Chords

Welcome back! I hope you enjoyed your thanksgiving break. If you remember, the last thing we did in this class was a quiz on making our own original melodies using the keyboards. This week, we are going to expand on that with an exercise using a method called chords. Chords can be complex or simple but, the thing to remember is that there are 2 SCALES: MAJOR & MINOR. That means that there are MAJOR & MINOR CHORDS. To make a chord, you're going to use more than one key on the keyboard at a time. Some chords have 2 keys, 3 keys, 4 keys, etc. Today we're going to do major chords. If you remember, the major scale is all the white keys, so we're going to make chords using the white keys of the keyboard. Lets get started!

1. Open Reason

2. Create Mixer 14:2

3. Set your tempo in between 80-110.

4. Create a Redrum.

5. Make a 32 step redrum beat using a clap (on 5 & 13), a bass drum (on 1 and 3-4
more boxes), a hi hat (anywhere), and a percussion (anywhere).

6. Copy your pattern to track, then click the pattern button.

7. Create an NN-XT Advanced Sampler.

8. Click on the folder: Go to Reason Factory Sound Bank: NN-XT Patches: Piano

9. Choose sound A Grand Piano.sxt

10. Play your Redrum beat & practice using a major chord with the keyboard.

11. When you are ready, set your Right Loop Point (R) to 5.

12. Record yourself playing your chords in. When you are finished, press the record button again to stop recording.

13. Click the quantize button.

14. Create a Dr. Rex Loop Player.

15. Load in a Dr. Rex Percussion Loop and put it To Track.


You have finished todays assignment. Good work!

Keyboard Melody Quiz

Alright class, this is it. This is what we've all been waiting for. The moment is here! All the blood, sweat and tears you've spent practice has prepared you for this moment! This quiz will separate the teens from the pre-teens & the pre-teens from the children. Welcome to...*suspense music*...the first quiz of the 3rd marking period!!!

1. Open Reason
2. Create a Mixer 14:2
3. Set Tempo between 70-110 bpm
   
4. Create a Redrum and make a 32 step drum pattern using a Clap or Snap, Bass Drum, Hi Hat, and Percussion. Make sure you put the sounds on the correct boxes!
5. Copy your pattern to track.
6. Now Create a Combinator: choose Synth Leads: And choose any sound in the Synth Lead folder.
   
7. Move the Right loop point to R5
   
8. Create a melody using notes from the C MINOR scale or the C MAJOR scale, whichever you prefer. Use between 3 and 5 different notes
9. Quantize your melody.
   
10. Create a Dr. Rex and load a Percussion Loop.
11. DO NOT PUT IT TO TRACK.
12. Use the keyboard to play a pattern with the Dr. Rex Loop Player.
13. Quantize your pattern.
14. Let me know when you're finished and I will grade your work.
    
15. Save your beat as (YOUR NAME) melody quiz.
16. Congratulations! You've finished the first quiz!

Tomorrow DAT will be returning. Be prepared for another rhyme exercise!

Thursday Quiz Practice

It's that time again! Friday is a minimum day so...this Thursday we will be having a quiz on using the keyboard to make our own original melodies. I want to give you these next few days to practice. Lets get started! To help you out with using the keyboard, here is a picture of piano keys with each key/note labeled.









Notice how the white keys/notes are just letters but the black notes/keys end with a lower case b or a #? The lower case b means that this note is a MINOR note, The white keys are the MAJOR Notes. This will become helpful in the future.

1. Open Reason
2. Make sure you have a Mixer 14:2
3. Set Tempo between 70-110 bpm
   
4. Create a Redrum and make a 32 step drum pattern using a Clap or Snap, Bass Drum, Hi Hat, and Percussion. Make sure you put the sounds on appropriate boxes!
5. On the Redrum, Copy Pattern To Track.
6. Now Create a Malstrom: choose Mono Synths: And choose any sound in the Mono Synths folder.
   
7. Move the Right loop point to R3
   
8. Create a melody using notes from the C MINOR scale or the C MAJOR scale, whichever you prefer. Use between 3 and 5 different notes
9. When you have finished making your melody, hit the quantize button. The quantize button helps to fix your melody if you make a mistake and it is off the rhythm of your Redrum beat.
   
10. Create a Dr. Rex and load a Percussion Loop.
11. Put it To Track
    
12. Save your beat as (YOUR NAME) keyboard quiz practice.

Keyboard pt. 2

1. Open Reason
2. Make sure you have a Mixer 14:2
3. Set Tempo between 70-110 bpm
   
4. Create a Redrum and make a 32 step drum pattern using a Clap or Snap, Bass Drum, Hi Hat, and Percussion. Make sure you put the sounds on appropriate boxes!
5. On the Redrum, Copy Pattern To Track.
6. Now Create a Malstrom: choose Mono Synths: And choose any sound in the Mono Synths folder.
   
7. Move the Right loop point to R3
   
8. Create a melody using notes from the C major scale (the white keys). Use between 3 and 5 different notes
9. When you have finished making your melody, hit the quantize button. The quantize button helps to fix your melody if you make a mistake and it is off the rhythm of your Redrum beat.
   
10. Create a Dr. Rex and load a Percussion Loop.
11. Don't copy it to track! Play the different slices using the keyboard. When you have something cool, record it.
12. When you finish recording the Percussion loop, don't forget to press the quantize button.
    
13. Save your beat as (YOUR NAME) keyboard2.

The Keyboard

The past 2 weeks we have been working with the keyboards using a Dr. Rex to change the melody of a Dr. Rex Loop. Some of you had an issue with hitting the keyboard and not hearing a sound. That was because of a certain thing on the keyboard called "Octave". Today we are going to make our own melodies using the Keyboard. Almost every "Octave" should play a sound when using a Combinator, NNXT, NN19, Subtractor, or Malstrom. Today, we will be making Redrum drum beats and using the Subtractor to add our own original melody. Lets get started!

Did you notice that the keyboard looks like the Matrix?

I want you to make a 2 bar melody using between 3-5 notes with a Redrum drum beat.

1. Open Reason
2. Make sure you have a Mixer 14:2
3. Set Tempo between 70-110 bpm
   
4. Create a Redrum and make a 32 step drum pattern using a Clap or Snap, Bass Drum, Hi Hat, and Percussion. Make sure you put the sounds on appropriate boxes!
5. On the Redrum, Copy Pattern To Track.
6. Now Create a Subtractor: choose Mono Synths: And choose any sound in the Mono Synths folder.
   
7. Move the Right loop point to R3
   
8. Create a melody using notes from the C minor scale. Use between 3 and 5 different notes
9. When you have finished making your melody, hit the quantize button and record it.
10. Create a Dr. Rex and load a Percussion Loop.
11. Don't copy it to track! Play the different slices using the keyboard. When you have something cool, record it.
12. When you finish recording the Percussion loop, don't forget to press the quantize button.
    
13. Save your beat as (YOUR NAME) 1108.

Keyboard Rex Quiz

It's quiz time! We've had our time to practice, now lets see what you can come up with! I expect to hear a lot of creative beats! Lets get started!

1. Open Reason

2. Create Mixer 14:2

3. Set your TEMPO in between 80-110

4. Create a Redrum Drum Computer and make a 16 or 32 step beat using a clap/snare, bass drum, hi hat, and percussion

5. Copy your Redrum pattern to track.

6. Move your R to 3

7. Create a Dr. Rex

8. Load in either a Music Loop, Guitar Loop, or Hip-Hop Loop. Do NOT put it "To Track"

9. Play your beat. Use the keyboard to practice making the Dr. Rex loop original.

10. When you are ready, Record the Dr. Rex keyboard loop you created.

11. Let me know when you've finished your work, I will check it and let you know your grade.

12. Save your work as (your name) keyboard rex quiz.

Great work! You may now quietly have free time. Do NOT interrupt anybody who hasn't finished their quiz!

Practice for Friday Quiz

This Friday we will be having a quiz on using the Dr. REX and the keyboard together. We will be using The next few days to make some practice beats. Lets get started!

1. Open Reason
2. Make sure you have a Mixer 14:2
3. Set Tempo in between 80-110
   
4. Now lets make a 16 or 32 step beat!
   
5. Create Redrum
6. In Sound 1 on the Redrum, load a Clap and put it on 5 and 13.
7. In Sound 2 on the Redrum, load a Bass Drum and put it on 1, and a few other boxes (except 5 and 13).
   
8. In Sound 3 on the Redrum, load a Hi Hat and put it on boxes that sound good.
9. In Sound 4 on the Redrum, load a Percussion sound and put it anywhere.
10. If you're making a 32 step beat, we want to edit steps 17-32. If not, skip to step 14.
    
11. Change the steps of the Redrum from 16 to 32.
12. Move the Edit Steps from 1-16 to 17-32.
13. Repeat steps 6 through 9.
14. Now that you've finished making your pattern, it's time to Copy Pattern To Track.
15. Right click on the Redrum and select Copy Pattern to Track.
16. Click on the PATTERN button on the Redrum so that they don't play at the same time.
17. Move your Right Loop point to R3
    
18. Create a Dr. Rex instrument loop.
19. Go to the Create menu and Create a Dr. Rex Loop Player.
20. We need to load a loop, so click on the folder in the upper left hand corner of the loop player.
21. Choose one of your favorite loops.
22. Now, we're going to play the loop using the keyboard.
23. Push play and try making a new melody using the keyboard.
    
24. When you find a melody that you like, push record, wait for the cursor to get back to the L and start playing!
25. When you are done, push stop.
26. Save your beat as Rex Keyboard Practice
    

Friday's Assignment

Go to Friday's assignment and complete the Halloween project.