Music Tech Camp UPDATE!!!

August 9, 2008

Students have just completed writing their first piece for Concert Band! You can listen to their pieces by clicking on the drop down menu on the right hand side, and then selecting any of the names under the Music Tech Camp 08 category. Their music sounds fantastic!

So how did they do this monumental task? And it only took them 2 days! They used the piece “Dragon Slayer” by Bob Grice as a model.  On Monday, the first day of camp, they took a piano piece (an arrangement of ”In the Hall of the Mountain King”) and put it into Sibelius software using the mouse and computer keyboard. Then they took that piece and arranged it for concert band with the Sibelius “arrange” feature. This helped them become very quick at inputting in notes, and taught them how to easily manipulate the music. They learned how to copy and paste, delete measures, and all the little details involved in writing music on a computer.  On Tuesday they learned about all the percussion instruments and then wrote a percussion part to accompany the band arrangement. On Wednesday they started their own original band piece. They analyzed the structure and form of “Dragon Slayer” to learn how to write an introduction, develop a theme, write a drum break, and bring it all back together again with the introduction as the ending. They wrote their original band piece with a beginning band in mind, so they had several rules:

1. They could only use the first 5 notes of the Bb major scale (well at least they tried to do this!)

2. They could only use quarter notes, half notes, and whole notes in the wind instruments

3. Percussion could only use quarter notes, half notes, whole notes, and sixteenth notes (and rests)

Once they learned about the structure of the piece everything just fell into place. The teacher, Mrs. Gunn, would change any parts that were out of range up or down an octave to fit into the beginner instrument range. Also they had to remember to only use 3 notes for Timpani. There may still be some errors, but their music is beatiful! Please take a moment to look at the drop down menu on the right and listen to some of the music they created. We also had one student who wrote a piece for guitar duet and percussion since that is her main instrument. Great job, Music Tech Camp Kids!!!! Next week we will begin on Monday with learning to use MixCraft Software.

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Join other students accross the county in learning how to create your own music using a computer, Sibelius, and Cakewalk Sonar software.

Print out the Registration Form here! 

• Who: Any student who will be entering 7-10th grade that has had one year of band, orchestra, or choir.
• When: Monday through Friday, 9am to 12pm, August 4 - 15. The camp will run for two weeks in the morning. There will be a concert on August 15 at 11am so parents and friends can hear what students have composed.
• Where: Woodbridge Senior High School Music Technology Lab room 1852
• Cost: “Early bird” registration is $150 if the student registers by June 30, 2008. Registration is $160 after that.
• How do I sign up? Fill out the registration form and send it in to Music Tech Camp, c/o Shannon Gunn, Woodbridge High School, 3001 Old Bridge Rd, Woodbridge, VA 22192.
• Questions? Contact Shannon Gunn at gunnsr@pwcs.edu or 703-497-8000.