Lecture
Today we played James Humberstones’ mixed classroom ensemble arrangement of ‘Music for a Found Harmonium.’ We used xylophones and guitars mainly. His arrangement has four patterns and we played these in Rondo form.
Humberstone demonstrated how one activity can be integrated into a number of different syllabus topics and stages. For example, this piece fits into twentieth century music, music of a culture, music for large ensembles and music for small ensembles. Its basically in a minimalist style and has four parts: Melody; Drone; Bass and Drums. The various parts vary in difficulty, which makes it very useful as an inclusive piece. For instance the drone part is simple and could be appropriate for a student with high learning needs. The melody and Bass parts are more challenging, especially at faster tempos!
Tutorial
In the tutorial we learned how to edit the above mentioned piece we performed in the lecture. Humberstone had recorded it using a USB microphone (which does not require an interface when recording onto a laptop). He then magically sent it to all the computers in the labs for us to edit. We used GarageBand for this and experimented with fazing in and out, E.Q and effects. After this, we learned about a more advanced software program called Protools. One of the class members gave a good introduction to it, having a background in music technology.
