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Syllabus

Welcome to Music Technology, an elective course for grades 11/12. You may download this syllabus as a PDF file.

This is a year-long introductory course that covers a broad spectrum of technologies in use in music today, which includes digital audio recording, editing, sampling, effects processing, sequencing, and innovative forms of music notation. We will also be discussing digital media distribution and current issues in copyright law. Guest artists from the field of electronic music will also join our class on occasion to share their ongoing work and demonstrate how the skills you are learning are related to possible careers in music technology fields.

While you need not be a computer expert to understand and use the concepts covered in this course, some basic computer literacy will be necessary. You need to be comfortable downloading and installing software. The programs you will use in this course are all free, open source, and available on all computer platforms (including Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux). You must have access to a computer system of fairly recent manufacture (within the past three years) to use the software.

In-class discussions of course topics constitute the majority of the work involved in Music Technology. You will also be assigned several homework projects, which ask you to research, write about, and successfully manipulate several software programs and record their accompanying output. The homework in general is very concise, allowing you to master the basic concepts without taking up too much of your valuable time.

In addition to the class web site which you are visiting now, there also exists a group on the social networking site Facebook.com that will be used to communicate information for this class. Please find the group and join it; you are not required to be “friends” with Mr. Wie to join the class group.

Grading

The course grade for Music Technology is structured as follows:
Participation (Discussions) – 50% (based on the rubric below)
Deliverables (Projects) – 50% (graded on completeness)

 

Category

4

3

2

1

Preparation


 

In the classroom when bell rings; immediately takes seat; brings required materials; ready to learn


 

 Most of the time in the classroom when bell rings; most of the time takes seat in a timely manner; most of the time has all materials present; ready to learn Many times not in classroom when bell rings; seat not taken in timely manner; forgets to bring materials to class; attention wanders in class Most of the time late for class; many times in no hurry to take seat; many times forgets to bring materials; most times, attention wanders in class

Discussion


 

 In each class: raises hand to answer questions; raises hand to ask questions In most classes: raises hand to answer questions; raises hand to ask questions In some classes: sometimes raises hand to ask questions Rarely raises hand to answer questions; rarely asks questions

Attitude


 

Always shows respect for teacher by not talking out of turn; shows respect for other students by not talking to them unless appropriate; always interested in classroom activities


 

 Most of the time shows respect for teacher by not talking out of turn; most of the time shows respect for other students by not talking to them unless appropriate; most of the time interested in classroom activities

Often disrespectful to teacher by talking out of turn; often talks out of turn to other students; often disinterested in classroom activities


 

Consistently talks to teacher out of turn; consistently disrupts other students by talking out of turn; consistently disinterested in classroom activities


 

 

Please note that missing class, not participating in discussions, coming to class unprepared for discussions (i.e. not studying assigned source materials for the topic at hand) and forgetting to turn homework in will result in severe grade penalties. As all assignments for the class are posted on the web site and the Facebook group many weeks in advance, absolutely no late work may be submitted for any reason except as outlined in school policies regarding excused absences. You will know about all assignments an entire semester in advance!