I am a professional Singer/Songwriter/performer and music educator.Im formally trained in Hindustani classical vocals,and Pop/Rock guitar player helping me bridge the western music curriculum with non-western forms of music. As an educator, I develop and contextualise the music curriculum for synchronous and asynchronous teaching modalities which are based on diversity, multiculturalism and inclusivity.
I employ progressive teaching skills and philosophies in my classroom. I have seven years+ of extensive experience in IBMYP and DP music, with a special focus on songwriting, performance and music technology.
The ZIS Halloween Composing Project
While instrumental prowess and interpretive abilities are often hailed as paramount for musicians, the art of composition holds a special significance that liberates students and empowers them through artistic expression, cultivation of musicality, creative thinking, personal growth, artistic development and original thinking, and prepares them for effective collaboration and communication.Keeping these in mind, what started as a regular composing unit for most classes this year, was shaped up to become the ZIS Halloween Composing Project, which not only became a platform to encourage budding composers at ZIS, but also gave many students a voice that could have been drowned with the emphasis on performance histrionics.
Students were introduced to the world of horror film scoring with the likes of Hanz Zimmer, Danny Elfman, John Williams, James Horner, Bernard Herrman among others and asked to research and present what were the special qualities about this music that made us feel scared. They were then introduced to how some composers compose their music and some skills and techniques to compose spooky music. After a few inquiry based lessons, students were introduced to Indian classical scales called raags, some Chinese pentatonic scales and other exotic scales like the whole note scale, which evoke perceptions of horror and fear. Each of the notes were assigned numbers and then students were asked to compose their own multiple 8 note patterns, with some notes being repetitive. Students were told about the possibility of their compositions being played all over the school during Halloween and that motivated them.
After having created their main melody on Musescore, a notation based composing app, students exported their melody as an audio file and imported them into Bandlab, a browser based digital audio workstation (DAW). The teacher demonstrated how to add instruments, harmony, rhythm and post-production effects like volume automation, equalisation, reverb, compression, fade in, fade outs, to enhance the melody and complement it with other textures, making it sound more professional and complete.
The task expectations were set from easy to difficult according to year levels. More instruments, more harmony, more textures and even inclusion of sound effects were being used by students to add more colors and layers of complexity to their compositions. The students pushed themselves, and inspired by their own progress, made wonderful submissions for this project. Eventually, on the day of Halloween, most of the compositions were played on the speakers in every room in PYP and MYP and in the Foyer, and created such an incredible ambience, that was perfectly suitable for a scary Halloween.
World Music Pedagogy: Composing with Numbers and Patterns
Below are some student learning engagements through some examples.
