Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History
41 lines (24 loc) · 3.4 KB

lesson-2.md

File metadata and controls

41 lines (24 loc) · 3.4 KB
Raw

Lesson 2 - Sonic Pi Compeititon

Introduction

"The computer programmer is a creator of universes for which he alone is the lawgiver. No playwright, no stage director, no emperor, however powerful, has ever exercised such absolute authority to arrange a stage or field of battle and to command such unswervingly dutiful actors or troops." ― Joseph Weizenbaum

In the first lesson, students concentrated on how their music sounds, creating a piece of music inspired by the theme of space wonders. They may have used a simple sequence or loops to create it so far. In this lesson, more attention is given to adding effects or more complex computations to improve their code.

Learning objectives

  • Know what is required for a submission to the Raspberry Pi Sonic Pi Competition.
  • Understand that there are more elegant and efficient ways to code music with Sonic Pi v2.0.
  • Be able to refine their music code, ready to submit it to the competition.

Learning outcomes

  • Analyse how effective their chosen coding techniques are in creating a piece of music, and refine them to be more elegant.

Starter

If any of the pupils have interesting cover art designs that they created as part of their homework, they are invited to present them to the class and explain the creative thought process behind their work. How does it meet the theme of space wonders, and what was it about the music they began to make in the previous lesson that sparked their design? This could be done in groups or with the class as a whole.

Main development

  1. Recap on the theme and work from the previous lesson in a discussion with the students. You could play some more examples of space-themed music to get the creative juices flowing!
  2. Demonstrate to the students what a Sonic Pi Compeition final entry looks like and what it includes. Inform the students that by the end of the lesson they should have all four parts. You may wish to give students more time to perfect their entry for homework or during afterschool clubs. They will need:
  • An audio file
  • A text file containing the code used
  • The cover art picture produced for homework
  • A short description about the entry

  1. With a projector and Raspberry Pi, demonstrate some of the more advanced techniques for coding music in Sonic Pi v2.0, like modifying the parameters of some of the effects or using random. See this worksheet for more details.

  2. In their groups students should set up their Raspberry Pis; they should ensure they use the same microSD or SD card from the previous lesson containing their work. Once they have started up their Pis and loaded Sonic Pi, they can then continue their work producing a track with a maximum duration of 2 minutes.

  3. Midway through the lesson, ask student groups to switch seats with one another to take a look at and play their code. Students should then reflect on their own code, and see if they can refine it to use some of the techniques they've seen other groups implement.

Plenary

Each school can only submit up to a maximum of three entries to the competition. Use the end of the lesson for each group to present all four elements of their work. You could run an 'X Factor' style selection process with the help of some other teachers/members of staff. Alternatively, ask students to review each other's work and run a secret ballot to select the best three entries.