University of Cologne

Workshop Description

The current intense and controversial debate on the potentials and risks of AI-based applications in the classroom extends across all levels of education. Within music lessons, the use of artificial intelligence marks a fundamental expansion of the scope for creativity, especially in the context of creative task formats. In this workshop, various possible applications of AI tools for different facets of songwriting will be presented and tested – starting with the creation of lyrics, composition and music production to learn about the design of the artwork.

The workshop is designed and evaluated as part of the BMBF project COMeARTS Musik.

Workshop Description

Flute concert - techno party - sound art - band performance - rap battle: Every music culture has its own physicality.This can be experienced above all in live performances! 

This workshop offers concrete suggestions for body- and perception-oriented music-making activities in the classroom that integrate apps as instruments of a multifaceted digital music culture.The workshop focuses on three teaching ideas which make it possible to experience different styles of music in their specific physicality.

The premise for digital classroom music-making is that music is created from and with affective movement. In these performance-oriented lessons, the focus is less on composing and more on coordinated musical interaction in (small) groups.The apps involved in these processes appear here as modulating mediators who create certain frameworks for mutual interaction. Embedded in initially explorative, artistic projects, the focus is on physical experience, different tension ratios and momentum as well as various playing techniques and contextualizations.Well-known apps such as GarageBand can be used in their diversity with a more instrumental, performance-oriented approach as well as other apps to explore alternative logics. Overall, the training is aimed at experiencing different cultural playing styles in the field of art and pop music that go beyond the fleeting tap of the touch screen.

The implementation of the three teaching ideas presented does not require any special prior technical experience on the part of the teachers or pupils, nor is it absolutely necessary for your school to have a (half) class set of iPads. In addition to teaching projects and workshops at app2music, the training is also based on findings from current research studies and trials by students in both primary and secondary school contexts. At the same time, the training will be evaluated as part of the BMBF project ComeArts Musik.

Workshop Description

Pop encourages you to do your own thing – without any significant practical instrumental requirements. Sound is almost always created digitally in current music productions and the interfaces and programs make it possible to carry out even complex interventions in sound, form and more with a click or a swipe.

This course focuses on the perception and design of sound by teaching production techniques for the creative use of existing material as well as the use of applicable tools. The intensive study of sound, samples and loops not only helps to understand music, but also to shed light on the contexts of its creation and reception. Particular attention is paid to the deconstruction of the sonic origins of stylistically hybrid pop music, be it instrumental, vocal or in the production process.

The course is aimed at music teachers who want to design their lessons in a modern and creative way. The course teaches concepts for designing music lessons in such a way that the three subject-specific areas of competence of reception, production and reflection can be promoted, intercultural learning can be integrated and new media can be used sensibly. In addition, the key perspectives (W, ESD, D) and interdisciplinary skills of the curriculum can be addressed.

The training is part of the BMBF project COMeARTS Musik and is designed and scientifically evaluated by an interprofessional development team. The trainers are employed at the Leuphana University of Lüneburg.

Workshop Description

Using the example of the eight-hour lesson series How hip-hop came to Germany, the training focuses on the practical examination of concrete possibilities of digital songwriting with middle and high school students.Exemplary German rap songs are used to trace the emergence and regional developments of hip hop in Germany from 1980 to the present day. Following on from the music history and theory input, the participants will try out creative task formats for composing and producing their own German rap songs. In the end, the participants will be introduced to working with a collaborative, free and browser-based digital audio workstation (DAW), which is therefore independent of the respective end devices. 

The training is designed and evaluated as part of the BMBF project COMeARTS Musik and the DFG project “Hip-Hop's Fifth Element: Knowledge, Pedagogy, and Artist-Scholar-Collaboration”.

Workshop Description

The workshop deals with the potential of “music hacking” in the classroom: an attitude towards technology that is characterized by misappropriation and DIY (do it yourself!). Participants will take their own first steps in music programming and building controllers. Among other things, music hacking promotes ecological sustainability (creativity instead of consumption) and digital sustainability (open source, media literacy).