Week 1

 Class Outline

Today's class was a brief overview of the elements of sound waves:

Frequency -

  • Describes the amount of oscillations the wave undertakes per second
  • Measured in Hertz (Hz)
  • Perceived as pitch
  • Noise is perceived when a wave has irregular oscillations, while pitch is perceived with regular oscillations
  • The human range of hearing is approximately 20-20k Hz

Amplitude -

  • Describes the height reached by a wave (magnitude) within each oscillation
  • Measured in Decibels (dB)
  • High decibel levels will surpass the Threshold of Pain, a level which will harm hearing over long periods of time

Envelope -

  • Refers to the sound properties of Attack, Decay, Sustain, and Release (ADSR)
    • Attack is the strength of the start of a pitch and how long it takes to initiate
    • Decay is the loss of volume immediately following the attack
    • Sustain describes the sound that continues after the initial attack
    • Release describes the end of a sustaining note
  • Some instruments lack sustain, such as percussion instruments like the marimba
  • ADSR can be adjusted on synthesizers to achieve new sounds

Harmonic Spectrum -

  • Also known as the overtone series, it refers to extra pitches above a fundamental that are perceived when a note is played
  • Instruments have different distributions of overtones, creating new timbral colors
  • Different wave shapes have different distributions of overtones
    • The sine wave contains only a fundamental pitch

We then looked at some of the history of electronic music, such as:

The Theremin -
  • Invented by Leon Theremin
  • Controlled by two rods:
    • Vertical rod controls frequency
    • Horizontal rod controls amplitude
  • Clara Rockmore was a famous player of the instrument
Robert Moog -
  • Inventor of the Moog synthesizer in the early 1960s
  • He got his start selling Theremin kits before branching out into other electronic instruments
  • He connected his synthesizer to a piano keyboard
  • His instruments formed the backbone of the Progressive Rock movement, with usage from artists like Yes and Emerson, Lake & Palmer.
Wendy Carlos -
  • She used synthesizers to record classical music, most notably her album Switched on Bach
    • Her instruments were exclusively monophonic

We were also given a few resources for synthesizers:
  • The Synthesizer Museum has historical information about different types of synthesizers, including the tech used in each and some famous practitioners on each instrument.
  • Playtronica has models of several synthesizers available to use virtually on their website.

Our final class activity was a look at some elements of MIDI programming on SoundTrap:
  • Creating regions
  • Placing notes in the piano roll
  • Adjusting note lengths
  • Looping sections
  • How to adjust velocity
  • Synthesizers
    • Changing sound patches
    • ADSR manipulation

Class Activities

We began looking at creating an arrangement of "Canon in D" in the style of Wendy Carlos' Switched on Bach. In class, we created a loop of the primary bassline to learn about some of the functions of the SoundTrap DAW. I will have another blog post up about the process creating my arrangement very soon.


Class Reflection

I believe all of this information could be very helpful in musical technology or general music courses. While we teach students about concepts like pitch and dynamics, we can fold in the scientific terms like frequency and amplitude as well, especially for older students who may be studying physics or similar sciences. I think a program like SoundTrap is great for students because it is simple to understand but provides a decent number of tools to compose music. SoundTrap has a basic synthesizer interface that would be a great entry level into musical programming for middle and high school students.

The other resources, like the historical information and synthesizer databases, would be great for courses on the history of American popular music. I took a course in high school that served as a basic overview or pop and rock history, but it lacked some of the details that a site like the Synthesizer Museum could provide. Having students research a specific synthesizer instrument or a performer could be a great way to teach about both popular music history and music technology, providing a gateway to further study.

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