This is a guest article written by: Elisabeth (Lisi) Bottoms.
Why Teach Dance Music?
Dance music has been an integral part of almost every culture since the beginning. Over time, the conventions of dance have changed significantly in order to please the audience and to allow performers and dancers to express themselves. As dance comes in so many different forms and genres, most students will be able to identify with at least one strand of it. By learning to identify and experiment with some of the components of dance music, students create a piece of EDM (electronic dance music).
Pre Unit Assessment Using Wooclap
Before starting a new unit, it is important to find out what students already know, which conception of the topic they have and what their preferences are. Wooclap is a great tool to collect the ideas of the students. By setting the parameters, one can get very specific results. In this case, I asked the students to explain in their own words:
What, in your opinion, is the purpose of dance?
What are the musical features of your chosen dance?
What are the movement features of your chosen dance?
Which occasion and location is specific to this dance?
Student answers collected with Wooclap.
Defining the Unit Questions Using Canva
Ever since I took the online session with Katie on Canva, I have been hooked. It is such an easy and powerful tool to create captivating posters. Having the unit questions visually present in the classroom helps the students to see the overall picture.
Unit questions using Canva.
Canva can also create powerful slideshows. In one of the lessons, we had a discussion about, “what makes us move”. As this lesson was during distance learning (and it looks like this might happen again soon in many parts of the world) we used the Google Meet Breakout Rooms to discuss in small groups and then share back the findings in a plenary session.
A page of the slideshow created using Canva.
Introducing the students to a specific genre of dance
Our curriculum framework always encourages learners to make use of the host city. I am located in Vienna and all students participate in an “Austria Day” where, amongst other things, they learn to dance the basics of the Viennna Waltz. Therefore, I decided to introduce them to the historic, musical and social features of this dance. The pretty background for this Google Slides presentation is called “stylish flowers” , comes from the website Slidescarnival, and is free of charge.
A page of the slideshow created using Google Slides with a free template from Slidescarnival.
First Creating Exercise, Using Musescore
One of the early creating tasks was to “recreate” the melody Blue Danube Waltz by Johann Strauss, the students called it The Blue Danube Waltz 2.0. We analysed the melodic lines of several waltzes of this era and discussed different ways to create melodic variation. I provided the basic accompaniment in a Musescore file, which I linked directly to the presentation. I gave them a four bar example as inspiration. I simply used QuickTime Player to create a screencast and embedded it in the presentation. I also like using Screencastify for this purpose. It is a great way to see the music moving with the notes.
Student creating task, made with Musescore.
Student Research About Their Favorite Dance Genre
Personalizing the learning content as much as possible is a powerful tool to enhance student participation. In this case, many students opted to include their cultural background and presented a dance from a culture, close to their heart. The students had free choice of format, but most of them opted for Google Slides, since it is so easy to include text, photos and videos. While Keynote has even more great features, the size of the final project is massive, which can be tricky with the limited storage on the student’s computers.
Student examples of dances of their choice using templates from different platforms such as Slideshare.net
Focus On Rhythm
The next step of this unit is the shift to the rhythm. Many dances have a clearly defined drumming pattern, which is accessible to students. Trying it out on a virtual drum machine is educational and fun at the same time. Virtual Drumming lists an easy to understand overview of the different patterns. Musicca has a virtual drum kit, which can be modified to match some of the basic rhythms. For salsa, the salsa beat machine helps to identify the different instruments needed for this genre, while Drumbit has also an option for bossa nova. While all the drumming patterns can also be produced on GarageBand or similar DAWs, the reduction to one component of the piece might be helpful for some students.
Moving On To Tango
I found this very useful site called composerfocus.com and there is a section about tango music. The students play in the suggested chord and bass sequence on their preferred digital audio workspace (DAW) and loop it. This way, they can set the tempo at their speed, transpose it to a key, which is easily playable on their instrument or adapt it to their vocal range.
Tango skeleton from composerfocus.com
More advanced students can start improvising right away. Students, who are less experienced, might profit from some suggested melodic lines to get them started.
Melodic tango material from composerfocus.com
Switching over to EDM
EMD stands for “electronic dance music” and is a collective term for a big variety of styles, such as house, dubstep, trance or similar. The website edmprod.com has put together a fabulous collection of great samples for the individual styles. In combination with research done by the students about the specific musical features, students are experimenting with their first few bars of an EDM beat.
I also encourage students to use other platforms to create their beat – such as io808 and drum machine. Again, by isolating one element of the composition, the task is more manageable for all students.
Screenshot of io808 drum machine. The red arrow shows the location of the tutorial.
On YouTube, I found so many tutorials about EDM music on GarageBand. Unfortunately, not too many of them are useful for lower High School students. Here are the links to three videos, which I consider appropriate for my students.
Making EDM in GarageBand
How to make basic EDM
How to make a simple EDM melody
Since my students already have some basic GarageBand skills, it did not bother them too much that some of the GarageBand versions were different from their current one.
A big help for finding the appropriate chord sequences was hooktheory. The free version is good enough and no sign-up is needed. This page also has a tutorial built in.
Screenshot of HookTheory. The arrow indicates the location of the tutorial.
By breaking up the tasks into many small, manageable parts, which always focus on a different aspect of the composition, the students produced some interesting pieces.
Final Project
Here is a student example – the work of a classically trained flute player, who only started using GarageBand with me this year. In her process journal, she illustrated the main parts of her piece.
Student Checklist of the EDM composition. Main parts of the EDM composition.
Overall, the students truly enjoyed this unit. Some of them, who did not feel at ease with digital audio workstations, were quite apprehensive in the beginning. Some of them were actually quite afraid! By providing ample opportunities for individual feedback sessions and pointing out the aspects they already did well, I was able to soothe those concerns.
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About The Author
Elisabeth (Lisi) Bottoms is currently the Department Leader for Performing Arts at Vienna International School and IBDP Music examiner. She loves sharing her passion for teaching music on her website https://www.internationalmusicnavigator.com/
Looking for More Resources for Music Teachers?
Hello! I’m Katie Argyle – an Australian music technology trainer and consultant with a passion for helping music teachers through my business Midnight Music.
I’m a qualified teacher but no, I don’t currently teach in a school. I help teachers through my online professional development space – the Midnight Music Community – where there are tutorial videos, courses, links and downloadable resources.
I like to focus on easy ways to incorporate technology into what you are already doing in your music curriculum through a range of creative projects. I also run live workshops and have presented at countless conferences and other music education events.
If you want simple, effective ideas for using technology in music education, I would LOVE to help you inside the Midnight Music Community.
