The Effects Of Music Project

A group of students working with Mr K were doing some musical exploration yesterday. We made some nice links between our My Voice Is Powerful theme for this year, where we can explore the arts in our world as a way to express ourselves, as well as our key competency focus on Managing Self. In this area, we have been working on making thoughtful and responsible decisions. The day-long project was also an opportunity for us to learn a little about the science of musical instruments and how they create different sounds.

We began the day by doing a variation of the well known 'Take a line for a walk' art activity. We listened to Stayin' Alive by The Bee Gees and simply let our hand do what it wanted as it moved across the page during the song. As the music speed up, slowed down, changed pitch, etc, we made different movements with our markers.

We then chose 3 colours that we thought fit with the song. Mr K modelled how to blend the 3 colours underneath our lines, then we each completed our own piece. There is no right or wrong, we were simply wanting to show how we all hear and interpret music differently, which adds to our uniqueness.







A discussion about songs we like followed, including what we think makes a good song. Some ideas were:
- They remind us of someone (Levi)
- They are catchy (Zeke)
- They have interesting sounds, like bass-drops (Brady)
- They have a good beat for dancing (Xaria)

We also brainstormed why people even listen to music. A few of the reasons we thought of were:
- To be calm and relaxed
- To make us happier
- For dancing
- To help get to sleep
- To motivate and uplift us (like for a big game)

We set up a music circle with instruments in the middle. Mr K selected groups of us to come up and use the percussion instruments to try and create good sounds together. There were also a couple of pitched instruments, like a xylophone and a guitar. Everyone had a turn at being in our band.

In the middle session, we had a look at GarageBand on the iPads. We played a song together over the top of a looped drum beat, where we were split into strings arrangements based on our hapu. We also learned how to lay different tracks over each other, both made electronically through the app and recorded with the microphone.

The next step was to choose one of the reasons we came up with for why people listen to music (to help sleep, for dancing, etc) and for the rest of the day, we spent time creating our own music for that purpose. For example, Zeke worked on a piece of electronic music to make people happier and improve their mood.

We had a fun sharing session at the end of the day. It was wonderful to see how different each song was, as well as the variety of ways they were put together. Hanlin utilised his voice, while Levi recorded himself playing all instruments in his creation. We have some final touches to make, but check out our individual blogs soon to listen to our songs and our experiences from the day.



A number of us would also like to start a lunchtime music club in Koru 1, where we can work on some of our own music. Definitely something for us to discuss as a class!