Last week in my second MTeach lecture I talked about a progression of software to match the progression of compositional skills. So perhaps we might start composing in GarageBand or Acid by juxtaposing loops to learn about texture, tone colour and stucture, and then progress to improvising over the top in a sequencer like Logic, Cakewalk or Cubase.
I also suggested that a good midway point between looping and full sequencing is step-sequencing, because students can continue working with loops (ostinati) but actually construct them themselves without needing to ‘perform’ them in as they would with a sequencer (we’ll demonstrate this in a later lecture with Reason and O-Generator).
Today I found a step sequencer on the internet that changes loop based on where you put Lego blocks! Perhaps this is a first step sequencer for primary aged children?! It would be interesting to see what they made of it…
James Humberstone 