50+ Lesson Ideas for The Chrome Music Lab

What is the Chrome Music Lab?

Nearly the Chrome Music Lab

The Chrome Music Lab (CML) – created by Google in 2016 – is a fantastic online resources for music teachers and students.  Information technology's simple to utilize and its main aim is to allow visitors to explore sound and create with sound .

Menu

The Chrome Music Lab is:

  • costless
  • interactive
  • bright and colorful
  • works on any device
  • simple to use

The CML has thirteen different areas to explore – known as "experiments" and each 1 has a different focus.  The experiments are:

  • Song Maker
  • Rhythm
  • Spectrogram
  • Chords
  • Sound Waves
  • Arpeggios
  • Kandinsky
  • Melody Maker
  • Voice Spinner
  • Harmonics
  • Pianoforte Roll
  • Oscillators
  • Strings

How can I use CML with my students?

Each experiment in the CML is super-useful for introducing or reinforcing a music/sound concept.  I love the idea of using it as a starting point for a topic – a springboard activeness which is followed past the rest of your lesson or unit of measurement of work.

The CML has limitations (for instance, y'all can't export or download work), but I don't think this should be seen equally a negative.  It'south just something to be aware of and yous can plan your lesson accordingly. Some of the experiments permit students to relieve a link to their work so they can come back and continue at a later stage, but many of them are designed to be used "on the spot".

The CML Lab will work no matter how many devices yous accept access to:

  • Just one device: plug your laptop, Chromebook or iPad into a information projector with speakers fastened and so you can use the CML with your class as a grouping
  • Shared devices: students tin work in groups and collaborate while using the CML
  • One-to-one devices (i:1): students tin can work individually on the CML experiments

How are other teachers using the Chrome Music Lab?

There are a collection of tweets showing how other teachers are using the CML here.

Songmaker

Songmaker

How to use:

Create a song by clicking notes into the filigree.  The elevation section of the grid can be used for high notes, and the lower section of the filigree for low notes.  There are ii rows of dots at the bottom for creating a rhythmic pattern.

Good to know:

  • Change the playback audio and tempo with the options at the bottom of the screen
  • Click on Settings to alter the scale, length of the song, range of notes, time signature and more
  • You tin utilize the mic to tape notes into Songmaker
  • You can save or share a link to your song
  • Fix up templates or partially completed songs ahead of your lesson to save fourth dimension during class

A few lesson ideas:

  1. Recreate a song you take learnt in form (you lot can provide the starting note for the students)
  2. Etch a tune using the pentatonic calibration (you can change the scale in the Settings expanse)
  3. As a class, compose a bassline ostinato using the lower department of notes and and so play it on classroom instruments (or sing it).
  4. Demonstrate visually melodies that motion by step or leaps
  5. Compose simple rhythmic patterns in two parts
  6. Ask students to create a design that demonstrates high vs low pitches
  7. Explore unlike meters and crush subdivisions (y'all can adjust these in Settings)

Rhythm

How to use:

Click in the filigree to see two animated characters play rhythms meters of 3, four, 5, and 6.

Expert to know:

  • Add sounds past clicking on the filigree
  • Remove a sound by clicking on it once more
  • Switch to each new meter by clicking the correct or left arrow
  • Each meter uses unlike instruments

A few lesson ideas:

  1. Select a meter and remove the existing rhythmic pattern.  Students can then create their own pattern on the grid. This could be done as a group or individually
  2. Printing play and enquire students to keep the beat – they could clap or walk to the beat – while CML plays the rhythm
  3. Select a meter and ready a uncomplicated rhythm. Ask the students to all clap the acme line/part only.  Then ask them to clap the second line/part. Divide the students into ii groups and ask half to play the top line and the other half to play the second line/part.  Add in a third part and carve up the students into iii groups to play the three rhythms
  4. Enquire students to work out which instruments play each horizontal role in the grid beneath the characters (ie. in the 3 meter, the bottom  line is played by the low timpani drum)
  5. Older students can create a rhythm and then – on a piece of paper or in a separate app – notate the rhythm on a percussion staff using traditional annotation

Complimentary LESSON Programme:

Download a gratis lesson plan – Explore Rhythm and Meter with the Chrome Music Lab .

Spectrogram

How to use:

Spectrogram shows a visual pic of the frequencies that make up audio.  Choose an instrument or sound source from the buttons at the lesser of the screen to compare spectrograms of different sounds.

Proficient to know:

  • You lot can tape your own sound using the microphone
  • You can draw freely on the screen to create abstract sounds

A few lesson ideas:

  1. Choose two sound sources and write downwards three differences between each of the spectrograms for those sounds
  2. Inquire students what loud sounds await similar on the spectrogram? How near tranquility sounds?
  3. Click on the microphone and say (or sing) "aah", then say/sing "eee".  How does the spectrogram alter? Try an "ooh" sound and compare that to the "ah" and "eee" sounds.  Other interesting sounds to endeavor: "yard", "ba", "ssss", "shhhh"
  4. If yous accept already used the Harmonics and Oscillators experiments with your students you could ask them whether they can run across the fundamental and overtones in the spectrogram prototype.  Which sound sources produce the most overtones?
  5. Display the Spectrogram on your data projector during vocal warm-ups in choir rehearsal.  Click on the microphone and let the choir members see a visual representation of the exercises they are singing.  A great way to keep everyone eng aged!

Chords

Chords

How to employ:

Cull a note on the keyboard to see a 3-note triad based on that note

Skilful to know:

  • Switch between major and modest using the toggle button beneath the keyboard

A few lesson ideas:

  1. Use Chords as a visual guide when introducing the concept of triads to students
  2. Display Chords on the data projector during class and choose one of the notes on the keyboard.  Enquire i of the students to identify the two other notes that volition make up the triad. Then ask them to click/tap the root notation to bank check their answer
  3. Use the major/minor toggle switch to bear witness students the departure between a major or minor chord based on the same root no te

Sound Waves

Sound Waves

How to use:

Play a note on the keyboard to come across a visual representation of the way in which a audio moving ridge travels through air molecules.

Good to know:

  • Zoom in using the magnifying drinking glass to see a cherry-red line tracing the shape of the wave created by i note

A few lesson ideas:

  1. Play a depression annotation and inquire students to describe the way the air molecules move. Are they moving dull or fast? What happens when you play a high note? Are they moving faster or slower than the low annotation?
  2. Zoom in using the magnifying glass and play a low note.  Describe the waveform of a low note. Play a high note and describe the waveform at present – is it different to the low annotation?
  3. Open Oscillators on a separate tab or on another device and play a low frequency.  How does the waveform in the oscillator character's mouth compare to the audio moving ridge produced by a low notation in the Audio Waves experiment?

Arpeggios

Arpeggios

How to use:

Click on a chord on the coloured wheel to play a single major or pocket-size arpeggio.  Press the play button to hear the selected chord play in the pattern shown at the top of the screen.

Good to know:

  • You can apply the arrows to change the playback pattern to one of five variations
  • There are options to change the playback audio from harp to piano
  • You lot can alter the tempo using the metronome push button

A few lesson ideas:

  1. Enquire students to ascertain what a chord is in music.  Click on the letter names in the circumvolve to hear chords.  And then talk over what an arpeggio is – a chord that is broken up into individual notes that are played one afterwards the other. Press the play push button to hear CML play different types of arpeggio patterns
  2. Select one chord and and then play the arpeggio that appears on the screen on a keyboard, guitar or other instrument.  Switch to a dissimilar arpeggio way and play that one, Continue through all the arpeggio style options
  3. Use the chord wheel to demonstrate visually when chord changes occur in a song. For example, play the mutual pop song chord progression of I, V, vi, Iv (as shown in this Axis Of Crawly YouTube clip ). Select a key – such as C major – and ask students to work out which chord is chord I, which one is chord Five, which one is vi and which one is Iv for that cardinal.  They tin then printing the Play button, choose i of the playback styles and click on each chord in fourth dimension to create a bankroll using that sequence
  4. Utilise the chord bike to experiment with different different combinations of chord sequences for the purposes of songwriting

Kandinsky

Kandinsky

How to use:

The artist Wassily Kandinsky compared painting to making music. In this experiment yous can depict shapes, lines and scribbles on the screen and hear them turn into sound.

Practiced to know:

  • Different shapes brand different types of sounds. Try circumvolve and triangle!
  • Click on a drawing to hear it play back
  • Press the play button to hear your entire painting
  • Vertical placement changes the pitch of a notation or timbre of the audio.  Try cartoon 3 triangles in a cavalcade to hear 3 different percussive sounds
  • Use the coloured circle to the left of the play button to change the sounds

A few lesson ideas:

  1. Young students tin can draw a pic on a slice of newspaper using 3 or 4 shapes/lines. They can then recreate (copy) their picture in the Kandinsky experiment and printing play to hear the drawing.   Enquire the students: does your picture sound the way you expected? What practise you lot like nigh the sound of your flick? Anything you would modify?
  2. Describe a picture on the screen and play it dorsum with the dissimilar sound/colour options – which one do you like the best? Why?
  3. Depict some horizontal lines on the screen at unlike heights – what'due south the difference between the lines drawn at the bottom of the screen and those drawn in the center or the top of the screen?
  4. Ask students to draw a triangle in the eye of the screen.  What sound does information technology brand? Tin yous recognise the instrument? What happens when you depict another triangle above the first one?  Does it sound the aforementioned or different? Exercise yous recognise the musical instrument? Effort a third triangle low down on the screen
  5. Draw a circle on the screen – what happens? Can y'all describe ii more than circles that make higher or lower sounds than your starting time circle?
  6. Cantankerous-curricular opportunity: learn almost Kandinsky the artist in this biography written specially for kids and/or create some art projects like these ones .

Melody Maker

Melody Maker

How to use:

The Melody Maker allows students to create a single-line tune using graphic-mode notation which represents time (from left to right) and pitch (up and downward).

Skilful to know:

  • Tune Maker is a simplified version of the Songmaker mentioned earlier.  Tune Maker does not allow you to alter the calibration, range or beat subdivision
  • Playback the melody you take created by pressing the play button at the bottom of the screen
  • Change the tempo or add indistinguishable notes using the other options

A few lesson ideas:

  1. Recreate a song you have learnt in course (y'all can provide the starting note for the students)
  2. Compose an ostinato and play it back on tuned percussion or Boomwhackers (the notation colours on the screen roughly match those of the Boomwhackers!)
  3. Demonstrate visually a melody that that moves by step or leaps
  4. Demonstrate high vs depression pitches

Voice Spinner

Voice Spinner

How to utilise:

Elevate the slider left or right to hear the Vocalization Spinner recording played slow, fast, forward or astern.

Skilful to know:

  • Click on the microphone to tape your own sounds: melodies, spoken sentences or other sounds effectually you

A few lesson ideas:

  1. Ask students to note that as the slider is moved left or right the pitch changes.  Where on the line is the pitch of the audio at its everyman?
  2. When you move the slider all the way to the right or all the way to the left, the spinner moves more than rapidly. What happens to the pitch of the sound when it moves more quickly?  What nigh when it spins slowly?

Harmonics

Harmonics

How to use:

Harmonics shows you a set of frequencies consisting of a primal and the overtones related to it by an exact fraction – twice as fast, three times as fast, four times as fast and so on.

Skillful to know:

  • Click and concur (or tap and concur) to hear the sustained pitch

A few lesson ideas:

  1. Use the CML Harmonics to explain to students that the timbre of different instruments is afflicted by the overtones – or harmonic serial – that the instrument produces.  CML Harmonics visually demonstrates the mathematical relationship between the fundamental and the overtones. If you accept older students, this video by Paul Davids offers a great explanation
  2. Play the cardinal and ask students to piece of work out which notation it is (F3). Then ask them to work out the remaining pitches as played past the harmonics on the screen
  3. Ask students to determine the frequency value of the key and each of the overtones
  4. Open the CML Spectrogram experiment in another tab (or on another device) and ask students if they can see the harmonic serial in the spectrogram for the flute, the harp, the trombone and the vino glass.  What differences exercise they notice between each one?

Piano Whorl

Piano Roll

How to use:

Inspired by the roll of paper you feed into a pianola, the Piano Whorl  experiment allows y'all to view a graphic note version of a number of well-known pieces.

Proficient to know:

  • Change the music choice past using the left and right arrows next to the play button
  • Change the playback sound by clicking on the piano or wave buttons
  • Record your ain playback audio with the microphone. Short sounds work really well – endeavour a cough, a single sung annotation, a handclapping or a dog bark!

A few lesson ideas:

  1. Group activity with older students: before pressing play, enquire them if they can approximate the piece of music showing on the screen.  Switch the choice by clicking on the pointer
  2. Use the correct arrow to motion through to the tertiary piece in the Piano Roll experiment (Beethoven'south 5th Symphony).  Ask immature students to find examples of the post-obit: a repeated note, a grouping of notes that move by stride, a long note, a rest, a short annotation, a grouping of notes that move in an upward direction, a grouping of notes that move in a downward direction
  3. Just for fun! Click on the microphone and record a domestic dog bark then play back the piece on the screen

Oscillators

Oscillators

How to apply:

Click/tap and hold on the oscillator character on the screen to hear information technology "sing" a frequency.  Elevate your mouse/finger up or down to alter the frequency value (and the shape of the grapheme!).

Good to know:

  • Employ the arrow keys to change the oscillator type
  • To hear a very wearisome oscillator, click/tap and concord the bottom of the screen

A few lesson ideas:

  1. Ask students: does a small frequency value (number) produce a low sound or a high sound? Does a large frequency value (number) produce a depression sound or a high sound?
  2. Ask students what they observe about the wave form that shows in the mouth of each oscillator: what does it look similar when you lot play a high note? What does information technology look similar when you play a low annotation?
  3. Older students: click and hold on the bottom part of the screen, listen to the note and write downward of the frequency number.  They tin then multiply that number by two and attempt to make their oscillator play the resulting frequency value (information technology's difficult to make information technology play precisely the right one!).  What practice they notice about pitches of the two frequency values? What is the interval between the two? (hint: they should be an octave apart)
  4. Each of the oscillator types has a unique audio or timbre.  Write down 2-3 words to describe each ane

Strings

Strings

How to use:

Click on a cord to explore the mathematical relationship between the length of a cord and its pitch.

Good to know:

  • Click merely 1 of the sections on the 2d, third, 4th, fifth or sixth strings to hear what happens to the pitch when the original string length is divided into smaller lengths

A few lesson ideas:

  1. STEAM lesson: have students create their own stringed instruments to demonstrate the correlation between string length and pitch. This Youtube video shows how you can create a simple stringed instrument using a cardboard box, a safe band and two pens (see below): STEAM lesson
  2. Exit a existent stringed instrument (such equally a ukulele, guitar, violin, viola or cello) and have the students work out how to produce a depression sound and a high audio

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Hello! I'm Katie Wardrobe – an Australian music technology trainer and consultant with a passion for helping music teachers through my business Midnight Music .

I'm a qualified instructor simply no, I don't currently teach in a school. I help teachers through my online professional development space – the Midnight Music Customs – where there are tutorial videos, courses, links and downloadable resources.

I like to focus on easy ways to incorporate technology into what you are already doing in your music curriculum through a range of artistic projects.  I also run live workshops and accept presented at countless conferences and other music education events.

If you want elementary, effective ideas for using technology in music didactics, I would LOVE to assist you lot inside the Midnight Music Community. Learn more and take a sneak peek inside

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