Beat Makers: Composing with Music Technology

You need: headphones · a short track (60–90 seconds) · a layer-map page with four rows: beat, bass, chords, melody

1. Listen once just to enjoy it.
2. Listen again focusing only on the drums. Mark on your map where they start, stop or change.
3. Listen for the bass: the lowest sound. Hum it quietly. Mark where it plays.
4. Listen for chords and melody. Which part would you hum later? That is the hook.
5. Compare maps with a partner. Where do layers drop out, and what does that do to the energy?

How you'll know: Your map shows when each layer comes in and drops out, and you can explain what the track's texture does at its biggest moment.

Safety: Keep headphones at 60% volume or less.

Go further: Map a track from a different genre (a film cue, a kapa haka recording, a gospel choir) and compare how the jobs are shared out.

You need: recordings of 'Poi E' and 'E Tū' (NZ On Screen) · a taonga pūoro recording · a three-column page: Hear / Think / Wonder

1. Listen to 'Poi E' once for enjoyment.
2. Listen again and write only what you hear: instruments, voices, the beat, the language.
3. Write what you think the musicians wanted to say, with a clue from the music for each idea.
4. Repeat with 'E Tū' and the taonga pūoro piece.
5. Write questions you would ask the musicians or a taonga pūoro player to understand the music properly.

How you'll know: Your notes separate what you can hear from what you are guessing, and you can link one musical choice to what was happening in Aotearoa at the time.

Go further: Read the Te Ara page on Māori and Pacific music in the 1980s and 1990s and add one more song to the class timeline.

You need: Chrome Music Lab Song Maker or Ableton Learning Music · headphones · your mood sentence

1. Set up a grid of four beats per bar. Put a low drum (kick) on beats 1 and 3 and a clap (snare) on 2 and 4.
2. Add a hi-hat or light tap on every half beat.
3. Save the link. Now make two more versions: one slower, one faster.
4. In one version, move a single kick to an off-beat (between the counts). Does it feel more like it swings or stumbles?
5. Choose the version that best fits your mood and write one sentence explaining why.

How you'll know: You have three saved beats at different tempos and can explain how tempo and rhythm changed the feel.

Safety: Take a 2-minute ear break every 20 minutes; headphones at 60% volume or less.

Go further: Build a beat in 3/4 time (three beats in a bar) and compare how it moves.

You need: a keyboard or on-screen keyboard · Song Maker or Learning Music chords · three listeners

1. Build C major, G major, A minor and E minor using 'play one, miss one, play one, miss one, play one' from the root.
2. Make a major loop: C–G–C–G (tonic and dominant). Make a minor loop: Am–Em–Am–Em.
3. Write a short melody of four to six notes and play it over each loop.
4. Ask three listeners, without telling them which is which: which version feels brighter, darker, more tense, more hopeful?
5. Tally the answers and choose the loop that fits your track's mood.

How you'll know: Listeners mostly hear the mood change you expected, and you can name which chords are major and minor.

Go further: Try C–G–Am–F, then Am–F–C–G. Same four chords, different order: what changes?

You need: a phone or tablet with a voice recorder · a partner · a list of three sounds to find

1. Plan three sounds linked to your context (a door, footsteps on gravel, rain, a tūī, a basketball bounce).
2. Find a quiet moment. Hold the device still, 20–50 cm from the source, and record 5–10 seconds.
3. Say nothing while recording. Record each sound twice.
4. Listen back and keep the cleanest version. Name the file: sound, place, date.
5. Add one sound to your track: as a drum hit, as a background texture, or as a signature sound in the intro.

How you'll know: You have at least three clean recordings, named and credited, and one of them has a clear musical job in your track.

Safety: Record in pairs, inside the school grounds or on a supervised walk. Stay away from roads, cliffs and surf. Only record people's voices with their permission.

Go further: Pitch one sample up or down (or play it faster or slower) to make a new instrument, and describe how it changes the mood.

You need: your chord loop · a keyboard or on-screen keyboard · your beat

1. Write the name of each chord in your loop (for example C, G, Am, F).
2. Find the root of each chord (C, G, A, F) in the low part of the keyboard.
3. Play each root once at the start of each chord change, low down. Listen with the chords.
4. Now give the bass a rhythm that locks with the kick drum.
5. Mute and unmute the bass. What is missing without it?

How you'll know: Your bass line changes when the chords change and locks with the kick drum, and you can hear how thin the track is without it.

Go further: Add one passing note between two roots so the bass walks from one chord to the next.

You need: A3 paper or the arrangement template · coloured pens (one colour per layer) · your track

1. Draw a timeline across the page and split it into sections: intro, main, build, drop or chorus, outro.
2. Colour in which layers play in each section. Aim for few layers at the start and the most at the drop.
3. Mark where your signature sample appears.
4. Build the track in the tool section by section, following the map.
5. Play it through. Where does the energy stall? Adjust the map and the track.

How you'll know: The track follows a clear structure you can point to on the map, and a listener can tell when the biggest moment arrives.

Go further: Add a moment of near-silence (one layer only) just before the drop, and test whether it makes the drop hit harder.

You need: headphones · a speaker or laptop speakers · the old and new version links · a listener

1. Solo each layer (play it alone) and listen for clashes or sounds that are too loud.
2. Set levels: beat and bass solid, chords softer, hook clear on top.
3. Listen on headphones, then on a speaker. Fix anything that disappears on one of them.
4. Play the old and the new version to a listener without saying which is which.
5. Ask: which one makes you feel the mood more? Write down what they say.

How you'll know: Your hook is clear on both headphones and a speaker, and you have a listener's evidence about whether your changes worked.

Safety: Start playback quietly and turn up slowly; keep to the 60/60 guide.

Go further: Place two layers left and right (panning) if your tool allows, and describe the effect.