Assessment 1-Turn the Beat Around: Popular Music Over the Decades.

Topic: ‘Turn the Beat Around’, written by Peter and Gerald Jackson, originally performed by Vicki Sue Robinson (1976) for Popular Music (Stage 5).

           

Prior learning: Students should have a sound understanding of the 6 musical concepts (pitch, duration, texture, tone colour, and dynamics and expressive techniques), explored in the stage 4 mandatory music course. The piece introduces more complex expansions of stage 4 musical concepts, such as rhythmic patterns: triplets, dotted notes, tied notes, off-beat accents, anacrusis, modulation. Students should have a general understanding of how to incorporate their chosen instrument into a variety of styles or genres.

LISTENING

The piece ‘Turn the Beat Around’ has been appropriated in to a variety of contexts, most of them retaining some form of the original, that is dance/pop music. Since the initial production of the piece in 1976, by Vicki Sue Robinson, different artists have ‘updated’ the song into a more modern environment. Students are to listen to the examples provided, as well as others that can be obtained, in order to identify and recognise changes in the musical concepts over the past 35 years, such as technological advancement, style and genre adaptation, and instrumentation.

Further Reading

ONLINE ASSESSMENT
In addition to class discussion, students are encouraged to create an online blog, such as Blogger, Wordpress, Tumblr or LiveJournal, on which they can post their findings and generate further discussion topics. The class teacher shall supervise these blogs and regarded as extra curricular activity. This activity also allocates particular focus to the following outcome:

5.10 Demonstrates an understanding of the influence and impact of technology on music.

In which, students interpret a range of repertoire used for listening and analysis, such as the internet and YouTube. Through this students will develop knowledge, understanding and skills in the musical concepts through listening as a means of extending aural awareness and communicating ideas about music in social, cultural and historical contexts.

Original: Vicki Sue Robinson (1976) Click for original mp3

Laura Branigan (1990)

Gloria Estefan (1994)      Original mp3

Performance in 2010.

Here's some further listening examples in different contexts!:

Dirty Blondes
T-Zone
Black Eva

COMPOSITION

            An arrangement of ‘Turn the Beat Around’ has been provided, both in Finale score and GarageBand for students to analyse and incorporate as/to:

1. A basis from which to include the provided melodies into the finale accompaniment, adding articulation where considered appropriate.

           

2. Compose a new instrumental part, or, alter/replace an existing part that compliments the arrangement.  

3. Use the GarageBand arrangement as a reference, in order to, record an original melody/improvisation, incorporating various compositional techniques, such as looping, step sequencing and live recording with MIDI, evident in the example.

4. Use GarageBand to record an original appropriation of the piece, incorporating musical aspects that compliment such an arrangement, using the provided mp3 example as a reference. Ternary form of verse/chorus/verse. 

This activity allocates particular focus to the following outcome:

5.6 Uses different forms of technology in the composition process.

Through which, students create a compositional work using a range of notational forms and technologies.

ONLINE ASSESSMENT
Students are encouraged to upload compositional process onto their online learning blog, enabling a deeper understanding of the knowledge to be gained by adapting the arrangement. External influences should be outlined and explained as to how these are integrated into the piece. Students shall also be able to give peer feedback and provide comments aimed at improvement or obtaining further innovative facets that may be incorporated into their own arrangements.


Here's all the compositional resources!

Finale Score File
Finale mp3 File
Finale Score PDF

Finale Melody Samples File
Melody Samples mp3
Melody Samples PDF

GarageBand Session Arrangement
Example of GaragBand Appropriation mp3

PERFORMANCE


Students are to be allocated into groups (max. 5 per group) and collaborate amongst themselves as to the most appropriate arrangement, from the composition activity, to produce as a performance. Such performances should address:

Appropriate instrumentation.

2.     Playable parts (not too much involved).

3.     Improvisation sections.

4.     Integration of part/all melodic line.

ONLINE ASSESSMENT

Performances shall be recorded and posted on student blogs for peer feedback and evaluation, in order to identify and recognise areas of strength and improvement. External influences should be outlined and explained as to how these are integrated into the piece.  This activity has particular focus on the following outcome:

5.2 Performs repertoire in a range of styles and genres demonstrating interpretation of musical notation and the application of different types of technology.

From this outcome, students will develop knowledge, understanding and skills in the musical concepts through performing as a means of self-expression, interpreting musical symbols and developing solo and/or ensemble techniques. This shall be achieved by performance and interpretation of a range of musical styles and genres that use various notation and technological dimensions. 

Here's an example of appropriating the piece into a new context:

GarageBand in the Classroom - Composing & Soloing: Accept and Improve

Here's my attempt at a flute solo with accompaniment in Mac's music program GarageBand. An excellent of musical technology in at work in the classroom.

Click the link to download. http://www.divshare.com/download/14246839-baf

Ken Robinson: Do Schools Kill Creativity? (2006)

Ken Robinson presents several defining aspects that have affected the public school system. In regards to the importance of creativity, there is a generalised stagnation towards the celebration of individuality and the creative processes that generate these moments of originality and inspiration. Robinson has developed the notion that 'all children are born artists' and that it is through personal maturity that we diminish in our creative capacity. The task, in fact, is not to enable the ability to generate original ideas as we grow older, but rather, sustain this 'talent' from prior years of childhood. We do not grow into creativity, we grow out of it, or, are educated out of it.

Robinson enlightens us to the notion that every educational system on the planet has the same hierarchy: at the top are maths and languages, followed by humanities, and finally arts at the bottom. Within this bottom tier, the arts, can be segmented into its own hierarchy, with the visual arts and music at the top and dance and drama on the bottom. For, it is rare to find a school that teaches dance in the same manner as mathematics. As a result of this, intellectuals, such as university professors, are the goal for public education. Subjects that are brain-orientated, not body, are emphasised and encouraged by teachers and educational systems in order to produce more of the same system and guarantee employment opportunities.

The educational hierarchy is mainly as a result of two factors:
1. The most useful subjects for employment are emphasised (at the top). Students are steered away from favoured subjects that hold personal interest as it was/is considered little employment is available to those who make a career of 'lower' subjects, such as music or dance. This is called 'benign advice'.
2. The concept of 'academic ability' enables universities to design the educational system in their own 'intellectual' image. University degrees are suddenly seemingly worthless as a significant increase in tertiary students undertake intellectual, brain-orientated, courses. In the past, university degrees were almost a certainty in gaining employment, whereas, in the present, a need for additional education is required, such as post-graduate research, in order to gain an advantage over others.

Robinson finally addresses the need to embrace the concept of children who 'move to think' in order to generate originality. We must educate students as whole beings. Rather than considering students as 'thinkers' we must regard them as 'innovators', beings who include their surroundings and their whole bodies as a means of creativity. For, we as teachers and educators, may not be able to predict or be present in the future, the students we teach will be present. Therefore, our task, and duty, is to ensure assistance is given, whether it be intellectual or practical, in order to maximise the encouragement and sustainability of creativity throughout the educational system and beyond.