Electronic Dance Music (EDM), also known as Dance Music, Club Music, House Music, Techno, and a variety of other genres that are a part of the broad range of percussive electronic music genres made largely for nightclubs, raves, and festivals. It is created by Producers and by DJs who create seamless mixes that are selections of tracks, by transitioning from one recording to another and matching the beat patterns. EDM producers also perform their music live in a concert or festival setting in that is sometimes called a live DJ Mix, DJ Set or a PA.
We have created this lesson plan as a part of our Detroit Techno 101 Curriculum and it is called an Introduction to EDM Songwriting using TR-808 and TR-303 Emulators. It’s designed to help teachers to explore the EDM genres and the structure of song. Our goals is to enable more teachers to integrate music education on subjects of interest to modern teens at the Middle School or High School (9th-12th) levels but anyone can explore the process used to create an EDM song if you have ever wanted to create your own track. Here are the lesson’s objectives and the free materials you can use to try it out.
What Will Students Learn (Objectives):
- Students will be able to define what a song is and identify its basic components
- Students will be able to create a beat using a drum machine like a TR-808 emulator
- Students will be able to create a short instrumental song using a groove from the TB-303 synthesizer emulator
- Students will be able to create and save a song using a recording tool
Materials They Will Need:
- Free TR-808 and TB-303 emulator software by Roland (or Ableton Live, FL Studio)
- Computers with access to the web-based emulators and recording software installed (see below)
- Headphones or speakers
- Writing materials (pen and paper)
View Lesson Plan – Introduction to EDM Songwriting using TR-808 and TR-303 Emulators
