Notes for Class No. 23

Class Devoted to Working on Assignment No. 7 and Individual Discussions of Final Projects with Individual Help

Thursday, April 14, 2016

A video of this class is (or will be) posted at: http://echo360.uml.edu/heines2016/comp-mued2120.html

Handouts and Materials

Openings / Announcements / Reminders

People who have MaKey MaKey boards that need to be returned before we will release final grades

Mohd Anwar Tak Lo

Greg Caldwell John McManus

Alex Casperson Yusuf Mulyo

Andrew Cornish Max Nelson

Kyle Elardo Eddie Pozo

Hannah Ewing Rodrigo Souza

Nsoah Foster Brad Swenson

Matt Hart Dylan Wetherald

Christian Hernandez Zack Wong

Regarding late submissions

if you submit anything late -- such as reflections for previous assignments that you did not submit -- be sure to email both of us to let us know
we do not get notices from Google that someone filled out the reflection form

Don’t forget to fill out the Final Project Team Registration Form

as of Wednesday evening at 10:00 PM, 2 teams (5 people) have registered
this is fine for this early in the project, but please register as you decide on your team members and what you’re going to do
the URL is https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1UEziFkIOnsKxN1HVPWepCahM03OGKboEZCS-e2-tbP8/viewform

Final Project Partnerships Reported To Date

updated Thursday, April 14, 8:40 AM

Partner #1	Partner #2	Partner #3	Title	Description
Eric Miller	Rodrigo Souza		MaKey MaKey Extravaganza	Rodrigo and I are certainly still in the beginning phases of the project but our general plan is build a MaKey MaKey instrument using a variety of sounds (and potentially multiple boards) that may or may not incorporate some of Rodrigo’s expertise in engineering (for example, there may be lights or moving parts).
Shannon Nugent	Mirza Garcia	Hannah Ewing	TBD	We will be working on an arrangement of a song and building it in Pencil Code. At this point in time we are looking to find a popular song and remix and arrange it for multiple voices. We are intending to pick the song in the next couple days and we all have had experience arranging songs so the remix and arrangement aspect shouldn't be too difficult. We will probably write it into ABC notation first so that we can see the notation and see and hear if there are any mistakes in the music.
Justin DeJoy	Kevin Goddu		Random Improvisation	We plan to make two MaKey MaKey instruments that interact with scratch. One will be a randomizing groove/harmony machine that will create and change premade harmonies and grooves at random using what we learned in class on randomization. The other will be a more traditional MaKey MaKey instrument that plays a set of notes. The notes and/or timbre will change with the randomization of the groove/harmony and the goal is to improvise with it. It is almost like a musical instrument and a game.

This accounts for 7 students out of the 33 registered for this course.

Two last comments on Assignment No. 8 projects ...

Don’t be too ambitious!
Ask for help when you need it: via Piazza, in class, or in our offices

Class Notes

Your Issues and/or Questions

Scratch

understanding the list function / stepping through lists
- Class No. 15
- Hey Jude
dealing with rhythms
- Row, Row, Row Your Boat
overall usability
coding multiple parts
coding intervals
more randomizing techniques for music generation
how to connect information in one sprite with that in another
how to mix music with animation
how to make interactive sprites that control the music
how to integrate dynamics and key changes into code (Pencil Code, too)
broadcast vs. broadcast and wait
creating lists that contain variables
transposition and changing modality on the fly

Pencil Code and ABC Notation

how to change keys
use of if true and if false
how to do our own coding in ABC notation without copying and pasting
how to to more complex musical notation in ABC
more exploratory activities
how to have chords moving independently without separating into voices
increasing efficiency
(numerous people stated that they would like to explore Pencil Code in more depth)
- “why we didn’t start with Pencil Code in the first place”

MaKey MaKey Boards

is it possible to make a MaKey MaKey instrument wireless?
compatibility of MaKey MaKey with Scratch and other programs

Music

intervals
more music theory and how to compose
dissonance / harmonies / consonance

Computing

how a computer works
flowcharting / different methods for planning a program
how does what we’ve done relate to coding in general?
how could these programs connect to DJ software?
explain how some computing technique not generally associated with music pertains to music
what’s the easiest way to program music?
can music be coded in Java?
- Google “java music api”
- JFugue — note that this software considers ABC's 4th octave to be the 5th octave
creating apps that would play on our phones
use of patterns

General Sound Thinking

tech music cross-over
how to apply knowledge to other music generating programs
do more intricate things with MaKey MaKey boards
taking things further / more advanced music programs
how do these programs connect to more advanced software?
are they the foundation to more advanced tools?
how to work with teammates who leave everything to the last minute

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