Beatmaking with Mo
The Sound Bites collection introduces students to a diverse mix of up and coming and established Australian musicians. Each artist shares some of the tips and tricks they use to ignite and develop their music-making.
In the Beatmaking with Mo course, students are introduced to Mo Komba, who takes students on a journey to create their own audio tracks using music production software. Mo outlines a series of processes and strategies to take a simple drum loop and add layers such as keys and vocals.
Aimed at students with intermediate knowledge of recording software, this resource is packed with creative activities that can be used to help students sharpen their skills.
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Teacher Pack
The teacher pack below contains all the lesson plans associated with this course as a single downloadable document.
All other activity sheets and course materials can be downloaded through the Lessons Tab.
The Curriculum Alignment documents below map this course against the Australian Curriculum.
Using this resource
The lessons in this course are aimed at students with intermediate music production skills and experience creating audio and MIDI tracks. The activities that can be extended over additional lessons as required.
Mo Komba
Mo Komba is the stage name of Australian musician Mohamed Komba (also known as IAMMXO). Mo Komba is a singer, songwriter and music producer. He also runs a record label called Alt. Music Group. Mo Komba used the stage name Momo when he was in Australian hip hop duo Diafrix. Diafrix formed in Footscray in 2001 when Mo Komba met Azmarino (Khaled Abdulwahab) at a hip hop clinic. Listen to some tracks produced by Mo Komba as IAMMXO.
Arts Centre Melbourne
Arts Centre Melbourne is Australia's largest and busiest performing arts venue, and a defining Melbourne landmark. For over 30 years Arts Centre Melbourne has played a leading role in showcasing the best local, national and international performing arts. Arts Centre Melbourne, together with local companies, festivals and a multitude of commercial partners is host and partner to national and state music, opera, theatre, and dance companies. Arts Centre Melbourne has an active and thriving Creative Learning Program in the performing arts. Each year thousands of students, teachers and general public attend education performances, participate in creative workshops and engage in large scale hands-on arts projects.
The Australian Music Vault
The Australian Music Vault (AMV) has been developed by Arts Centre Melbourne in consultation with the Australian music industry as a celebration of Australian contemporary music - past, present and future. The exhibition features iconic objects drawn from Arts Centre Melbourne's Australian Performing Arts Collection and tells stories about the Australian music scene and people. The AMV Learning Program reaches out to school communities, music fans and music lovers offering ways to engage with the AMV on a deep and creative level. The Learning Program includes a Choir Project, online digital learning resources, creative workshops, a music podcast (Sound as Ever) and an innovative partnership with The Song Room producing resources for music classrooms.
Content author
Biddy Connor has composed, arranged and performed for a diverse range of projects including film, television, theatre, large-scale community events and games. Biddy composed and produced the music for the animated interactive game Paperbark and live acrobatic show, The Bottle Collector. In 2016 she was a finalist in The Melbourne Music Prize Outstanding Musicians Award.
Biddy is the Artistic Director and viola player for The Letter String Quartet (TLSQ). Biddy is regularly called upon as a session violist, singer and musical saw player. She has worked with Spiritualized, Winged Victory for The Sullen (USA), Jherek Bischoff (USA), Jen Cloher, Richard J Frankland, John Cale, Sophie Koh, Mick Harvey, Grand Salvo, Jon Rose, Gang of Youths and Evelyn Ida Morris. Biddy produces and hosts a weekly show on 3MBS called Classically Kids, a music show for younger listeners.
Audio loops: a repeated section of sound material.
Audio plugins: a type of computer software that can enhance audio-related functionality.
Beat making: a music producer creates a beat/melody using electronic software.
Digital Audio Workstation (DAW): a digital system designed for recording and editing digital audio. This can be hardware or software.
Drum loops: a 2-16 bard phrase of drums recorded digitally.
Equalizer (EQ): electronic equipment that adjusts the frequency of recorded sound.
MIDI: MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. It is a language that allows computers and MIDI-capable instruments to communicate. In this case, MIDI is used to tell the computer to play a sound when the keyboard note is pressed. Each MIDI note contains information about things such as pitch, volume, length, and tempo. MIDI is a great way to be able to play a whole lot of different sounds using one MIDI keyboard.
Dynamics: the relative volume and intensity of sound.
Form (or structure): the plan or design of a piece of music, described by identifying which elements are the same and which are different; also the order of ideas in the piece, partner or group. For example, one group (or part) does the "call" and the other does the "response".
Improvisation (musically): music which is created spontaneously and is appropriate to a context. A single-player or a group of players spontaneously create music together. This devising process may be structured by rules like staying in a musical key or choosing a specific genre of music.
Key: a musical key is a pattern of notes and chords. Keys are based on scales or sets of notes.
Melody: the main tune in the music to be played or sung. It is made up of different varying pitches (high and low sounds).
Phrase: section of music that is relatively self-contained: a musical sentence.
Pitch: relative high or low frequency of a sound.
Rhythm: a recurring beat or pulse.
Tempo: The speed a piece of music is played at.
Texture: the layers of sound in a musical work and the relationship between them.
Timbre: the tone colour or unique quality of a sound. If you play the same note on a piano and on a guitar, each note will have its own timbre.
This is a valuable resource for the Music Curriculum for Secondary students. It is relevant to both the making and responding strands. It includes techniques that support musical expression and composition, and presents information about contemporary Australian musicians and their professional practice.
The series of activities outlined in the lessons support students to develop their critical and creative thinking capacity. Students are encouraged to use their imagination and thinking skills to explore ideas, images and sound. They are given the opportunity to communicate and share their thinking using multi-modal forms of expression.
Produced in partnership with Arts Centre Melbourne and the Australian Music Vault
Special thanks to Mo Komba.
Learning Focus
Students learn about music producer Mo Komba and his process to create electronic music.
Students use a Digital Audio Workstation to experiment with using drum loops.
Audio Tracks
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Learning Focus:
Students explore the differences between audio and MIDI.
Students create and record a beat using a MIDI controller.
Audio Tracks
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Learning Focus:
Students create a rhythm track using sound effects.
Audio Tracks
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Learning Focus:
Students add musical layers to their tracks including keys, a bass line and vocals.
Audio Tracks
Click the links to download