Ziqi

Alle

Cailin

Genevieve

Mike

Aaron

Nick

Becca

This project is designed to be a summative experience for our music technology unit, and hopefully a chance for you to bring some of the skills you developed in earlier parts of the course. The overall plan asks you to use technological skills such as interacting with MIDI, recording, using loops, and editing and organizing a song. I have attempted to keep the parameters open-ended enough to enable you to bring some creative input and have some choice in what you create. Finally, I am asking you to collaborate in a new way. This is a new part of this project for me and I appreciate any feedback you have on it as you go through it. Good luck!

Overall mission

Make a cover of a piece of popular music as a one-person band (with one exception!)

Project Criteria

Your cover should:

• Represent some sort of creative change from the original tune. A change of genre, instrumentation, interpretation, etc…
  • Describe in a Soundtrap comment in your project your overall creative goal (e.g. Make a reggae version of It Had to Be You) and some of the creative choices you’re making (talk about dimensions here).
• Include an example of every part of the song (at least one verse, chorus, bridge, etc…)
  • Include a link to a recording of the song in a Soundtrap comment. List the sections you included.
• Include at least 5 tracks in total and you must personally create at least the following:
  • Recording of an acoustic performance (voice, ukulele, other instrument)
  • Something MIDI, either programmed or played in
  • Include percussion of some variety, perhaps programmed in or a loop
• Collaborate with a classmate on at least one track:
  • Classmate can add any track (recorded, MIDI, or Loop)
  • Include an inventory of what each track is and who made it in the comments section. Might look like:
    • Track 1: Vocal recorded by Emmett and performed by me. Used Zoom microphone plugged into laptop. This is only vocal on piece.
    • Track 2: William recorded some acoustic guitar accompaniments on his personal computer. Was asked to provide a ethereal vibe to piece.
• Your track must be mixed to sound final.
  • Balance, automate, and pan your parts so parts can be heard clearly.
  • Add reverb and delay to add sense of depth and space to appropriate tracks.
  • Add compression to tracks to add overall stability, clarity, and crispness
  • Add Equalilzation to make each track sound good and provide sonic separation when appropriate
  • Discuss in a Soundtrap comment the mixing choices you made (briefly, but in detail).
• Publish your track to SoundCloud and annotate with comments discussing the following questions:
  • What were the  biggest challenges you faced (technological and musical)
  • What are you most proud of or happiest with (technological and musical)
  • Review your colleagues’ work and offer appropriate comments and feedback on SoundCloud.

Steps I would take:

1. Pick a song that you can learn, record, and mix in the amount of time available.
2. Brainstorm creative changes you could make. Think through meta dimensions and dimensions for help here.
3. Make a list of how you plan to make the song. What instruments and tracks do you need? How will you create them? Who will you collaborate with and what can they add?
4. Start recording and practicing soon. Allow times for revisions and changes. When appropriate make a comment in Soundtrap of what changes you made.
5. Mix your song and get ready to share. Describe in a Soundtrap comment the different mixing choices you made. How do you know it’s ready.
6. Upload to SoundCloud and make final comments.
7. Enjoy your colleagues’ tracks.
8. Fin.

Resources

This is under construction…

• I’ve got your back and/or I need help shared Word Doc
• Dr. O’Leary’s brief and incomplete guide to mixing
• Soundtrap Tutorials

Checking if Notflight can Work the way I hope.
https://www.noteflight.com/embed/d7b2d9653cb4e8e3f0cdc3b92e40c6a75e35bbc6?scale=1

Today’s lesson has two components: A discussion of technology integration, and a Soundtrap assignment where you can interact with MIDI in more detail.

SAMR: A Model for Tech Integration

Please watch the video below which discusses the SAMR Model, a heuristic for examining tech integration:

Then, watch the brief video I made that discusses SAMR in music education contexts:

We will discuss some of these ideas when I return, but overall, keep in mind the following broad principles:

• Technology usage is not an educational objective on its own; we use technology to do things
• Technology brings affordances and constraints; each influence the experience had in the learning setting
• Lessons in which technology redefines or modifies the possibilities for learning are most compelling
• The SAMR Model offers a way to evaluate, discuss, and plan for technology usage in your classroom.

More About MIDI

In the last lesson you learned about how MIDI is notated/graphically notated (duration, pitch, and velocity) as well as some of the affordances that MIDI provides. In this lesson I would like you to experiment with some ways of entering and editing MIDI information in Soundtrap. First, watch the video where I demonstrate your assignment:

The sheet music you will use for the assignment, Birdie, Birdie, Where is Your Nest? is below:

Birdie, Birdie, Where Is Your Nest_

Assignment Objectives:

Soundtrap Link to Assignment

1. Enter in the music to Birdie, Birdie, Where is Your Nest
2. Use the recording function to play in some of the part using either your computer keyboard or an external musical keyboard (like the one’s in the MIDI Lab).
3. Enter in MIDI notation using the draw tool on the piano roll editor

When you are finished, you should have the two parts to Birdie Birdie successfully entered into your Soundtrap project.

For additional help, check out the Soundtrap Tutorials page. The crash course video has information about working with external keyboards around the 3:30 mark. The piano roll course gives you lots of helpful info.

One Last Thing

There are some interesting similarities between notation software and MIDI. Most notation editors allow you to export a file as MIDI which would allow you to enter it directly into Soundtrap without doing anything (see video below for an example).

Happy MIDI-ing and let me know if you have any questions or problems.

Good Luck!

Below are some resources to support your work in the podcast presentation assignment.

Switched on Pop Guide to Music Listening

Switched on Pop is a podcast examining popular music from a musicological perspective. You can listen to an episode of the show in which they discuss how they listen to music and consult the embedded graphic for how you might use this process in your own listening.

https://my.mindnode.com/Rx6t5pt8Lq3PRmapwMyTuunsegZs3xymSyH57fnk/em#-429,48,2

Essential Questions and Answers

Your task is to attempt to answer a broad “essential” question related to music using specific musical examples to support your arguments. I encourage you to focus your analysis on one or two musical works. Remember an essential question can be answered in a lot of ways and with a number of different sources of evidence.

Below is an example podcast I made comparing two versions of Till There Was You. 

https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/258287699&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true

Below are resources from the June 1st presentation at the SUNY Conference on Instruction and Technology.

Slides from Presentation

Makey Makey Resources

Musical Scratch Projects

• Makey Makey Drum Machine
• Makey Makey Piano
• Makey Makey Billie Jean
• Makey Makey Sound Board
• Makey Makey Xylophone

Video Game Remix Project Link

Below is the Scratch game, based upon Super Mario Brothers, which we edited and customized with new sounds.

• Super Mario Remix

Below you will find lists of resources that we utilized or discussed during the Topics in Music Technology course.

Personal Learning Network Tools

• Feedly – Web service for RSS subscriptions. Allows users to subscribe to websites they visit frequently and organize content
• Pocket – A read it later service. Allows users to send web articles or videos that they may wish to review at a later time
• Diigo – Repository for storing and organizing internet-based resources for later use

Online Technology Training Resources

• Lynda – subscription-based resource for learning software and technology skills. Includes detailed videos for popular music applications such as GarageBand, Ableton Live, Logic Pro, and Pro Tools. Additionally, resources are available about songwriting with tech, recording and production techniques, and software programming
• Play With Your Music – music MOOC developed by NYU
• edX – Repository of Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs)
• Coursera – Repository of Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs)
• udemy – Repository of Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs)
• Scratch – programming language developed to allow children a way to engage in computer programming

Applications we used during the week

• WordPress – online service for creating websites
• Soundcloud – web service for sharing, storing, and embedding audio files
• Scribd – web service for sharing, embedding, and storing documents (.docx, .pdf, .xlsx, etc…)
• YouTube – you know this one…
• Vimeo – a competing service to YouTube
• Dropbox – cloud-based document storing system, allows easy sharing and transmission of large files
• BandHub – internet-based service for musical collaboration
• Splice – internet-based service for sharing and collaborating in digital audio workstations (GarageBand, Logic Pro, Ableton Live)
• SoundTrap – internet-based digital audio workstation

Your Games – the Games you scored this week!

• Flip the Color Remix
• Escape the Room Remix
• Guitar Solo War Remix
• Octoling’s Adventures Remix
• Make Jelly Remix
• Dragon Skies 2: Ultimate Edition
• Rubber Ducky Marko Polo – Duckstep Version

Hardware we Used in Class

• Zoom H5 Handy Recorder
• Audio Technica ATR2100 USB/XLR Microphone
• Akai Portable MIDI Controller
• Korg nanoKEY2 USB Keyboard
• Monoprice – excellent resource for purchasing audio and video cables
• Makey Makey Invention Kit
• If you enjoyed the Makey Makey, you may enjoy the TED Talk about it by it’s inventor.