Activity 3 - Organize your song using functions

Workshop Resources

In EarSketch, functions are mostly used to organize different sections of a song. The most common musical form is A-B-A where each section is four measures in length, and the A sections sound different from the B section.

Now that we learned how to use functions, let’s try to use them to organize our songs better.

  1. Define your function with a startMeasure parameter and endMeasure parameter.
  2. Place the sounds you would like to have the function represent underneath your function definition.
  3. Try to make multiple sections of a song (verse, chorus, intro, etc.) and define them with your functions. If you don’t do this, and only use multiple fitMedia calls, you will notice that your program will become long and hard to understand. To help avoid having a large project file, use functions!

Your code should now look something like this:

    from earsketch import *

    init()
    setTempo(120)

    fitMedia(HOUSE_DEEP_CRYSTALCHORD_001, 3, 1, 5)
    fitMedia(HOUSE_DEEP_CRYSTALCHORD_002, 3, 5, 9)

    # Section A
    def sectionA(startMeasure, endMeasure):
        fitMedia(RD_UK_HOUSE__AIRYPAD_1, 1, startMeasure, endMeasure)
        fitMedia(HOUSE_MAIN_BEAT_002, 4, startMeasure, endMeasure)
        fitMedia(HOUSE_ROADS_BASS_001, 5, startMeasure, endMeasure)  

    # Section B
    def sectionB(startMeasure, endMeasure):
        fitMedia(Y37_ORGAN_1, 2, startMeasure, endMeasure)
        fitMedia(HOUSE_ROADS_BASS_001, 5, startMeasure, endMeasure)
        fitMedia(RD_UK_HOUSE__ARPLEAD_1, 6, startMeasure, endMeasure)

    sectionA(1, 9)
    sectionB(9, 17)
    sectionA(17, 25)

    finish()