INTRODUCTION TO ELECTRONIC MUSIC - MTC 362 001, Fall 2006.

Instructor: Herbert Midgley

Phone: Office 468-1197 or leave a message at 468-4602

Email : hmidgley@sfasu.edu (Please use this email not WebCT or my gmail account)

Webpage: www.herbertmidgley.com Office Hours: TBA

Office: Room 310 A Fine Arts Building., 3rd Floor inside the MIDI Lab

Class Time and Place : 12:30-1:45 P.M. Tuesday (Lecture) Thursday (Lab and group work) - FA 310

Class Goals: The goal of this class is for you to learn how to enjoy music by composing your own music with the use of music technology.

Texts: No text is required. The best way to learn about music technology is to get hands on experience. All equipment manuals are available and you will learn through them while at a computer.

Journal Notebook: You will need to keep a notebook since technical explanations can be rather difficult to understand at first. You will also need the notebook to keep a record of the sounds you're using for your composition. The other purpose of Journal Notebook is so that you can keep a log of lab hours that you work each week.

Class Attendance: I expect you to be present, and on time at all class meetings. Three unexcused absences will cut your final grade by one letter, four by two letters, etc. This includes lab sessions. You are responsible for all notes, power point presentations, recordings, films/videos presented in class. Due the size of this class, no talking, sleeping, eating, reading newspapers, text messaging or cell phone use during class will be tolerated. All of these activities disrupt the educational process. If these common courtesies are not observed, you will be invited to leave the class. NO CELL PHONES OUT DURING CLASS!

I will take roll by having you turn in a paper on what you learn the day of lecture. You can not make this up, either you were in class or you were not.

You can not make up missed Group work and Skill test. (Come to Class!)

Materials:

1) 4 CD-Rs to turn in your projects on or to take home and listen to after a session.

2)You will need one 3 1/2≤ disk for the MAC sequencer program or a USB Thumb Drive. These are available in the bookstore.

3) Journal Notebook

Grading: Grading Scale:

CD/Song Reviews-20% 90-100=A

Papers -5% 80-89 =B

Journal Notebook- 5% 70-79 =C

Lab Hours Report 60-69 =D

Mid-Term -10% 00-59 =F

Final Project- 15%

Group Projects- 25% Keyboard Skills 10% Web Search 5% Midi files 5%

The Journal Notebook should contain any notes that you have taking during the semester from class room

instruction. It should also contain any thoughts that you have on the compositional process that you are using. Also the

Journal Notebook needs to have all of the lab hours that you have attended. Remember that you need at least two hours a week of lab time. Please have all of you Journal Notebook entries have the date that they were written.

The Mid-Term project will be a 2-5 minute composition. It will be due the week of mid-term. The Final project will be a 3-10 minute composition will be due on the day of the final . These projects should be original, composed and produced by you . You may want to collaborate with somebody else on another project, but the mid-term and the final project should be only one person's work . Frequently, some of you will get together and help each other and that's O.K. But I want to know that each of you understands how to operate the computer, the RS-50 and the Performer sequencing program on the MAC. You may also use your own equipment to do your projects, but make sure you use it in conjunction with the equipment in the lab.

Attendance & Lab-time: You will need to sign up for two or three hours of lab time per week. These two hours can be at any time that's convenient for you. After you've learned something about each piece of equipment, you might want to go over to another station when there is time and check out the other equipment. You will be using head phones while you work in the lab. They're very lightweight to help keep your neck from getting tired, but they're also quite fragile. I will generally be around to help you if you have any problems (and there will be quite a few at first) during your lab times. Don't hesitate to ask me for help.

Please don't re-route (unplug, re-plug, de-plug, etc.) any equipment through the Mixer. The next person to use the lab will have no idea of what's going on. If you want to plug your own equipment into the mixer; there are some empty ports. You will need MONO 1/4" jacks to patch in. Be sure and unplug your equipment when you are finished each time and be careful not to knock anything over!

This class may be repeated for credit.

Students with documented disabilities who need course adaptations or accommodations please make an appointment with me as soon as possible.

The syllabus may be amended at anytime due to the overall performance of the class.

Student/Learning Outcomes: What students should know or be able to do as a result of this course:

1) The student will demonstrate the skill of using midi software

2) The student will demonstrate basic knowledge about midi

3) The student will demonstrate the skill of composing their own songs using music technology software

4) Through group work, students will demonstrate the ability to create music with other students

5) Through group work, students will demonstrate the ability analyze and critic other students' compositions

6) The student will demonstrate basic computer skills

7) The student will be encouraged to develop the skill of time management by preparing for class during their lab hours

8) The student will be encouraged to develop the basic piano skills

9) The student will be encouraged to develop an interest in diverse music genres

10) The student will be encouraged to develop basic skills to make audio CDs

Week
1	Introduction to MIDI: internet Search on What is MIDI	August 30
2	Sequencer: Performer Basics	September 5
3	Sequencer: Performer Cut and Paste- Over Dub Recording	September 12
4	Sequencer: Performer Looping vs Cut and Paste	September 19
5	Sequencer: Performer Quantize- Midi Mixer	September 26
6	Sequencer: Performer Editing- Notation	October 3
7	Sequencer: Performer Step Time- Mult-Record	October 10
8	Midterm- Make MIDI files into MP3 using QuickTime Pro-GarageBand basics I	October 17
9	Sequencer: Performer How to use MIDI files off the Web-GarageBand basics II	October 24
10	Digital Recording: Protools Basics- GarageBand Advance I	October 31
11	Digital Recording: Protools Tracks- Recording- GarageBand Advance II	November 7
12	Digital Recording: Protools Mixing- GarageBand Advance III	November 14
13	Digital Recording: Protools Bounce a file to a CD- GarageBand Advance IV	November 21
14	Digital Recording: Change a Wav File Wav Editor	November 28
15	Digital Recording: Wav to a MP3	December 5
Final	Final Paper: How can you use this Class in your life? What did you learn from this Class?	Final

Projects
1	5%	What is Midi Web Search (1 page Essay)	September 5
2	5%	Group Project 1- Drum Beat I	September 12
3	5%	Song Review 1 (1 page Essay)	September 19
4	5%	Piano Skills I (Triads, Major Scale)	September 26
5	5%	CD Review 1 (1 page Essay)	October 3
6	5%	Group Project 2- Drum Beat II	October 10
7	10%	Mid Term Project ≠ (2 plus minutes long)	October 17
8	5%	Group Project 3- Instrumental I	October 24
9	5%	Piano Skills II(Pentatonic Scale and I- IV- V chords)	October 31
10	5%	Group Project 4- Instrumental II	November 7
11	5%	CD Review 2 (1 page Essay)	November 14
12	5%	CD Review 3 (1 page Essay)	November 21
13	5%	Group Project 5- Song (with words) make a CD as a group	November 28
14	5%	Midi Files (How to find them)	December 5
15	15%	Final Project - (3 plus minutes long.)	Final
16	5%	Paper ≠ Due day of the Final (2-3 pages typed)	Final
	5%	Notebook- Due day of Final (Note and Papers in a Folder) and Lab Hours Report - Due day of Final (Week List of the Hours of Lab time)	Final
	up to 10%	Extra Credit - CD reviews- papers- powerpoint- sequences, etc	Due day of Final December 14 10:30am