This is the
second post on how to use Chrome Music Lab in the music classroom. For thefirst post, please click here.
Chrome MusicLab is a wonderful, wonderful thing. I know this is being posted on April 1st, but here's one thing that is no joke: kids love technology, and this allows them
to explore music in new and fun ways. Let’s take a look at second half of the
Chrome Music Lab experiments.
The Melody
Maker allows you to use colored blocks to create an 8 note melody. You have
nearly two octaves to work with, set up in the major scale. This is a great
tool for composition. My kids struggle with wanting to make their melodies very
random, and the Melody Maker is a great visual way to show skips and steps. You
can also click the button to the right of the play button to add an
automatically created harmony. This is great to show the difference between one
melody and harmony. There is a tempo control as well.
This
experiment is a blast, especially if you have your own microphone. Record a
very short (about 3 second) blurb, and then you can change the speed of the
audio. Move the control to the right and you can hear your sound in slow-mo, or
speed it up to chipmunk highs. Move the control to the left for the same
effects, but your audio will be backwards. It is easiest to show this with
instrument examples, but kids LOVE hearing themselves talk like backwards chipmunks.
This is a
very simple experiment that explores harmonics both visually and aurally. Click
each coil to hear the note. It is cool for kids to be able to see the
relationship between the notes.
This is one
of my favorites! It is a simple idea: take famous songs, display them like a
piano roll, and play them. Clicking on two buttons allows you to go between a
traditional piano sound and a more electronic sound. This is a useful visual if
you want to listen to any of the songs. But the option of using your microphone
is what makes this experiment genius. Record a short example, and that sound is
used as the basis for all the notes. Ever want to hear what Beethoven’s 5th
would sound like entirely on different cow bells or tone blocks? Now is your
chance! Vocal sounds can be used too, and they are hilarious. My main advice is
to use as low a sound as possible as your recorded example, because the songs
get high and screechy if your original sound is high.
Another
simple but fun experiment, Oscillators features creatures who open their mouths
to show frequencies in certain shapes: square, sawtooth, triangle, and sine (waves).
The current frequency is always shown. You can modify how high or low the sound
is by stretching the character up or down. This is another useful way to show
high vs. low, and the speed of the waves at different pitches.
This
experiment has a set of 6 strings. 5 of the strings have been divided into 2
sections of different lengths. This is a great way to visually show how the
size of a string (or any part of an instrument) relates to pitch. It is also a
good opportunity to discuss one way music relates to fractions. Yay for cross-curricular
discussions!
Chrome MusicLab is a very fun website, and kids love it enough to look it up outside of
school. I’ve had several kids run up to tell me about the melody they got to
make at home, or the song they composed the night before that was made entirely
of triangles. Chrome Music Lab works as a focused tool to include in a lesson,
but also as an opportunity for kids to play and explore. Any site that gets
kids curious about music is good in my book!
Hope you and
your students have fun with Chrome Music Lab!
