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Learning to play...music!

Francis Dubé and his team founded the Université des Jeux(nes) Musiciens, a cultural and community project. They use educational games to promote music learning among young people and develop their creativity.

Les artisans de ce projet

Project architects

Team

  • Andrea Creech, Faculty of Music, McGill University
  • Margarida Romero, Université Côte-d’Azur, Nice, France
  • Kari K. Veblen, Don Wright Faculty of Music, Western University, Canada
  • Denis Laurendeau, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Université Laval
  • Ann Clements, Penn State School of Music, United States
  • Alex Ruthmann, Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions, Steinhardt School, New York University, United States
  • Jean-Philippe Després, Faculty of Music, Université Laval
  • Hélène Boucher, Faculty of Music, Université du Québec à Montréal
  • Adam Dubé, Educational Psychology Department, McGill University
  • Fares Kahali, Centre for Teacher Education, University of Vienna, Austria
  • Mickael Begon, Department of Kinesiology, Université de Montréal
  • Gilles Comeau, School of Music, University of Ottawa, Canada
  • Marco Toledo, Music Department, Federal University of Ceará, Brazil
  • Avery Rueb, founder of Affordance Studio, Montréal, Canada

Partners

  • Orchestre symphonique de Québec
  • Educational gaming industry
  • Music schools in Québec City and Montréal
  • Fondation Sandra et Alain Bouchard

Teaching music through gamification

Francis Dubé and the team at his living lab, Université des Jeux(nes) Musiciens (UJM), are studying the use of analogue and digital educational music games in extracurricular settings. 

They develop and test new serious games and experiment with others already on the market. 

UJM’s goal is to explore the game mechanics, dynamics, and elements most likely to engage young people in learning music and give new meaning to what "playing music" really means. 

Developing musical creativity

Creativity is an essential skill in today's rapidly changing world, and UJM is finding new ways to tap into young learners’ musical creativity. 

A team of teachers designs fun learning activities that emphasize playing by ear, improvisation, and (re)composition.

UJM also hosts day camps and workshops for young musicians interested in creating original games for beginning music students.

The aim is to craft a collection of educational music games developed by and for young people.

Improving wellness and social integration

Designed for kids from all walks of life and produced in concert with the Orchestre symphonique de Québec and the educational game industry, UJM is an innovative concept with a positive social impact. 

The community-based educational and cultural initiative uses play to teach music and harmonious cohabitation, molding creative young minds that are musically literate, inventive, and sensitive to the many social and cultural differences at work in today's society.

Young musicians explore analogue and digital educational games outside the school setting.

A team of teachers designs fun group learning activities.

Budding musicians team up at the Université des Jeux(nes) Musiciens day camp to develop an educational music game.

Francis Dubé and his team inspire young people in creativity workshops.

What’s next

Université des Jeux(nes) Musiciens is actively building an international community of researchers, practitioners, and game designers to create a culture around teaching music through play in different French-, English-, Spanish-, and Portuguese-language countries.

The next step is to develop real-time acoustic instrument sound recognition algorithms to produce music education games where the musical instrument becomes the joystick players use to perform and interact in digital game scenes. 

Université Laval at the heart of our lives!

Podcast

Learn more about well-being and social integration through music by listening to this interview with Francis Dubé and hosted by Valérie Gaudreau, editor-in-chief of Le Soleil.

Listen to the podcast

Rediscover the pleasure of playing

Discover the new educational web game that will allow young people to learn the basics of piano posture!

Read the article on ULaval nouvelles

Francis Dubé

Learn more about him.

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Music education

Explore our Master’s and Doctoral programs.

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Teaching music outside the classroom

Find out about specific programs in extracurricular music education.

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LaRFADI

Visit the website of Laboratoire de Recherche en Formation Auditive et Didactique Instrumentale.

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OICRM-ULaval

Learn more about the Interdisciplinary Observatory of Music Research and Creation.

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More to explore

Find out what other Université Laval professors are up to!

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