Maker Project - create a soundtrack
This “maker” learning experience is ideally designed for students age 14-17, but could be used for almost any student who has basic competency using a web browser. The ability to download and upload a small file is needed for this lesson. The purpose of the activity is to inspire further work and creativity in digital sound editing. This experience is a fun and engaging way to be introduced to audio editing software. Soundtrap is representative of the user interface of more advanced and powerful sound editing programs, and therefore serves as a good “gateway” to these tools. The target time for completing this project is 60-80 minutes. Start the lesson below:
1. Create an account
Your first step is to create an account with the program we are going to use. Please go to the soundtrap website, make your account, and begin a new project from scratch. It is recommended that you use headphones for this project, as you will be making a lot of noise!
Your first step is to create an account with the program we are going to use. Please go to the soundtrap website, make your account, and begin a new project from scratch. It is recommended that you use headphones for this project, as you will be making a lot of noise!
2. Choose a poem to download
Now, listen to each of the poems below, and choose one of them to download.
Sonnett 18 by William Shakespeare
suggested tempo: 70-90
Reader: David Tenant
Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost
suggested tempo: 60-80
Reader: Tom O’Bedlam
Tyger Tyger by William Blake
suggested tempo: 90-110
Reader: youtube user “ESL and Popular Culture”
The Arrow and the Song by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
suggested tempo: 70-100
Reader: unknown
Jabberwocky by Lewis Caroll
suggested tempo – anything!
Reading: Robert Nichol audio productions
3. Add some music loops
Now, you can begin to add loops to your project. Experiment with different combinations and placements as you add music to the entire poem.
Now, you can begin to add loops to your project. Experiment with different combinations and placements as you add music to the entire poem.
4. Save and download
Once you have enough music to cover the whole poem, you can save your file, download it, and import it to itunes. (But first, you may want to experiment with some fun extras below!)
Once you have enough music to cover the whole poem, you can save your file, download it, and import it to itunes. (But first, you may want to experiment with some fun extras below!)
Fun Extras #1
But we don’t have to stop there! We can try a few fun things. You don’t have to leave the original poem recitation the way you found it! If you’d like, you can copy and splice the speaking part to add echo effects or emphasis.
But we don’t have to stop there! We can try a few fun things. You don’t have to leave the original poem recitation the way you found it! If you’d like, you can copy and splice the speaking part to add echo effects or emphasis.
Fun Extras #2
You can also change the tempo and the key. (Try not to change it so much that we can’t understand the words of the poem, though)
You can also change the tempo and the key. (Try not to change it so much that we can’t understand the words of the poem, though)
Reflection questions for student participants
- What do you think the poet of the work you chose wanted the listener to think or feel?
- How did your music choices reflect this? (Or how did they not reflect this?)
Reflection on creating this Maker Project
While I am not new to teaching, and am quite comfortable using most consumer digital tools, I am still fairly new to the world of Ed Tech, and had not encountered the TPACK model before. After spending some time thinking about it, and how it applied to this maker project in particular, I was surprised at how clearly I was able to articulate some of the problems I had been having using Mixcraft at my current school. While I had thought that the program was too complicated, my solution to the issue was to make a ton of “how-to” videos for my students to that when they had common problems, they could watch my tutorial and solve the issue themselves. However, the TPACK model made it clear to me that the problem was actually the tool itself – it matched the content of my learning experiences, but not the pedagogy. Mixcraft is designed for professional-level audio editing and mixing, and is not well suited to address the relatively simple things my students (8th and 9th grade) were utilizing it for – it offered too many options, and they had trouble navigating the program. TPACK has given me a model for how to assess whether or not a particular tool is appropriate for a learning experience, based on the pedagogy and content knowledge I am teaching.
I can think of two variations to this project that would maintain my learning objective, and could incorporate other kind of learning:
While I am not new to teaching, and am quite comfortable using most consumer digital tools, I am still fairly new to the world of Ed Tech, and had not encountered the TPACK model before. After spending some time thinking about it, and how it applied to this maker project in particular, I was surprised at how clearly I was able to articulate some of the problems I had been having using Mixcraft at my current school. While I had thought that the program was too complicated, my solution to the issue was to make a ton of “how-to” videos for my students to that when they had common problems, they could watch my tutorial and solve the issue themselves. However, the TPACK model made it clear to me that the problem was actually the tool itself – it matched the content of my learning experiences, but not the pedagogy. Mixcraft is designed for professional-level audio editing and mixing, and is not well suited to address the relatively simple things my students (8th and 9th grade) were utilizing it for – it offered too many options, and they had trouble navigating the program. TPACK has given me a model for how to assess whether or not a particular tool is appropriate for a learning experience, based on the pedagogy and content knowledge I am teaching.
I can think of two variations to this project that would maintain my learning objective, and could incorporate other kind of learning:
- Student create their own poems and record them before adding musical backgrounds.
This would need quite a bit more time, and would be a collaboration with their Language Arts classes. Carrying their written compositions through the writing, reading, recording, editing, and performing processes would give them even more ownership of their work, and would make use of many different skills. - Students sample everyday sounds and make a musical and rhythmic product.
Here, students could record completely normal sounds like a door closing, footsteps, a cough, or small bits of speech and resample and arrange them in a rhythmic way. This project would need more guidance and more time, but could be a really cool way to help students see that music is not limited to standard instruments. Strategic arrangement of recordings of everyday sounds can turn out to be quite interesting and beautiful.
