T8 Magic!
(Originally posted on the Musical Futures Blog Page)
I am a full time Music Teacher in an Intermediate School. New Zealand has a rather unique schooling system where most Year 7 and 8 students attend an Intermediate School for 2 years before High School.
It’s a chance to offer up a smorgasbord of learning experiences and opportunities to our pre-teens.
I am grateful to have found a home at Te Kura Waenga o Tirohanga/Monrad Intermediate where I can offer many different musical flavours without the pressure of exams or a restrictive curriculum.
In 2024 I attended a Musical Futures workshop in Auckland where Chris Koelma introduced us to the capabilities of the Roland T8 rhythm sequencer.
You’ll also know that not every student you have is going to be hit by the same creativity firework that I was, but trust me, some will, and the Explore, Re-create, Create model works perfectly with these devices and I have used this to guide my 6 week lesson plan which you can access here
Explore- It’s important to allow time at the start (so that the boys can turn everything up to 11). All they really need to know is how to turn the device on, where the headphones go, how to clear a pattern to start from scratch, and really importantly, how turning the device off and on just resets it, so that they can feel free to explore without making permanent changes. A common question was “is there anything we can’t press?” and at this stage, the answer is no.
Saving patterns on the device is possible but requires a specific and deliberate sequence of keystrokes.
Some of your students would be happy to stay in explore mode for hours. Many others though will quickly run out of exploring steam and will be looking for some structure and instruction. You’ll know yourself when it’s time to move on to recreating.
Recreate- Students get a real feeling of achievement when they are able to replicate a well known beat. The instructional videos at https://www.youtube.com/@electronicmusicpedagogy are an excellent, easy to follow resource that will allow students to choose a favourite song and work at their own pace.
I’ve created a QR code menu for 3 of these for ease of access.
In this video you will see students in my Digital Music Class working recreating a beat using those instructional videos. Some are choosing to pause the videos every few seconds. Others have slowed the playback down. Note that none are particularly fazed about operating 2 devices at once or using headphones and the chromebook’s speaker at the same time. Nor are they bothered by all the other sound in the room.
In the second part of the video you’ll see DJ Pears (not her real name) demonstrating what can be achieved after just a few x 1 hour classes.
Pears has planned and rehearsed every sequence and modulation in this performance and has written some cues down on the card in front of her.
Her start point, as I’m sure you’ll have noticed, was that iconic Shake It Off drum loop.
Where she goes from there is all her own. DJ Pears learned to take the Shake It Off beat and manipulate it, add new basslines, fills and effects all in real time-as a performance.
She performed to a very enthusiastic school assembly a few days later.
Next term, I’ll be taking our 10 X T8s across town to another school. I’ll run the intro lesson with them and leave the set there for the next 6-8 Weeks in what I’m hoping will turn into a reciprocal arrangement between the 2 schools.
I’m very keen to hear from other teachers who have been using the Aira T8s in classes about your experiences and how you have used them. Feel free to contact me directly jclark@monrad.school.nz if you’d like to share your experiences or start a discussion. Collaboration is key!