Music video games (such as Guitar Hero and Rockband) which simulate playing different musical instruments have become massively popular. In this studio, we’re taking it a step further and building our own!

Whether it involves singing, dancing, or playing musical instruments, students will design and build these interactive games from scratch. The games will not only involve audio interaction with musical scores or individual songs, but will also feature visual feedback that leads the player through the games. The games can cover a multitude of genres, including music memory games, sight-reading music games, rhythm games, music art games, generative music games, or reactive music games. The limit is whatever the students can think up!

Focus skills/areas/technologies:

• Music production and remixing
• Electronic music history
• Garageband/Ableton Live
• iMovie/Final Cut Pro
• Video production and editing
• Video FX and compositing
• Sound Effect creation
• Voiceover, Singing, Rapping

21st-century academic and life skills:

• Live performance
• Listening and critiquing music
• Collaboration and collaborative problem-solving
• Working in an entirely project-based environment
• Learning cutting-edge technical skills using current and new technologies and tools
• Working in a multi-age environment with peers and adults
• Working with open-ended problems in a multidisciplinary, results-focused environment

Traditional intellectual and academic skills:

• Research
• Oral communication and presentation
• Quantitative reasoning and analysis
• Visual and digital art-making
• Scientific reasoning and analysis