Teaching Music Through Composition: A Curriculum Using Technology

by Barbara Freedman

Overview

Teaching Music through Composition offers a practical, fully multimedia curriculum designed to teach basic musical concepts through the creative process of music composition. Author and award-winning music educator Barbara Freedman presents classroom-tested ways of teaching composition with technology as a tool with which students can create, edit, save, and reproduce music. As Freedman demonstrates, technology allows a musical experience for all skill levels in opportunities never before available to compose manipulate, instantly listen to music electronically and even print standard Western music notation for others to play without having to know much about traditional music theory or notation. All students can have meaningful hands-on applied learning experiences that will impact not only their music experience and learning but also their understanding and comfort with 21st century technology. Whether the primary focus of your class is to use technology to create music or to explore using technology in a unit or two, this book will show you how it can be done with practical, tried-and-true lesson plans and student activities.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199970933
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	02/13/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
File size:	11 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Named a TI:ME Music Teacher of the Year, Barbara Freedman has been teaching Electronic Music & Audio Engineering at Greenwich High School in Connecticut since 2001. She is an author, consultant, trainer, and frequent presenter/clinician at local, state, and national in-service conferences and events.

Table of Contents

Introductory material Introduction to Music Composition 1. Tour of the Software for Music Creation (a) Lesson: Creating Software Instrument Track (b) Lesson: Tour of the Loops Library 2. Using Loops (a) Lesson: Creating Melodies with Loops (b) Lesson: Understanding Song (AB) Form (c) Lesson/Project: Creating a Piece Using the Software's Prerecorded Loops in AB Song Form 3. Recording Drum Tracks (a) Lesson: Understanding Rhythmic Notation with Rhythm States (b) Lesson: Reading Graphic Rhythms with Rhythm States (c) Lesson: Rhythm Dictations (d) Lesson: Drum Beats 4. Composing Drum&Percussion Beats (a) Lesson/Project: Composing Drum&Percussion Beats 5. Writing Melodies (a) Lesson: Understanding the Piano Keyboard (b) Lesson: Melodic Dictations (c) Lesson: Evaluating Melodies (d) Lesson: Composing a Melody in D Dorian 6. Melodic Variations Using Rhythmic Alterations (a) Lesson: Melodic Fragments, Rhythmic Augmentation, And Rhythmic Diminution 7. Creating More Variations (a) Lesson: Manually Changing the Pitch Level of Regions 8. Composing with Original Regions (a) Lesson/Project: D Melody Piece in Modified Sonata Allegro Form 9. The Sound FX Piece (a) Lesson: The Sound FX Piece: How Ideas Evolve Over Time (b) Lesson: The Sound FX Project: Creating Two Dimensional Sound Image&Creating Sonic Space (c) Lesson: Using Reverb to Create Three Dimensional Space 10. Basic Keyboard Theory (a) Lesson: Whole&Half steps (b) Lesson: Generic Intervals Lesson Plan (c) Lesson: Basic Keyboard Theory: Understanding Major Scales 11. MIDI Remix (a) Lesson Plan: Analyzing a Remix 1 (b) Lesson Plan: Analyzing a Remix 2 (c) Lesson Plan: MIDI Remix 12. More Rhythms (a) Lesson Plan: More Rhythms (b) Rhythmic Improvisation 13. Dictations (a) Lesson Plan: Melodic Dictations 14. Melody Writing Drills (a) Creating Melodic Motives Lesson Plan (b) Lesson Plan: Motive Variations (c) Lesson Plan: Motive in Sequence (d) Lesson Plan: Improvising Melodies 15. More Melody Writing Drills (a) Lesson Plan: Compose to a Given Rhythm (Rhythmic Continuity) 16. Melody Forms (a) Lesson Plan: Question&Answer (b) Lesson Plan: AB Tonic/Dominant (c) Lesson Plan: Rondo 17. The Ringtone Project (a) Lesson Plan: The Ringtone Project 18. More Basic Keyboard Theory (a) Lesson Plan: Major&Minor Thirds (b) Lesson Plan: Understanding Triad Qualities (c) Lesson Plan: Building Triads on Scale Degrees 19. Chord Progressions (a) Lesson Plan: Basic Chord Progressions (b) Lesson Plan: Twelve Bar Blues (c) Lesson Plan: Given Chord Progressions from the Simple Map (d) Lesson Plan: Common Chord Progressions Not on the Simple Map 20. Accompaniment Patterns (a) Lesson Plan: Accompaniment Patterns 21. Putting it Together (a) Lesson Plan: Composing Four-Measure Melodies (b) Lesson Plan: Drone (c) Lesson Plan: Generic Parallel Intervals (d) Lesson Plan: Counter Melody (e) Lesson Plan: Adding Chords (f) Lesson Plan: Understanding Bass Notes (g) Lesson Plan: Creating a Bass Line Part 1 (h) Lesson Plan: Creating Bass Line Part 2: Root and Fifth (i) Lesson Plan: Adding Drums and Syncing the Bass 22. Melody (a) Lesson Plan: Melodic Non-chord Tones 23. Composing Instrumental Music for Live Performance (a) Lesson Plan: Solo Flute or Violin Piece Project 24. The Art Project: Rondo Form (a) Lesson Plan: The Art Project: Rondo Form 25. Introducing Audio and Audio Editing (a) Lesson Plan: The Speech Project (b) EQ 26. More Advanced Audio (a) Lesson Plan: The Radio Commercial Project (b) Lesson Plan: The Podcast 27. Aural Reporting (a) Lesson Plan: Aural Reporting 28. Music for Video (a) Lesson Plan: Music for Video Appendix Reading Rhythms with Rhythm States Piano Supplement Printed Material Piano Supplement Video Lessons Index

Editorial Reviews

"Barbara Freedman has created the go-to resource for music educators, providing classroom tested lessons, projects, tips, and materials that will get any music educator up and running with a comprehensive approach to facilitating creative and relevant music-making experiences for their students. Freedman, a singular force in music technology thinking and practice, writes in an approachable, clear, and jargon-free style that will take the fear out of the equation for newcomers while also providing terrific projects and a unique perspective for experienced teachers. 'Teach music, the technology will follow' has become Freedman's rallying cry, and with Teaching Music Through Composition she has put her motto into practice. Every music teacher should add this incredible resource to their library."—James Frankel, Teachers College, Columbia University

"Teaching Music Through Composition: A Curriculum Using Technology is an excellent and practical guide for music educators striving to reach the 'Other 80%' (non-traditional music students). Drawing from her experience teaching one of the leading high school music technology programs in United States, Barbara Freedman shares her field-tested approaches for utilizing technology to unlock students' creativity and passion for music. This an essential addition to the library of all teachers of technology-based music classes." —Dr. Rick Dammers, Associate Professor of Music Education, Rowan University

"In Teaching Music through Composition, Freedman provides music educators a new and comprehensive curriculum for teaching all aspects of music at the secondary level. Freedman's approach acknowledges and exploits the prevalence of technology in our schools, the hands-on engagement with the elements of music made possible by these tools, and our increased understanding that students learn music best by 'doing' it. The book's well-thought-out sequence of activities, refined over many years of practice, are delivered in a straight-forward, down-to-earth manner that comes as no surprise to those who have followed Freedman's teaching and career. Furthermore, the book's premise - that by focusing on musical goals, students (and teachers) will be less distracted by the technology used to accomplish them - is right on target!"—Dr. Scott Watson, Music Teacher, Parkland School District (Allentown, Pennsylvania), and Author, Using Technology to Unlock Musical Creativity (OUP)

"Barbara Freeman's clearly outlined lessons emphasize the 'cool factor' that draws students into music learning and skill development. The 'tips' highlight Freedman's wisdom and successful classroom experiences."—Sandi MacLeod, Executive Director of Music-COMP

From the Publisher