I designed this hypothetical lesson for potential use in the classroom. My goal with this lesson would be for students to play a scale on the strong beats with a rhythmic accompaniment playing subdivisions. 

Some Students were not able to retrieve their instruments from school before it was closed due to the COVID-19 outbreak. I made this assignment to help kids continue to be engaged in music making without an instrument. I also opened the assignment to all students so everyone would be able to explore the Chrome music lab on their own time if they wanted to. I made a video tutorial and handout to explain the perimeters of the assignment. My goal is that students would be able to compose a short 4 bar melody line and incorporate the rhythm section to have a two part song as the finished product. 

Due to school closures from the COVID-19 outbreak, I made a series of instructional videos for each of the orchestra classes at my block 4 placement to aid in distance learning. The shifting video was geared for all of the students in all classes, then there are videos dedicated to the excerpts each class was working on.  

For this project, I designed this lesson plan for the IB music class at my high school student teaching placement. Prior to this, I sequenced lessons on building triads and dominant 7th chords. I gave the students a chord progression of  I IV V7 I in C major and assigned them to write a short composition with the ableton playground using the chord progression. The students spent 15 minutes in class working on their composition and then took it home to continue working on it to then share in the next class. 

For this project, I arranged the tune "Nettleton" for full orchestra and harp. I used musescore notation software for this project. 

I was able to work with a group of my classmates to arrange the tune of "All Star" by Smash Mouth and perform it at the voting poll at JMU campus on election day. My group and I wanted to arrange a song that was familiar and engaging to the majority of the community at JMU. "All Star" was a good option because of the upbeat character of the song and we were able to easily change the lyrics to be relevant to the topic of voting and civil engagement. 
I really enjoyed this experience. It was nice to participate in a music making experience that was purely for the joy of sharing a positive message. It was less about perfecting the performance and more about what it meant. As a future teacher, I want to be able to show my students that there are alternative ways of engaging in music outside the classroom. 

For this project, I created a DAW that was based on a graphic score. I created a bass rhythm and arranged melody that was inspired from the image. Included in the audio file is also audio from a news report from the Women's March on Washington in 2017. 

I chose this image because I found it to be meaningful to me. What inspired me the most about this event is that women from all backgrounds came together to stand up for women's rights. In the video I found, it also discusses that there was not only diversity in background but also diversity in motivation. Many women were also fighting for civil rights based on their ethnicity and sexual orientation. There were many motivators behind an expansive cause. 

For this project, I wanted the music to help covey the event and the emotions that motivated it. I imported a MIDI file of "Do You Hear The People Sing" that is an arrangement of the melody from the broadway musical "Les Miserable". I thought that the tone and message from that melody appropriately captured the event. I created a bass rhythm that sounded like a march to compliment the melody and also help to convey the graphic and the event of the women's march. The main challenge I faced as using Soundtrap and figuring out how to import the MIDI and use all of the editing tools. Most of the information I needed was provided in tutorials on Soundtrap. 

For this next part of the project I worked more with the effects that are offered on Soundtrap. I tried to make some of the lines and motives from the song sound completely different from the original. To make the B section contrasting I changed the order of the back beat and used a loop from Soundtrap for the bass that was contrasting from the one in the beginning. In the A section of the song, I wanted to capture the determination of the people who voiced their values. In the second section I wanted to capture the purpose of the event through the audio from interviews and speakers. I found a video of a compilation of famous celebrities and speakers at the event. I initially had some difficulty getting used to using the effects and figuring out how to make it sound appealing. I was able to figure it out by taking time to explore the different sound effects offered and how to adjust the settings for each effect. I also had to make sure each line was in the appropriate octave and range.

In creating the final draft of this song I tried to consider how I could expand on my ideas to help reinforce the purpose of the work which is the women's march. I played around with loops to try to find out what different kinds of sounds would fit in and enhance the song. Then I experimented with adding the effects on different lines to make the loops I added be more cohesive with the other parts. By using the fading effect I used it on the "Do You Hear the People Sing" melody to finish and fade out at the end of the song. I liked a lot of the features sound trap has to offer such as their collection of loops, and I liked that it was fairly straightforward to use. However, Soundtrap does have limitations for the free version and in retrospect I think it could have been helpful to also use other DAW programs such as GarageBand. I think Soundtrap was a good program to use to help me learn how to use a DAW. Youtube was a helpful resource in learning how to implement the different effects and loops. Overall, I think I have learned a lot about the basics of using a DAW through this experience and now I can expand and develop the skills I've learned. 

In learning this song, I initially tried to learn the chords on my own by looking at chord charts ad figuring out my own strumming pattern. I struggled by learning with this method so I watched youtube tutorials to help me with the chords, strumming pattern, and vocal line. It helped to isolate the chords and strumming pattern first before adding in the singing. Then I tried to take it at a slow tempo so I could figure out how the words fit in with the beats and strumming pattern. Repeated listening of the recording was also helpful. 

If I was to do a similar activity in a classroom, I think it would be helpful to break each technique and part of the song into manageable sections and isolate the chords and strumming pattern first. When watching youtube tutorials, it helped when the instructor broke down each concept and I could master each one before moving on. While individual exploration was engaging and fun at first, I eventually got frustrated and needed additional instruction. Making covers of songs is a way that a large majority of people engage with music. Youtube is a popular social media platform for tutorials and covers and a medium through which people engage in music in popular culture. By giving students the tools to be able to do this they can have these skills and a life long appreciation for musicking.