# RESOURCE 4: DAWs for Composition -- Music Theory Courses

*The 51a and 51b workshops typically have associated assignments the students turn in afterwards, so make sure to have a copy of the assignment and make sure students will feel equipped to complete them, but don’t limit yourself to what is covered there. As always, check syllabus to see what students have learned up to that point in the class.*

## MUSIC 51A

### Workshop 1: GarageBand Basics

1. analyzing a melody
- I prepared a random melody for students to analyze as a warmup (played through it on my oboe), then record during the workshop — something simple enough for them to sightread and in the style of melodies they would have analyzed to that point.
- Questions: how is this put together? what harmonies might they might expect at different moments — possible cadences, harmonic rhythm?
- GarageBand as another sort of notation, thinking in terms of layers
2. GarageBand Basics (see Resource 2)
3. recording melody into software
- Use instruments lying around the Learning Lab
- Utilize metronome — set proper key, time signature, and tempo
- add harmonic layer — find loops from loop library (on right side)
- add drum layer
* **key learning**: with each new layer, they are iterating — making decisions based on fit with the existing layer(s) — ask them to reflect on why they chose the loop or drum layer they did/how it fits with the melody.

### Workshop 2: Melody Structures (periods and sentences)

1. review melody structures using melody from workshop 1, and recap skills from first workshop
2. generating a melody
- add a MIDI instrument layer
- selecting an instrument from the sound library (on left side)
- musical typing to “play” the instrument inside GarageBand
- can also incorporate actual external MIDI instruments — there are a couple of keyboards in the lab, but test them first to make sure you know how they work.

[*Additional note on midi instruments: the ROLI Seaboard keyboard is finicky and only works well with certain software instruments, but is capable of smooth glissandos as well as changing quality of tone depending on pressure placed on the keysthe drum pads (including ROLI Seaboard extensions) can be assigned to percussion kits in the sound library but this isn’t particularly useful for a lot of the workshops*]

3. adjustments via score notation and via bar notation view (can also leave this for 51b)— if your melody is slightly off in timing, or pitch, you can adjust individual notes this way

4. intro to effects esp. EQ if time — idea that layers are competing for not only volume but frequency space, and we can adjust that occupation of frequency space

5. modular composition of melody
- choose a few loops from loop library ahead of time that work well with sentence and period
- assign each computer a melody model (sentence or period) and a loop from the prepared list that fits that type
- each pair of students does one two-bar unit, then rotates to the next computer; for each rotation, quiz them on what unit they’re switching to (SRDC within sentence; BI, CI, BI, Cad. I within period)
- [could also mix in AABA or 12-bar blues structures into this exercise!]

## MUSIC 51B
51b moves from GarageBand to Logic, so is an opportunity to explore some of Logic's unique capabilities, ones that are interesting but intuitive.

### Workshop 1: Rhythm in Logic

[***See full run-of-show here.***](https://hackmd.io/J4oOT1ONT8uAsZwptH-8Eg)

1. Intro
* check-in with students about experience
* Logic’s capabilities — demo exercise
* use stem splitter to isolate vocals, bass, drums, or other (I isolated James Jamerson’s bassline from What’s Going On)
* convert the stem file to MIDI — now, if go into piano roll, can see the exact timing of the line and even move individual notes around!
* quick review of skills and concepts from 51a workshops
* quick coverage of extra capabilities of Logic

2. Recording with musical typing (with metronome)
* introduce to multiple takes and comping (make sure settings are correct to do this -- for instance Preferences > Recording > Audio set to "Create Take Folder")
3. Add a bassline
4. Quantizing
* Experiment with swing
* Discuss why or why not to quantize
* Experiment with quantizing (focus on rhythm, can gesture briefly to scale quantize)

5. Add a pattern sequencer layer for percussion and walk through controls

6. If time, add a session musician drummer and walk through controls to preview Workshop 2

### Workshop 2: Collaborative Composition -- Harmony and Session Musicians

1. Introduction to session musicians: add a keyboard session player to the track. Logic should automatically create an 8-bar passage with 8 chords on the Chord track. Make sure the chord track is expanded by hitting the show/hide Global Tracks button towards the upper-left of the interface.
2. Run students through the various controls for the keyboard session musicians.
3. Have students adjust the chords: right-click on the chord track and hit “Create Chord” — they should now be able to click on each chord and change the quality and/or adding extensions as they see fit. They can also change the key signature at the top of the screen and hit “transpose chords” to move everything to a new key.
4. Over the 8-bar chord pattern filled out by the keyboard session musician, students compose a melody and countermelody bit by bit by adding a software instrument and utilizing musical typing or external midi instruments
* One pair writes the first two bars of melody, then rotates; the next pair writes a countermelody under the two bars left for them, plus two further bars of melody; and so on.
5. To cap it off, the final pair adds a session bassist and/or drummer into the mix.
6. In keeping with course topics, can also loop musical modes in here, in two ways:
* When composing the melody/countermelody, students can quantize the melody to a particular mode similarly to quantizing rhythm in workshop 1.
* When editing chords in the chord track, students can change the mode in which the session musicians will play for that chord (only evident if the complexity setting for the session musician is raised so that the chords are “filled in”).