Today's music workshop engaged us in the perception of music and song through the elements and finding ways of expression through the creation of a "soundscape."
We were first played a piece of unknown music, of which we knew neither the title nor genre beforehand, and asked to record what we thought of its qualities. I described it as soothing, entrancing and soft initially, which gradually built up to a fluttering of notes and a colorful melding of many instruments. There was a solo xylophone part which depicted to me almost a character in a story, wondering through a nebulous path only to be joined by additional characters on his way. The number of adjectives I just used makes me realize that totality of emotions and characteristics that is embodied in a piece of good music. They can be broken down via the musical elements of tone color, dynamics, duration, structure and pitch.
Further on in the workshop, we were asked to form groups and create a soundscape through which a story could be told with no words, only music and instruments. Our group collected a few instruments including a glockenspiel, a tambourine, guiro and a couple cowbells. We came up with the idea of a surprise birthday party and how three people would "knock" on the door and be let inside before the final "birthday" boy knocked and would be greeted by a harmony of sounds as well as the familiar Happy Birthday song. We drew up a soundscape, which was basically our rudimentary map of the sequence of events during our routine.
To follow this soundscape, just start at the top left with the shoe and knocking symbol representing the approaching and knocking on the door. We lightly tapped our shoes on the ground in a slow rhythmic pattern to mimic what footsteps sound like. After ringing the doorbell, which we expressed by hitting two cowbells with different pitches (ding-dong), the sound of the door opening was an eerie creak created with striping a guiro with a stick. This was followed by a "shhhh" vocal sound effect. After three repetitions, the final one was followed by a cacophony of all the instruments together for the "surprise." My role in the soundscape was playing the Happy Birthday song on the glockenspiel, which I learned to do right then! The beginning notes of the sequence, CCDCFE, are depicted on the birthday cake. This was undoubtedly a worthwhile activity to learn to do as well as see the other groups perform. All the groups worked well and it wasn't difficult to ascertain what was going on despite lack of verbal communication. Through various instruments and altering the musical elements, very distinct and interesting soundscapes were created.
This is an activity that I look forward to using in a classroom. It is fun, easy to break down, and engages students (just like us in the workshop) to use sound organization and the elements to create an entertaining piece of music. The Musica Viva website is a resource that contains a few pieces of music that can be used for soundscapes: http://www.musicaviva.com.au/vivazone/musicians/musician.asp?id=2.
Finally, we created a rap using our birthday party topic. After choosing a few key rhyming words (cake, make, candles, manhandles, etc), we composed a short four line rap which made very little actual sense. We were mostly going for the rhyming and rhythm emphases! At the end, we added some interesting ostinati (eg vocal "punches" on last words, body percussion, certain people emphasizing keywords, certain people repeating "it's your birthday" etc). I had no idea raps would be part of the music curriculum, but it stands to reason that composing raps would overlap with multiple parts of the English KLA in terms of language structures.
References
B'Tutta. 2004. Musica Viva Australia. Accessed 5 November 2011 from http://www.musicaviva.com.au/vivazone/musicians/musician.asp?id=2
We were first played a piece of unknown music, of which we knew neither the title nor genre beforehand, and asked to record what we thought of its qualities. I described it as soothing, entrancing and soft initially, which gradually built up to a fluttering of notes and a colorful melding of many instruments. There was a solo xylophone part which depicted to me almost a character in a story, wondering through a nebulous path only to be joined by additional characters on his way. The number of adjectives I just used makes me realize that totality of emotions and characteristics that is embodied in a piece of good music. They can be broken down via the musical elements of tone color, dynamics, duration, structure and pitch.
Further on in the workshop, we were asked to form groups and create a soundscape through which a story could be told with no words, only music and instruments. Our group collected a few instruments including a glockenspiel, a tambourine, guiro and a couple cowbells. We came up with the idea of a surprise birthday party and how three people would "knock" on the door and be let inside before the final "birthday" boy knocked and would be greeted by a harmony of sounds as well as the familiar Happy Birthday song. We drew up a soundscape, which was basically our rudimentary map of the sequence of events during our routine.
+-+Soundscape.png) |
| Surprise birthday party soundscape |
To follow this soundscape, just start at the top left with the shoe and knocking symbol representing the approaching and knocking on the door. We lightly tapped our shoes on the ground in a slow rhythmic pattern to mimic what footsteps sound like. After ringing the doorbell, which we expressed by hitting two cowbells with different pitches (ding-dong), the sound of the door opening was an eerie creak created with striping a guiro with a stick. This was followed by a "shhhh" vocal sound effect. After three repetitions, the final one was followed by a cacophony of all the instruments together for the "surprise." My role in the soundscape was playing the Happy Birthday song on the glockenspiel, which I learned to do right then! The beginning notes of the sequence, CCDCFE, are depicted on the birthday cake. This was undoubtedly a worthwhile activity to learn to do as well as see the other groups perform. All the groups worked well and it wasn't difficult to ascertain what was going on despite lack of verbal communication. Through various instruments and altering the musical elements, very distinct and interesting soundscapes were created.
This is an activity that I look forward to using in a classroom. It is fun, easy to break down, and engages students (just like us in the workshop) to use sound organization and the elements to create an entertaining piece of music. The Musica Viva website is a resource that contains a few pieces of music that can be used for soundscapes: http://www.musicaviva.com.au/vivazone/musicians/musician.asp?id=2.
Finally, we created a rap using our birthday party topic. After choosing a few key rhyming words (cake, make, candles, manhandles, etc), we composed a short four line rap which made very little actual sense. We were mostly going for the rhyming and rhythm emphases! At the end, we added some interesting ostinati (eg vocal "punches" on last words, body percussion, certain people emphasizing keywords, certain people repeating "it's your birthday" etc). I had no idea raps would be part of the music curriculum, but it stands to reason that composing raps would overlap with multiple parts of the English KLA in terms of language structures.
References
B'Tutta. 2004. Musica Viva Australia. Accessed 5 November 2011 from http://www.musicaviva.com.au/vivazone/musicians/musician.asp?id=2
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