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Embracing Creativity

An Introduction to Music Composition for "Non-Musicians"

Learning Module

Abstract

This learning module serves to guide the "non-musician" towards developing creative music composition and arrangement skills. The term "non-musician" as used here is a designation given to a student who has not studied music formally. In typical middle schools, high schools and colleges, there are several opportunities for student to perform in band, choir and orchestra programs. Often, course offerings for students without musical training are limited. This course allows students to explore music creation as well as a way to begin to critically assess and evaulate musical compositions based not on musical preference, but instead the presence and effectiveness of the various elements of music.

About This Learning Module

This learning module serves to guide the "non-musician" towards developing creative music composition and arrangement skills. The term "non-musician" as used here is a designation given to a student who has not studied music formally. In typical middle schools, high schools and colleges, there are several opportunities for student to perform in band, choir and orchestra programs. Often, course offerings for students without musical training are limited. This course allows students to explore music creation as well as a way to begin to critically assess and evaulate musical compositions based not on musical preference, but instead the presence and effectiveness of the various elements of music.

This module is most appropriate for high school, collegiate, and post-collegiate level students. The language of this module could be fairly easily adapted for use in younger grades as well.

The philosophy behind this module is that being asked to be creative without any boundaries is often a paralyzing task. With limitless possibilities comes a potentially non-existant direction and focus for the creative work. On the other hand, being given guidelines and rules to follow allows the composer to create ideas that not only conform to those guidelines but perhaps stretch right up to the edge of them if not extending past them as most inventive and influential artists often do.

This module depends on access to a number of music creation software applications, yet do not require any specific product. Some of these are readily available for download and installation on a variety of platforms free of charge. Others are either platform dependent or carry a purchase fee. The emphasis in this learning module is not learning how the tool works, but rather using it to allow the student to express themselves creatively. If this learning module was to be used as part of a specific course taught in a particular computer lab, more specifics would be given in terms of operation and manipulation of particular software titles. The creativity of the thought process is of emphasis here, much as it would be in a cooking class or woodworking class. While specific types of kitchen appliances or woodworking tools may be needed, there is flexibility in terms of specific makes and models.

Although this module approaches music making from the vantage point of a student with no formal music training, some traditional music theory and terminology will be taught and used. It is our hope that this module serves as a jumping off point for continued creative participation in music making as well as deeper engagement with and appreciation for the music of others.

Update 1: A Silent Day

For the Student

 

Choose one day (24 hours) between now and our next class session. During this time, you should not intentionally initiate any sound producing event that involves music in some way. This means, no iPods, no CDs, no iTunes, no TV, no video games, etc. Please set your cell phone ringers to something generic. In other words, do not initiate passive music consumption.

At the end of the 24 hour period please create a new Update that includes your reflections on the assignment and answers to the following questions:

  • How this change affected your life?
  • Observe the sounds around you. Observe how our sonic landscape is shaped. Is it possible to escape music in our contemporary environment?
  • Feel free to address anything else that came up as you did this assignment.

After you have completed this Update, read and comment on at least three others from your classmates. To refer to a specific colleague's comments, use @name.

After completing this, you're free to resume your normal music listening habits.

 

For the Instructor

This assignment should lead students to realize just how prevelant music and sound is in their lives. Students will need to work hard to shut off and tune out the music that has become almost a nonstop soundtrack to their lives.

They should become aware of how many sources of music there are in their everyday lives that they have no control over - passing period music, in-store background music, passing cars, etc. Students will almost assuredly notice their daily routine feels different without music. Some may be distracted by it, others may appreciate the brief change of pace and different perspective. It would be surprising, however, if any student suggests they want to continue to tune out music from their daily schedule.

Update 2: Creativity Is A Remix

 

 

For the Student

Media embedded October 5, 2015

 

Media embedded October 5, 2015

As begin our journey into creativity and the creation of music, I would like you to watch at least one of the videos linked above and react to what you hear. Both are from Kirby Ferguson who has created a video series called Everything is a Remix. The first video is from a TED Talk he did on the subject and serves as a nice introduction to his theory/viewpoint. The second video is a remastered compilation of all the videos in the series. It is longer, and moves away from music and into other subject areas but is thought-provoking for sure. Consider the following:

  • Do you believe there are any truly "original" ideas (or music)?
  • Is it OK to borrow/steal ideas from others when creating your own work (music specifically)?
  • Should there be limitations to this kind of borrowing/stealing?
  • If everything is indeed a "remix" of previous ideas, what makes a new piece of music EXCELLENT? What makes it enjoyable to listen to?
  • Please add any additional thoughts/comments you have.

Add a comment to this Update to begin the discussion. 

As with our first update, please read the comments of your classmates and reply/comment on at least three. Reference a specif post with @nameofstudent.

 

For the Instructor

This video and Update assignment serves to encourage students that their original ideas and compositions do not need to be COMPLETELY original. Music, and all art, is based in tradition and what we are familiar with. Innovation and creativity combine this known with new perspectives and ideas.

The topic of plagiarism should also be addressed in this assignment. While we agree that a certain amount of borrowing of ideas is encouraged and necessary to create new art, when does that borrowing becoming unethical stealing?

Update 3: Voice Manipulation Project

For the Student

This Update includes the creation of your first creative work (with the exception of your previous writing, of course!). We would suggest using Audacity software available free of charge for both the Windows and Macintosh platforms as several tutorials are available and we can provide some technical support as you learn to use this application. If you have access to another audio editing application that you are comfortable with, you are more than welcome to complete your work there.

Audacity is open-sorced audio editing software. It is available for download here:

http://audacityteam.org/

While you are welcome to do your own search online for tutorials, the following have proven to provide a good start: 

Basic Audacity Introduction

Basic Editing

Some Basic Effects

In this project, you will take an audio clip of my colleague reciting a Brian Eno quote and arrange/mix the words so that she says something different. You may also use sound effects, put her voice into a rhythm, put her voice over beats or harmony, etc. Basically, use your imagination and make something new and interesting. Learn as much as possible about Audacity and what you can do with it!

Text of the quote is as follows:

“If you want to make someone feel emotion, you have to make them let go.  Listening to something is an act of surrender.” - Brian Eno

The MP3 file in its original state is available here to playback in this module (in the audio player) and to download for your own use (You should 'right-click' for Windows or 'ctrl-click' for Macintosh on the MP3 icon to 'save target as' or 'save file as' in order to download the file:

Audacity Voice Manipulation Project - Brian Eno Quote
Audacity Voice Manipulation Project - Brian Eno Quote

Requirements:

  1. Your final project must be at least 30 seconds in length.
  2. Your project must demonstrate significant creativity and originality.
  3. Your project must demonstration understanding of several editing and manipulation techniques available to you in Audacity that may include the following but are not limited to:
  • tempo manipulation
  • pitch manipulation
  • reverb, echo and other effects

Your final project must be rendered as an MP3 file. 

Create a new update titled 'Update 3 - (Unique Name Of Your Project'. Include your project by using the 'Insert Audio' tool available in the editor (the circle with a triangle in it). Also snswer each of the following questions, organizing your writing in a way that will make sense to you and the reader. You may add any other information you wish as well.  

  • What is your project about? What is the deeper meaning or theme you were trying to create?
  • What went well?
  • What were the challenges?
  • What did you want to be able to do but either could not figure out or realized that Audacity could not do?

Finally, as we've done with our other Updates, listen to the projects of at least three classmates, read what they had to say about their work and provide comments and feedback on what they have created.

As you have questions or general suggestions about this project, comment on THIS update so these questions, solutions, and suggestions can all be found in one place.

For the Instructor

When I first started doing this assignment a few years ago I was worried that I would really need to push students to be creative. Instead I have consistenly been impressed by the quality and depth of their efforts. In a classroom setting they share their technical knowledge with each other very readily and quickly integrate several advanced skills beyond what was provided to them in the sample tutorials selected for them. They are also very quick to find additional resources and tutorials on their own.

 

Update 4: Music Theory for the New Musician

For the Student

We believe that it is not necessary to have formal musical training to have success as a creator of music. A person need only understand the structures of music they wish to manipulate and have a way of doing so - usually through the use of technology - to be able to express their ideas.

That said, having an understanding of basic music theory and terminology with be helpful in creating a common language through which we can begin to create and discuss music together.

What follows are several tutorial videos that provide you, the "new musician" with this theory and understanding. Many of them base their teaching around a piano keyboard which provides a great visual model to understand these concepts. While they apply to all instruments and even singing, understanding the design and layout of the keyboard will assist in understanding the concepts that follow.

Please work your way through each of the following tutorial videos. If you have questions or comments regarding these videos, add a comment to below. Likewise, please read each other's questions and comments and reply as approrpriate.

Your objectives are:

  • Be able to identify all of the white keys and black keys by letter names.
  • Be able to identify keys with enharmonic names by both letter names.
  • Calculate the distance between two keys as being in half steps or whole steps (or a combination thereof).
  • Be able to express the pattern of half steps and whole steps in a Major scale (also described in the video as semitones and tones).

Names of the Notes on the Keyboard

Media embedded October 11, 2015

Explanation of Half-Steps and Whole-Steps

Media embedded October 11, 2015

Construction of a Major Scale

Media embedded October 11, 2015

 

For the Instructor

When I have taught similar classes and units in my high school Digital Music Composition class I have worked hard to not "over-do" the music theory element. I try to get students to get creative in general and start to even compose music without the burden of understanding theory. I want them to get to a place, however, where they realize that they need this information to accomplish their goals regarding their projects and creative ideas.

I included several videos that I found online that I think serve the purpose of teaching this lesson really well. If I was truly launching this module, or upon future revisions of it, I would include self-created videos that teach these concepts exactly the way I would in my own classroom. I have begun to do some screencasting and some tutorial recording but do not have a library of materials regarding this unit to draw from... yet.

Update 5: The Blues

For the Student

The blues is considered by most music historians to be the first original music genre to come from the United States. However its roots are planted firmly in West African music as well as having some influence from European music.

New Orleans in the 1800's was a center of international and national trade, given its location as a sea port and a means by which to access the Mississippi River. The city was densely populated not just with Europeans from several countries, but also Africans that had come to the United States unwillingly as slaves. Cultural influences could not help but mix and soon the building blocks of West African music were being combined with the European music tradition. Slaves, being barred from playing indiginous instruments or singing songs in their own dialect, began to interpolate English lyrical and western instruments such as guitar, piano, brass, and woodwind instruments into their music making. They also began to modify the harmonic and structures of their music ever so slightly, and unintentially to incorporate European music theory.

The blues was born. Not just as new form of music, but a way to express deep feelings that otherwise could not be expressed. In the approximately 150 years since it developed it has continued to flourish as a genre of its own, and in fact a genre with countless sub-categories. More telling, however, is the many other forms of popular music upon which it has left an indelible mark including Rock, Rap, Rhythm and Blues, Country and Western, Funk, Gospel, and many many more.

The blues is simple in its structure. It does not require a musician to learn advanced technique or theory. It is a music "of the people, by the people, and for the people" to borrow a phrase. It is this straightforward structure that allows musicians to express themselves fairly quickly and for listeners to begin to understand and appreciate its nuances quickly as well.

I have included two videos for you to watch to continue in your introduction to the blues:

This first video is of Wynton Marsalis, a famed trumpet player, composer and band leader. He serves as the Artistic Director for Jazz At Lincoln Center in New York. He has dedicated his life to jazz education and advocay.

Media embedded October 11, 2015

 

This next video is a trailer for the PBS documentary series The Blues. It was produced by Martin Scorsese and provides a great five minute overview of just how far reaching the influence of the blues is.

Media embedded October 11, 2015

 

When you are finished viewing these videos, post an original Update on the following topic:

  • What was your knowledge of the blues before reading this entry and watching these videos?
  • What surprised you in this reading and these videos?
  • Do you already listen to the blues? Which artists or particular styles? How did you get interested in this music?
  • Do you hear the influence of the blues in other music you listen to? What kinds of music? How so?

As always, read the posts of your classmates and comment on at least three.

 

 

 

 

For the Instructor

This section provides some of the historical context of the blues as well as many examples of different blues styles and the other forms of music it influences. Students will invariably be aware of at least some of this music and will be excited to be able to start making some of this music on their own in the next lesson. All forms of music have a historical context - something that most students probably do not regularly consider. The context of the blues, in the South in the late 1800's is one that most students have studied at length in terms of learning about the Civil War. being able to interject the music of the time period into what they know about history may be a new revelation to most, and will hopefully help them to appreciate similar connections between art and society in various other time periods.

The knowledge built in this update will prepare students to complete their first formal work in the next section.

First Work - Improvisation

TO BE COMPLETED

This section will include video links defining and discussion the music genre known as the blues. An analysis of what makes up the blues 'chord progression' and the 'blues scale' will be given. A defintion of 'improvisation' will also be provided.

Students will complete an original project where they improvise an original blues solo over a standard blues progression.

As with the Works format similar to what we are accustomed to, students will post their project audio file within the structure of a standard Scholar Work. They will be asked to do some reflective writing about the composition as well. This Work will then be peer-reviewed by classmates based on a given rubric, then offered back to the student for revision before being accepted for "publication".

While this project is relatively straight forward and short in length, it allows students to feel success in terms of:

  • creating an original piece of music
  • practicing giving musical feedback and suggestions
  • understanding the Scholar Creator interface

For the Student

Improvisation - the act of creating music spontaneously in the moment.

Although you will be creating spontaneously, you still must adhere to a limited set of rules. Those rules will be explained in the video below and the instructions for your first work which follows.

Media embedded October 11, 2015

 

Go online to YouTube and find a blues practice track in the key of your choice.  Consider the following:

  • Listen to the track to make sure it is a 12- bar blues.  You should hear the harmonic pattern repeat every 12 measures.
  • Make sure you can determine what key the blues is being performed in.  Choose a video that is labeled with the key (starting note of the scale).
  • Use a website such as http://www.youtube-mp3.org/ to convert the video to an MP3 file.
  • Open Acid Pro or another DAW (Digital Audio Workstation)
  • Insert the blues practice track audio file that you just created into Acid Pro.  You DO NOT need to use the Beatmapper (or match the tempo of the track to the project) on the track unless you want to be able to add additional loops later (optional).
  • Determine the pitches of the Major scale your blues progression is based on (as you learned about in the tutorial videos). Number them sequentially 1-8.
  • Using those pitches and their numbers Major scale above, find the altered pitches for the Blues Scale: 1    b3    4    b5    5    b7    8
  • Create a MIDI track in Acid Pro.  Choose an instrument sound that works well as a solo instrument with your the backing track you selected.
  • Click ‘Play’ and practice playing the notes of the blues scale over the backing track.
  • When you’re ready to record your solo, Arm the MIDI track to record, click the main “Record” button and begin to play your solo! Consider:
  • You do not need to play a lot of notes. Space and silence is ok too!
  • So is repetition of notes and patterns!
  • Using pitches other than the blues scale is OK, they’re just not guaranteed to “sound right”.
  • To demonstrate your understanding of the 12-bar blues form, you should solo for 1 chorus, then “sit out” on the next chorus, then solo again on the next chorus.  After that, you are welcome to solo straight through however many more choruses you like.  You must do at least two solo choruses (one chorus of 12 measures, then resting 12 measures, then another chorus of 12 measures).
  • Listen to your project and make any changes necessary (re-recording your solo track, adjusting balance between your solo and the backing track, etc.).
  • Save your Acid Pro project file to your H: drive.
  • Render your project as an MP3 file.
  • Attach this MP3 to the Work request you will find in the Creator section of Scholar. Use the 'Insert Audio' tool. Be sure to rename your work to - Work 1 - Improvisation - YOUR ORIGINAL TITLE.
  • Complete a short write-up in the work summarizing what you think went well with the project, what was a challenge for you, anything else you learned in this project, and lingering questions you have.
  • The first draft of this work is due by the date given in the work request.

Peer Review

Your work will be shared with two or three of your peers. Likewise, you will have the opportunity to review and offer suggestions to your peers on their work through this same process.

Rubric

The rubric being used in this assignment is available here. Please review as you continue to work on this project.

Rubric for Blues Improvisation Assignment

 

For the Instructor

This section includes a video link including an analysis of what makes up the blues 'chord progression' and the 'blues scale'. 

Students will complete an original project where they improvise an original blues solo over a standard blues progression.

As with the Works format similar to what we are accustomed to, students will post their project audio file within the structure of a standard Scholar Work. They will be asked to do some reflective writing about the composition as well. This Work will then be peer-reviewed by classmates based on a given rubric, then offered back to the student for revision before being accepted for "publication".

While this project is relatively straight forward and short in length, it allows students to feel success in terms of:

  • creating an original piece of music
  • practicing giving musical feedback and suggestions
  • understanding the Scholar Creator interface

I've attached a work from a previously created Publisher, attached to a Community I created last year to experiment with Scholar with one of my classes. Please let me know if I need to re-create this work in a different place so it can be viewed/critiqued.

The main emphasis of the work is to allow the audio recording of the student's original improvisation to be critiqued and evaluated by three peers. The rubric empahsizes the creative process but does acknowledge requirements for following structure and procedure.