by Author mikeKWMC

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Term 6 School Tasters

 

Hi all!

There will be a couple of updates from me here at KWMC! In term 6 last year we went into a local school and delivered a series of eciting music and music tech taster sessions to around 40 year 6 students. 

Our first session was a GarageBand session where students created beats and songs using Apple loops on iPads. It was great to see them exploring all different loops that were available and mixing up genre labeled loops together to create unique, original, and exciting music. Before the end of the session we all took time to listen to everyone's music and it was great to see everybody taking the time and listening and supporting each other.

Second session was a found sound activity using an app called 'Keezy' on the iPad. Keezy is a brilliant free app where you can record sound onto 8 different cells. You can playback the different sounds you recorded by tapping that particular cell. It also has recording capabilities.  The students' had the time and space to explore different sounds from the environment, others also used their voices (beatboxing, singing, whistling, FX) to create very interesting beats and songs.

Third session was creating a podcast. Students were separated into groups where they wrote a script and recorded a podcast around a particular topic. Topics were:

  • If there was something you can change in your local community, what would it be and why?
  • What did you want to be when you grow up?
  • Favourite thing about your school
  • The world of 'What If?' - my personal favourite

The students recorded their podcast using portable recorders (Zooms, TASCAMs) and microphones (SM58's). They really captured the essence of a podcast and it was great to see them be creative with how they answered the topics and how they wrote their scripts and how they worked together to create content that was cohesive. 

The last taster session was a learning how to code with Sonic Pi. Each student had the task to create a simple doorbell which then can be extended with loops and effects. There was then an extra task for people who wanted to explore Sonic Pi further, exploring live coding, samples and different effects.

Overall it was great to see everyone exploring everything in the sessions and being creative with their tasks. Looking forward to more of this this coming year!