Notes for Student and Teacher members – ICT Programs(Details below accurate as of October 2007) RESEARCH and LISTENING 50 stick characters (The Dums) demonstrate short phrases/scales solo – or within ensembles which can be controlled to some extent by the conductor (child/teacher). Useful for learning about different instruments and ensembles with good sound quality. Brass Quartet Percussion Band Pop Band Brass Band Vocal Quartet String Quartet Guitar Ensemble Swing Band Orchestra Recorder Consort Less euro-centric focus.
West African vocals West African instrumental Indian Raga Australian Javanese Gamelan Caribbean - Steel Band Andean Bluegrass Macedonian
LMP Listening Links (10 p.a. + initial £5 sign up fee.)www.LMPi.co.uk This site is part of the LMP website to support the generalist primary teacher. Based in Leicestershire. There are many freebies including schemes, policy writing software and details of freeware and support notes for music technology. The listening links include around 200 links to music to support all aspects of the primary curriculum, music and other, including QCA, Musical Elements and general classroom topics. OXJAM Part of Oxfam site – free lesson plans raising awareness of global music with lesson plans containing sound clips, video, songs, etc. http://www.oxfam.org.uk/education/resources/global_music_lesson_plans/ New York Philharmonic Kids http://www.nyphilkids.org/main.phtml A free site with opportunities to listen to and learn about musicians and orchestral instruments, make your own instruments, play games. LOOP- BASED PROGRAMSSimple – loop-based program
Pictures represent short phrases
Tasks with children might include considering a good start – middle – and end
Sounds are quite primitive
Good bank of alternative styles – however probably not useful to learn about style – but rather to use them
Basic operations – including opportunities to modify playback (Dynamics/Tempo/Structure (loop), and change instrument (timbre)
Compose World Play (from £28 – newer version)<!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--><!--[endif]--> Ability to amend tracks further – adding percussion tracks, layering (Texture), extend pieces (Structure), and also view as piano roll or traditional notation (Western). Sony - Super Duper Music Looper (around £14.99)Flash demo: http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/products/sdml/sdml.asp
A very easy to use loop based program – where tracks are ‘painted’ in. Loads of samples and sound effects – make this a very accessible piece of software.
Children/Adults wanting to go much further might like to try out Acid Xpress – freeware, and download loops from the internet for free. eJay(Widely available – e.g. from PC World – expect to pay up to £20. Cheap offers on eBay.
Free trial version: http://hiphop-ejay.en.softonic.com/
Dance eJay is probably the safest in terms of language.
A very exciting loop-based and d-jaying program with ‘building blocks’ of sound. Very easy to use – but with careful intervention an excellent method for understanding and appreciating texture and structure in popular music forms (Dance, Hip-Hop, Techno...) RHYTHM GRIDS/DRUM MACHINESVarious programs exist for creating rhythm grids or drum machines. These programs offer excellent ways to create, edit and play along to rhythm layers – and are also very useful for teachers who feel anxious about their own sense of beat for leading a music session on beat/rhythm. - 2Beat is one of 6 programs in the 2Simple Music Toolkit (2simple software). It allows 4 tracks of between 8 to 32 subdivisions of the beat. The layout is extremely user-friendly and should appeal to younger children. The sounds are fairly basic (midi) so may not be so appealing to older children. However – the simple design can be used in a variety of teaching and learning contexts.
- Rhythm Maker is produced by ESP (http://www.espmusic.co.uk/) and offers much more authentic sounds as well as the opportunity to create rhythm breaks. Children can create rhythms of 16 subdivisions of the beat – and up to 50 tracks, although the screen might get a bit crowded – so the standard 10 default is probably more than enough.
- BBC Making Tracks `Beat Machine'. A drag and drop program with facility for creating rhythm loops using percussion sounds. Similar to above – but free.
- Hammerhead www.threechords.com You may need to ‘google’ Hammerhead to download from alternative source. (Be wary of Three Chords site which has some dubious links). Each track of this program is set on a separate channel – which can be confusing. However – the sounds are much more authentic and ‘cool’ than the previous programs – especially played loud through decent amplification systems. There are more complex options (read the Help files) for creating fills, importing your own sounds and streaming to disc as audio – for subsequent burning to your first ever platinum-selling CD.
AUDIO-RECORDINGSound Recorder (Free) The program 'Sound Recorder' (PCs only) can be utilised with a simple microphone to record up to 60 seconds of sound. This program is already installed on PCs and laptops. The program can be used for simple recording of high quality; pupil appraisal (for instance their singing, compositions) or sounds can be changed under the 'Effects' drop down menu. This is a very simple program to use, and a good starting point for teacher technophobes. By combining files (use 'mix file' under the Edit drop down menu) different sounds can be combined to produce simple sound stories. Find Sound Recorder' by clicking on: 'Start' then 'Programs' then 'Accessories' then 'Entertainment' and finally 'Sound Recorder'. Latest News: The latest version of this program on Vista doesn’t have any of the editing facilities which make it ideal in primary education. Copy and paste from older versions of Windows. Search/Find by name ‘sndrec32’ (usually in Windows or System32 folders).
Audacity Audacity is free off the internet at http://audacity.sourceforge.net A simple to use (but very powerful) audio-editing program - much more advanced than the PCs 'Sound Recorder', and with lots of extras (CD quality recording, fantastic mixing facilities, lengthy recording time, loads of editing effects).
KARAOKE ‘VanBasco’s Karaoke Player’http://www.vanbasco.com/ What may appear at first glance to be a simple player with poor sounds – is actually a powerful program especially for teachers with some formal music background. Import to a sequence program such as Cubase, to arrange parts. Use virtual keyboard to learn parts. Use Arranger to listen to parts. Search the net for songs – e.g. for project work.
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