This class is for high school students at Winnebago Lutheran Academy who want to learn how to make music on computers. We use Audacity and Garageband as our main tools, and we have fun almost every single day figuring out how to make music using audio and MIDI, but we also learn how to record vocals and instruments and even play guitar and drums if we need to.
We keep personal blogs (look on the right column of this page and click on our names) to help us remember what we've been working on, keep track of the all the decisions that we've made on our projects, and to share with our family and friends the music that we've created.
Blogging about AudacityGoal: Demonstrate your knowledge of editing audio using Audacity by writing a blog about your three weeks of Dance Projects. Software needed: Internet browser (Safari, IE, Firefox, etc.) Website needed:http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=36962 (Mr. Witte’s blog) Due date:
Block 3: Friday, September 15, 2006
Block 8: Monday, September 18, 2006
Procedure:Think back to Dance Projects 1, 2 & 3—Think about what new audio editing techniques you learned. Think about what thoughts went through your head as you were learning them. Think about what tips and tricks you figured out on your own. Think about what personal goals you gave yourself when you have to select music for Dance Project 3. Think about what you’d do differently next time. Think about what problems you had to overcome (and did!). Think about how you’d teach someone else to do the same thing.
Write about everything you learned, from counting beats to saving to my drop box. The more you write, the more I’ll know what you learned. The less you write, the less I will have to base my impression of your knowledge.
Blog Title: Use some version of the following words: Audacity, Editing Audio, or Dance Projects
Assessment: I’ll be looking for the following topics in your blog:
A description of the whole process used to import, cut/split, edit, apply effects, and save your project using Audacity and iTunes.
A description of problems you encountered while working with audio files and how you overcame those problems (this could be as simple as how to import audio into Audacity or as complex as counting beats and aligning two or more different tracks into one smooth song)
Your evaluation of Dance Projects 1-3. I wanted you to know how to manipulate audio so you could help the WLA Dance Team, Cheerleaders, and your own classmate prepare music for this year’s Homecoming. Are you prepared? Can you do it? Is there something else you need to know (like how to burn your project to a CD) or could you cut audio now without any help?
Dale Witte is the choir director and music technology teacher at Winnebago Lutheran Academy, Fond du Lac, WI. He has been teaching since January 1990 and really enjoys teaching students how God's gift of music works. Dale is also a church organist, piano player, violinist, and church music composer.