Creating Sample Instruments

Found sounds have been used in compositions by countless recording artists and music producers to add unique sonic personality to their work. In Lesson 3, students explore this concept to create original musical works from found sound Drum Racks and then share them with their peers.

Learning Foundation: Making music – companion resources 

If you need some additional support learning how to program and perform beats, there are plenty of resources available. Below are a couple of good resources that can help students learn how to program and play MIDI drum beats. 

Make Beats section of the Learning Music website

Learning Music’s Make Beats section can act as an excellent companion resource to this project.

You can use the Export to Live option to move patterns created in the browser directly into Live.

Explore: Learning Music: Make Beats website

Learn Push 2: Playing Drums video 

Learn Push 2: Playing Drums demonstrates both sequencing and live performance using Push with Drum Racks – a helpful resource for those with access to Push.

Melodics: finger drumming and keyboard training application

Melodics is a music training application that you may wish to explore to develop finger drumming and keyboard skills.

Explore: Melodics website

Practical Task: Making music with found sounds 

In this practical task develop musical ideas with the found sound Drum Racks you created in Lesson 2.

Task Steps:

Below are a few guides on how to start writing midi notes into Ableton Live

Guide: Entering Notes with the Mouse guide

Guide: Example Drum Patterns guide

Guide: Playing Notes in With a MIDI Controller guide

Sharing and presenting student work


Examples of the finished product of this project may be: