Do, Re, Mi Challenge

Big Idea: After Pico visited with Justin Pate and witnessed the mighty power that the MIDI board can hold, we had enough time to run downstairs to the studio to play with these wonderful mini-computers. Finding out they had already run through a basic introduction, and been challenged to create a basic recognizable meledy, I presented a new challenge to the group that furthered thier understanding of how the notation in this MIDI program works.

Dates: Wednesday, March 1st 2006

Groups Participating: ALA Pico group

Software: Cricket Logoblocks

Hardware: 1 laptop per 2 students, each with a transfer wire, transfer cricket, cricket, speaker wire, speaker, bus cable, and MIDI board

Directions: This activity works the best following the "Intro to MIDI" activity. Have them all pick a meledic instrument (it cannot be a sound effect), then present this challenge...Starting at the note number 48, write a program that will sound like the octive of a C major scale, that is, "Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti, Do". The notes must each be 5 (or .5 of a second) long. After five to ten minutes (depending on thier progress) have each group play what they have thus far to the group individually. After they have, present the concept of thinking about the numbers as the numbers of a keyboard. Draw it out and label the keys (see pic above), then have them re-configure thier numbers. After a few minutes, have everyone press play at once, and you should have a chorus of MIDI boards all singing an octive of the C major scale.

Associated Concepts: Combining programming MIDI with musical concepts.

Best Part: When all the MIDI boards sing together in harmony.

Worst Part: Not having enough working equipment to work with (see improvements).

Improvements: Due to lack of time, we could not test each computer and cricket set-up before the teens arrived, so we had alot of the infamous "no cricket in sight" issues, and therfore three teens per laptop. Be sure to prepare whenever working with MIDI by testing each set-up before the teens arrive to ensure less frustration and a full learning experience for all involved.