secondary general music
learning videos, then, like the classic Guitar Hero game, the students need to learn time is up and down, and pitch is left and right.
You Can Flex a Little – Show the “Real” Possibilities
Part of playing and exploring could be showing students your own skills – take a song suggestion and program it either right there with the students watching you or by their next class. Think of this as do- ing a transcription into a program (a beat, melody, background chords, anything!). Show them how big a quarter note is, or where quarter notes start if the program can’t hold out notes. Present a side-by-side approach with the sheet music, copying small chunks of notation “translated” into the TUBS system that is available to you. If you are really brave and can check lyrics quickly enough, take a request and ear train it out! If you demonstrate the possibilities for music creation along the lines of your
end goals, and if you show enjoyment of the process and challenge, your students may follow suit. If you run into a challenging section or need to address a deficit, such as range or accessing different sounds, model how to get what they want, and you can prove that you really are a good resource for them.
Some Fun Ideas
1. Younger Grades – Take turns adding one note to a class composition on Songmaker. Expand until your final concert. Write song lyrics to match or use as pre-show music for their first concert. Consider allowing full freedom or putting rules to make the composition sound traditional.
2. Older Grades – Transcribe a melody from a current piece into Beepbox (link sharing available). Give students that transcribed melody and have
students make background parts. Share those background parts back to the teacher and demo the backing track at the concert or even use the backing track with sung performance while displaying the programming on a projector.
3. Copy That _______ – Have students copy something. Have students search for a specific song + Songmaker and find what the melody looks like. Students could search for “basic beat for _________ song” and program that beat into
Drumbit.app (more options) or Groove Pizza (just bass, snare, hi hat). And if they just copy you as you do a desired song, they will learn, too!
Eli Grover is a general music teacher in Appleton.
Email:
groverelijah@aasd.k12.wi.us
Wisconsin School Musician
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