UMass Lowell Dept. of Computer Science
COMP 2120 / MUED 2120 — Sound Thinking
Spring 2016 Semester, Section 201
Prof. Jesse M. Heines and Prof. Gena Greher
Assignment No. 1
Designing and Performing an Original Musical Instrument Using a MaKey MaKey Board
Date Due:
Thursday, January 28, 2016
Contents
What This Assignment Is About
This assignment involves designing and creating a musical “instrument” from common conductive materials and interfacing them with a MaKey MaKey board and Scratch to perform a variety of sounds. Once your “instrument” is built, you will create a short composition for it to demonstrate the variety of sounds that it can produce. You will then devise a notation for your composition so that you can play it the same way multiple times.
In this assignment, you will explore the musical principles of form, rhythm, duration, melody, texture, timbre, composition, and performance. You will also experience the computational and physical principles of sensor interfacing, electrical conductivity, triggering, and event listening.
Before You Begin
(1) Read the Course Syllabus carefully
(2) Complete your registration for this class using the Google form posted at
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/166cx_uRhYJ24qoI-zMrs1dpWVyOw5iloQ-ojjF41lv4/viewform
(3) Join the class discussion forum at http://piazza.com/uml/spring2016/comp2120mued2120
What You Are To Do
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- Using the simple conductive materials provided in class (and others you might have access to), design a musical “instrument” that can be connected to the MaKey MaKey board to perform drum set, melodic, or recorded sounds. It is critical that your “instrument” be able to produce several different types of sounds, or sounds with several different characteristics. An “instrument” that only plays one or two sounds will not meet the requirements for this assignment. See the section below entitled How You Will Be Graded for more information on this.
- Practice playing your instrument and create a composition. The composition should be indicative of a specific musical form of your choice. It need not be long. A 2-3 minute piece is fully sufficient, but it should include distinct sections that give it form. That is, at a minimum your composition should include distinctive opening, middle, and closing sections.
- Once you have created your composition, devise a simple notation so that you can perform it consistently. The notational system should be reflective of your unique type of instrument. It should not resemble standard musical notation in any way, shape, or form.
- Write a reflection on your experiences with this assignment that describes your creative process both in terms of developing your instrument, the composition, and in creating the notational system. What understandings came to light regarding the musical process, the compositional process, and the notational process? Post your reflection in the Google Form at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1NaNxvFazvwv8WQ9o7nI2EH9IN8vhm3sN6i7vHrVghTo/viewform.
- Bring your “instrument” to class on the assignment’s due date along with your notation. Come prepared to explain your work and to perform your piece. Remember, you can practice your composition without connection to a MaKey MaKey board using the keys on the computer keyboard. Please note that these classes will be videoed unless you specifically request that we not video your “performance.”
Submitting Your Assignment for Grading
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We professors will take notes on the “performances” during class for grading purposes. We will review your reflection directly from the Google Form, so it is critical that you get it posted there by the assignment’s due date (shown at the top of this page).
Be sure to submit your reflection by answering the questions posted at:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1NaNxvFazvwv8WQ9o7nI2EH9IN8vhm3sN6i7vHrVghTo/viewform
How You Will Be Graded
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This assignment has four major parts:
- the instrument you design and build
- the composition you compose for it
- the notation you devise for your composition
- your reflective write-up
Your grade for these parts will be determined by evaluating your work on the following criteria for a total of 40 points (20 from each professor).
- For Your Instrument (5 points)
- Is it connected properly to the MaKey MaKey with each trigger making a conductive connection playing a sound?
- Does your instrument produce three or more different timbres?
- Did you use the conductive materials in an unusual and novel way?
- Did you use a diversity of sounds in your composition?
- Was it evident that you put some thought into this assignment?
- For Your Composition (5 points)
- Does your composition exhibit a clearly discernable form with an opening, middle and end?
- Does it use a variety of musical elements such as textural changes, rhythmic variety, and melodic elements?
- For Your Notation (5 points)
- Is your notation just simple dots and dashes showing little effort or problem solving, or did you attempt to create an unusual way of representing your music?
- Does it represent a clear sequence of events?
- Does it provide guidance on the timing of events?
- Does it indicate expressive parameters for performance such as rhythm and dynamics?
- As with your choice of instrument, was it evident that you put some thought into this assignment?
- For Your Reflective Write-Up (5 points)
- Did you leave this until the last minute or, as above, is it clear that you thought about what you wanted to write and put some effort into doing the writing?
- Were you mindful of formatting, grammar, spelling, etc., or did you just throw a few sentences up on the Google Form in a sloppy manner?
