MusicFirst Elementary - New Features in YuStudio - a Web-Based DAW with Movie Scoring Capabilities (Deep Dive Version)
MusicFirst Elementary, powered by Charanga, is a cloud-based curriculum tailored for elementary general music, serving grades K-5 (with intentions to encompass preschool and grade 6). The program offers 36 progressive lessons per grade. When you access MusicFirst Elementary, you will encounter an interactive resource functioning as a virtual textbook. It is accompanied by lesson plans, curriculum guides, assessment resources, and six innovative web-based tools like a drum machine and a digital audio workstation for music composition and video scoring. MFE has been designed and built from the bottom up for the US and the National Core Arts Standards with completely new songs and materials but also utilizing all of Charanga’s vast 25+ years of experience building high-quality interactive music curricula around the world.
New Features in YuStudio - a Web-Based DAW with Movie Scoring Capabilities (Deep Dive Version)
This video gives you an in-depth look at the new features in MFE’s YuStudio, a full-featured, web-based Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) with movie-scoring capabilities, by showing you how to create an ABA template for your students where they will improvise the melody for the B Section.
Loops to Drag to Duplicate Clip
Easily create duplicate loops by dragging the +> at the top right of the selected clip.
Follow the Demonstration:
Let’s try this out with a project we will title “ABA Musical Form” to use with my elementary students. I like to remind my students that when they use YuStudio, click the X and then the hamburger so that it can fill their screens better.
I will create a 2-bar or measure drum track. For bar 1, I will go with the standard bass drum on beats 1 and 3 and snare drum beats on 2 and 4. I will add a closed hi-hat on the eighth notes.
For bar 2, I will create the same bass drum line and change the snare drum sound and the velocity by dragging the velocity slider down. I love that it changes color to show me that the velocity has changed. Add a percussion 1 sound, which is a tambourine, and make its velocity much lighter.
Let’s listen to this.
Now I could loop this by dragging the loop region to two bars or measures and then clicking on the loop button. However, I want to layer in the instruments for this assignment. Therefore, I will create duplicate clips by dragging the +> to eight bars or measures.
You can see that the new feature works well. Let’s try it using a premade loop.
I will click on Sounds>Audio and look for some premade bass loops in the key of G.
I have already chosen the G Glide Riff in the instrument loops. I will double-click to insert it into the region, resize it to fit the drum track, and move it over to bar 3. I will create duplicate loops by dragging the +> to eight bars or measures and then listen to it to balance the sound with the volume sliders. Since I felt it needed a variation, I had this loop alternate with the G Glide loop.
Our final track will be adding a guitar track, but just using ukulele notes on open strings. Notice that the program highlights notes that you can use according to the key that you set. You can also turn off this feature here. Let’s create duplicate loops and let’s also add a crescendo by using the volume automation tool. I am thrilled that another new feature is that we can now resize the automation tool. Resize the height of a track's automation by dragging the line at the bottom of the track head. Let’s also add a little reverb so it sounds like it is in a more lively space.
To finish the template, I will select all and duplicate by pressing the keys Command D on a MAC or Control D on a Chromebook or PC to create an ABA form where the ukulele part will be missing in the B section.
Assigning the Template
To assign it, I will use Yumu, an area of the MusicFirst Elementary platform dedicated to supporting students' music-making with creative tools such as YuStudio and the facility to share content with them. Please check out the link in the description to see a more in-depth video about Yumu and how to set up student groups. A great tip about this is that the students do not need email addresses to have accounts in Yumu!
Performance Improvements
When my fourth graders were using YuStudio earlier this year with a similar project to what I am creating here, they ran into some problems when all 28 of them were using the program on the school internet at the same time. There were latency issues. Some synthesizers and effects can be a bit power-hungry and can cause lower-powered computers, like inexpensive Chromebooks, to struggle. If this happens to you or your students, you can now 'bounce' the track to audio and then deactivate the original track to improve performance. 'Bouncing' converts the track to audio and 'bakes-in' the effects. This allows you to deactivate any effects and synths that may be making your computer struggle.
Bounce full tracks or just clips
Record any audio or instrument track, or just individual parts, to a new audio track. This will include any effects and automation. You can also bounce just a clip.
Deactivate track
Deactivate a track so that none of its clips, instruments, or effects play. This frees up processing power and improves performance. This helps greatly when you have numerous students working in the same program on a school network.
On-screen Keyboard Improvements
Improved highlighting of the selected musical key.
A new piano-style keyboard design.
With this template created and assigned using Yumu, the students will use the onscreen keyboard to improvise a melody in G for the B Section. To do this, they will click on the screen keyboard. I will have them click the “Highlight the Selected Keys” button because it will show them the keys that they can use for this project that is based on the G Major scale. A little tip here is that you have to place the keyboard in a certain place to have G above middle C be tonic of their melody and centered in the screen.
The next step is to have the students use the device’s keyboard view. I like doing this because then all of my learners in my classroom can use the keyboard to improvise their melody. Since not all students have the fine motor skills needed to operate a mouse, using the keyboard or the touchscreen of the device gives a more successful outcome. Plus, the device’s keyboard view shows somewhat of a pentatonic scale, which will be wonderful for the students recording their improvised melody since the pentatonic scale has what many conceive to be a pleasing sound.
Once recorded, have them listen to see if they like it, balance it with the accompaniment, or add effects like a little reverb to it.
Check Back Soon
Check back to deep dive into more of what this has to offer. And if you would like a brief description, check out the MFE #techtiptuesday playlist for shorter, briefer videos of MusicFirst Elementary! The wise folks at MusicFirst Elementary, Powered by Charanga, have crafted an amazing program for your elementary music classroom!