For this project, I was able to explore the "learning music playground" by Ableton. This is a source that is an introduction into making digital music. For this experience I went through several chapters that helped me to develop my knowledge of digital music and how to make it. 

I started out experimenting with the bass line. It was one of the first chapters from the playground. Above is the example I created. I tried to come up with simple patterns and use a variety of the sound options offered. 

In this example I used the I - V - Vi - IV progression that was covered in one of the lessons and is a commonly used progression in popular music. I changed the settings in this example so it was in C in the Phrygian mode. 

This example is using the beat, bass line, chords, and melody. After experimenting with this resource I was able to figure out how to put all of the parts together. 

It is designed for beginners and has several lessons that explain basic concepts of music theory such as scales, modes, and various instruments and sounds. When I first started exploring the playground, I went through the introductory lessons that went through the basic sounds you could use and how to use them. Some of these chapters included how to make a beat, bass line, and melody. The lessons gave me the skills to have a basic idea of how to compose a song using popular chord progressions often found in pop music. 

I really liked this program because it helped to give me a solid foundation to feel confident in my abilities to make digital music. In relation to my own music education experience, I don't think this resource differs too much from how I've been instructed in music previously. It's structured so that it explains the concept, provides examples, and then I try it out on my own. It's very straightforward and easy to understand. The user interface for this resource is intuitive and simple. A student of any age could explore and be musically creative on the playground page. 

I think this resource would be valuable for general music classes of any level. As an aspiring music educator, I could adapt the activities to suit the developmental and cognitive abilities of the students in my class. The playground is very engaging and it allows the student to develop musical independence and explore their creativity. Most classrooms and schools I have observed so far provide tablets or chrome books for each of the students in the class. This would make an activity for this program more accessible with those resources. It would also be valuable if there was an app for tablets for this program. 

For this project, my group and I arranged "Sorry not Sorry" by Demi Lavato (link). This song was picked from the Billboard Hot 100. Below are links to the portfolio posts for each of the group members: 

Joey 
Nikki
Rob 

Here is a link to our recording of the arrangement 

One of the challenges we faced while picking the song for the arrangement was finding something where we could figure out how to blend the voices of our instruments, and find a song that wasn't too melodically and harmonically complex. A majority of the songs on the Billboard Hot 100 were rap songs and focused more on the poetic lyrics and rhythm than melody. Since we were planning to do an instrumental arrangement we picked "Sorry not Sorry" because it was interesting melodically. The song uses a simple I-iv-IV-V progression and the melody is based on the pentatonic scale. It wasn't too difficult technically to come up with the parts because of this. One of the other issues we had as a group was figuring out how to blend our instruments. Nikki and I played violin, Rob was on trombone, and Joey played the tenor saxophone. We decided to have Joey play the melody, Rob play the bass line, Nikki played the melodic embellishments on violin, and I created a simple percussion line by tapping on my violin. 

I liked this experience because, as a classically trained violinist, I don't have many opportunities to improvise, learn, and perform pieces by ear. I learned more about how to play in an ensemble in a less traditional setting than I am used to. I primarily have experience playing in orchestra symphonies and string quartets where I am restricted to performing exactly what is on the sheet music in front of me. If I was to do this project over again, I would have spent more time improvising and experimenting in my individual practice. I hope that I do have more creative opportunities like this in the future because I think it would help to develop my musicianship by exploring my own creative musical ideas.