“Creating Art & Music” is an introductory course designed to introduce creative activities in the context of art and music. Thus far the course has been taught at the middle school, high school, community college, and university level (with appropriate adaptations for each level). Each week this fall, students in the course are posting their projects in this strand of the Snap! forum. Here’s a link to the course materials:
This week’s module is titled “Musical Notes & Scales”. A scale is a simple way to organize musical notes that sound pleasing when played in sequence. For example, The most common scale, like the “do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, do” from The Sound of Music, is called a major scale. In this module, we will explore three different scales commonly found in Western music. We will build off of the last modules discussion to show how scales can be used to create more complex chords and then discuss methods of constructing melodies that match the chord progression you created in the last module.
For your assignment this week, we would like you to build a melody to match your chords from last week’s assignment. The melody should be playable using the Play Tracks block. (Remember: The block works best if the melody is the first track entered.) If you’re feeling ambitions, feel free to also create a harmony or a bass track.
I tried making the melody with a piano track, differentiating the sounds by having the melody on a higher octave. Even then, I found it difficult to separate the sounds of chords versus melody. Ultimately, I ended up just playing around with notes and instruments until I found something semi-listenable.
Here is my melody based off of the chords I created for module 7. I tried to add drums to the track but for some reason you can’t hear them, so if anyone has any idea how to fix this let me know! I really like how the chord and melody sound together, I was going to loop the sound a few times but I kind of like it better on its own - short and sweet!
Here is my project for this week. I started by moving around my chords a little since I wanted to make sure I had at least 8 measures. Then I built a melody around the chords and scales and playing around with different note arrangements and instruments to see what sounded the best. Then I added a simple bass-line with a tuba. I found an interesting bug while testing where if the tempo is set to 140 bpm, for some reason the play tracks block will go out of sync, especially following a measure of all eighth notes.
For this project I built off the initial chord progression I created by adding a melody track to it. I started by removing the drum tracks and then replaced them with a 4-measure long melody. After some experimentation, I decided to use the bassoon as my instrument for the melody track and ended up really liking it! The final result is a unique mixture of the piano and bassoon. My project: Melody/Chord Project
For this week, I created my melody based on last week’s chord progression. I decided to take it in a new direction and experiment more instead of trying to replicate “Ode to the Mets” by The Strokes. I also tried adding a bass track, but it ended up clashing with the melody, so I decided to drop that idea.
This piece is an extension from Module 7. It started with four measures using the I–V–vi–IV to ii–V–I chord progression, and I built a melody around those chords using the piano, trumpet, and flute. I added a cello bass line and a violin harmony to give the song more depth and texture, then expanded it to eight measures to make it feel more complete.
I apologize for the late post, but here is my project. It needs some improvement and I am open to all suggestions. I was most worried about the chords not fitting in some spots. This is built off a military song (jody) called yellow ribbon. Here is my project: Snap! Build Your Own Blocks
Snap! Build Your Own Blocks I’m sorry for the late post! Here’s my melody and chords for this week. I want to add drums to this because I think some sort of beat would round this out well, but I haven’t gotten there yet. I played around with different instruments, and found I liked the electric bass with the flute the best for this melody!
I fixed my melody from last week because I realized that I had left all measures in the first chord and didn’t change the notes to match the chord progression. I also added a bass line with a tuba track. I was going for something short and upbeat.
I love your beat! I like how the overall melody seems to get a little higher pitched at the end while keeping the same tune. I think the drum pattern you added in the middle is also a really nice touch to bring it all together!
Here is my updated code! I got inspired by a few other students to add a really subtle drum in the background. Its not super noticeable, but I like how it adds a little more oomph to the melody!
Hey! I really like how this is built off of an existing song! I notice that the piano chords don’t perfectly line up in some spots and I’m not exactly sure how to fix it either– I was having a similar problem. Let me know if you figure out how to fix it!
This is great! The electric bass and flute are a really interesting mix. You kept the tempo a little slower and used quarter and half notes, which I think really effectively foregrounds those two instruments. It’s a satisfying sound, and I really like what you ended up with. Awesome job!
I really like where you took this project. I can definitely see where you derived your inspiration from and I think you honored the song nicely. The use of the piano and guitar tracks really pair well. Your choice of chords is great too. Awesome job!