Instructional Design and Examples of Student Work

Student's Concept: My sound narrative, Refugees, explores how the lives of children can change in an instant. The piece begins with the joyful sounds of children playing, underscored by gentle piano music. All audio was sourced from freesound.com and layered to create a vivid emotional shift. The children’s screams of delight transform into screams of fear as the sounds of helicopters, gunfire, and explosions erupt. Their laughter disappears into chaos, capturing the moment innocence is replaced by terror. Toward the middle and end, the sound of a child’s frightened breathing deepens the sense of fear and uncertainty. Through this work, I sought to evoke empathy and awareness of the devastating impact of war on refugee children. 

Student's Concept: My Sound Narrative explores my lifelong relationship with music and how it has shaped me. I began violin at age four, spending ten years practicing, performing, and finding freedom in sound. Music became both an escape and a constant source of comfort, a way to express and replace emotions. The piece layers personal and found sounds: my parents’ voices in Chinese fade into a closing door and a heartbeat that transforms into a metronome—symbolizing becoming one with the music. A conductor’s tap leads into “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” recalling a youth orchestra performance and the hope it represents. It ends with calm breathing, reflecting how music remains a grounding, comforting force in my life.

Student's Concept: The aim of this work was to highlight the difficult yet rewarding nature of repetition. All sounds were sourced online, with a steady “8 count” serving as the rhythmic anchor throughout the piece. In each sequence, a new sound of a repetitive activity, such as a stopwatch starting, basketball bouncing, jump rope skipping, vegetable chopping, or pencil writing, s added or removed. These layers act as distractions, requiring the listener to focus to hear the original count, reflecting the challenge of maintaining concentration during rehearsal. The sounds build toward the middle, then gradually fade as each is removed in the second half where the “noise” dissolves, giving the impression of clarity and resolve. 

Student's Concept: This sound piece explores the concept of perseverance, not just in facing major obstacles, but in the persistence required in everyday life. Perseverance through challenges shapes people and their stories, making each one unique. The piece centers on a pianist constructing a composition, struggling to play the correct notes and repeatedly starting over until achieving perfection. As the pianist navigates mistakes and frustration, these sounds are interwoven with audio references to historical moments of perseverance, such as the invention of the lightbulb, the assembly of the first car, and the Civil Rights Movement. As the music becomes refined, the work culminates with a quote from Martin Luther King Jr.