GarageBand for 12-Bar Blues Composition

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Objective: Teach Year 8 students the principles of blues music, focusing on chord progressions and melodic invention, while operating a digital audio workstation (DAW), GarageBand to streamline the composition operation.

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ICT Tool Used

• GarageBand allows users to record, mix, and produce music with built-in loops and MIDI instruments. It is free, user-friendly, and easily accessible.

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How It Was Used

1. Blues Composition: Students were introduced to the 12-bar blues progression, retaining its structure (I-IV-V chord progression) and how to devise a melody over these chords.

2. Looping and Layering: Using GarageBand, students could drag and drop pre-recorded loops corresponding to the blues tone, adding guitar, drums, bass, and keyboard. They also recorded their melodies over the loops, practising improvisation and melodic invention.

3. Recording and Experimentation: Students recorded their chosen instruments directly into GarageBand, layering them with additional loops or their improvisations. The ability to experiment with various instruments and sounds inspired imagination.

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Relevant Theory

SAMR Model – Augmentation

• Dr. Ruben Puentedura's SAMR model allows us to comprehend how technology can alter education.

• Augmentation: Employing technology to amplify assessment tasks, presenting functional gains over conventional processes. In this circumstance, students used GarageBand to prepare their 12-bar blues rather than depending exclusively on analog systems. The DAW let them experiment with diverse sounds and effects, unavailable in written notation.

Constructivist Learning Theory

• Piaget’s Constructivism: 

  • Piaget’s theory accentuates learning through experience, where students build understanding by interacting with their environment.

  • Application in Music Education: In GarageBand, students actively experiment, layering loops and improving their understanding through investigation, instead of memorisation.

  • Example: Students manipulate chord progressions, basslines, and melodies, reinforcing musical instinct and pattern recognition through practical work.

• Vygotsky’s Social Constructivism:

  • The role of social interaction and cultural tools in learning—Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)—the interval between independent capacity and accompanied achievement.

  • Application in Music Education: GarageBand performs as a mediating instrument, permitting students to analyse 12-bar blues structures through direct auditory direction instead of depending merely on notation.

  • Collaborative Learning: Students share, review, and revise their arrangements, reinforcing their knowledge of blues harmony, beat, and improvisation through peer exchange.

Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy

• Higher Order Thinking Application:

  • Students analyse the 12-bar blues progression by manipulating loops and experimenting with different sounds.

  • They evaluate their compositions by listening back and making modifications.

  • They create original blues pieces by layering melodies and improvising over loops.

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Impact on Student Learning

• Increased engagement: The interactive essence of the software upheld student motivation, diminishing disengagement affiliated with theory conditioning. 

• GarageBand’s user-friendly interface lets students experiment and construct musical samples efficiently, sparking their curiosity about the 12-bar blues. 

• Hands-on experience with production technology develops the authentic application of skills.

• Intuitive Chord Structures: Layering loops and recording melodies enabled students to internalise the blues chord progression and its form intuitively. They didn't exclusively read it on paper; they experienced how the chords functioned simultaneously, enriching their exposure.

• Creativity and Ownership: Garageband allowed for creative self-expression. Instead of imitating a provided melody, they could adjust it, layer unexplored tones, and trial interpretations of the 12-bar design.