Devin shows Music Blocks STEAM fair in Somerville
Bringing a capital “A” (as in Art and Music) to a local STEAM fair (as well as STEM), Music Blocks co-creator, Devin Ulibarri, was invited to the Kennedy school in Somerville, MA via Artisan’s Asylum (a nearby makerspace) outreach. He showed Music Blocks to many eager elementary and middle school children.
On average, students spent just a few minutes each trying Music Blocks (there were many different activities at the fair). The kids experimented with some of the basics of coding via the visual programming language. Devin tried to convey at least one concept to interested students (e.g. rhythm, pitch, programming logic, etc.).
Students explore pitch over time:
Devin took a brief moment to capture the image published above as they explored pitch over time with the Pitch-Time Matrix. The student in the middle started with a melodic line in the Pitch-Time Matrix, then added clusters of notes around the melodic line, then expanded all the clusters until the entire Pitch-Time Matrix was full. Many students have tried this before, which opens up the inquiry “Does it sound good to have all the notes–and the same notes–playing simultaneously (and consecutively)? Do you like it? What effect does it have? And how does this differ from having a single note at a time, with a clear contour?” This inquiry can open up important investigations about music and coding! I hope that the students continue to try Music Blocks.
Teachers learning from the students:
After the fair, Devin made a proposal for some improvements to Music Blocks. Student interaction with the program has greatly informed our development. Special thanks to the kids for their continued input–we learn a lot from you and your opinions!
