Week 1 Entry 2: Music + Design

I currently teach Graphic Design I and II.  My class focuses on creativity and the ability to express your ideas through graphic design. Implementing Film and Music into the classroom can easily reinforce various aspects of your lesson.  In this video, I will present how I currently use film & music in my classroom.

 

One of the projects that I assign begins when students are given an mp3 file of a song that I have chosen. They are not given the name of the artist or the name of the song and they are not allowed to let any other student listen to that particular song. Then each student is given the freedom to create a design that they believe best represents the song they were given. Once all designs are completed and printed, students pin the designs on the board and I play each individual song for everyone to hear. As a class we try and determine which design fits each song, and the student can then explain the relationship between the song and the design. 

By providing music into my lesson, I would be offering a different strategy for presenting the same information. For example, by creating a song about graphic design principles, students would now have access to the key points referenced in a song, written descriptions and PowerPoint slides.  Along with my mini lectures and objective overviews, applying music as an asset seems to only hold positive impacts for my students. The only problem now being, how will I create original music for my lessons?

One of the difficulties for teachers who are musically disinclined can be solved by what is referred to as “piggyback” songs. This would include developing words over an already existing melody. Maxwell (n.d.) offers some light-hearted examples of possible songs pertaining to the design field, which is a good way to jump start my own ideas. Applying kinesthetic movements to follow music might also help develop memorization in the classroom. For my class this might mean acting out the attributes of individual design tools such as glyphs, stroke, brushes and effects while the song describes them.

Maxwell, M. (n.d.). Songs about design. Retrieved November 3, 2009, from http://www.mattmaxwelldesign.com/minstrel/index.html