GarageBand+PRE-COURSE+Assignment


 * GarageBand Pre-Course Assignment **

Your university or instructor may require you to complete all or some of the following PRE-COURSE ASSIGNMENTS. ** ALL of the following are required for University of the Arts students. **

**BRIEF BACKGROUND:** The introduction of GarageBand by Apple has been a “game changer” for home and school music production. GarageBand is an entry-level DAW ("Digital Audio Workstation"). Each year Apple adds more great and very useful features to the GarageBand, yet retains the program’s intuitive ease of use. Music educators have learned that GarageBand can be useful to them in many ways. You will certainly discover this in the course, GARAGEBAND DOES IT ALL.

**In this pre-course activity, you will be sampling THREE pieces of content created with GarageBand.** For each, a question or two is provided. Use any text editor (i.e. Google Docs, MS Word, etc.) to respond in writing - a paragraph or two per question. Print out your pre-course assignment and bring the first day of class for discussion. Y ou will need to turn them in then as well.

This YouTube video features music, an arrangement of the familiar Christmas carol "Hark the Herald Angels Sing," created using GarageBand. What are the different instruments you hear in the production? Some of the instruments were actual/real instruments and some were "virtual" instruments (software that synthesizes the sound of an instrument). Some were performed on an external synth, recorded into GarageBand. Which ones do you believe are "real" and which ones do you believe are "synthesized"? Based on everything you heard in the video, what is your opinion of GarageBand as an "entry-level DAW (digital audio workstation)? Please note the closing credits of the video which describe why the arrangement was created.
 * 1) Music Production Video, "Hark the Herald Angels Sing". **

**2) Educational Podcast 1, Interview with Robert Sheldon.** The fairly lengthy (about 30 minutes) podcast features an interview with prominent concert band composer Robert Sheldon. What are some of the different elements of what you hear in this production? How might one record an interview such as this, where the listener hears both the interviewer’s voice and the guest’s voice (give your best guess)? [Just think about the idea of recording two persons in two locations and try to imagine some kind of solution to this challenge, then describe what you've come up with!]

This more brief podcast (about 7 minutes) gives another example of how a podcast might be used in music education. What is an element in this podcast that did not play a part in the first, composer interview, podcast? Besides providing background on a composer or presenting introductory information on a music theory concept, how else might a podcast be used in music education? Please provide some specific (though perhaps theoretical) examples.
 * 3) Educational Podcast 2, Non-Harmonic Tones, Diversity, and Delayed Gratification. **

//** REMEMBER, your responses are due in writing the first day of class. **//


 * IN ADDITION: **
 * Recording is an important component of this course. Students who own/play electric guitar or bass, as well as an acoustic instrument, should bring those on day 2-3 of the class.
 * The course final project will be a creative music production using GarageBand. Students may want to bring lead sheets or scores for songs they’d like to consider producing.