Scratch Music Projects

Abstract

Scratch Music Projects is designed as a practical, project-based resource for engaging students and educators in real-world experiences in music, computation, and creativity. These projects teach students the fundamental concepts of computational thinking through the engaging context of interactive music, sound, and media. As much a book about musical thinking as computational thinking, this book harnesses the “low floor” and “high ceiling” of the Scratch 2.0 visual programming environment developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab to engage both novice and intermediate Scratch users. All the reader needs is a curiosity for exploring music and computing. This book also highlights the physical, mathematical and computational concepts and processes that underpin musical sound. 21st Century musicians and computer scientists working with digital audio, interactive music for video games, and media systems need to have a deep background in concepts and ideas from the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and math), as well as the Arts in general, and music in particular. Making Music with Scratch integrates the Arts into STEM, moving from STEM to STE(A)M, through practical, engaging projects accessible to beginning musicians and programmers. As such, this book is appropriate for students and teachers starting in middle school and moving through to undergraduate general education courses. The project-based design of the book makes this a practical resource for use in school and afterschool classes, workshop settings, and individual exploration.