The main idea behind this activity is to use Ableton’s visual notation as an intermediary between a student’s aural conception of their beat and a code representation. Using the Ableton interface allows students to separate the beat-making process from the actual coding. Students should deepen the connection between code and the sounds that code produces. This week, we will introduce the Ableton interface to students to make a simple one-bar beat, and next week the students will be converting the beats they made into TunePad code. In later lessons, students will learn about how to better structure their beats and add variations.

Learning Goals

After completing this activity, students should feel relatively comfortable:

• Practice debugging skills for basic syntax errors to reinforce basic coding skills

• Give students opportunity to come up with their own drum beat and share it

• Build a greater intuition about rhythmic values

Activity Overview

1. Warm-up (~5 min)

2. Review: Mystery Melody (15 min)

   • Discuss identifying errors and review syntax

3. Demo: Introduce Ableton (5 min)

   • Demo creating simple beat

   • Point out beats and subdivisions (relate back to TunePad)

   • Point out instrument labels (relate back to TunePad)

4. Activity: Create beat in Ableton (15 min)

   • Optional - Screenshot beat made in Ableton and add to Jam Session project for next week

     1. The beat should be saved in the browser (but this isn’t guaranteed)

   • Will be coding in TunePad the following week

5. Share (~10 min)

   • Listen to everyone’s Ableton beat

   • Creative Challenge: add a kick drum to the Mystery Melody

N.B. there’s some flex/buffer time to allow for introducing activities, login, and/or potential slowdowns. Take these timings as recommendations and use your own judgement

Guides for Screenshotting:

• Chrome Book

• Windows

• Mac

• iPad

Activity Details

Warm-Up Discussion (5-10 min)

Try to ground discussions in whatever is relatable for the students in your group. A few ideas are provided below but feel free to come up with your own variations on the same theme.

• Strongly recommended: Greet them with enthusiasm, ask about their day, and then take one of the avenues below or whatever you feel is appropriate. Some potential ways to start off:

• NOTE: Don’t spend too much time on “icebreaker” activities after you talk to them about their day unless the icebreaker directly ties to the activity. Not only are these usually super contrived and shallow, but they also take away from the very limited time we have to genuinely build rapport and help students learn.

Presentation

Instruction 0: Login to TunePad + Send Mystery Melody (~5 min)

Make sure everyone gets logged into their accounts and troubleshoot as needed. If people are having login issues, make a note to inform someone from the dev team after the session. Make sure to share your screen so students who are unable to login can at least follow along with what is happening. Also be sure to send the Mystery Melody link to the students and have them remix the project.

Instruction 1: Introduce Mystery Melody (~3 min)

Explain to the students what the activity will be about and feel free to give them a quick demo by fixing one of the errors (don’t fix them all!). Let them know that they should call out for help if they forget something about playNote.

Instruction 2: Complete Mystery Melody (10 min)

Let the students spend some time working through the syntax errors and check in periodically to make sure they are making progress. You could also call out and ask students to share errors they’ve found and you could live-correct them on the screen.

Instruction 3: Introduce and Demo Ableton (5 min)

Show the students the Ableton UI and specifically draw their attention to the piano roll interface. Focus on the “Beats” section and explain the piano roll (i.e. the grid) to them. Be sure to mention that the grid represents one bars (4 beats) and that each grid cell is a sixteenth note. Show them the BPM slider at the top of this section to let them know they can make a beat of any speed they want. The Ableton interface also has a click-and-drag functionality whereby you can click on a cell and then drag horizontally to fill adjacent cells so that you don’t have to click on the boxes individually.

Instruction 4: Build Beat in Ableton (10 min)

This is pure experimentation time. Let them run wild and be sure to check in and answer any questions. The piano roll is an ingenious interface found in every industry-grade DAW because of its ease of use so they should have a good time. That being said, remember to be patient and encouraging in case there are hiccups. You can also let them know that they’ll be learning how to convert their beat from Ableton to TunePad in the coming activities!

*OPTIONAL* Instruction 5: Screenshot Beats(5 min)

If you have time, screenshot students’ beats so that you can place them in the jam session activity for next week in which they will convert their Ableton creations into TunePad ones!

Instruction 6: Share & Reflect (~5-10 min)

If there is time remaining and everyone has been able to make a simple 1 bar pattern using Ableton, have people share and talk through their beat if they are comfortable doing so.

Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting

• Issue: “name ___ is not defined on line ___”

  • Check: Check that the spelling of the argument to playNote is correct

  • Check: Check that any definitions or variables that are used in that line are spelled correctly and defined as needed in the code cell that should be at the top of the file

• Issue: “Unable to import ___”

  • Check: That they renamed their code cell at the top to “beats” and used from beats import * at the beginning of their drum cells

• Issue: “bad input on line __”

  • Check: if line is last line of cell, playNote is likely missing closing parenthesis

  • Check: otherwise, arguments to playNote could be missing comma in between

• Issue: “Error on line ___”

  • Check: They have copied the code exactly and they aren’t leaving any spaces/tabs between or before words in a function, misspelling words, writing in lowercase where they should be writing uppercase or vice versa. Check that code is on its own line (e.g. playNote is used once per line). Nothing like “playNote(0) playNote(0)” in one line

• Issue: Clicking play on the cell but no sound

  • Check: Make sure the number entered inside “playNote” is a valid number (i.e. it corresponds to one of the TunePad drum sounds)

  • Solution: Refresh the page and try again.

• Issue: Logging into TunePad account problems

  • Check: Have them share screen and confirm that they are typing in the correct username and password

  • Workaround: If enough people can’t log in, have a coach share their screen and do the activity as a group on that person’s computer. Use the chat to vote on what genre and which patterns to use