These 8th grade students are totally into rapping and making their own beats so I brought in my own microphone and let them use a storage area as a studio. The Music Tech classroom is the former wood/metal shop. That’s a compressor hose dangling in the foreground, and some kids from another age spray painted the heck out of the place. These guys immediately claimed it as their own, saying wouldn’t it be dope to get a fridge and a futon in here. I could hardly get them out of there at 4:00 yesterday afternoon.
Here’s a first look at Milwood Magnet School’s new after-school guitar club. Twenty five students signed up to learn to play or to improve their playing. We look forward to expanding upon the two-chord song we learned last week.
This week Music Tech students will compose and record their own melodies using the virtual keyboards that are part of GarageBand. In the first picture, notes are played by pointing and clicking with the mouse. Below that is an image that shows which notes are associated with the “home row”. Both of these methods of inputting musical notes will do the trick if a keyboard with Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) is not available.
These keyboards can be used not only to compose a melody, but with the simple change of one setting, they can be used to create drum sounds. The objective for this week is for students to deepen their understanding of the ways to create original music on a computer. The lesson for Monday and Tuesday focuses on drum accompaniments. Using the mouse as a “drumstick” on certain keys in the above images will result in the recording of a drum loop that can be used instead of one of the pre-packaged loops that comes as part of a program such as GarageBand. Even though there are hundreds of drum sounds on the computer, sometimes only an original groove will do. The same can be said of a melody: The “delicate piano” loops are not delicate enough for you? Create your own with the virtual piano keyboard. Students will finish the week’s lessons by creating a melody in D Minor.
8th Grade Project: Original Beat Box
Here is the Wikipedia definition of “beat boxing”, also known as “human beat boxing”: Beat boxing is a form of vocal percussion primarily involving the art of producing drum beats, rhythm, and musical sounds using one’s mouth, lips, tongue, and voice. It may also involve singing, vocal imitation of turntablism (manipulating sounds using phonograph turntable), and the simulation of horns, strings, and other musical instruments. Beat boxing today is connected with hip-hop culture, although it is not limited to hip-hop music. The term “beatboxing” is sometimes used to refer to vocal percussion in general.
People have imitated percussion sounds vocally throughout history. Beat boxing has become an art form and requires real talent and hard work to become proficient. However, in this week’s project at Milwood Magnet, we will take the easy way out.
Instead of a “one take” beat box recording, students will record themselves chanting various beat box-style sounds using a microphone. Afterward, students will move the recorded regions around in GarageBand.
As you can see, it was hat day at Milwood Magnet School:A Center for Math, Science, and Technology. These 8th grade students are putting the finishing touches on the week’s project, which was creating a piece using a specific musical form called AABA. Just because one has the ability to put loops together on a Mac doesn’t necessarily mean the song makes sense. Songs on the radio, for example, are formulaic, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Knowing what to expect as we listen, whether anticipating the verse or the chorus, enhances our listening enjoyment.
Speaking of which, head over to the “Current Student Projects” tab to hear some fantastic AABA compositions.
And so a new trimester begins. I have worked out the hitches and tech glitches in the Mac lab, and we are off to a running start! Last week students worked on a project with an aim toward becoming familiar with the GarageBand interface, distinguishing between the green loops (also called software loops, or sound regions), and the blue loops (real instruments recorded by actual musicians). If you think you’d like to mix your own beats to create an original composition; record your voice rapping or even singing along to an original piece; make a podcast to be uploaded to the web; create a musical score to accompany a movie; and add Foley (sound effects) to a short film, then Room 400 is the place for you at Milwood Magnet School: A Center for Math, Science, and Technology.
In addition to acting as a recording studio, a place to learn to play guitar or piano, write music, or record a song, GarageBand can also be a place to score a movie.
By importing an existing movie into GarageBand (we are usingfree movies available for download here), students can then add all of the different elements presented throughout the semester, creating a unique soundtrack. In fact, students who have taken Ms. Findling’s Video Production classes could import their original movies for post-production sound. Talk about a Milwood Magnet one-two punch!
And so it ends. I have enjoyed this first trimester with my current students and look forward to sharing Mac creativity with the next bunch.
This week’s project should come easily to most students. I’m asking them to make a podcast about their favorite things! Whether it’s their thoughts on last year’s NBA Finals
or cute and fresh ways to paint your nails
or the best ever barbecue sauce recipe.
Maybe Dubstep’s your thing,
or you could go on and on about Halloween candy.
Pick a topic. Write a script, record your voice, add sounds, music, and images.
Think about how a carefully prepared podcast could exceed a teacher’s expectations on a project assigned in his or her classroom. Why submit on pencil and paper? Tell your short story, your report, your persuasive essay, your poetry, with a podcast!
For a detailed plan of this week’s projects and activities, click on the “lesson plans” tab, above.
This week, students in Music Technology classes will create a video podcast as well as an audio podcast. Their audio podcast will be hosted by this blog at the end of the week (that’s a tech-y way of saying that if you want to hear a podcast of their favorite things, it will be made available here on this blog).
Podcasting offers a powerful way to share your voice, your creativity, your thoughts, your music or whatever else you can create.
Do you have a hobby? Are you in a band? Do you have a business? Maybe you just have an opinion that needs to be heard. The possibilities are limitless.
You can create your own talk show. You can promote your product or service. You can be recognized as an expert in your field on your hobby. Build your own list of customers or your own fan base. You no longer have to be a radio personality or a major label musician to get your content to the masses.
In honor of a certain spooky holiday this week, Music Tech students will be adding sound effects (from a newly-uploaded cache of over 3,200 awesome sounds!) to their choice of spooky stories. Uploaded to iTunes are classic tales from the books of Alvin Schwartz. Schwartz collected often-told spooky stories, as well as urban legends, and published in three books which we are using for our project this week: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, and Scary Stories 3: More Tales to Chill Your Bones.
If one of these storiess (read brilliantly by actor George Irving) calls for a ringing phone, a barking dog, a howling wind, a cackling witch — plus just about anything else one could imagine — students can add them from the sound effects menu to enhance their recording.
Who doesn’t love a Shel Silverstein poem? They’re quirky, laid back, and often in a conversational style. Above all, Shel Silverstein poetry is rhythmic, a perfect place to start our first real recording project. Using the computer’s built-in microphone, students will, working in pairs, record a short Silverstein poem. Once this step is completed, the fun begins! Students add melody and rhythm loops ( and even sound effects) to enhance their recording.
For a detailed plan of this week’s lessons and activities, click on “lesson plans” tab, above.
Looks like another week of schedule changes as Milwood Magnet students finish the MEAP test. Music Tech classes will meet on Monday, Tuesday and Friday, and students will complete the Beat Box project begun last week. Conferences are Thursday afternoon and evening. See you then!
Mrs. Winnard's Music Technology Classroom 