Music High School (9-12) Digital Learning Activities



Music-Technology Song Maker

Students will create a song using the Chrome Music Lab's "Song Maker" experiment.

Task 1: Navigate to the Music Lab website and click the very first experiment called "Song Maker." Once there, you will see boxes that, when clicked, change color and make a sound - this will be our melody. Below the boxes are small circles that will sound like drums when clicked.
Task 2: To get started, click a few boxes and a few circles. You will notice that all of the boxes are different colors and some are higher/lower pitched. Once you've done this, click play in the bottom left corner. See how it sounds and adjust it if you would like. To "undo" a melody note or drum sound just click the box or circle again, press undo, or press "restart" at the top to erase everything and start over.
Task 3: Clicking the instruments at the bottom (next to play button) will change the sounds that boxes and circles make.
Task 4: Try a few different versions until you are happy with how it sounds. Once you are finished, press "save" in the bottom right corner, copy the link, and post!

Notes for teachers

1. This is a very basic activity, change whatever you would like to suit your students best.
2. It will help if you create a song first and post with the assignment for students to model.
3. This may be ambitious for younger students. The default setting is a 4 measure song and the scale used is a major scale. If you would like to make it simpler, you will need to go to the website on your own, click "settings" at the bottom and adjust accordingly. For younger/beginner students, you can use a 2 measure song using the pentatonic scale. Once you've done this, you need create a song, save it, and have students use that specific link to go to the website. This will save the settings so students do not have to change anything.
4. For advanced/older students, you can have them change the scale to chromatic and they can technically create any song they would like, although it is difficult without having note names for reference.
5. Please get in contact with me if you have any questions! - Anthony Nigro (annigro@philasd.org)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/19SrgIG7yxAE_GyxZPtcnRb8XRflQ68h3WcW_6PU8OmI/edit?usp=sharing

https://musiclab.chromeexperiments.com/

Johann Sebastian Bach

Students will learn about Johann Sebastian Bach.


Task 1: Listen to/watch the story of JS Bach, the fugue, and ten facts about Bach.
Task 2: Listen to or watch Movement 1 of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto # 2
Task 3: Use this guide to identify instruments, tempo, melody, and rhythm as you listen.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ujqubYADkDYaHqH6rqEImtr34BJ9a-X53zzDNR8rZhw/edit?usp=sharing