Chateauguay Valley Regional High School
1597 Route 138A
Ormstown, Quebec
J0S1H0
(450) 829-2381
MUSIC DEPARTMENT
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to request an appointment**
Challenge #6:
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The Activity:
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Chrome Music Lab is a website that makes learning music more accessible through fun, hands-on experiments.
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Chrome Music Lab can be used to compose your own songs.
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You do not need an account – just open the Song Maker section and starting creating music!
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Chrome Music Lab offers many pre-made experiments – however, for this Challenge, we are going to focus on writing a simple melody.
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Your task is to compose a four-bar melody which begins on “C” and ends on “C”.
Material Needed:
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Pencil or Pen
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Paper
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Computer with Internet access
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Your Imagination!
Instructions:
STEP 1:
Open Chrome Lab Song Maker
https://musiclab.chromeexperiments.com/Song-Maker/
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STEP 2: Find the Following Features...
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Tempo (the speed of your song)
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Marimba (the default setting for the melody of your song)
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Electronic (the default setting for the rhythm of your song)
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Settings (this is where you can customize certain features of your song)
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Undo (this will remove the last thing you added to your song)
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Save (very important once you have completed your song!)
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STEP 3: Explore some of the features
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Change the tempo of your song (will it be fast or will it be slow?)
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Change the instrument which will play your melody
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Change the instrument which will play your rhythm
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STEP 4: Select your features.
Since this challenge is focused on writing a melody, we will only select 2 features:
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Select your tempo.
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Select your melody instrument.
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STEP 5: Change your scale to PENTATONIC
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Go to Settings
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In the drop down menu where it says “Scale” select the word “Pentatonic”.
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This will change the default from “Major Scale” to “Pentatonic Scale”.
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In a Pentatonic Scale, there are only 5 notes…C (Doh), D (Re), E (Mi), G (Sol) and A (La).
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You are also going to change how the beats are split (sub-division of the beat).
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Change “Split Beats Into” from “2” to “1”.
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These changes will make things easier for you as this is your first composition!
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Click on the BIG BLUE CHECK SIGN!! This will save your selections and bring you back to the main screen in Song Maker.
Step 6: Now you are ready to start composing!
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Once you are back in Song Maker, you will see four measures (or bars).
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That is four groups of four beats.
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These bars are broken into white and grey sections so that it is easy to tell them apart…they are like our bar lines.
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Each beat is worth one quarter note…so that means we are in 4/4 time (4 quarter notes in each bar).
Each note is colour-coded!
Your task is to compose a four-bar melody which begins on “C” and ends on “C”.
You can compose directly into Chrome Lab…or you can take a moment to write down some ideas. REMEMBER TO BEGIN AND END ON “C”.
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Due to the fact that we selected Pentatonic Scale, you will only have the option of using C, D, E, G & A.
Here are two simple compositional tools you can use when creating a simple melody:
1. Use step-wise motion or small intervals.
If your melody jumps all over the scale, it may sound disjointed.
(NOTE: You may like the sound of a disjointed melody…but for the purposes of this exercise, I would suggest resisting the urge to do this!)
Here is an example of a disjointed melody:
Here is an example of a melody which uses mostly step-wise motion:
Here is an example of a melody using step-wise motion and small intervals:
2. Use repetition!
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Many well-known songs use REPETITION.
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You can use some repeated notes.
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You can use patterns which repeat.
Here are two examples:
EXAMPLE 1: JINGLE BELLS
You will notice that Jingle Bells uses a lot of repetition. The note “E” is repeated quite a few times.
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EXAMPLE 2: HAPPY BIRTHDAY
You will notice that Happy Birthday uses a repeated pattern.
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When you use repetition in your composition,
it builds in a sense of predictability for the listener and makes it easier to remember.
This is key when writing a melody!
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Now it is your turn!
Start by creating your melody - starting on "C"...and ending on "C".
STEP 7: Transfer your melody to Song Maker.
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Listen to your melody.
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Make changes until you are happy with your melody.
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STEP 8: Save your melody
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Click on the “Save” button.
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It is up to you how you save your melody.
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You can copy the link.
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You can share it to social media.
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You can download either a midi or wav version of your melody.
STEP 9: Create a second part for your song!
Now that you know how to compose a melody using Song Maker, there is no end to what you can create!
Let your imagination run wild!
Here is a video which further explains this Challenge!