Attack of The Max
“Lauren”
Lauren Tilley, when asked what she had ordered.
Lessons:
Lesson One: Notes
A note is a sound of a constant pitch, for example an A4 note has a pitch of 440hz.
In modern western music we arrange notes by using the letters A – G. There are also sharps and flats inbetween these notes, think of the as inbetween notes.
This is called the chromatic scale and it contains all the notes of a western scale.
These notes are…
A A#/Bb B C C#/Db D D#/Eb E F F#/Gb G G#/Ab
(Where there is a slash indicates that the notes sound the same but are named differently, e.g. A# is the same as Bb)
The # symbol means sharp, a sharp means the note has been raised by a semitone.
The b symbol means flat, a flat note means the note has been lowered by a semitone.
Semitones & Tones
On the chromatic scale we can see all the main notes of modern music. If we move up or down this scale by only one note that is called a “semitone”. If you move up two notes on the chromatic scale it is called a tone (or whole tone).
For example looking at our chromatic scale again…
A A#/Bb B C C#/Db D D#/Eb E F F#/Gb G G#/Ab
If we move from an A to an A# that is a Semitone, if we move from an A to a B that is a whole tone.
Octaves
So the notes of the chromatic scale actually go on forever, but they repeat themselves.
The note that comes after a G# (the highest note of the chromatic scale) is a A, this A is an octave higher than the last A, this means that it is twice as high.
Lesson Two: Chords & Scales
Notes can be combined to create chords, these are very important in making songs and make up the main parts of them. The main most common type of chord is called a triad. A triad skips every second note to create a chord of three notes. For Example a C Major Triad has the notes C, E, G. (Theres intervals inbetween these notes but thats too complex.)
The main types of chords are Major chords and Minor Chords.
Minor chords are the same has major chords but have a flattened third which means the chord contains a minor third instead of a major third.
When creating a song it is good to stick to a scale
The C Major Scale is the most common scale as it contains the notes
C,D,E,F,G,A,B,C
The Chords in the C Major Scale Are
C Major, D Minor, E, Minor, F Major, G Major, A Minor, B Diminished
This is because these chords contain some of the notes inside of the C Maj Scale
Every Maj scale follows the same pattern with chords of Maj,Min,Min,Maj,Maj,Min,Dim
Every Minor Scale follows the same pattern with chords of, Min, Dim, Maj, Min, Min, Maj, Maj
To write chords in a scale we use roman numerals, if they are uppercase it means they are a major chord and if they are lowercase they are a minor chord.
The Main Chords that are used in the majority of popular songs are the I, IV,V, vi chords.
In C major this would be the chords, C Maj, F Maj, G Maj, A min.
Lesson Three: Rhythm
Notes are held for different amounts of time depending on what type of note it is. Some notes are only held for a very short amount of time like notes in many guitar solos, but some notes can be held for whole bars or even longer, for example held chords.
Notes are named after the fraction of time they take up in a 4/4 bar. For example, a quarter note takes up a quarter of a bar, while a half note takes up half of a bar. This can theoretically go forever, but the shortest notes we’ll have to deal with for now are eighth notes, which last for one eighth of a bar.Time signatures are given in the form of [number of beats in the bar]/[type of beat to count]. For example, 4/4 represents four quarter notes in a bar, while 3/4 represents three quarter notes in a bar.
Description of The Prototype & How We Built it.
Our prototype is a digital synthesiser written in JavaScript, HTML and CSS. It uses an oscillator combined with front end web development and a waveform generator. We have combined this with a series of interactive written lessons that have been developed specifically towards the needs of our target audience and what we have learnt that they want from our previous interviews.
How we built the Prototype
We put our various skills together when creating this prototype. Max created the software because he is highly talented in computer science and programming. Oscar created the lessons because he has a rather extensive knowledge in music theory and Azimuth was the councillor along the way, providing support and ideas along the way.
Feedback
We interviewed Alex, a fellow musician. From her personal experience with a seven year old sibling who is part of our target audience, she noted that our lessons ares very compact and could be spread out because otherwise the children will find the lessons very overwhelming as there is too much content in a very short space of time.
Teamwork
We as a team worked really well together. All our individual skills came together to make our prototype and educational lessons a reality. Our effectiveness and level of efficiency was not of optimal standard and could have been maximised by meditating at the start of every lesson to get our minds in a working state and not being distracted by other people or our laptops.
The Music Hub 