"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 Chords". In this module, we will begin exploring musical scales and how they can be used to build both chords and chord progressions. Chords play a crucial role in music by providing harmonic support and structure, shaping the emotional tone, and creating rhythmic momentum. Chord progressions guide the flow of music through tension and release, while different types of chords evoke various emotional responses.
Unlike melodies, chord progressions are not subject to copyright, meaning that the same progressions can be found repeated throughout music history.
For your assignment this week, we would like you to review the documents found on the course website and then explore the chord progressions in the Snap*!* program linked below. Once you have a chord progression you like, add drum tracks to create a full rhythm section. In subsequent modules, we will explore crafting melodies and harmonies to accompany these tracks.
These are some of the most common chord progressions found in contemporary popular music. (All examples provided here are in the key of C, so you don't have to worry about sharps or flats. However, if you would like to try a different key, simply switch to a different starting chord and keep the same intervals between the chords in the progression.)
The video below offers an explanation of why each chord progression in the program above works well and provides several examples of each progression being used across different musical genres.
Here is my week 7 project on chord progressions. I went ahead and added a set of drum tracks behind my chords that are based on the major C, G, Am, F notes. I started with the chords played on the piano and then had them backed with the same chords on the bass guitar and violin. I am curious if there is an easier way to have these whole 4 measures of music to repeat. For example, if I wanted to create a song with this as the background, would I have to write its out measure by measure? When I use the repeat block it plays it all at once. Link!
This is my week 7 project: Snap! Build Your Own Blocks. I used the same piece I made last week, but changed the backing to chords. They aren't the exact same notes as last time since I wanted to look into chord patterns/progressions (specifically 4-note ones). I like it so far, but I want to play around with some other instruments to build on the forest-y vibe I'm building. I'm curious if it's possible to add rests to the track at all?
I love the way yours sounds! The chords flow so well together, and I love the build up of backed instruments. I think in class we talked about how it can't be looped forever and you'd have to manually put in repeats, but I could be wrong!
For this week assignment I'm working on creating a sound like The Doobie Brothers' song, Listen to the Music. I'm having trouble getting them to play as separate sounds to produce a composition.
I used the chord progression from the main theme of a video game I am fond of "To the Moon". I added a simple drum beat even though the original song is a piano solo. I am experimenting with shifting octaves between sections of the songs and enjoy it so far.Week 7 Assignment
Here is my week 7 assignment. I like the chord progressions I made, but I think I could try and step out of the box with some more unique ones, or some other background instruments. Snap! Build Your Own Blocks
I started creating a melody with a chord progression I liked in the key of D. Melody is definitely unfinished but the chord progression followed the structure of many popular songs. Snap! Build Your Own Blocks
Hello this is my week 7 project here. I was trying to create a kind of suspense effect with the rhythms I used and sliding down and back up in octaves.