Enhancing a Music Theory Textbook with Flash 6 and Sibelius

Steven Estrella, of Shearspire, Inc.

Co-sponsored by McGraw-Hill Higher Education

In May of 2002 I was asked by McGraw-Hill Higher Education to create interactive media for Web delivery to enhance Music First! by Gary White, a music theory text designed for non-music majors. The textbook author and the publisher both requested age-appropriate humor be added to the activities to make them more appealing to students. I worked with the textbook author entirely by e-mail to create interactive media activities for each of the 11 chapters. An interactive glossary of musical terms and a songbook of 66 tunes were also included in the project. The activities were organized to follow the table of contents.

Each activity was created using Macromedia’s Flash MX and the Flash 6 plugin, an interactive media development environment for the Web. The Songbook was created using Sibelius and the Scorch plugin. Today I will demonstrate some of the activities.

[The reader can view these activities online at http://www.mhhe.com/musicfirst]

Glossary

The Glossary of Music Terms is an interactive dictionary that allows students to search for terms by letter name, chapter, or content area. For each term, a list of related terms is created each of which hyperlinks to its own definition.

[ Brief Demo of the Glossary ]

Songbook

The Songbook requires version 2 or later of the Scorch plugin by Sibelius. Each of the 66 songs consists of a melody, chord symbols, and a simple accompaniment. Only the melody and chords are displayed, however, The accompaniment is audible but hidden from view to permit each song to be viewed online in a single screen without page turns. Students may sing along with the music while the score animates to show the current measure and beat. Students may also transpose the music to any comfortable key and thus learn more about their own vocal ranges.

[ Demo America ]

Tapping Activities

Chapters 1, 3, and 4 focus on rhythm and meter. I created a number of activities that require the student to tap in rhythm to learn more about tempo and meter. In chapter 1, the Tap the Tempo activity helps students understand common tempo terms. As students tap along with the music, the software calculates the tempo being tapped and displays it on a continuum. Tempo terms in Italian are translated into the familiar language of coffee (decaf, espresso, etc.) to amuse the students and help them relate their existing life experience to tempo terms in the foreign language of Italian. In chapter 3, the Tapping a Steady Beat activity provides students with a feedback tool that measures student accuracy as the student taps the beat while listening to music. In chapters 3 and 4, students are asked to tap beat numbers in rhythm to improve their understanding of simple and compound meters.

[ demonstrate Tap the Tempo (ch 1) and Tapping a Steady Beat (ch 3) ]

Pattern Matching Activities

Rhythm and pitch pattern matching activities require students to drag notated patterns to match the order or presentation heard in a musical example.

[ Demo Rhythm Pattern Matching from Chapter 2 ]

Keyboard Note Recognition Activities

Two Keyboard Note Reading activities are presented as games where students earn play money (tips for the keyboard player) for correctly identifying notes on the keyboard.

[ Demo Keyboard Note Reading from Chapter 5 ]

Interactive Drill Activities

Topics include simple and compound meters, key signatures, scales, intervals, modes, and chord quality. The key signature identification activities require the student to construct a circle-of-fifths graphic with animation to show enharmonic relationships. The interval recognition drill is presented as an exercise in interplanetary diplomacy. Students secure world peace and universal harmony by improving aural and written communication with an alien race that speaks only in musical intervals. The chord-quality identification activity helps students to visualize the differences among chord types by associating them with four different characters: a military officer for Major, a small child for Minor, a giant for Augmented, and a baby in diapers for Diminished.

[ Demo special version of both interval recognition drills - reward after each correct answer ]

[ Demo chord-quality identification activity ]

Composition and Arranging Activities

The Mixer Activity is a virtual mixing and arranging application that allows students to create a unique music composition. Three melodies, three harmonies, and three bass lines were all composed to work with one another. Students make selections, alter volume and stereo pan, and audition their mixes.

[ Demo Mixer Activity from Chapter 11 ]

The Form Activity helps students to understand common musical forms by allowing them to create new compositions by combining existing blocks of music. Eight different sections of four Haydn dances were used as compositional building blocks.

[ Demo Form Activity from Chapter 11 ] - have names of Haydn pieces available

Harmonic Analysis Activities

Five lead-sheet play-along activities allow students to apply their knowledge of chords in a musical context by clicking buttons and typing keys to play chords while listening to traditional melodies.

[ Demo Old Grey Bonnet from chapter 9 ]

Six harmonic analysis activities require students to label chords with appropriate Roman numerals while listening to musical examples in both Major and Minor keys. The first two activities show the entire score, the next two show the melody only, and the final two present audio only.

[ Demo Harmonic Analysis: Major Key, Full Score ]

[ Demo Harmonic Analysis: Minor Key, Melody Only ]

The Functional Harmonizer Activity allows students to apply their new knowledge of harmonic function in a musical context. Students type numbers on the keyboard to trigger audio samples that play various chords to accompany melodies.

[ Demo - very brief of functional harmonizer ]

Creative Improvisation Activities

The Rhythm Pattern Jam, is a fun activity to help students apply their new knowledge of rhythm patterns in a musical context. Students assemble a drum track by choosing instruments and patterns to play.

[ Demo - very brief of Rhythm Pattern Jam from chapter 1 ]

Two note-playing jam activities help students to experiment with creating their own melodies. In the Blackberry Jam, students type numbers 1 through 0 to play the black notes of the keyboard while listening to a funky pentatonic accompaniment. In the Major-Minor Improvisation Activity, students type the numbers 1 through 0 to play notes in the Major or Minor scale while listening to accompaniments in those modes.

[ Demo Blackberry Jam from Chapter 5 ]

Two pitch pattern jam activities help students to create music using different pitch sets. The White Key Pitch Pattern Jam and the Blueberry Jam Improv are fun activities where students apply their new knowledge of pitch patterns in a musical context. In these activities, the computer becomes a musical instrument. Students type the numbers 1 through 0 to play familiar pitch patterns that work with a preset accompaniment track. Students must time their performance and choose patterns to create unique compositions.

[ Demo - brief of White Key Pitch Pattern Improv from chapter 2 ]

[ Demo - Blueberry Jam Improv from chapter 5 ]

The final product was completed delivered to McGraw-Hill in October 2002 and was released with the new 4th edition of the Music First! text by Gary White. The presentation will conclude with a brief question and answer session.

Feedback we have received from University College at University of Maryland:

THESE EXERCISES ARE WONDERFUL!!!!!!!!!

For ten years I have been looking for non-stupid activities for adult non-music majors. This is the first one I have found that keeps expectations for sight singing and ear training in reasonable bounds while taking notation and analysis all the way through the materials covered in Music First.

Every topic has one or more exercises that REALLY TEACH the materials.

Thanks for requiring students to recognize the correct octave in pitch-identification activities.

Suggestions:

Please consider including interval-writing activities. My students always need all the help they can get in writing intervals.

A chord-builder similar to the interval-builder described above would also be welcome.

Again, many MANY thanks for these learning tools! I have used Music First

since the first edition and am happy to see the improvements.