Week 1 Reflection

This week, we explored Soundtrap and had explored loop composition.

Soundtrap is a DAW (digital audio workstation) that has the advantage of existing in the cloud. This allows students to easily take work home, provided they have an internet connection. Soundtrap allows the user to invite people to collaborate, and the Education version allows the teacher to view students' work and create assignments for them to complete. Possibly while older computers exist not all computers will be up to the challenge of running Soundtrap effectively but at the very least students could work on home projects by writing up structures, or recording loops/sounds on their phones to bring back into school.

In Soundtrap we learnt the difference between audio files and MIDI files in terms of how flexible they are to the user, and noted that MIDI can be more easily manipulated in terms of specific pitches.

Audio files are generally a continuous line with spikes through it. Not easily manipulatable but can be transposed up and down, augmented and diminished, reversed, cut, EQ'd, etc.

MIDI files are squares or straight lines and can be stacked on top of each other when playing simultaneously. MIDI files can do all the things audio files can do, plus you can change individual pitch, velocity (how hard you hit something), length and also time (quantising - particularly handy if you want very exact starts of sound)

The Piano Roll aka TUBS notation. I've used this notation with my Year 8's on prac and since they learn piano in Year 7 I know this would be a fairly familiar sight for them and I think they'd enjoy it! Only wish they had devices to do it in class. :(

Drum machine. Easily interpretable with no prior knowledge of beat division/music reading

One thing we agreed on as a class was loop composing's ability to experiment with/learn about dynamics, tone colour and structure, without worrying about creating material. However, we identified that students might find the music all a bit samey after a while and it would be difficult to have students express themselves when they are being given pre-made loops. (One thing about Soundtrap is everything is in 4/4... I found a nice drum loop that seemed to have a triplet feel but unfortunately I couldn't seem to marry it with anything else and wasn't able to make my own thing to go with it).

We concluded that composing with loops could be an introductory step but to make it a more musical/meaningful/worthwhile challenge, students could make their own loops or learn how to manipulate existing ones - MIDI would be fairly easy and is doable without a MIDI device on Soundtrap. Humbo also introduced us to the possibility of creating relevant loops for a focus piece so that they can compose against a known version. He also suggested that students go home/use a period to record an improvisation over an existing backing track. It allows them to experiment in the comfort of their own privacy and allows them to present a refined, completely original product!

One thing I find difficult about using these technologies is the sad knowledge that there are some schools (such as my own prac school, Bellingen High) who face resource and/or technology barriers to doing this kind of stuff in the classroom. They may not have enough computers, students may not have devices that support the Soundtrap app (as in, the device is too old), or there are problems connecting student devices to the internet. Perhaps over time this will no longer be a problem, but for them moment, I wonder if music tech like this is limited to city schools.

That being said, over prac I was able to feature GarageBand within my lessons, at least to introduce them to the fact that music teachers can be slightly techy! I used MIDI and my laptop keyboard to create a backing track for the Year 7's to learn So What, and I was able to point to my screen and show them what the different layers looked like and when I muted and unmuted things as we went.

I also managed to make a backing track for a song with contributions across several classes, asking them each to come up with a small rhythm/phrase to record. The kids were all super on board with making something this way even if the use of the technology was minimal. Never has a Year 8 class been so silent as before recording a class rhythm!!

Tracks from year 10 and two year 8 classes. Wish I had a nicer microphone there than my laptop's one, but there wasn't one available!

Bauer (2014) mentions the initiative Rock My World, which kind of seems to work in similar lines: GarageBand files are passed around schools around the world so a collaborative project can be created! Super cool! Bauer notes that the music is used to explore differences between cultures and locations, such as what students eat for lunch or how the climate is affecting their local environment. I LOVE this idea because it makes the immediacy of the internet into a tool for connecting with others and learning about others' wants, needs and contributions, not just a tool for serving your own wants, needs, and personal satisfaction. and music would have made this video that I once made infinitely cooler:

To conclude, I think that while having students each exploring their own thing on a DAW, this possibility is far from some schools' realities. However, the DAW can be used as a rallying point for huge and amazing collaborative projects, and I think this is definitely doable within the confines of a modestly resourced school.

Reference list:

Bauer, W. (2014). Music Learning Today: Digital Pedagogy for Creating, Performing, and Responding to Music. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199890590.003.0001