16 Jan 2017

​G10 music analysis podcast.

By Morgan Meyer, Grade 10 student
Photograph by CIS Communications

As Grade 10 Music students, we were tasked to create a podcast in teams about a music genre of our choice. Podcasting is a form of audio broadcasting on the Internet which has become popular among young people. This project is just one of many initiatives that CIS takes as a part of its 21st century curriculum which allows globally aware students to flourish.

In August, our music teacher Mr. Kemp asked us to find and listen to a podcast online for ten minutes. Then, we had a class discussion about what we listened to and what the purpose of the podcast was. We had thought-provoking discussions on the wide range of podcast topics. Mr. Kemp stayed largely out of the fray, allowing us students to deliberate uninterruptedly, and come up with creative questions and answers. We knew all along that our task would eventually be to create our own 10-minute podcast. We would need to include examples of music from the genre of our choice, and link them to musical terms that we had learnt in class in order to show our knowledge and understanding of music.

After a couple of weeks, we were told to pick a partner and a music genre that we were both interested in. We had the blessing and challenge of having 3 people in our group. The challenge was to have less time for each of us as to talk within the podcast, the blessing was the additional input from the third person on our genre. Video Game Music was the genre we picked. One of the main challenges was trying to come up with a creative format for our podcast. An innovative idea came from one of our group members, Cian, who suggested having the podcast progress like a video game, gradually levelling up as the podcast went on. It was a combination of these sorts of ideas that allowed our project to be successful.

The next step after coming up with a script was recording, and this was completed in the school’s brand new recording studio. Our class was introduced to Mr. Edwin Lagos, our Digital Literacy Coach, who assisted us with the equipment in the recording studio. Some of the hardware was quite amazing, and it was a fresh and exciting experience for all involved. I think that being exposed to these sorts of experiences differentiates CIS students. I am delighted to have participated in such a unique project. After all, it is not everyday you get to talk like a radio star!

Even though podcast recording was pretty cool, sharing was also great fun, as we got to listen to other students’ ideas and learn all about other music genres that we had never heard of or been that interested in. The purpose of podcasts was indeed fulfilled: to produce, present and share information in a format fit for today’s world. It is terrific to be learning this diverse and exciting curriculum and be encouraged to be globally-minded and outstanding.



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