Teaching Music Through Composition

Introductory material Introduction to Music Composition 1. Tour of the Software for Music Creation (a) Lesson: Creating Software Instrument Track (b) Lesson: Tour of the Loops Library 2. Using Loops (a) Lesson: Creating Melodies with Loops (b) Lesson: Understanding Song (AB) Form (c) Lesson/Project: Creating a Piece Using the Software's Prerecorded Loops in AB Song Form 3. Recording Drum Tracks (a) Lesson: Understanding Rhythmic Notation with Rhythm States (b) Lesson: Reading Graphic Rhythms with Rhythm States (c) Lesson: Rhythm Dictations (d) Lesson: Drum Beats 4. Composing Drum & Percussion Beats (a) Lesson/Project: Composing Drum & Percussion Beats 5. Writing Melodies (a) Lesson: Understanding the Piano Keyboard (b) Lesson: Melodic Dictations (c) Lesson: Evaluating Melodies (d) Lesson: Composing a Melody in D Dorian 6. Melodic Variations Using Rhythmic Alterations (a) Lesson: Melodic Fragments, Rhythmic Augmentation, And Rhythmic Diminution 7. Creating More Variations (a) Lesson: Manually Changing the Pitch Level of Regions 8. Composing with Original Regions (a) Lesson/Project: D Melody Piece in Modified Sonata Allegro Form 9. The Sound FX Piece (a) Lesson: The Sound FX Piece: How Ideas Evolve Over Time (b) Lesson: The Sound FX Project: Creating Two Dimensional Sound Image & Creating Sonic Space (c) Lesson: Using Reverb to Create Three Dimensional Space 10. Basic Keyboard Theory (a) Lesson: Whole & Half steps (b) Lesson: Generic Intervals Lesson Plan (c) Lesson: Basic Keyboard Theory: Understanding Major Scales 11. MIDI Remix (a) Lesson Plan: Analyzing a Remix 1 (b) Lesson Plan: Analyzing a Remix 2 (c) Lesson Plan: MIDI Remix 12. More Rhythms (a) Lesson Plan: More Rhythms (b) Rhythmic Improvisation 13. Dictations (a) Lesson Plan: Melodic Dictations 14. Melody Writing Drills (a) Creating Melodic Motives Lesson Plan (b) Lesson Plan: Motive Variations (c) Lesson Plan: Motive in Sequence (d) Lesson Plan: Improvising Melodies 15. More Melody Writing Drills (a) Lesson Plan: Compose to a Given Rhythm (Rhythmic Continuity) 16. Melody Forms (a) Lesson Plan: Question & Answer (b) Lesson Plan: AB Tonic/Dominant (c) Lesson Plan: Rondo 17. The Ringtone Project (a) Lesson Plan: The Ringtone Project 18. More Basic Keyboard Theory (a) Lesson Plan: Major & Minor Thirds (b) Lesson Plan: Understanding Triad Qualities (c) Lesson Plan: Building Triads on Scale Degrees 19. Chord Progressions (a) Lesson Plan: Basic Chord Progressions (b) Lesson Plan: Twelve Bar Blues (c) Lesson Plan: Given Chord Progressions from the Simple Map (d) Lesson Plan: Common Chord Progressions Not on the Simple Map 20. Accompaniment Patterns (a) Lesson Plan: Accompaniment Patterns 21. Putting it Together (a) Lesson Plan: Composing Four-Measure Melodies (b) Lesson Plan: Drone (c) Lesson Plan: Generic Parallel Intervals (d) Lesson Plan: Counter Melody (e) Lesson Plan: Adding Chords (f) Lesson Plan: Understanding Bass Notes (g) Lesson Plan: Creating a Bass Line Part 1 (h) Lesson Plan: Creating Bass Line Part 2: Root and Fifth (i) Lesson Plan: Adding Drums and Syncing the Bass 22. Melody (a) Lesson Plan: Melodic Non-chord Tones 23. Composing Instrumental Music for Live Performance (a) Lesson Plan: Solo Flute or Violin Piece Project 24. The Art Project: Rondo Form (a) Lesson Plan: The Art Project: Rondo Form 25. Introducing Audio and Audio Editing (a) Lesson Plan: The Speech Project (b) EQ 26. More Advanced Audio (a) Lesson Plan: The Radio Commercial Project (b) Lesson Plan: The Podcast 27. Aural Reporting (a) Lesson Plan: Aural Reporting 28. Music for Video (a) Lesson Plan: Music for Video Appendix Reading Rhythms with Rhythm States Piano Supplement Printed Material Piano Supplement Video Lessons Index