Course Description
High School Music Technology Class
Mr. Simeone
Although this class is designed for the student considering a career in a musical field, it is also well suited for the student who wishes to be more knowledgeable with the music they play and/or listen to. The class takes place in our state of the art Macintosh Music Lab; each student is assigned their own Midi keyboard and computer workstation. Programs that are used include Digital Performer, Garage Band, Finale and many more.__Students will be exposed to some basic aspects of music theory which include harmony, melody, chord progressions, scales, and key signatures. Students will also have an opportunity to learn about today's latest music technology as well as be able to write and record their own music using a computer and keyboard. Some of the topics covered regarding technology will be digital music recording, pop song form, music sequencing, song production/ CD mastering and CD artwork. Students will also have the chance to record a final project of their choice and burn it to a CD.
The goal of this class is to strengthen your background of music theory and practice, as well as technology as it relates to the music field. You will be exposed to music theory, the technology of digital music recording and sequencing, music mixing and production, and digital artwork for CD’s.
Topics covered
Introduction to Music theory.
This portion of the class will familiarize you with the elements of music theory. You will be exposed to basic concepts that include key, scale structure, circle of fifths, rules of harmony and stepwise motion.
Digital Music.
This portion of the class will give you the opportunity to create your own composition and record it. You will be asked to create simple musical pieces that will ultimately become part of the culmination of the class. We will discuss MIDI sequencing, digital recording, mixing and production in this section. We will also use popular music of today as examples of songs that have gained popularity and the reasons why.
Song Form.
In this portion of the class we will explore the elements of Pop Music song form; verse, chorus, bridge, etc.
Song production.
We will also look at engineering tools that make today’s music more enjoyable, known as song production.
Music Art.
The final chapter to this course will be the creation of CD artwork for your project. You will become familiar with Photoshop, which is a high-level graphics arts program that will enable you to make artwork that will suit your creative musical project.
Materials you will need:
- Notebook or a portion thereof. You will be taking notes at various times during this course.
- A set of headphones with a stereo mini plug at the end.
- An open mind. At times things will go wrong in this class; it may be a technical problem with a computer or frustration due to your newness to what we are trying to do. These problems will all pass, and I am certain that every student in this class will have outstanding results in all of projects assigned.
