience / expert surveys to triangulate these forms of evidence.
Professor Simon Zagorski-Thomas; simon.zagorski-thomas@uwl.ac.uk
Simon Zagorski-Thomas is a world-leading researcher in the field of record production who has been instrumental in building the subject’s international research community. He is extensively published and his monograph, The Musicology of Record Production, won the 2015 IASPM book prize.
Research Area 6: A creative practice-as-research approach to exploring issues of gender, music and technology
Staff at LCM established the international 21st Century Music Practice research network and are at the forefront of practice-as-research in music. This project will continue the process of refining rigorous methodologies in practice-as-research while also furthering UWL’s research excellence in the field of gender studies. In addition to creative practical work the candidate will use the exegesis of the PhD to illustrate and explain the development of new technical and/or metaphorical musical language, concepts and structures that illuminate aspects of the gender studies agenda. Ideally the project will propose ways in which the creative output can contribute to LCM’s research-impact agenda.
Professor Sara McGuinness; sara.mcguinness@uwl.ac.uk
Sara McGuinness specialises in practiced-based research, performance, and sound recording, with a focus on Congolese and Cuban music. She specialises in teaching music technology in non-standard environments with a widening participation agenda and has been a professional musician working on the UK Salsa scene for more than 20 years.
Research Area 7: 3-D Audio Production
Several LCM staff have active research in the area of 3-D audio and facilities include a 13.1 studio. The PhD candidate will analyse 3-D audio production-practice, performing both qualitative and quantitative analysis in order to generate knowledge around such processes. Leading through the practice of creative mixing in 3D, the candidate will posit how this analysis might be framed and extrapolated as a basis for future industrial practice by forming a taxonomy of how current music-production practices map onto both spatial and binaural 3-D playback, and evaluating emergent opportunities and limitations for new creative production approaches, perhaps via spatial gestures. There may also be opportunities to contribute to a £1m funded study into music production utilising haptic feedback in mixed reality.
Professor Justin Paterson; justin.paterson@uwl.ac.uk
Justin Paterson’s research interests include 3-D audio, interactive music and music production and he is currently principal investigator of two large-scale funded research projects. He is also a music producer, composer and author.
Research Area 8: Interactive Recorded Music
LCM has conducted research into interactive music via two AHRC-funded projects (led by the supervisor) in recent times. For this PhD, the candidate will analyse approaches to music-production interactivity aligned to 3-D gestural control of multiple parameters. This work might include creation of a system to deploy this interaction, or an enquiry into music-production approaches that specifically relate to interactive delivery, for instance development of a pipeline that facilitates object-based approaches which apply real-time effects at the point of rendering. There may also be opportunities to contribute to a £1m funded study into music production utilising haptic feedback in mixed reality.
Professor Justin Paterson; justin.paterson@uwl.ac.uk
Justin Paterson’s research interests include 3-D audio, interactive music and music production and he is currently principal investigator of two large-scale funded research projects. He is also a music producer, composer and author.