Pop music composition starters – buy my new book!

“Pop Music Composition Starters” is eleven lesson plans that use the history of American popular music as a backbone to teach composition skills to your secondary music students.

These lessons are tried and true tools to get every student in your music class creating in a way they never thought they could do before. The best part is it’s not a complete curriculum – it can be picked apart and done in any order to enhance what you already have in place.

Students will learn how to write melodies and lyrics, use harmonic progressions, perform accompaniments on multiple instruments, record, and edit sound using popular styles from the past and the present.

Some lessons require computers and software while others simply require paper and pencil. Some lessons use instruments such as keyboard and guitar while others can be done without instruments at all. Use what you can, adapt what you can, and save the rest for when you can fit it in.

These lessons are the heart of the presentation I’ve written for the National Association for Music Education convention in Grapevine, Texas this November. Being from New York State, the trip to Dallas is going to be expensive. This book is a great opportunity to offer my curriculum for sale to raise some money to defray the cost of the trip and share these lessons with your students.

These lesson plans feature reproducible handouts and step-by-step instructions for each of the pop music compositions I will discuss at the conference. Here’s a full list:

• Folk Music Lyrics Composition
• Blues Melody and Lyrics Composition
• Blues Keyboard Melody Improvisation
• Rockabilly Guitar Accompaniment Composition
• Rhythm and Blues Keyboard Accompaniment Improvisation
• 50s Rock Guitar Accompaniment Composition
• 70s Bass Line Keyboard Improvisation
• Rap Introduction Composition
• 80s Drum Beat Improvisation
• Sampling Composition
• Remix Composition

 

If you’re not interested in purchasing the lesson plans, you can make a donation of any amount to my trip if you’d like. Thank you so much for your help and support.

 facebook.com/MattWarrenMusic
 @MattWarrenMusic

I’m presenting at the 2015 NYSSMA Winter Conference

I’m excited to announce I will be presenting a session at the New York State School Music Association Winter Conference this December. My session titled “Popular music composition starters for your classroom” will give music teachers a chance to add composition to their curriculum in a fun, accessible way for students.

This session will provide insight into how I use composition with my 8th grade general music classes within the framework of my American Popular Music curriculum. Students create their own folk songs, blues, rockabilly songs, rhythm and blues, 70s bass lines, raps and other compositions in my class now it’s your turn to use it with your students.

The best part of all of these composition projects is that they reinforce everything else we are doing in my classes. They help my students practice performing without drilling and killing. We get to listen to musical examples with a purpose and discuss key points from the music that they also need to include. And we are creating, performing, and responding around the same unified topic. It’s a win all around!

If you would like to attend, it will be from 8:15 to 9:15 a.m. on Friday, December 4th in Rochester, NY. Here is the NYSSMA website.

 facebook.com/MattWarrenMusic
 @MattWarrenMusic

iPad music camp: Day 4 curriculum

Traditionally, I have run my iPad Music camp during the first full week after school gets out which here in New York State means it’s the week preceding Independence Day. In my first year, July 4th was the Friday so camp ran Monday through Thursday. This year, to avoid the observed holiday, we ran Monday through Thursday (July 2nd). I like the four-day week, so Day 4 is the final day where students should leave with some completed products. (Review Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3 here.)

Day 4

Welcome and Review Procedures (2 minutes):

“Roar” (15 minutes):
– Students have been recording the verse to Katy Perry’s “Roar” during camp. This is their chance to finalize editing it to make it perfect.
– Show students how to duplicate a section.
– Students duplicate section so you have four 8-measure sections.
– Export it to Voice Recorder
– Change it to mp3. (This is so teacher can play it in your web browser without downloading it.)
– Turn it in on Edmodo.

Loop-Based Composition (40 minutes):
– Finish your composition from Day 3.
– Take a screenshot in the “All Sections” view so I can see everything.
– Export it to Voice Recorder.
– Convert it to mp3.
– Upload mp3 and the screenshot from your camera album together on the same assignment.

“Smoke on the Water” (30 minutes):
– Show students the Jam session feature and how to connect via Bluetooth.
– Students form groups (up to 5) and choose their instrument.
– One bass
– One/Two drums
– One/Two Hard Rock guitars
– Practice “Smoke on the Water” as a group.
– Bandleader record and export, using same process as before. Type all group member names as you enter the assignment.

Reflection (10 minutes):
– Have students reflect on the questions using Sound Recorder and upload their podcast to Edmodo.

• What was the best part of the week and why?
• What was your least favorite part of the week and why?
• How would you improve the camp?
• Are you interested in coming back next year for another round?
• What else would you like me to know?

Clean-up (15 minutes):
– Let the students know they can go on and download their mp3s from Edmodo if they want to save or share their work from the week.
– Have students delete all songs off GarageBand on the school iPad.
– Have students delete all sound recordings from Voice Recorder on the school iPad.
– Have students log off Edmodo on the school iPad.
– Have students delete all pictures or video off the camera roll.
– Plug in to charging stations.

 facebook.com/MattWarrenMusic
 @MattWarrenMusic

Folk Music Unit Plan

My 8th graders start their school year learning about American Folk music for a lot of different reasons. It leads to country music which leads to rock and roll, so it’s the start of the pop music canon in this country and the melodies and accompaniments are easy to perform. It’s the perfect jump start to our pop music curriculum.

History

• Google Slides presentation
• YouTube playlist

The Slides presentations gives an overview of the basics of the style and historical key points. If you’re looking to truncate a few decades into one post, the playlist encompasses the progression of folk music to country and western in a few videos.

Creating

• Folk music lyric composition

The first composition assignment I do with my students each year requires them only to write lyrics. It serves several purposes; it helps me get to know something about each one of my students while teaching them how to write lyrics on the staff and teaches them about song parodies, which were a very popular form of song writing in the U.S. prior to 1900. While my students that have come through our general music program are well-versed in writing music on a staff, they’ve never added lyrics.

Performing

• “Tom Dooley”

I like to get everyone on the same page at the beginning of the year so we focus on two just chords with the baritone ukulele. (It would also work with the guitar if you’d prefer.) Folk music is known for simple accompaniments and it’s a great place to start brand new students. I use Tom Dooley because of the extreme simplicity. Returning students get to focus on technique while the new students learn the chords and everyone is playing something that sounds like an actual song. Giving them that success early helps prevent frustration from taking over.

Responding

• Folk music compare and contrast

If you’re looking to reinforce the concepts of pre-1900s folk music, a great way is to compare a traditional version of a song with a more polished version. I use the Kingston Trio’s number one hit from 1959 for the latter and have used a couple different performances for the former. The performance I use now is this performance on upright bass, guitar, and banjo. I like to highlight the differences in the performance more so than the lyrics (though it’s certainly a big part of folk music). We talk about what it means to be rehearsed vs. unrehearsed and what cues we get from the performers that inform us it’s not perfect and they are making changes on the spot. We also highlight the added and polished parts of the Kingston Trio version that differentiate it from a traditional performance. Using “Tom Dooley” reinforces our performance track but you could use a whole host of different songs if you desire.

Over the course of a couple classes, you can comprehensively teach folk music, basics on the guitar, how to write song lyrics, and assess listening responses all at the same time. Try it!

 facebook.com/MattWarrenMusic
 @MattWarrenMusic