Sibelius In The Classroom: Projects Session 1

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "Sibelius In The Classroom: Projects Session 1"

Barnard Hawkins
5 years ago
Views:

1 Online 2012 Sibelius In The Classroom: Projects Session 1 Katie Wardrobe Midnight Music

2 Tips for starting out with Sibelius...3 Why use templates?... 3 Teaching Sibelius Skills... 3 Transcription basics 1: correct the pitches Behind the scenes: teacher tips Transcription basics 2: fill in the gaps Composition techniques 1: create a simple rhythmic accompaniment Behind the scenes: teacher tips Composition techniques 2: pentatonic compositions in ABA form Optional extra: spice it up!... 7 Behind the scenes: teacher tips Composition techniques 3: retrograde, augmentation and diminution Behind the scenes: teacher tips Transcription basics 3: adding stems Behind the Scenes: teacher tips Transcription basics 4: melodic dictation (pitch only) Next session

3 Sibelius In The Classroom Part 1: Beginner Activities Tips for starting out with Sibelius Why use templates? One of the best things you can do when using Sibelius with students is to provide templates or partially filled- out scores. Otherwise you may find yourself spending most of a lesson setting up a score from scratch! Templates allow you to get stuck into the good stuff quickly and skip the tedious bit. Templates are especially good for younger students and it s likely that students will be able to work out score set- up on their own when the time comes. Teaching Sibelius Skills You may discover that you don t really need to teach Sibelius. By focussing on the project at hand, the software skills will automatically follow. Transcription basics 1: correct the pitches Transcription exercises can start simply. Ask students to focus on just one aspect of transcribing a melody first. In this example, students will be provided with the rhythm and will concentrate on correcting the pitch of each note. Choose a song that students know: ie. Are You Sleeping, Hot Cross Buns, Row Row Row Your Boat or Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, or another song that you ve been learning in class. Are You Sleeping is used as the example in these notes Sing and play the song through Provide a Sibelius file of that song with all pitches set to the starting pitch (the rhythm is correct) When students open the score, their first job is to save a copy into their own folder and rename it, including their name in the file name 3

4 Students click on each note in the Sibelius file and drag it in to the correct position (or use the arrow keys on the computer keyboard) Students are only required to focus on one thing (pitch) Start a new score with the correct time signature, key signature, title and other details Add the correct number of bars to your score (or delete the unneeded blank ones) Create the melody for your chosen song (with correct rhythm and pitches), using your chosen note input method Formatting: you might like to lay out your score with a uniform number of bars per system. Students often find it easier to work this way. Use the Auto Breaks feature to set 4 bars per system (or another appropriate number for your song). More about Auto Breaks in Teacher tips 5 below Save the score with the title Are You Sleeping Complete Go to File > Save As to save a copy of the score (the original copy becomes your master score, or answer sheet ) with a new filename: Are You Sleeping Transcription 1 Change the copy: use the Reinput Pitches feature to change all of the pitches to the starting pitch Use Plain text to write instructions for the students at the beginning of the score Drag the top stave down to make more room for the instructions. The title and composer will also move down (because they are attached to the first bar) but you can then adjust their positions by dragging them upwards How- To Notes: Instructions for Page number Score set- up 4 Adding and deleting bars 5 Note input Fixing note- entry mistakes Auto breaks 14 Re- input pitches 9 Adding Plain text 14 4

5 Behind the scenes: teacher tips 1 Teach students the importance of the Escape key! Teach students the importance of the shortcut to undo: Ctrl+Z (Command+Z on Mac) Using the up/down arrow keys to change pitches is generally better than using the mouse because it s more precise. Sometimes things often go wrong when students (or teachers!) use the mouse too much: it s easy to click on the wrong note, to accidentally add extra notes into the score or to create unwanted chords. Start students off by using the mouse to drag pitches and then teach them how to alter pitch with the arrow keys Transcription basics 2: fill in the gaps Provide students with another file: the same song (Are You Sleeping), but this time with some notes missing Students are to fill in the missing parts by adding in the notation from scratch Note input approach in Sibelius: beginners can use mouse to click notes in to their score Teach students to stop and think about each note once they've added it in while it s still selected (blue). If they made a mistake, they can use Ctrl+Z (Command+Z) to undo the previous step, or they can use the arrow keys to raise or lower pitch When students have finished entering notes, press Escape two times Play back the song using playback controls Does it sound right? No? Click on the incorrect note/s and use arrow keys to raise or lower the pitch Open your master score from the first project Save a copy and name the new copy Are You Sleeping Transcription 2 5

6 Select the second bar and press Delete. Pressing Delete will delete the contents of the bar only, not the bar itself Delete the contents of some of the other bars (or just some of the notes) Use Plain text to write instructions for the students at the beginning of the score Composition techniques 1: create a simple rhythmic accompaniment Students open up the previous file (the completed version of Are You Sleeping) Students open the Instruments window in Sibelius, choose the Common Instruments group and then add one or two single- line percussion parts of a contrasting texture (ie. tambourine, triangle, side drum, snare drum) from the Percussion and Drums family. Move the percussion staves below the treble staff and click OK Using crotchets and quavers and rests (or another combination of rhythmic values), add in a rhythmic part for each percussion stave. Students can use the mouse to click notes into the score Make sure there is some space (rests) in each percussion part and that they are not all playing at the same time No prior set- up required (students will use the completed file from the previous exercise) Behind the scenes: teacher tips 2 When entering notes on a single- line percussion stave, you and your students can use the Mouse note entry method, or the Alphabetic note entry method: Mouse entry click on a note on the Keypad and then click on the percussion stave. Be careful where you click in the bar. Try to click on the correct beat Alphabetic note entry is more precise: when using the computer keyboard to input notes on a percussion staff, think of the line as the middle line of the treble staff (B) 6

Composition techniques 2: pentatonic compositions in ABA form Students have been playing and singing pentatonic pieces on class ensemble instruments They have improvised melodies using the pentatonic

7 Composition techniques 2: pentatonic compositions in ABA form Students have been playing and singing pentatonic pieces on class ensemble instruments They have improvised melodies using the pentatonic scale and they have also learnt about ABA form Students will now notate a pentatonic composition using Sibelius Provide students with a Sibelius file that is set up with a treble staff, time signature, key signature and title If you re working with young students, you might like to provide them with part A completed (4 bars at the beginning and 4 bars at the end). The bars for part B are blank Students will add notes into part B, using limited rhythmic values (crotchets and minims and rests of each) and pitches from the pentatonic scale Older students can compose part A (they can copy the first 4 bars into the last 4 bars) and part B Save the file Create a new score with the correct staff, key signature, time signature and title Create the correct number of bars (ie. 12) Lock the format into place with 4 bars on each system (use Auto Breaks more about this in Teacher tips 5 below). Locking the format helps students see the structure of the piece. It also helps if you are showing them an example on a data projector or IWB since the bars won t jump around so much Use Plain text to write instructions for the students at the beginning of the score Optional extra: spice it up! Once the students have created their compositions, export each Sibelius file as an audio file: you can then share the compositions on the school website or give them to students on a USB drive or ipod Create 3 backings of varying styles in a sequencing or audio editing program like GarageBand, Audacity, Acid Music Studio, Mixcraft or Myna (you can use existing loops) 7

8 Ask students to choose one of the three backings to go with their composition. In the audio editing program, combine the audio file from Sibelius with the backing track Older students can create their own backing and combine it with their exported Sibelius file Export the finished piece and share it with the rest of the class Behind the scenes: teacher tips 5 When creating student exercises or worksheets, it can be useful to lay out your score with a regular number of bars per line (system). To format your score in this way there are a couple of options: You can manually adjust the layout of bars: select a barline and press Enter/Return to create a system break You can automatically layout your score with a uniform number of bars per system by using Composition techniques 3: retrograde, augmentation and diminution Open the completed Are You Sleeping? file from earlier activities (or provide a new completed song) Ask students to go to File >Save As and give the new file an appropriate name Ask students: what could we do to change the melody, but keep it connected to the existing one? Discuss/revise common compositional techniques: reverse the shape (inversion), play it backwards (retrograde), condense the rhythm (diminution), expand the rhythm (Augmentation) Students add 4 empty bars at the end of their piece Re- write the song in retrograde (they might like to hand- write it first on manuscript paper) Add another 20 bars to the end of the piece Re- write the song two more times: using diminution (4 bars) and augmentation (16 bars) Play or sing results 8

9 No prior set- up required (students will use the completed file from the previous exercise) Behind the scenes: teacher tips 3 If you re setting up the score as described above, you can take a little shortcut when filling in the variations. Sibelius has a number of Transformations plug- ins that will automatically reverse music (retrograde), double values or halve values. Select the melody, choose the appropriate plug- in and voila, the work is done for you! But shh - don t tell your students Transcription basics 3: adding stems Provide students with a printed Sibelius score which consists of a single- line percussion stave with a rhythm (noteheads only, no stems) Students will add the stems to make the rhythm complete Play/clap the rhythm for the students Students are to add the stems to each note by writing on the printed score Check their answers or reveal the answer by displaying your completed score on a data projector Clap rhythm together Start a new score with a single- line percussion stave and add the correct number of bars (8) Create your rhythm Delete the long and short instrument names at the beginning of each system Select the entire rhythm and change the noteheads to the stemless notehead (notehead 8) Increase the stave size so that it s suitable for students to handwrite on (around 8.5 or larger is good) Adjust the formatting if necessary (4 or 8 bars per system, or whatever best suits your rhythm) Use Plain text to write instructions for the students at the beginning of the score 9

10 How- To Notes: Instructions for Page number Editing part names (instrument names) 6 Changing noteheads 14 Increase stave size Behind the Scenes: teacher tips 4 Optional: you may like to disguise the rhythm further. Sibelius automatically spaces the stemless notes out according to their rhythmic values, but this sometimes means that it s easy to guess what the rhythm should be. You can shift notes horizontally in the bar by using one of the following methods: Click on a note and drag it carefully to the left or right. Don t drag too far or all of the notes will end up on top of one another Alternatively, select a note and then open the Inspector (Sibelius 7) or the Properties window (Sibelius 6 and earlier). Under General, change the X value (click on the down arrow to move the note left, or the up arrow to move the note right) Transcription basics 4: melodic dictation (pitch only) Provide students with a new version of the Sibelius score from the previous exercise: a single- line percussion stave with the completed rhythm and an additional treble/bass staff underneath Play the melody for the students Students can copy the rhythm from the percussion stave to the treble/bass stave and then change the pitch of each note until it matches the melody (or input the melody from scratch using the percussion stave as a guide) Play back the score to check the answer (select the first bar of the melodic part and press P to solo that part) Check their answers or reveal the answer by displaying the answer on a data projector 10

11 Save a copy of your Sibelius score from the previous exercise: single- line percussion stave with the completed rhythm (no stems) Select the entire and change the noteheads back to the normal notehead (with stems notehead number 1) Add a treble (or bass) staff underneath (use the Unnamed Treble Staff instrument in Sibelius) If things are a little squishy in your score, you can reduce the stave size again (back to 7mm or so) Adjust the formatting if necessary (4 or 8 bars per system, or whatever best suits your rhythm) Use Plain text to write instructions for the students at the beginning of the score How- To Notes: Instructions for Adding, deleting or changing the order of instruments Page number 10 Next session During the next session, we ll look at some new activities which reinforce repetition, dynamics, musical style, tempo and writing lyrics and we ll learn some new Sibelius skills along the way. All the best, Katie Wardrobe Midnight Music 11

Sibelius: Tips for Working Effectively

2012 Sibelius: Tips for Working Effectively Katie Wardrobe Midnight Music About Katie...4 Professional development & training...4 In- person training... 4 Online courses... 4 Free tips, tutorials, articles