Introduction: What did we cover in the last lesson?

5 minutes

Activity 1: Write efficient code to ‘Time’ by Hans Zimmer from the film ‘Inception’

20 minutes

Activity 2: Create your own tonal mood

40 minutes

Activity 3: Listening and reflecting

20 minutes

Wrap-up Activity: Quiz and reflection

15 minutes

Key concepts

Sonic Pi syntax to be taught this lesson

Learning Outcomes

Music:

-tonality

-scale

-pentatonic

-octave

-melody

Programming:

-pattern recognition

-functions

-lists

-naming conventions

Activity #1

using note names e.g. :C4

Activity #2

sample

play [:A, :E, :D, :G] 

notes = (ring :E4, :Fs4, :B4, :Cs5, :D5, :Fs4, :E4, :Cs5, :B4, :Fs4, :D5, :Cs5)” 

using the .tick, .choose and .shuffle methods

Music:

-All students will recognise basic composition repetition/variation in ‘Time’ by Hans Zimmer

-All students will layer three sounds on top of one another

-All students will create their own scale to find a tonality that suits their chosen video

-All students will discuss the characteristics of generative or systems based music

Programming:

-All students make a musical algorithm that plays the chord sequence of Hans Zimmer’s ‘Time’ 

-All students will develop strategies to make an algorithm more efficient through using iteration (loops)

-All students will create and debug algorithms for a loop of a series of notes (scale) they have created

Student Activity:

1. For three minutes, students are to reflect on the code they saved at the end of the previous lesson

New Sonic Pi syntax to introduce in this activity (click for example code):

using note names e.g. “:C4”

Student Activity (10 minutes):

1. Write efficient code to the chords below so that they play in approximately the correct time

Chords to ‘Time’ from the film Inception:

Chord 1: A4, C5

Chord 2: E4, G5

Chord 3: G4, B4

Chord 4: D4, F#5

Chord 5: A4, C5 (repeat)

Chord 6: C4, B5

Chord 7: G4, B4 (repeat)

Chord 8: D4, F#5 (repeat)

Notes to the Student:

• Time is just one of many potential examples of how repetition can be used in music

• Note that chords 5, 7, 8 are repeats of chords 1, 2 and 4. An advanced student might know how to code an efficient solution so that chords 5, 7 and 8 are only written once

New Sonic Pi syntax to introduce in this activity (click for example code):

sample

play [:A, :E, :D, :G]

notes = (ring :E4, :Fs4, :B4, :Cs5, :D5, :Fs4, :E4, :Cs5, :B4, :Fs4, :D5, :Cs5)”

using the .tick, .choose and .shuffle methods 

Student Activity (20 minutes):

1. Students make up their own scale to give a desired mood (which can be more than one octave) →  students should primarily consider the mood they want to bring out in their chosen film. Music students who know about traditional music scales should avoid using this knowledge and use their intuition to find what they think sounds appropriate
2. Students are to explore samples in Sonic Pi and experiment using them in their music
3. Students should aim to get at-least three sounds layered on-top of one another by the end of the lesson

Suggested links and resources to facilitate activities:

• Hans Zimmer – Time (Inception) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxabLA7UQ9k

• Brian Eno – Ambient 1: Music for Airports https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNwYtllyt3Q&t=0s → you can code the same music system in Sonic Pi using the same notes (F4, Ab4, C5, Dd5, Eb5, F5, Ab5).  The musical system in Brian Eno’s piece was recorded with tape machines playing at different speeds. The same idea can be achieved easily in Sonic Pi through using different values for sleep within each loop

• There is a fantastic visualisation of Brina Eno’s music system in this link under the subheading “Music for Airports” https://teropa.info/blog/2016/07/28/javascript-systems-music.html

Notes to the Students:

• The overlapping of single notes is how modern Western harmony started → in churches, the natural reverberation and would cause sung notes of Gregorian chants to overlap and dovetail resulting in harmonic consonance and dissonance; composers eventually started to use this idea in their compositions as chords

Student Activity (10 minutes):

1. Students have 2 minutes to think of what to say and who is going to go first (these will be conducted every lesson)
2. You will be completing a reflection diary at the end of each lesson and you can use the information they report in their stand-ups

Notes to the student:

• It is not necessary to ‘stand-up’ but it can help to make these sessions brief in order to ‘check-in’ and share

Student Activity (10 minutes):

• Students individually complete the quiz and reflection on the key concepts in this lesson within 10 minutes linked here.

Contact info

petriechris@gmail.com 

Credits

Developed by Chris Petrie.

Last updated on

27/06/2018

Copyright info

The content of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License, and code samples are licensed under the Apache 2.0 License.