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.
Colbie Caillat is a young singer-songwriter who seems to be an overnight success, but the truth is that she's been working on her career since childhood. As the daughter of an industry insider (Fleetwood Mac producer Ken Caillat), she's had an opportunity to learn some fundamentals of the music business. Read the article "Crafting Colbie" from InTune Monthly magazine, Jan. 2008, pp. 34-40 to learn how she has applied these lessons and how they can apply to upcoming singer-songwriters.
Blogging Questions:
Q1. Why did Colbie's father tell her that in addition to singing, she should write songs?
Q2. Caillat said she didn't like performing. What steps did she take to overcome her discomfort on stage?
Q3. How has collaboration helped Caillat develop her songwriting?
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.