Class Notes and Reflection for Tuesday, October 26, 2021

Class Notes and Reflection for Tuesday, October 26, 2021


1. Announcement and information about the Final for the Technology Component: specifics are on D2L under Discussions. 5-minute demo on Tuesday, November 9.

2. Creating loops on Soundtrap

  • Three layers: Beat Loop, Bass Line Loop, Harmonic-Oriented Loop
3. Soundbreaking miniseries from 2016. Briefly touched on what this miniseries covers (how recording has changed composition in the past 60 - 70 years).

4. "Modern Band" movement/Little Kids Rock/TeachRock

  • This is a movement that's only been going on for about the past five years, and it sprang up in response to the fact that only 20% of public school students are enrolled in band, chorus, or orchestra. The goal is to offer music-creating opportunities for the other 80%, through use of platforms like we've been using in class (Audacity, SoundTrap, SoundCloud, etc).

5. Sampling a section from a prerecorded piece.

  • Downloaded Beck's "Broken Train" from the Week 3 Folder in D2L, dragged it over to Audacity, isolated opening 4 seconds as a sample.  

6. Using Sibelius

  • Explored worksheet templates. Very insightful, there's a wealth of activities, games, and pre-written tests and worksheets. 
  • Basics of typing in music notation and isolating sections that can be extracted for use in other apps.

7. Photo-editing website: Pixlr.

  • We downloaded two images from the Week 3 Folder on D2L, one of a wall in Havana, the other a piano score of a three-chord progression. 
  • We went over the basics of how to crop, delete unwanted things in the image (in this case, a light pole) by 'painting' over them, and enhance the images.



     
  • Last item was taking the image of the piano score of a three-chord progression and how to add text, shapes, and other indications onto that image.
  •  

  •  


Reflection

It's been a weekly to pleasure to get to explore these music-making software programs. I'm the type who quickly gets frustrated and discouraged with trying to navigate programs like this, that's why I've always shied away from them. Having a forum in which to be introduced, go through tutorials, and try them out has been heartening to say the least. I don't feel intimidated anymore! It was borderline overwhelming to see how many pre-recorded loops there were, just fiddling around with all those possibilities put a big smile on my face.

One thing that struck me most is how Sibelius has hundreds of pre-written worksheet templates! I've long taught theory classes at Community Music School in Trappe, PA, and also at the Music School of Delaware. Knowing now that one can download a variety of music theory-oriented worksheets and exams was a huge surprise. Likewise, that some of the templates were pieces from the classical repertoire, perfect for if a class is going over specific modulations, cadences, voice leading, etc. Wonderful to find a cache where the piece is already set to the worksheet, and one can add questions. Or to type notation onto the staff and being able to extrapolate a section and paste it where ever you need to. 

Pixlr was also interesting to come across. I had no idea it was that easy to delete unwanted elements from an image! We barely scratched the surface of all the options available. I had a tough time getting it to 'box/highlight' a given note (the middle voice note that was in Dr. Jacoby's example), but I'm confident that I'll be able to figure it out with some more wrangling.

Lastly, I look forward to watching the Soundbreaking miniseries! I looked through all of the episodes and the playlists and many of them are artists and songs I really like. I'm a sucker for documentaries, 60s - 90s American pop culture, and music history in general, so I can foresee that this miniseries will be right up my alley.

 

Comments

Post a Comment