Innovation claim: “Music in Me – MegaMelody” represents a novel approach to elementary music education by combining the concepts of ear-training and sight-reading into an interactive and engaging game for use in both the classroom and by individual students.
Using well known classic pieces of music, students will enter the “phrase maker”. The user will need to choose from 4-beat measures at the bottom of the screen to begin building their melody. This concept is called ear-training.
My prototype (level 1) will be Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy” – a 16 measure phrase. The screen will contain 4 lines with 3 measures each.
At the bottom of the screen will be 3 phrases to choose from. Only one is correct. The conductor, “MiniMelody”, starts out as a small man in jeans or shorts, a t-shirt, tennis shoes or flip-flops, and messy hair standing on a platform at the left of the screen.
In this level, the phrases will play when clicked on. Then, double click to activate “MiniMelody” to jump down and grab the chosen phrase.
MiniMelody jumps from his platform on the left side of the screen, down to the measures at the bottom, grabs the measure and then jumps up to the blank measure.
If the phrase is placed correctly, the conductor evolves. (In his first evolution his pants change to black dress pants.)
If the phrase is incorrect, the phrase fall back down to the bottom and the conductor remains in his jeans.
Once the entire musical phrase of 16 measures is correctly placed, MiniMelody has completed his evolution and the phrase will play with an orchestrated background while MegaMelody conducts.
Later levels will remove the sound and students will need to identify the phrase by the contour of the notes. This concept is called sight reading.
Minimum Viable Prototype to be Presented: In the creation and coding my SIP prototype, I had to modify my plan because I did not secure an animator. I am using sprites for the main characters. I used three different sprites. The first will stand to the side as the screen advances. If the measure is incorrect, the second sprite, with a question mark, will let you know your choice is incorrect. The third, the conductor, will appear when the correct measure is chosen.
I also decided to make the game more of a quiz than a drag-and-drop for presentation purposes. I believe this still gets my point across and I will explain in my presentation the full idea to be implemented in the future.