The Skeleton

In my previous post on the Technology Major Project, I talked briefly about menu options. As it turned out, it was a bit more work that I was expecting. Part of the issue was actually working out what I wanted to include for resources. So before fixing up the menu items, I had to make some decisions about what resources would be featured on my website.

Preparing My Mind

I love the blues, but I would by no means consider myself an expert on its forms, features, history or key players. I decided that in preparation for making this website, I would read up on the blues, not because head knowledge immediately leads to better musical outcomes, but merely to be informed in what I wrote on the website. There is a lot of garbage on the web, and I didn't really want to contribute to that.

The first book I read was Elijah Wald's 'The Blues: A Very Short Introduction'. Unlike many books with similar titles, Wald's book was actually very short! In a little over 120 pages, Wald was able to cover the roots of the blues, early blues queens, country blues, Chicago blues, the West Coast sound, rhythm and blues, rock'n'roll, and a whole lot of other interesting areas. I really liked the way Wald quietly dispelled some of the mythologies surrounding the blues (like it developing singularly in the Mississippi Delta), while providing a huge number of specific examples of the kinds of music he was referring to. I read the book sitting at my computer, and would frequently have a brief listen to the artist or track he was talking about.

Wald's book also effectively touched on the deep and abiding relationship between the blues and other forms of popular music, and I decided that was something I wanted to include in my website. For me, understanding how deeply the blues has affected rock, jazz and many other forms has led me into studying it more deeply, and I hope that high school students would feel the same way. 'The Blues' also carefully highlighted the ways in which technology and the recording industry have influenced the blues, and so I decided I'd like to put some of that in my website as well. This could work nicely with the requirements in the Music Syllabus to use and learn about technology as students learn about music.

I also briefly dove into a few other books, including 'Yonder Come The Blues' (Oliver, Russel, Dixon, Godrich & Rye, 2001) and 'The History of The Blues' (Davis, 1995). Both books were good for filling in details and providing more names and dates to look into, though I guess I found the texts more academic but less invested in the everyday impacts of the blues on popular music.

Then, after navigating a large number of high school projects on the blues, I watched this short documentary that helps to unpack some early 20th century blues history.

With all these elements in mind I proceeded to website planning.

Blues Resources for Students

One of my key issues with the way the blues (and indeed all music) is taught in high schools is that it is formulaic, and relies too much on strict definitions and one-dimensional musical arrangements. (Now that I think about it, those concerns are wide-ranging even if they are connected.) I decided that this website should be fundamentally practical, and that meant building resources for students to actually play the blues. There's no point talking about something in music if you don't get to actually do it!

So I made up my mind to have a menu heading up the top called 'Play the Blues', that would be dedicated to all things practical. Initially I had a separate section called 'Write Your Own Blues'. Then I wanted to have three other sections: The Blues and Popular Music, The Blues and Technology, and Notes for Teachers. The first two sections came about directly as a result of reading Elijah Wald's book. The notes for teachers were meant as an explanatory tool, so that teachers would have a better idea of the aims of the website. I guess to make it super clear, my goal was always that this website was a resource for students and teachers, rather than an actual teacher-replacement, like YouTube tutorials might be. I think there's definitely a time and place for YouTube teachers, but that was never the goal.

In the teacher notes section, I decided to have one section devoted to practical concerns, like "Do I still need to teach my students things if they go on your website?", "Why don't you seek to clearly define the blues anywhere on the site?", "Where are the resources I can use to test students?" etc. I also decided to include a glossary, so that teachers would have some reference points, but I decided even before I wrote them that I would have a big caveat on top explaining that these definitions weren't for memorising or testing, but just to make people's lives easier as they navigated the site. Lastly I thought I would add a 'resources' section for teachers to share their ideas with each other.

Once I added in a couple of other things, this was my menu plan (from the skeleton end):

Now I just have to actually write things on it.