Greetings from Thailand!
My name is Terry, music teacher at Denla British School, Bangkok (DBS). We have just spent a whole half-term exploring the Roland AIRA Compacts with our KS3 (Key Stage 3 - Years 7, 8 & 9) students - what a ride!
My first opportunity exploring these devices came during the 2024 FOBISIA Music Teachers’ Conference, in which we were the host school. I managed to drop in on Chris Koelma and Anna Gower’s Electronic Music Pedagogy session and have a ‘tinker’ on the T-8 Beat Machine and J-6 Chord Synthesizer. Being a music technology specialist, I absolutely loved them, and was interested to see how they could be integrated into the music curriculum.
Later in March 2025, I had a great time attending The Big Gig Bangkok at St Andrews International School, where I was able to dive deeper into these devices. It was here that I was made aware of the new Roland ASPIRE Project, a loan-out scheme where Bangkok schools could borrow a whole class set for a half-term. I jumped at this opportunity! We are delighted to be the first school to take part in this scheme.
Steve Jackman and some of the Denla music team!
Steve Jackman delivered a training day to the music staff here at DBS, providing us with the tools, resources and pedagogy to go forth and teach it to our students. We decided to implement it with the whole of KS3, to make the most of our limited period with the devices.
As someone who comes from a music technology background, I always found there was a big learning curve when teaching DAWs such as GarageBand and Logic, especially to younger year groups. Lots of menus, functions and variables that can leave students overwhelmed and confused. The Roland AIRA Compacts simplifies all of this, whilst still allowing you to be creative and produce something of high quality.
I found the T-8 Beat Machine to be the best starting point to introduce to the students. I really like the interface, with the dials and buttons being clearly labelled, making it easy to understand and operate. I found it helpful in explaining beats, rhythm, note values and syncopation, with every button being a 16th note. It means that everything is automatically quantised, allowing students to explore their creativity without timing issues.
It was easy to explain and demonstrate what effects like delay, reverb, decay and cutoff do, and having them tinker with it themselves. It helped them understand elements such as texture and structure, layering up the parts of the beat one by one to build a piece, and timbre, manipulating the sound of the instrument by changing the tone, cutoff and reso dials.
The J-6 Chord Synthesizer was a good progression following the T-8. I absolutely love the different chord sets - a hundred of them! Our students had fun exploring the different styles and variations, and sound banks. There was a bigger learning curve with the J-6, with more menus and functions to get your head around. That’s where the Recreate tutorials really helped. The videos are clearly explained, our students finding them easy to follow, especially being able to slow the speed down. I would definitely recommend using the T-8 first before moving on to the J-6.
We then connected them together and that’s when the magic happened! The students created a beat on the T-8 to go along with a chord pattern on the J-6, working on timing, layering, creating beat drops and manipulating parameters, with the end goal of creating a performance.
Check out this video of students involved in the Roland ASPIRE Project at Denla:
The data from our student survey showed that the students really enjoyed recreating songs that they know and love (Billie Eilish, Blackpink, BTS, The Weeknd), and also being able to create their own beats and chord sequences, linking the two devices together. Here are some pieces of student feedback:
I felt this was a project that had a high level of engagement, every student entering at the same starting point, and learning new electronic music terminology along the way. They just wished they had more time with the devices to really practise and hone their new skills. Lots of rapid learning condensed into a short period of time. It was good to see the students learning together and supporting each other through the project.
Following this experience, I am definitely going to make use of the other Musical Futures Recreate tutorials to help them develop skills on sequencing software such as Soundtrap, BandLab and GarageBand. With their experience on the Roland AIRA Compacts, the students should be more equipped with learning other music technology software and electronic music devices.
Thank you Musical Futures International and Electronic Music Pedagogy for giving us this opportunity!
Written by Terry Yau
Terry is from the South West of England, and works in a split role as a Teacher of Music and Technical Theatre Facilitator at Denla British School, Bangkok.
Terry has a music technology background, and started off as a Sound and Lighting Technician, working on various theatre productions, concerts and radio shows, before going into teaching. Terry is a multi-instrument rock and pop musician, and is passionate about live performance, supporting and inspiring the budding rockstars of today.