Music

=The use of computers in teaching Music=

Computers would now appear to play a vital part to play in teaching music. They can be used to produce musical score, or to compose and play music. How do you think that they can be used?

Music is one of the Creative Arts subjects now.

Over the last few years, computers have become vital in the study of music. One of the strands of music that has benefitted greatly from computers is composition. This is due largely to the introduction of notation software. Notation software is like a word processor for musicians. Instead of roughly hand written score, any budding musician can now present their own newly composed work in a professionally printed medium. While notation software has been around for some time, present software is now far more intuitive and affordable. Probably, the two most popular notation software are 'finale' and 'sibelius'. The basic functions of "finale' is now even available as a free download.
 * MUSIC NOTATION**

An advantage of music notation is the student is able to play back their composition to hear how it sounds.

=**GARAGE BAND**= A great program that is available as freeware on most Macintosh computers is a program called Garage band. Garage band allows the user to put together a multitrack recording with minimal fuss. It is an easy program to operate and it has an interface that is attractive to students. All students now have the ability to perform, compose and record their work on Garage band. Garage band is one of the number one resources for high school music teachers and I highly recommend it. check it out. (Note: all the Podcasts on the EDIT312 CD were created in Garageband - Tony).

http://www.apple.com/ilife/garageband/

//Sam Martin//

Another use for Garage band is its use with importing movies. A great lesson is to have the students import a movie trailer (about 3 mins), such as Ice Age, in to Garage band, and they then create their own soundtrack with music loops and sound effects. It is a good activity after a unit on incidental music in film and TV (Media music), and is simple to use - basically drag and drop the loops under the thumbnails of the movie where you want them. The real advantage of Garage band is that even students who can not write their own music can use the pre-existing loops to create their soundtrack. And those who have more musical experience can compose their own or adjust dynamics, key and tempos. Students really enjoy the activity.

//Bev Babbage//

=**SIBELIUS TIPS**=

//Gerard Dutton//

Hello to all future music teachers or just active performers, composers or computer geeks! Here is a place for us all to leave useful tips for each other about using the common music notation software, //Sibelius//. This is just a start, so please feel free to add information.

//**USE THE NUMBER KEYPAD** Sibelius// is a very powerful program and is used widely in schools. The most helpful tool (for me) when creating scores, was to make as much use of the **number keypad** as possible. Laptop computers mostly do not have a number keypad, which is a real handicap when using Sibelius. Small peripheral number keypads can be added via the USB ports, however. It is well worth the expense of purchasing one for your laptop, or getting a laptop with the extra keys. The menus in //Sibelius// all correlate to the number keypad, making entries very easy with a little practice.

//**ALSO USE THE NUMBER KEYS ON MAIN KEYBOARD**// To write chords for piano parts etc, insert a note for the lowest pitch of the chord (the usual way). Then press '3' for a third above; '2' for a second above; '4' for a fourth above etc. Just keep entering intervals stacked up above each other, using the main keyboard numbers (along the top of the keyboard). Accidentals can be added using the number-keypad as usual.

//**USE THE ARROW KEYS**// Also useful, are the arrow keys. Moving the cursor back to disable the 'predictive' feature when entering note values is often necessary. Especially, when entering different consecutive durations.

Raise or lower pitches by using the arrow keys 'up' or 'down'.

To raise a note by one octave, hit 'ctrl' & 'up arrow'. To lower a note by one octave, hit 'ctrl' & 'down arrow'.

//**AVOID USING THE MOUSE**// To save time when entering notes, avoid clicking and pointing with the mouse. Always try to find a key shortcut. With practice, you will find this the most efficient method of using //Sibelius.//

//**PERCUSSION PARTS**// A good tip for writing for percussion instruments in your score, is to place notes at different pitch levels (using the arrow keys) within parts. These different 'pitches' when written in say a drum part, give many different percussion sounds. Do not just accept the default pitch/sound -experiment with all the many midi sounds available. This feature is not immediately obvious when setting up percussion scores.