Creating+Music

=http://www.creatingmusic.com/=

AUTHORITY
Creatingmusic.com was copyrighted in 1999. The author of this site is Morton Subotnick who is a publisher of the books __Making Music__ and __Making More Music__. Both of these books are designed for elementary general music students. The website is designed with the same audience in mind. Credentials other than Subotnick’s publications are not mentioned on the site.

INSTRUCTIONAL CONTENT
Creatingmusic.com consists of six sections: 1) musical sketch pads, 2) rhythm band, 3) games and puzzles, 4) cartoon conductor, 5) playing (with) music, and 6) melodic contours. All six sections are simple enough for any age elementary student to use. Older students could certainly use this site as well, although they may find it too childish. The different activities are accessible without knowledge of music notation.

The musical sketch pads and rhythm band sections allow the user to compose their own work by placing different buttons in different places on a sort of staff. A few different instrument sounds are available and students may also adjust the tempo of their work.

The game challenges students to recognize same and different. A more difficult version of the game also asks the children to determine how it is different (reversed, inverted, faster, slower, higher, lower). The puzzle has a few different melodies to play. Students are asked to place mini-phrases in the right place to make their melody match the one that was played. Once again, all of this is done with shapes and symbols rather than music notation. Visual and aural representations are used.

The cartoon conductor allows children to move the mouse cursor around an animated cartoon. As the cursor hits various points in the picture, music is played to match what the cartoon character is doing.

Playing (with) music refers to the children being able to experiment with tempo, dynamics, and scales in given music examples.

The melodic contours section introduces students to the shape of a melody, which is represented by cartoon pictures. Children can alter the pictures which changes the contour of the melody.

National Standards potentially addressed by this site:

3) Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments 4) Composing and arranging music within specified guidelines 6) Listening to, analyzing, and describing music

PURPOSE, VIEWPOINT
The author includes a section which describes his purpose for creating the site. He explains that he wanted to make a website where students could creatively play with music and musical elements. His concern is that written music notation may get in the way of young people who want to approach music like they explore their world in various other forms of play.

Subotnick’s books and CD-ROMS are available for purchase on the site. It is not clear how much of a motivation this is for the existence of the site. However, it seems that the free use of this site represents an effort on the author’s part to allow many children to creatively play with music.

REPUTATION
Many public school music department websites and music technology class websites link to creatingmusic.com.

OVERALL EVALUATION
This is a very effective site for accomplishing the author’s goal – allowing young children to creatively play with music. The melodic contour section and the games/puzzles also offer some learning experiences for the students who are playing. The only disappointment to me is that more activities are not available. It would be nice if the author could update the page a little bit, both in visual appearance and in the amount of activities on the page.

Rating ***

//Reviewed by Stacey Kolthammer, April 11, 2006//