For the second year in a row, I have conducted a special music program for our 5th graders at Munkekærskolen, where the students collaborate to code and build a 2-player musical instrument.
Along the way, they learn to program with Scratch and gain a new understanding of music theory, including notes, chords, tempo, and, not least, ensemble playing.
You can't do that - You're cheating
As an introduction to the program, we always start by giving the students a demo of what they will be doing over the next few weeks. The music teacher and I first play on the computer, showing the students that we can play using the keyboard. Then, we show the same on an instrument we built ourselves, playing the theme from the Danish song “Midt om natten” together.
Almost every time, there have been some students in each class who don’t believe that the sounds are activated using aluminum foil and metal buttons on our homemade instrument, even though we stand a few meters away from the computer, and they can both see and hear that something only happens when we press the buttons on the instrument.
And then the magic happens when they try it themselves. It is very inspiring to see the students’ enthusiasm when they realize that they have full control over what happens.
The program runs over 3 weeks with 2 lessons per session
The students work in pairs. The first session refreshes the students’ knowledge of the programming language Scratch* – we review the most basic things about their free account, the program, and the special extension that allows them to program music and choose instruments. They also get a quick introduction to the MakeyMakey technology, which they will use later.
The second session is when they start programming the melody for the theme from “Midt om natten,” where they choose an instrument sound and program the correct three notes. They also build a 2-player musical instrument out of recycled materials and conductive bits for buttons. They can fold buttons out of aluminum foil, use metal pieces, or draw buttons – there are many possibilities.
The final session involves expanding the project with two chords, and then connecting their instrument to MakeyMakey. Each group practices the theme together, and finally, the whole class plays together.
What do the students get out of it?
The students work with music-related concepts in a new way, making something that might have been abstract for some suddenly very concrete when it has to be programmed. They discover, for example, that notes can last for different beats, or that it makes a difference to keep the same tempo when playing together for it to sound good.
The program also heavily emphasizes collaboration, and along the way, they gain knowledge about circuits used when building their musical instruments.
Knowledge of programming is the smallest part, but if some students in the class already know quite a bit about it, they can expand their project with animations on the screen. This way, the task can be easily differentiated.
*The students encounter Scratch multiple times during their school years
At Munkekærskolen, we run several educational programs across different subjects and grades using Scratch as a tool. In the early years, we use the free app ScratchJr, and from 3rd grade onwards, it’s about Scratch.
See it in action
You can visit the Youtube channel for our school: Munkekærskolen and choose the playlist for PLC where you can see videoes from the last two times with the program.
