The first half term for myself and the iMedia team is over, and we have all finished a successful half term teaching our music production course iJam. Throughout the half term, pupils that have started their first year with this course have been introduced to GarageBand, an app that is accessible on apple devices such as our iPads. KS1 children have learnt how to use the app to make a simple song with recorded loops and learnt how a song is structured. By the end of the half term students have a fully produced song. The new KS2 children have learnt even more. As these students have also recorded and played their own choice of instruments using the smart instruments on GarageBand making their own projects unique. I think the pupils I taught at Forefield Primary School enjoyed the smart instruments, especially recording the heavy rock guitars over there songs!
Pupils who are not used to iPad lessons have really enjoyed how creative and innovative this half term has been and it has been a rewarding experience for instructors to see all the pupils go from not knowing about this app to making a full song in the space of a half term.
Pupils who we have been teaching previously have gone even further from this. They moved on to the next level and have been learning about the genre of music, dance. Pupils have been learning how tempo affects the pace of a song and how different beats and instruments affect the type of music that is produced. They’ve also learnt about certain sections within Dance music. For example, at Marlpool Junior School, one of the first lessons they made a house style song including a build-up and a drop. This is personally my favourite lesson on the entire iJam course as the progression in one lesson is astounding. These pupils haven’t been on garageband with us for an academic year and this doesn’t show in their work. Whereas the KS1 children who are on the 2nd level, have learnt about a wide range of genres such as blues, rock and roll, jazz and electronic. They are taught where they come from, how they are different and how to make them on GarageBand.
Pupils on the level 3 learnt all about hip hop music, the origin of the culture and using their already existing GarageBand knowledge to recreate popular hip-hop songs. The 4th level goes even further as children learn all about remixing using their own vocal samples and smart instruments to make a remix of a well-known song.
We would like to thank all of the instructors how have made this a successful term and we have Autumn 2 with iProgram will be just as amazing as this one!