C. Chris Peters - Music Meets Science Education Programs

Interactive Music Technology Show – Assembly Program
Education Range: grades 2 to 12
Duration: 40 to 60 minutes
Content Description: A musical performance using electronic musical instruments and computers controlled by body gestures where audience members get to participate and jam along using a theremin, infrared sensors and touch pad devices.

The Shape of Sound - Classroom Program
Education Range: grades 4 to 12
Duration: 40 minutes
Content Description: A demonstration of how different sound wave shapes and patterns help determine the unique qualities heard in different musical instrument sounds. A synthesizer is used to create various sounds. Students observe waveform patterns on an oscilloscope to see how sound properties like pitch, loudness, timbre affect the sound.

The Not-so-silent Silent Film Show - Assembly Program
Education Range: grades 1 to 12
Duration: 40 minutes
Materials Required: TV or Video projection system
Content Description: Audiences add sound effects to classic silent film clips using instruments made from household items and digital samples. Once they have mastered their queues, live music is added to complete the experience.

Sounds with Stories - Classroom and Library Program
Education Range: grades 3 to 6
Duration: 40 minutes
Content Description: This is storytelling with a sonic twist. Following the traditions of early Radio Theater, students read from a script of a well known classic folk tale and add their own foley sound effects. Digital sound processors are used to change some of the character’s voices and live music is added to complete the experience.

Music and Tessellating Patterns – Classroom Workshop
Education Range: grades 5 to 8
Duration: 90 minutes
Materials Required: pencils, 12”straight edge rulers, compasses, Elmer’s paper glue, oak tag paper strips
Content Description: Students construct their own flexagons out of paper to explore tessellation and use its spiraling patterns to compose music. As students fold their flexagons to expose its various faces, they write down the face numbers they have arrived at. The sequence of face numbers are listed and later used as a basis for chord changes in a song. Their patterns are then played live using a musical keyboard. More advanced students enter their patterns into a musical notation computer application.

Making Didgeridoo Music – Classroom Workshop
Education Range: Grades 3 to 6 – limited to12 students
Duration: 40 to 60 Minutes
Materials Required: cut PVC pipe, sand paper, bee’s candle wax, scissors, colored markers
Content Description: Students make their own didgeridoo musical instruments from PVC pipe and bee’s wax. They learn about the didgeridoo’s long musical history, various expressive blowing techniques, including circular breathing and get to personalize their own instruments using colored markers. The workshop ends with a group jam.

The PC as a Musical Instrument - 6 Week Course
Education Range: Grades 6 to 12 – limited to 12 students
Duration: six 90 minute sessions
Materials Required: computer projector, PC computers running XP service pack 2, 2GB thumb drive
Content Description: Students learn how to compose music, create sound effects and digitally edit sound. This course provides hands-on learning experiences for using the PC as a synthesizer and musical production tool. Students have fun making their own sound effects, edit music recordings, making sounds for video games and slide show presentations. The goal for students is at the end of five weeks is to produce an original three minute work utilizing what they have learned.

Drawing with Sound – Classroom Workshop
Education Range: Grades 6 to 12
Duration: 40 minutes
Materials Required: PC computers running XP service pack 2, 2GB thumb drive
Content Description: Students get opportunities to observe relationships and make comparisons between visual patterns and sound patterns as they use graphical computer applications that allow them to create their own sounds.

Digital Audio Recording and Editing with Audacity – Classroom Workshop
Education Range: Grades 4 to12
Duration: 40 minutes
Materials Required: PC computers running XP service pack 2, 2GB thumb drive, computer microphones
Content Description: Students learn to use Audacity, the computer-based audio editing and recording application, to record and edit their own sounds.

Making Beats - The Art of Digital Percussion – Classroom Workshop
Education Range: Grades 6 to 12
Duration: 40 minutes
Materials Required: PC computers running XP service pack 2, 2GB thumb drive
Content Description: Students learn to use fractions of whole numbers to program real and virtual drum machines and step sequencers to create their own rhythms.

The “Youcanalso”” play the Blues Jam – Classroom Workshop
Education Range: Grades 8 to 12 – limit of 12 students
Duration: 40 to 60 minutes
Materials Required: $5.00 Key of C harmonica, piano
Content Description: Students use popular 12 bar blues chord patterns to explore improvisation and learn about musical scales, intervals and key transpositions. Students are encouraged to bring their own guitars and harmonicas and be ready to jam!

Making Music with Fractals – Classroom Workshop
Education Range: 6 to 12
Duration 40 minutes
Materials Required: computer projector, PC computers running XP service pack 2
Content Description: Students learn about fractal geometry and experiment with making music using various fractal patterns.

Comparative Sound Synthesis Techniques – Classroom Lecture
Education Range: College level
Duration: 90 minutes
Materials Required: computer projector, PC computers running XP service pack 2
Content Description: Students learn the basic concepts behind popular sound synthesis methods used to make musical instrument sounds. The class compares the advantages and disadvantages of FM Synthesis, Wavetable Synthesis, Sampling, Physical Modeling Synthesis, Subtractive Synthesis, Granular Synthesis and Additive Synthesis methods.

Animal Communications with Music – Assembly Program or Classroom Program
Education Range: Grades 1 to 5
Duration: 40 minutes
Materials Required: computer projector
Yes we can talk with animals! Students learn how animals communicate to help them survive and some of their special methods. Along with sound, communication using touch, smell, use of color and, dance are discussed. Synthesizers are used to create whale, bird and insect sounds. Students jam along with music made from animal sounds using simple instruments and their voices.

Synthesizer Lab for Beginners – Classroom Workshop
Education Range: grades 6 to 12 – limited to 12 students
Duration: 90 minutes
Materials Required: PC computers running XP service pack 2, 2GB thumb drive
Content Description: Students learn the basics of subtractive sound synthesis using hardware and software synthesizer instruments and create their own sounds.

Advanced Synthesizer Lab – Classroom Workshop
Education Range: grades 10+ limited to 12 students
Duration: 90 minutes
Materials Required: computer projector, PC computers running XP service pack 2, 2GB thumb drive
Content Description: Experienced students work with modular sound synthesis hardware and software to design their own original sounds.

Roll Your Own Raps – Classroom Workshop
Education Range: grades 4 to 8
Duration: 40 to 60 minutes
Materials Required: PC computers running XP service pack 2, 2GB thumb drive, pencil and paper.
Students are encouraged to use thesauruses and rhyming dictionaries to put their own words to prerecorded looped rhythms and record them on the Audacity audio recording and editing application.

Vocal Synthesis Lab – Classroom Workshop
Education Range: grades 6 to 12
Duration: 40 minutes
Materials Required: PC computers running Windows XP service pack 2, small computer microphones
Content description: Students learn about the human vocal tract, individual vowel sound shapes using the Audacity computer-based recording application. Robotic speech methods are explored using a vocoder and a text-to-speech application.

Intelligent Musical Instrument Terminology & Concepts - Classroom Lecture
Education Range: College
Duration: 40 minutes
Materials Required: computer projector
Content: A lecture about the possibilities of integrating AI and Expert Systems with computer-based musical instrumentation and live musical performances.

The History of Electronic Music – Demonstration and Classroom Lecture
Education Range: 6 to college
Duration: 40 to 60 minutes
Materials Required: computer projector
Content: A lecture about how technology has impacted the development of electronic musical instruments over the past 100 years. There will be demonstrations of a theremin, an analog synthesizer, a digital synthesizer and computer based musical instruments.

Music Meets Science © C.Chris Peters 2010 - cchrispeters.com