For the class I missed in early October while traveling to GameSoundCon, I asked my students to watch some of my videos (linked in the right sidebar) about Leitmotifs in Final Fantasy 7, idée fixe in Super Mario World, and musical form in Super Mario Bros and then answer some questions about what they saw. The class is also a pilot trial of Canvas for UM, so I used that to administer the quizzes while I was away. It worked pretty well, except that-- as least, at of my writing-- it's not possible to have an audio file be an answer in a multiple choice quiz question in Canvas. The tech staff gave me a workaround, but it wasn't as streamlined and didn't allow the level of control I was hoping for. For instance: I want to have the question: "which of these themes is NOT one of the Leitmotifs discussed in the video" where A, B, C, and D are audio files with a maximum of two plays each. Seems basic to me, and I think language teachers would see advantages of this as well. However, not possible. The challenges of modern music teaching...
I tried out a new class on South Park: Stick of Truth that went very much in line with my blog entry about playing the game. I'm thinking more strongly about the connection between my blogging and teaching this semester, and am seeing the powerful connection between the two. Using my blog this way was a big moment for me because it was the first time that I realized my notes here are easy and convenient ways for me to construct lesson plans for game music class. Most of the time, I've got links to the audio and all my notes on the game's audio are collected right here. Super convenient for creating a lecture. Now, even though I enjoyed creating the class, I'm not sure I'll do a SoT class again because the material is racy. Teaching this course is always a balance between finding modern games and franchises that the students know while keeping the material appropriate for the classroom.
We had a photographer come to class to get some pictures for UM's biannual magazine, Muse. (I'll throw the link up once it's out.) VGM will be getting a little publicity in the Winter edition. I asked several members of the class who have created games to show them during the class period so that we could hear and react to their audio. Really an interesting exercise that's valuable for these game creators as they get feedback about their creations, and also for the students in class who have never made a game --and may never-- because they see their peers' creativity and the work that goes into it. Really awesome discussions this day. Also, note to self: brilliant toss to the students regarding the photo op. It's always better to showcase them!
Last week, we covered music games (Parappa, Vib Ribbon, DDR, Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Wii Music, etc) and "live" performance of game audio via YouTube. This took the form of a "party" day where we watched a few videos of Smooth McGroove and other game music covers before seeing a chunk of a Video Games Live concert. I baked cookies for them. 97 cookies for this class! Also encouraged the students to dress up (as is the fashion with game music shows) and a couple of students wanted to take a picture with me afterward as we were all Zelda related.
This Tuesday I did an in-class tutorial about creating audio with GarageBand. Not that GB is the greatest software, but it's prevalent, free, and user friendly. Also, it's fairly common for students to have used GB either through their own experimentation or in a high school music class. Experience tells me that some will use other software: Logic, Ableton, ProTools, and FL Studio come to mind as professional level tools some serious music lovers in class will learn/already know. I've also had students work with an online chip tune music program, or a DS music maker and these work just fine too. My point in asking the students to create game audio is in part to realize that game audio can be anything. New theme songs for Pac-Man? Great. Beach Boys sound-a-like to avoid licensing fees for BioShock 7? Awesome. Get creative.
Tomorrow we'll have our last Skype conversation of the semester with Alexander Brandon. It's awesome to talk with a game composer at the point when the students are thinking about their own projects. I know the discussion will be great. Really looking forward to it.
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