Sadly most of us will likely never be ever to own an island, but thanks to a great free, no sign-up required website, Isle of Tune anyone who can’t afford to buy their own island will now at least be able to build one. At first glance one might presume Isle of Tune to be yet another gaming site, but after using it with my music students in the elementary and middle schools I have a far more informed opinion.
Isle of Tune allows users to build islands of music. First you lay down a road map then set down trees, houses, bushes, flowers and before you know it you have built your own island that is actually a tune. Cars move around your island to play your tune. You can work on an island, go back to edit it, and once you are finished you can publish it, email it, save the link or you-tube it. Other “island owners” can view your creation and give it a thumbs up or thumbs down. Some users create original compositions and others create remixes of well known tunes.
I used this site as one of my….I’ve lost them due to spirit week….compromises and happily I’m able to report that using this site I actually didn’t lose them to spirit week, but instead to my class activity! Engaging students in an activity is always rewarding, but to know that my students were learning while they were engaged really makes a music teacher happy. My students were charged with the task of creating an island – an original tune or a remix and they had 30 minutes to finish and share it. Students who remixed used the keyboard functions to find the right notes and used their ears to find the right intervals of the tones that they needed to replicate for their famous tune – valuable musicianship skills. Students who created their own compositions had to think about all the sounds they had at hand and arrange them to accomplish something important.
One of my student’s remixes:
One of my student’s original compositions:
What I loved about this site is that no lie – the student had to think to accomplish a tune. They had to use their ears and the visual graphics that were associated with the sounds helped some of my students to be more creative very quickly. To my great surprise one of the students who is usually one of the very last to complete all of our music composition activities was in this case the very first to complete the isle of tune. It was fantastic to see that the students who always excel in using traditional music notation suddenly were troubled by the non-traditional notation used in Isle of Tune, while the students who struggle with the traditional suddenly had creative musical contributions to make.
I also used this site with twenty of my elementary music students. We had just performed an Orff arrangement of I’ve Got a Feeling, so together we watched one of the remixes of the Black Eyed Peas song. The grade four students loved listening to the song while watching the interactive visuals and for some it seemed to give them even greater understanding about the rhythms and form within the music. I was surprised (and a little embarrassed) that showing this site sparked a bit of an email frenzy between myself and many members of the IT department. Little did I know that the site was blocked in the elementary school and that the twenty students that I had showed the site to had in less than 24 hours contacted the IT assistants to insist that the site be unblocked in the elementary school. It is exciting to know that a fourth grader took the time to contact the IT aide to insist that this was important and due to their actions Isle of Tune is now unblocked!
Having used Isle of Tune I am completely convinced that using non-traditional images to represent music most certainly helps students to interpret and have deeper understandings about music. I also understand that the colorful interactive notation that Isle of Tune uses allows some users fewer limitations in creating music. Students still need to understand traditional music notations, but sites like Isle of Tune help students to develop deeper musical understandings that will most certainly inform their experience and developing knowledge in interpreting traditional music notation.
Although Isle of Tune is not the only application where students can compose music graphically, it is a fantastic freeware option for students all over the world. Although our students have had experiences with similar options created by Sibelius: Groovy Shapes, Groovy Jungle and Groovy City; Isle of Tune offers students an exciting freeware option for use at home. Even more exiting is the fact that Isle of Tune will soon release an app for the iPad. Isle of Tune makes music understanding, music composition and music notation more accessible to a greater audience of music consumers. In an age where standards of music and its creation are being tested to its limits, we owe it to ourselves to do everything we can to deepen children’s involvement and engagement in music. While some may argue that the gaming culture may distract from music – I am convinced that representing music visually interestingly and interactively as do Groovy Music and Isle of Tune is exactly what we need to be doing. Visually interesting notations and creations will bring life and interest to students who will in turn further develop and innovate musically.
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