Week 13 - Free time!!

This week, we spent the lesson working on our project. I was able to create some chord progressions for the first 12 bars of the song!! As I am working with a partner (Josephine Smith), I shared my progress with her. She offered suggestions that would make the instrumental have more sense alongside the story.

We used Sibelius to draft an outline of the basic structure

song with chords till bar 12 first draft

.pdf

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I originally used a G major chord for the first chord, however the beginning of the song is quite sad – the “failure” – the start of our protagonist’s journey. It cannot begin with a full rich major chord. So I changed it to a b minor chord. Another thing my partner suggested was to change the rhythm of the chord progression of bar 1-3. So the second chord was on the + of the 3 beat (1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +) but again, it does no match the “failure,” because it was too energetic. So, I moved it back to beat 3. It sounds great!

More of my progress is in the project section :)

Week 8 - Kookaberry and Edison Bot

Special guests Renee Noble and Rowena Stewart introduced us to programming. Renee Noble demonstrated how to use the software Kookaberry and programming it to create different things like a pitch bend or a metronome. I created a playdough xylophone. Firstly, we used the software on the mac to program the kookaberry to create different notes as if on a keyboard. It looked like a list and required different kinds of programming instructions/technology like the use of variables (which in this case was the different notes), math (where we set the frequency of each note) and directions that set when to play or not. When we finished the software programming, we then created the xylophone using alligator clips, connecting clips, a speaker, a kookaberry and playdough. With the playdough, we used it as a connecting object (we rolled 2 sticks of playdough like thin tree logs then placed them down parallel on the table. We then stuck the alligator clips into one side) as well as our ‘mallet’ (just a small stick) in that when we touch both separate playdoughs (the connecting and the mallet) it creates a sound! We can change the frequency of the sound by touching the connecting playdough in different areas.

Rowena Stewart showed us the Edison bot which is a robot programmed to analyse light vs dark, track a line as well as make sounds via a remote control so that it will react in different ways. It can also interpret a clap to move or turn on lights.

In the classroom setting, it would be very interesting for the students to watch and play with because it requires using equipment that they would like (playdough) whilst being introduced to new technical equipment (like alligator clips or the robot/kookaberry itself). Learning about programming was very new and confusing at first but nevertheless the concept was interesting and I think students would really enjoy the practical elements of building things and playing with robots.

Week 6 - Synthesisers and Sound Trap

This week, we learned about synthesisers and how we can manipulate a sound’s colour. We can change the colour of a sound through oscillators (sine, square, noise, triangle, saw). Oscillators change the flow of sound which in return create different colours. I like sine the most so I used it during my exploration of sound trap. On top of oscillators, there are effects that change the quality of sound for example, I used tremolo and rotary. I find it cool how we can use two oscillators at once as well as using multiple effects on top because it allows for a lot of experimentation

We then used a program where we created drum patterns. It was very confusing to use at first but it was interesting. We could manipulate the tone and volume of the drum to replicate an actual drum set.

After learning both, we then were given the task to create a work that uses both a synthesiser and a drum pattern. Thus, I attempted to create a beat influenced by Love You sung be Christian Padovan. It was fun but it was abit frustrating at times because when you played the note on the keyboard (computer), there is a short delay so it is hard to play the notes in time. Thankfully Sound trap allows you to edit the notes you played so after recording the overall idea, I moved notes and changed durations to make it sound like the original melody. I like the lofi kind of style so I used 7th chords and synthesisers that created a relaxing sound. I wanted the drum pattern to be not busy and simple

I was just gonna add the audio file of what I created, but it didn't let me, so I made it into a video, so I was able to experiment video editing as explored last week. Don't have any high expectations, I just added two photos of sunsets that took. Don't mind the poor quality

The video below is the original song! I discovered it when watching the legendary American TV Show "Cheers" I highly recommend watching it hehehe

This lesson was very fun as I was allowed to create what ever I wanted to. I think activities like this would be effective in engaging students with music production. I wished I did something like this in high school.