Upper Campus is ROCKING!

The GLOBE Upper Campus

Music Classes

Students at the Upper Campus have accomplished quite a bit in music this year. Through last year's implementation grant, we were able to purchase five iPads to use in our music class. As the students will begin composing their own "theme songs" for the GLOBE SUPERHERO TEAMS during Enrichment Fridays, we used our first few weeks exploring the music composition app, Garage Band.

In our first lesson, students used "smart instruments" to create an 8-bar composition. They recorded a drum beat and then had an opportunity to explore the bass, keyboard, guitar, voice, sound effects, and learned to name and save their work. Many students downloaded the program when they got home ($5.00 on the App Store for iPad/iPhone) and continued to create their own compositions. There are also free online composition programs and apps for those who use Windows.

The next project is to explore the basics of melody, harmony, rhythm, instrumentation, texture, dynamics, and form. We used the Garage Band keyboard to play a C Major scale and build the I, IV, and V triads. They were getting it! We moved into the 12-bar blues form and discussed that as long as the rhythms fit and the harmony matched throughout all the instruments, the possibilities were endless. We played the form as a class on the smart keyboard and then students set off to create their own 12-bar instrumental blues using a variety of instruments. We will spend this week finishing those compositions and sharing with our classmates. I CAN NOT WAIT to hear them!

My hope is that we will be able to apply our basic understanding of chords when we start learning guitar at the Briarcliff location.