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.
Final Project Brainstorming
If you were asked to write a piece of music, what would it sound like? If you could write any kind of music what would it be? What kind of music inspires you? Who are you favorite artists? If you could sing like anyone, who would it be? If you could play an instrument like anyone, who would it be? What intrigued you about using GarageBand and Audacity to make music? How would you play with either program to make music?
Don't write what you think I want to hear. Listen to your heart. Listen to the music in your head––the music you hear when you are walking down the hallway, the music you hear when you are all alone, the music you hear when no one else is listening.
Write a blog entry and brainstorm answers to these questions, or make a list of pieces you want to write, or techniques you want to use, or artists you want to sound like, or composers you admire, or ideas for compositions you've had, or little things that just caught your fancy (bleu cheese?). I will not post them and make them live, but we will have the conversation together. I will not critique or ridicule any idea. All your musical ideas are valid.
THIS BLOG ENTRY IS DUE BY THE END OF CLASS TODAY! (Friday, May 2, 2008)
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.