Gaining authenticity in the classroom and engaging students through relevant performance experiences is essential in ensuring that their music education directly relates to their experience of music outside the classroom. While the popular music movement has positively influenced this, modern performance technology can further enhance the experiences of students.
In my last blog post, I introduced the idea of beat sequencing in the classroom. Here are two more browser based apps that use the same musical concepts.
Drumbit.app is an online drum machine that enables the user to create patterns using different drum sounds and styles.
Groove Pizza is a similar program but it is more playful and game-like. It does provide some links to maths topics such as angles and shapes and could potentially be linked with a student's maths lessons.
Similar to the other programs that I have discussed, it also allows the user to create multiple patterns to create a 'song'. The user can alter their pattern in many different ways. Firstly by changing the actual shapes on the pizza by dragging around the dots, secondly by tapping circles in the grid at the bottom of the page.
They can also drag new shapes directly
from the left hand side onto their pizza
which will add a new pattern altogether.
The way that teenagers engage in popular music outside of school emphasises the fact that music is an important part of their identity. As a result, music in schools should reflect this and be relevant to their lives.
The idea of DJ culture is becoming more widely accepted as an alternative approach to composition or at least an open window into composition and launchpad technology is becoming more accessible for schools and their students.
A DJ creates a new mix from parts of original tracks. Based on this, students can learn the art of mixing and create their own material with the use of technology (Challis, 2010). This approach will engage both so-called "musical" and "non-musical" students as it is featuring exploration in a student centred and directed format.
Have a look at what James Humberstone got up to in the lecture.
Exploring Performance Technology - Ableton Push 2
The drum beat had already been created and James had set a few samples from pop songs already.
Introducing DJ Humberstone!
Here James creates a bassline
Then adds a Hook
This is a short clip of the final product
References:
Challis, D. (2010). The DJ Factor. In P. Burnard & J. Finney (Eds.), Education with Digital
Technology (pp. 65-75). London: Continuum.
MUED4002 lecture: 24/10/18