Beatwave

Beatwave allows users to create their own music. After launching the app and viewing its tutorial, users can create their own song. To do so, users are presented with a grid and they can tap the boxes on the grid to register a sound. (On the left of the grid, users can view the name of the sounds, such as Kick, Snare, Clap, Conga, Shaker, and more.) When users tap the “Play” button on the top right of the screen, a line will pass through the grid. As the line passes over the boxes tapped, a sound will play. If users want a sustained sound, they can create a line of boxes on the grid. On the right side of the screen, users are presented with multiple options. They can tap the “Group” button located on the top of the screen to view an expanded spread of music. They can also tap the tiles to view different musical layers, which they can also see in snapshots below the tile. There are four additional icons on the bottom right of the screen. The “Gear” icon lets users personalize the color settings and access the introduction tutorial among other options. The “Open Book” icon lets users save their music or open previously recorded music. The “Synthesizer” icon lets users adjust the volume, tone, tempo, and shuffle of the sounds. The “Record” button lets users capture their songs and share them over social media, email, and other apps.

Please Note: There are additional, advanced options users can explore in this app.

Instructional Ideas

1. Teachers can assign students an emotion such as angry, happy, excited, anxious, sad, etc. Students can then use this app to create a song that relates to the emotion they were assigned.
2. After reading a narrative or poem, teachers can have students create a song that relates to the text’s theme(s). Students will then have to write a short paragraph that explains how the song connects to the text’s theme.
3. Teachers can create a friendly class competition to see which student can create the highest quality song. To do so, students can create their song using this app, and teachers can put time limits on how long the song can last (e.g., 30 seconds, 1 minute, 90 seconds, etc.). After creating their song, students can email the song to their teacher, and the teacher can post them anonymously to a class website. Students can visit the website and vote for their favorite song. The student who created the winning song can receive a prize or another form of recognition.
4. As part of a presentation assignment, students can create a song with this app to be used as background music while giving the presentation.
5. After reading about a historical figure, significant event, or a time period, students can create a song that compliments the topic studied. Students can compose a short paragraph that explains the connection between their song and the topic studied.

Screenshots