#How to make music with blob opera how to

I hope this helps spring some ideas for you and I have a feeling Blob Opera isn’t done adding songs or features, so stay tuned on the new ways you and your learners will be able to interact with this web app.Ī version of this blog post is being republished in the forthcoming book, Technology for Unleashing Creativity, set for release in 2022.Ever wondered about the crazy things we could do with machine learning. TranscribingĮither by using a pre-set piece or by composing one, have learners transcribe the parts into a standard notation of their choice. After you record the parts together on Blob Opera, you can take out parts and add them back in when needed. Input the part into Blob Opera with a MIDI device and record it. Use it to introduce or advance part singing. Use the arrangements provided with the app or use your own. Try not to use “right” and “wrong,” instead talk about why something sounded the way it did, because if it sounds good, it is probably fine. Figure out what chords the blobs are singing and analyze what they are doing. I’m not an expert in common-practice period theory but this app definitely sounds like it attempts to follow those rules. Another popular machine learning music app by Google is the Bach Google Doodle.

#How to make music with blob opera how to

Learn about machine learning and how to program their own musical experiments using Scratch or start a crash course in Google Machine Learning and guide learners through the machine learning process. There is a bit of a delay from when the controller is pressed to when the blob makes the sound but it is pretty consistent and something they could get used to using. Or using a click track and a MIDI controller they could play each part separately (more advanced) and record each part into Audacity with the Loopback feature or a tab recorder like Chrome Audio Capture and arrange their work into a DAW. To create the effect of a repeated note, change the vowel sound. Using their ears or a written melody part, users can input the melody by dragging the mouse (to get the harmonies) and record it when they feel ready. Voice TypesĬhoirs new to four-part harmony or voice types might find it useful to play with some of the ranges on this to explore the tendencies of each basic voice type. Ear training and learning by ear are much more effective on one’s own instrument. Use a MIDI controller to help regulate how loud a particular harmony is. The user has the ability to isolate parts within a chord and within the pre-set songs too by turning off particular parts or ‘soloing’ out others.

Use Blob Opera to help find inner harmonies. This can be a great way to introduce blending in a choir by illustrating the idea clearly. You can achieve all different vowel sounds with a MIDI device using different velocities. The blob opera makes it pretty obvious when one of the blobs is not on the same vowel as the others. Turn on the arpeggiator on your MIDI device and watch what happens! By the way: the blobs are touch sensitive, so the softest touch on your MIDI device will be ‘oooo,’ and the heaviest will be ‘AH.’ 9 Ways to Use Blob Opera in your Lesson Planning Blend and Vowel Formation An incredible learning opportunity for a young choir. The user will have to be comfortable with ranges because each blob will take over if the user is in their range and if there is overlap, there will be a bit of a fight for which blob sings. Once the MIDI controller is in, all the chromatic notes become available. Plug in a MIDI controller and things get different.

Learners could plan out a melody and find those pitches in Blob Opera and compose a short piece of music with them. This app defaults to an A major tonality and lets the user play with a melody within the parameters of those pitches. We often think that a composition has to be written out, but it just needs to be recorded in some form, and that can be an audio recording. It gives the user the ability to record a composition. It has the potential to enable creativity, and can give learners the opportunity to play with the concepts of not only composition, but also arranging, blend and vowel formation, ear training, voice types and ranges, computer programming, and even theory! Here are some ideas for including Blob Opera into your lesson plans. It’s fun, right? This online machine-learning app is more than just a fun time filler. So, you’ve learned about Google’s new Blob Opera.