Songwriters of Cat An

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March 11, 2011 JOHN PAUL SHARP

Songwriting is all about building, sampling and trading!

This modification of the classic game, Settlers of Catan, enhances new and veteran

songwriting students experiences by introducing basic contemporary song formsin a fun and unexpected, yet relatable way.

This article is

intended to empower

you to create your

own modification of

Settlers of Catan or

experiment with the

modification that I

created. You are freeto print out the visual materials provided in this

document and try it out yourself!

Three NeedsThe needs I established in my modification for

teaching a new learning domain are:

1. The game must be playable as a 2 player game.

Rationale: Songwriting is often most likely a one

or two-person process at most. Also, the amountof cards needed to build the new song formulas

require each player to control two of the four

available colors.

2. The game must be fun in the way that the

original game is fun. Rationale: Dont fix what

isnt broken! I wanted to find a learning domain

where I could teach fundamentals, but not require

a lot of additional rules in order to actively engage

the material with the students. Songwriting is a

great subject because the simple act of building

song parts is profound in and of itself.

3. Modifications must testable by others.

Rationale: Why leave the experiment to my ownshort time schedule? All modifications must be

printable and testable for others.

The AuthorJohn Paul Sharp is a

graduate student at

the School of

Education and

Human Development

at UCDenver,studying Information

and Learning

Technologies. He is

also a long-time songwriter and graduatedsumma

cum laude at the College of Arts and Media with a

B.S. in Vocal Performance. For more information, go

to www.johnpaulsharp.com

Songwriters of Catan
http://www.johnpaulsharp.com/http://www.johnpaulsharp.com/http://www.johnpaulsharp.com/


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Three Modifications1st, I had to modify the game so it could be played as a 2-player game. 2 nd, I had to

reskin the game. 3rd, I had to change the rules ever-so-slightly. Then I called it quits.

Modification One: 2 PlayerThe first option I tried was to have each player take turns controlling a

third player. Since my partner (Josu) and I are relatively new to playing

the board version of this game, we decided to try our 2-player

modification first, without trying to figure out of my reskin would be

effective. The biggest issue we had playing with this first option was that

we could not remember whose turn it was to manipulate the player.There were times when it was great fun to use the third player to create a

disadvantage for the opposing player, but we realized we had to take

trading with the third player out of the rules. After all, how can you trade

with someone who isnt there?

The other option was to have both of us control two colors each and take

cards for both colors at every roll. Josu felt very frustrated at having to

manage so many cards. I wasnt so much frustrated with the amount of

cards as I was with how long the game was taking.Turns seemed to take

even longer than normal and that became an issue when we first decidedto make the goal of the game to get 20 Song Points. We ended up

keeping the 10 Song Point objective. By forcing each player with 14 or

more cards to get rid of half of their cards when a player rolls a 7, we

were able to alleviate some of our frustrations with the second

modification.

Ultimately, I ended up going with the second option. I felt that the

learning curve for managing more cards was much more achievable than

trying to remember which turn was yours to manipulate a third player.

Also, because I would eventually be changing the formulas for how to

build the individual pieces, having more cards made it easier to build a

Basic Hit, Love Song or Masterpiece. I imagine that the game would

have gone much longer trying to win the game with half of the cards

available. Also, trading became a more effective mechanic in the game

when all the cards were going to just two players and not an imaginary

third. Overall, the second option is the best.


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Modification Two: ReskinI really struggled to choose a learning domain for

modifying Settlers. My biggest issue was trying to

figure out a way to keep the game fun but also be able

to teach real terms and concepts in something that I

teach: acting, singing, performing, songwriting. Itwasnt until I had a conversation with an old classmate

from my college days, who loves to play the original

game, that I realized what a great fit songwriting, or

song-building, would be for this game modification.

My friend suggested, Why dont you just build songs

with song parts?

This made me consider how I could translate the

resources into song parts.There are five basic parts of a

song and five resources! Perfect!

The basic hit was the first song form I thought of

because it already resembled what was called for to

build the original road. I had to get a little creative with

naming the other two song forms, as there are really no

names for them in the contemporary music world. I

figured that songs with bridges were usually love

songs. And most songs that had all the song parts I

called Masterpieces because usually these types of

songs you hear on the radio have a greater, grander feel.

Victory Point = Song Points, Victory Cards = Gigging CardsOne aesthetic change which is especially important is the new gigging cards. I chose various typical venues

that performing songwriters may find themselves in. The point of doing this was to show that the quickest way

to win as a songwriter is to get out in the real world and perform your songs to the people.

Progress & Special Cards = Music Business CardsInstead of drastically changing the rules of how the game works, I chose to reskin these types of cards by

introducing students to music business terms (i.e., sampler, copyright protection, prolific artist, record label,

publishing house). Because the craft of songwriting is truly a commodity-based art form, Settlers is especially

appropriate because of the trading, stealing and monopolization of song parts, or, more accurately, ideas.

Use of Terms & Questions to Encourage MetacognitionStarting questions are placed on each resource card to encourage students metacognition on what it means to

write, build and own songs. Players should be encouraged to explore why The Longest Road is called Record

Label! and why The Largest Army is called Publishing House! Why is the robber called a Sampler and what

does it mean to sample someone elses music to create your own? How does a songwriter own a piece of

music? These are all the types of questions that should be explored both before and after gameplay sessions.


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Modification Three: Rules

After play-testing the reskin, I realized that relabeling the resources were not enough to teach someone with no

songwriting experience the concept of song parts. Josu asked me during the middle of the game, So, verses

are the lyrics and choruses are when everyone sings, right? While his answers were correct, they were not the

correct terms being addressed in this game. This prompted me to change the rules to the extant that when a

player builds a Basic Hit, Love Song or Masterpiece, she or he must recite the order of the song formulas on the

Build Costs card.

When Josu built his first Masterpiece, he said, Intro/Ending when he placed his first card down. I asked himto tell me which part it was: intro or ending? At that point, the whole purpose of the game became clear to him.

In fact, he could recite the song formulas several hours after our last play-test. I felt this was one of the more

important achievements during the play-test.

Because the reskin and 2-player modifications were quite a bit to absorb, we eventually decided not to use Port

Trading in regard to the Seaframe Pieces discounts. Optional seaframes were still created to post onto the

original pieces in case players wanted to include the original port discount trading anyway.


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Modification ReflectionIf theres anything I can take away from this process, its this: the best way to bring innovation into teaching a

learning domain is to keep the method as simple as possible and to be patient. Modifying Settlers of Catan for

songwriting showed me that even the most fundamental lessons can be profound when introducing them

through game play. What would normally be a difficult discussion of describing song parts and song form to

someone with no previous songwriting knowledge becomes much easier and fun by playing Songwriters ofCatan. From my own experience in play-testing these modifications, I see how I have created a great starting

point, but there are still some flaws.

Recommended future modifications:

1. Other song forms could be recognized, explored and play-tested. Instead of taking a contemporary pop angle

to the story of this game, one could explore the more complex classical song forms through this format of

modification.

2. Further modifications to bring this game back to a 3- and 4- player game could be interesting to see if the

current song formulas are as easy to build. Would other song formulas work better, worse or just as well?

3. Are there other ways to change the rules without sacrificing the fun? In my own endeavor to modify this

game, I felt pretty strong on keeping the majority of the rules the same, but there are probably some minor

changes that could be made to more clearly incorporate songwriting lessons into the gameplay. This would

be another, more riskier place to experiment.

Recommended educational uses for this modification:

1. Students could be asked to examine relationships between various terms used throughout the reskin. Ask

students to consider why each new label or term was used in place of the originals. Help the studentsunderstand the modification itself.

2. Students could be asked to develop their years portfolio of music pieces by using the winners list of basic

hits, love songs and masterpieces as a guide for their own full-length album.

3. Generally, this could be a great icebreaking activity for first semester songwriting students, however the

amount of materials necessary to support a class of 20 would be 10 full games at the 2-player mod. This

specific mod would best be for small groups of songwriters and songwriting duos (whether thats teacher to

student or student to student).

Learning Objectives:

1. Teach songwriting students the basic fundamentals of contemporary song parts and song forms.

2. Inspire students and increase their self-efficacy in songwriting by showing how easy it is to put songs

together and trade parts back and forth.

3. Give students the opportunity to think about and explore the concepts of building songs with parts by having

them play this modified version ofSettlers of Catan.


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D.I.Y.! Print, Cut & TapeIf youd like to try this modification out for yourself, just print the rest of this document. The first page shows

you how the board looks and lists specific modifications with the # of pieces modified. Also, a small bulleted

list of the changed rules is listed under the spreadsheet.

The rest of the pages are the exact amount of art you need to print and cut out your own cardboard pieces or toprint them out on paper and tape them to yourSettlers of Catan board, like I did. The pieces are not going to be

the exact size of the pieces you have with the original game, but you should be able to work with them through

either method.

If you have any questions or comments about this modification or if youd like to share a modification youve

done, please feel free to write [email protected].
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


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RULES CHANGED: Players control two colors each.

When a 7 is rolled, players with 14 or more cards mustdiscard half of their resources.

Some inspirational cards give you more resources.

Players must recite all song formulas when building aBasic Hit, Love Song or Masterpiece and also mustidentify Intro and Ending in the correct order).

Port trading is optional.


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Songwriters of Cat An