Research and Development
Knowledge at RAMA is based on artistic and educational practice as well as on research and development.
At The Royal Academy of Music, Aarhus/Aalborg (RAMA) Research and Development (R&D) is conducted by the teachers and organized and carried out in accordance with RAMA’s Research Strategy (in Danish) and with RAMA’s Strategy for artistic and educational development (in Danish).
Research
RAMA’s research strategy focuses on musical perception, cognition and learning. Hereby, RAMA aims to maintain its research focus where the academy, as an artistic and pedagogical educational institution, has its particular competences and where the research possesses the greatest potential in relation to the academy’s other activities.
Examples of RAMA research projects:
Masseeksperiment 2016
Motivation og læring i musikalske outreach projekter
Music in the brain
Parts of RAMA’s research activities take place in the context of the Danish National Research Foundation’s Center for Music in the Brain (MIB), established through a unique cooperation between Department of Clinical Medicine at Aarhus University and Center for Functional Integrative Neuroscience (CFIN) and headed by professor Peter Vuust. As an example, MIB researchers, with the use of state-of-the-art brain scanning technology, examine how musical training may change the human brain’s processing of music. In a wider perspective this research has the potential to further develop the way in which we listen to, play and teach music.
Examples of MIB research projects:
A randomized controlled trial of bedtime music for insomnia disorder
Increased levels of bass in popular music recordings 1955–2016 and their relation to loudness
Predictive Processes and the Peculiar Case of Music
Development
RAMA’s development activities cover both artistic and educational fields.
Artistic research
Artistic research is conducted in the shape of e.g. composing of new music, rehearsal and recording of rare compositions, conception of novel musical genres and concert designs. As opposed to artistic practice, artistic research must be novel and be accompanied by a reflection on the process and the results.
Examples of Artistic Research projects from RAMA website:
GuitarRama Jazzical
Concierto de Scheherazade
Rytmisk korledelse – Det Intelligente Kor
Educational development
Educational development may have many different goals, and is a prioritized activity as part of the conception of new methodological teaching approaches as well as material for the broad music teaching field. Hence, knowledge generated from educational development may contribute to the renewal and expansion of form and content in the practice and theory conveyed to students in the teaching of group-based and instrumental pedagogy as well as qualify and update the supervision given in relation to the students’ teaching internship.
Educational development is, however, not restricted to the field of pedagogics but may also apply within other topics such as solfege and music theory. Recently RAMA has had specific focus on the application of e-learning within many different fields of teaching.
Examples of educational development projects from RAMA website:
Blended Piano
Inspirerende akkordklange til Jazz og Pop
Audiovisual teaching material for rhythmic guitar and drums
Research committee
RAMA’s research committee puts out annual calls for internal research grants and evaluates applications and project descriptions with the purpose of guiding the management’s final funding decisions. Furthermore, RAMA’s research committee is responsible for the dissemination and sharing of knowledge from R&D, organization of research courses and the development of applications for external grants in close collaboration with the teachers. Chairman for RAMA’s research committee is Professor Peter Vuust. Associate professor Bjørn Petersen is a member of the committee also and coordinates R&D activities.
International Center for Knowledge in the Arts
Together with the other six artistic educational institutions under the Ministry of Culture RAMA stands behind the International Center for Knowledge in the Arts, which works across artistic disciplines and institutions to promote artistic knowledge and development.
The center was founded in the autumn of 2019 as a joint knowledge center for the higher artistic educational institutions under the Ministry of Culture. In the meeting between forms of knowledge from the seven art schools, the center seeks to develop an inter-aesthetic and inter-institutional research environment in which new and groundbreaking artistic knowledge can emerge.
In the autumn of 2020, the Center for Knowledge in the Arts took over the work of administering the KUV pool, i.e. the funds that the Ministry of Culture has allocated to artistic development activities at the institutions.