Year 5 & 6 pupils recreate the popular song, ‘Thinking Out Loud’ using only software instruments!
Pupils from Whitburn Village primary and East Boldon Junior have taken part in Music Hands iPad music project known as the iBand. During the project pupils create a software ensemble using music apps to augment their understanding of rhythm, time, harmony and structure.
The song covered ‘Thinking Out Loud’ by Ed Sheeran has a classic pop structure and instrumentation. The iBand enabled pupils to explore complex harmony ideas, for example the turnaround ‘VI, V, IV, I, II, V, I’ chord progression. As an educator its clear to see that the iPad as a musical medium provides an intuitive way to explore complex chord types and progressions. On an analogue instrument substantial prior tuition would have been required. Pupils enjoyed the success of completing an entire song with its rhythm, feel, instrumentation and arrangement intact.
To create our iBand, we divided our digital instruments into four sections comprised of piano, bass, guitar and strings. Students explored all the software instruments and learnt the entire song structure and arrangement in just five sessions. Looking back, the most fun had was trading solo’s using Garageband’s hard rock guitar and scale feature. You could easily loose an afternoon sounding like a mini version Steve Vai or Tom Morello. The class voted for their favourite soloist to lead in their final performance.
You can now watch the performance on our youtube and get inspired ! – 30 x iPad Performance
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