Originally Posted by The Orffsite Webmaster on Thursday, July 14, 2011
The recording software online is getting better and better with
things like soundation.com and Soundcloud. Here is a real awesome site that is
sort of an extreme Band-in-a-box program, but is online and free. It's at
ujam.com
I think your students will go crazy over this thing.
What you do is sing or play a melody with a metronome click track and when you
are finished, the program generates a chord structure for you melody, typically
in a verse chorus form. You can then audition and pick out a style that you
think best fits your song. One way to use this program in an Orff like manner
would be for students to create two vocal ostinati and sing or play them into
the program. If they are short, 4 measures or so, as probably most will be, I
recommend them using an AABB form at least for best results. I have just begun
to play with the ujam.com program and have two examples for you. One is a thing
that has two ostinati, called Listen to Somebody Else, and the other is just an
old fiddle tune I played on my mandolin, called Soldier's Joy. I like the
chords the program generated for that old melody.
Here's the link to my stuff. Listen to the tunes and then have a blast playing
with the program!
My UJam.com tunes.