Old Town Road as a pedagogic example

Educators
1

I am teaching a one week course on Sonic Pi for kids at the moment and to give them an example that they probably relate to I did a version of Old Town Road.

It´s not super close to the original, but identifiable.

To better convey the rhythmical structure, I mostly use a rhythmical grid of sleep commands. I hope this is useful to anyone.

# Old Town Road


bpm = 68

live_loop :beat do
  use_bpm bpm
  
  sample :drum_cymbal_closed
  sleep 0.25
  sample :drum_cymbal_closed
  sleep 0.25
  sample :drum_cymbal_closed
  sample :elec_cymbal, amp: 0.3
  sleep 0.25
  sample :drum_cymbal_closed
  sleep 0.25
  
  sample :elec_snare
  sleep 0.25
  sample :drum_cymbal_closed
  sleep 0.25
  sample :drum_cymbal_closed
  sleep 0.25
  sample :drum_cymbal_closed
  sleep 0.25
  
  sample :drum_cymbal_closed
  sleep 0.25
  sample :drum_cymbal_closed
  sleep 0.25
  sample :drum_cymbal_closed
  sleep 0.25
  sample :drum_cymbal_closed
  sleep 0.25
  
  
  sample :elec_snare
  sleep 0.25
  sample :drum_cymbal_closed
  sleep 0.25
  sample :drum_cymbal_closed
  sleep 0.25
  sample :drum_cymbal_closed
  sleep 0.25
end

live_loop :perc do
  use_bpm bpm
  
  sleep 3
  
  sample :elec_tick if one_in(4)
  sleep 0.125
  sample :elec_tick if one_in(4)
  sleep 0.125
  sample :elec_tick if one_in(4)
  sleep 0.125
  sample :perc_snap if one_in(6)
  sleep 0.125
  
  sample :elec_tick if one_in(4)
  sleep 0.125
  sample :elec_flip if one_in(4)
  sleep 0.125
  sample :elec_tick if one_in(4)
  sleep 0.125
  sample :elec_tick if one_in(4)
  sleep 0.125
  
end


with_fx :reverb, damp: 0.9, mix: 0.8, room: 0.2 do
  
  live_loop :guitar do
    use_bpm bpm
    use_synth :pluck
    
    play :c4
    sleep 1
    play :c4
    sleep 1
    play :db4
    sleep 1
    play :db4
    sleep 1
    
    play :db4
    sleep 1
    play :db4
    sleep 1
    play :db4
    sleep 1
    play :db4
    sleep 1
    
  end
  
  
  live_loop :guitar_melody do
    
    use_bpm bpm
    use_synth :piano
    
    sleep 8
    
    play :eb5
    sleep 0.5
    play :db5
    sleep 0.5
    play :eb5
    sleep 0.5
    play :ab5
    sleep 0.5
    
    play :eb5
    sleep 0.5
    play :db5
    sleep 0.5
    sleep 0.5
    sleep 0.5
    
    sleep 4
    
  end
  
end # fx reverb


with_fx :distortion, distort: rrand(0, 0.5) do
  live_loop :bass do
    use_bpm bpm
    use_synth :sine
    
    play :gs2
    sample :bd_ada
    sleep 0.25
    sleep 0.25
    sleep 0.25
    sleep 0.25
    
    sleep 0.25
    sleep 0.25
    play :gs2
    sample :bd_ada
    sleep 0.25
    sleep 0.25
    
    sleep 0.25
    sleep 0.25
    play :b2
    sample :bd_ada
    sleep 0.25
    sleep 0.25
    
    sleep 0.25
    play :b2
    sample :bd_ada
    sleep 0.25
    play :b2
    sample :bd_ada
    sleep 0.25
    sleep 0.25
    
    play :fs2
    sample :bd_ada
    sleep 0.25
    sleep 0.25
    sleep 0.25
    sleep 0.25
    
    sleep 0.25
    sleep 0.25
    play :fs2
    sample :bd_ada
    sleep 0.25
    sleep 0.25
    
    sleep 0.25
    sleep 0.25
    play :e2
    sample :bd_ada
    sleep 0.25
    sleep 0.25
    
    sleep 0.25
    play :fs2
    sample :bd_ada
    sleep 0.25
    sleep 0.25
    play :fs2
    sample :bd_ada
    sleep 0.25
  end
  
end # fx
2

Had a great week teaching Sonic Pi, here´s a short description(in german) and some sounds the kids developed:

https://www.lev-berlin.de/allgemein/codeschleifen-projektwoche-musik-programmieren-mit-sonic-pi/3210/

As you can hear, no Old Town Road references in the kids code.

1 Like