TEACHER MATERIALS
Unit 5
The Melody
Activity 3 - Soundtrap
Ode to Melody
Create a melody to match your rhythm, chords, and bass.

STUDENT/PLAYER GUIDE

Your mission is to make a melody that goes with your rhythm, bass, and chords. A melody is simply a sequence of pitches, one after the other, but also can be powerful. As you learned, a “catchy” melody can stay in your head for hours/days, and melodies can connect us, for instance when sung by a stadium full of people. To get started, we’ll recreate one of the most famous melodies of all time, “Ode to Joy” (written in 1824, by Ludwig von Beethoven), and we’ll notice what makes a melody work - the pitches, the “shape,” steps, and leaps. Then you’ll change it into something new. To complete this activity, you will create your own melody - maybe just a sequence of pitches that you’ve made, or perhaps an earworm, or even a future stadium anthem.

Step 1: Re-create - First, you’ll explore, play, and then record the melody to “Ode to Joy” in your lanes. For extra fun, you get to choose a melody instrument that matches your band’s aesthetic.

Step 2: Remix -  Create any variation on this melody to make it your own. You can change the length, pitch, or timing of the notes in the piano roll. Change the instrument sound, or use a microphone to record your voice or another instrument. 

Step 3: Create - Create an original 4-bar melody of your own. You may keep the material from the variation, or create something completely different.


TEACHER/PRODUCER GUIDE

  1. Introduce the activity and confirm all players understand the steps.
  2. Share your screen with the class as you demonstrate melody in the “Band X Music” studio in Soundtrap. We recommend you work with a band to discuss and demonstrate the following steps.
  3. Step 1: Demonstrate the “Ode to Joy” melody in the Melody track by playing it and with the other tracks and then solo. Note that the melody stays in the C scale and is completely step-wise, (no leaps/skips). Now, model how students will delete their melody region and then play and record their “Ode to Joy.” First, open the instrument by clicking the keyboard icon, and demonstrate that the melody can be played by using this sequence of letters on the computer keyboard: C C V B B V C X Z Z X C C  XX. Practice playing this with the loop off, and then with the loop on to play in rhythm. When you’re ready to record, click the “R” button on the Melody track, press the red Record button, and then play the melody after the count-in. Listen back to the recording - do you like it? Is it “close”? If so, you can make any changes in the piano roll, (to the timing and pitches), to improve it as desired. If not, delete the region you just recorded, and try recording again. Players with extra time can explore the myriad instrument and effects choices for this melody. When finished, remember to “Save” and “Sync.”
  4. Step 2: Remix - Explain that there are two main options to change this melody: the sound, and the notes. To explore changing the SOUND of the melody, model opening the instrument, and auditioning and selecting different instruments (not just keyboards/synths, but winds, strings, pitched percussion, even spooky FX!). In the Instrument tab, show that students can also change volume, pan, reverb, and they can click the Effect button to select effects which can dramatically alter the sounds, (such as Delay, Phase, Filters, etc.). To change the NOTES of the melody, demonstrate that by clicking on the “Piano  Roll” tab students can edit the notes in the piano roll just as we did with bass and chords. With all of these tools, remind players that the process is to listen, then experiment, then listen again, and keep adjusting as desired. 
  5. Step 3: Create - Now that students have started to understand the tools, it's time to create melodies of their own. Just as they did in Step 1, practice experimenting with sequences of pitches first with the loop off, and then with the loop on to play with their rhythm, bass, and chords! Try to give students enough time to find something that works well with their existing tracks. (This can also be a wonderful opportunity to change/refine their previous tracks to create a more desirable whole piece of music.) Students will practice, then record, then edit, just as we’ve done with bass and chords. Remind students they can think of this work today as a (very) rough first draft that they can keep working on later.
  6. Note: Let’s cover Quantization. Quantizing notes in the piano roll puts them each onto the nearest beat of the selected rhythmic value. Quantize can help a passage sound more “in time” but it can also take away the natural feel of a performance, or change rhythmic values in unintended ways. To quantize, click the Edit menu on the region, or select the notes in the piano roll and left/control click to open the edit options, (or select Edit/Quantize). Select the desired rhythmic value - this will be the “grid,” meaning the selected notes will each be moved to the nearest “grid line” (note value). There’s an excellent video tutorial below in the Resources, and we have two suggestions: 1) Be gentle - only quantize when needed, and it's often better to select only the notes that “need” it, vs the whole passage,  2) Always listen back to the quantized passage immediately after quantizing, and be ready to Undo and try again, (perhaps changing the quantize rhythmic value), until you get the desired result. Sometimes with latency, all of the notes will first need to be moved forward on the timeline, and then quantized. As always, with all music creation tools, students should be encouraged to experiment and then listen back to see if the new result is more or less to their liking than before.
  7. When finished, students will listen to their bandmates’ melodies and give KSHH feedback (verbally, in the Soundtrap chat window, or in the band's slides).
  8. Option: If students want/need more challenges, the teacher can add more measures, (or add more tracks), to students’ lanes.
  9. Invite each band to update their Google slides with their new work and to give their bandmates KSHH feedback on the next slide. To export an mp3 from Soundtrap, select File>Export>Export as mp3.

RUBRIC

Exemplary (5)

  1. Step 1: Re-create the Melody complete
  2. Step 2: Re-Mix the Melody complete
  3. Step 3: Create Your Own complete
  4. Step 4: Export and Post Up complete
  5. Shares KSSH feedback with another student

Proficient (4): 4 of 5 complete

Progressing (3): 3 of 5 complete

Emerging (2): At least 1 complete

Beginning (1): 0 complete

TEACHER RESOURCES

Video: Ode to Joy on Hundreds of Ukuleles!, by Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, YouTube.com, April 2020

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Video: Ode to Joy – Singalong Concert, by Young Euro Concert, YouTube.com, August 2019

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Video: Soundtrap Effects Tutorials #1 w/ Minecraft Music, ODO Music, YouTube.com, August 2016

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Video: The Grid and Quantizing in Soundtrap, by Music EdTech, YouTube.com, March 2020

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