Music Production I
Course Description
Music Production I is an introduction to the technology used in the music industry, specifically the recording arts. Using Apple’s Logic Pro X, the course introduces students to musical concepts of rhythm melody, harmony, timbre, texture, and song form, while simultaneously working through different input techniques, editing features, and audio recording and editing in Logic Pro X. There is a strong emphasis on popular music and song writing techniques and conventions, giving students tools they can use to foster their creativity and compose their own music.
Course Big Ideas
- Students learn musical concepts of rhythm, melody, harmony, timbre, texture, and form.
- Students learn use of software instruments and MIDI input techniques.
- Students learn basic MIDI editing.
- Students learn basic acoustic principles.
- Students learn basic audio recording, editing, and processing.
Course Essential Questions
- What are the elements of music as they relate to popular music?
- What are ways to input musical information and edit it using Logic Pro X?
- What are the principles of acoustics and sound?
- What are proper recording techniques?
- How do you edit, process, and mix recorded audio
Course Competencies
- Write music in simple meter, duple subdivision.
- Write music that contains drums, bass, accompaniment, and melody that work together.
- Write music based on harmonic progressions.
- Write music in standard popular music song forms.
- Input and edit MIDI information into a computer music software app.
- Mix and process recordings.
Course Assessments
- Drills
- Quizzes
- Projects
- Tests
Course Units
- Unit 1: Introduction and Basic Musical Elements
- Unit 2: MIDI Editing and Song Form
- Unit 3: Audio Editing and Recording
Unit 1: Introduction and Basic Musical Elements
- Standards
- Know
- Understanding/Key Learning
- Do
- Unit Essential Questions
- Lesson Essential Questions
- Materials/Resources
- Vocabulary
- Assessments
Standards
PA Arts and Humanities Standards:
- 9.1.12.A Know and use the elements and principles of each art form to create works in the arts and humanities.
- 9.1.12.B Recognize, know, use and demonstrate a variety of appropriate arts elements and principles to produce, review and revise original works in the arts.
- 9.1.12.J Analyze and evaluate the use of traditional and contemporary technologies for producing, performing and exhibiting works in the arts or the works of others.
- 9.2.12.A. Explain the historical, cultural and social context of an individual work in the arts.
- 9.2.12.E. Analyze how historical events and culture impact forms, techniques and purposes of works in the arts.
Know
- Use of a digital audio workstation set-up, making proper connections between the different elements.
- Basic common-time subdivision, broken down one-sixteenth, and subsequent time values ranging from 1 to 1/16 of a bar.
- Names of the notes/keys on a keyboard.
- MIDI note names and octaves.
- Event start and stop location, as well as duration in terms of MIDI Time Code.
- Properties of a bassline and its harmonic function.
- Proper use of repeat and loop.
- The principles behind a step sequencer.
- What common phrasing techniques are in popular music
- How to manipulate music elements of rhythm, tempo, and pitch within a digital audio workstation.
- Common popular music styles and genres and their properties.
- Key historical innovations in the music production and recording industry.
- The elements and conventions of popular music song-writing.
- The structure of major and dorian-minor scales.
- What the triads and functions are of a major key and dorian-minor key.
Understanding/Key Learning
- A digital audio workstation is an application that provides tools and means used to compose, record, and produce popular music.
- Rhythm refers to the pattern of sounds and silences in music, encompassing the timing, duration, and beat of notes and phrases.
- The 128 MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) notes are named based on the pitch of musical notes and are organized into octaves.
- The MIDI Time Code is part of the MIDI specification that defines a note’s start location, end location, and duration in terms of measure, beat, division, and tick.
- There are four basic parts of popular music songs: drums, bassline, chords/accompaniment, and melody.
- Popular music follows an alternating verse-refrain song form, often utilizing a bridge as well.
- The history and development of technologies in music production has developed quickly in the last century and changes rapidly.
- Music follows structured harmonic patterns called scales.
- Harmony in music is based on scale and key function.
Do
- Demonstrate the use of a digital audio workstation for composing original popular music.
- Demonstrate the use of MIDI input with a digital audio workstation.
- Demonstrate the use of a step sequencer to compose musical patterns.
- Demonstrate an understanding of rhythmic note values in common time with subdivisions as small as 1/16th note.
- Identify MIDI notes by name and octave, both on a keyboard and in an event list
- Compose 8-bar sections on music that include drums, bassline, chords, and melody.
- Compose music in 4-bar phrases.
- Compose music based on a common popular music chord progression.
- Identify key historical innovations in the area of music recording and production.
- Construct a major scale through the use of a TetraChord.
- Construct a dorian-minor scale through the use of a TetraChord.
- Identify chord function within a specific major or dorian-minor key.
Unit Essential Questions
Lesson Essential Questions
- What is subdivision in common time?
- How does musical subdivision apply to the MIDI Time Code?
- How is a major scale constructed?
- How is a dorian minor scale constructed?
- What elements are repetitive in popular music?
- How are looping and repeat used in popular music?
- What are the common chord progressions used in popular music?
- What are the triad chord functions of a major scale?
- What are the triad chord functions of a dorian-minor scale?
- What are important historical achievements and innovations in recording of the past 150 years?
Materials/Resources
Vocabulary
- Edison phonograph
- Berliner phonograph
- Magnetic tape
- Digital Audio Tape
- Wax cylinder & disc
- Shellac disc
- Vinyl disc
- Drums
- Bassline
- Accompaniment
- Melody
- Loop
- Riff
- Popular Music
- Control Bar (Logic Pro)
- Arrange window (Logic Pro)
- Editors Window (Logic Pro)
- Inspector (Logic Pro)
- Library (Logic Pro)
- Mixer Channel Strip
- Track
- Mute
- Solo
- Record-enable
- Beat
- Bar/Measure
- Subdivision
- Divisions
- Ticks
- MIDI Time Clock
- Start location
- End location
- Duration
- Tempo
- Beats per minute
- Genre/Style
- Step Sequencer (Logic Pro)
- Piano Roll (Logic Pro)
- Step Input (Logic Pro)
- Transport controls - play, record, stop, rewind, forward, fast-forward, fast-rewind
- Four-on-the-floor
- Back beat
- Rhythm Maker
- Pitch
- Tonic
- Scale
- Major Scale
- Dorian Scale
- TetraChord
- Keyboard keys
- Sharp
- Flat
- Interval
- Half-step
- Whole-step
- Octave
- Middle C
- MIDI Note Octaves
- MIDI Note Names
- Chromatic Scale
- Monophonic
- Homophonic
- Phrase
- Section
- Chord
- Triad
- Chord progression
- Key
- Chord function
- Skank pattern
- Arpeggio
- Chord Root
Assessments
Unit 2: MIDI Editing and Song Form
- Standards
- Know
- Understanding/Key Learning
- Do
- Unit Essential Questions
- Lesson Essential Questions
- Materials/Resources
- Vocabulary
- Assessments
Standards
PA Arts and Humanities Standards:
- 9.1.12.A Know and use the elements and principles of each art form to create works in the arts and humanities.
- 9.1.12.B Recognize, know, use and demonstrate a variety of appropriate arts elements and principles to produce, review and revise original works in the arts.
- 9.1.12.C Integrate and apply advanced vocabulary to the arts forms.
- 9.1.12.E Delineate a unifying theme through the production of a work of art that reflects skills in media processes and techniques.
- 9.2.12.I. Identify, explain and analyze philosophical beliefs as they relate to works in the arts.
Know
- The tempo in music can change abruptly or over the course of time.
- Dynamics are varying degrees of loud and soft.
- How to manipulate tempo in Logic Pro, both with static tempo changes and gradual tempo changes.
- How to change and edit velocity in MIDI tracks to create musically and expressively accurate recordings.
- Velocity is a controller that will cause a patch to play with articulation as well as dynamics.
- Multiple methods of quantizing parts to create rhythmically accurate music.
- How to apply arpeggiator, note repeat, and note trigger effects to MIDI tracks.
- Proper techniques for applying stereo image in a mix.
- How to balance tracks without clipping.
- The sections of a verse-refrain alternation song form.
- Drum sets consist of three types of drums and three types of cymbals.
- Drum kits contain all of the sounds of a drum set plus a variety of additional percussion sounds.
- Stereo sound mimics human hearing with two distinct channels of audio.
- Most popular music is in a verse-refrain alternation song form.
- Volume controls the signal level relative to other signals present.
- Stereo panning sends the signal to the left or right channel in varying percentages, controlled by a panoramic potentiometer.
- A mixer provides control for each channel for equalization, panning, effects sends, input, output buses, and volume.
Understanding/Key Learning
- Quantizing rounds off the start location to a given subdivision resolution.
- An effect is a device placed in the signal path that alters the original signal.
- MIDI effects use the original MIDI data and change it according to the set parameters, sending the altered data to the synthesizer to be played.
Do
- Create and record drum loops using ostinato patterns in simple meter.
- Program appropriate tempo changes in an original piece of music using MIDI instruments and sequencing applications.
- Program appropriate meter changes in an original piece of music using MIDI instruments and sequencing applications.
- Use MIDI effects to manipulate, alter, and enhance recorded MIDI tracks.
- Program appropriate articulation indications in an original piece of music using MIDI instruments and sequencing application.
- Program appropriate dynamic indications in an original piece of music using MIDI instruments and sequencing application.
- Use a mixing board to balance track volumes.
- Use a mixing board to create a stereo image.
- Demonstrate basic MIDI programming and editing skills for pitch, duration, quantization, velocity, and patch.
- Create an original composition using a verse-refrain alternation formal structure.
Unit Essential Questions
Lesson Essential Questions
- What is the definition of tempo?
- How are dynamics addressed in MIDI?
- How is velocity edited in Logic Pro?
- What are the methods of quantizing in Logic Pro?
- How are MIDI effects applied to tracks?
- What drum kits are available in Logic Pro?
- What drum kits in Logic Pro meet General MIDI specifications?
- How are MIDI notes mapped in drum kits?
- What are the sections in a verse-refrain song?
Materials/Resources
Vocabulary
- Velocity
- Dynamics
- Tempo changes
- Cymbal types
- Drum types
- Percussion instruments
- General MIDI Percussion Map
- Phrase
- Song Form
- Verse-Refrain
- Verse
- Chorus
- Refrain
- Bridge
- Hook
- Intro
- Outro/Tag
- Mono audio
- Stereo
- Multi-Channel
- Generation
- Propagation
- Reception
- Localization
- Audio cues
- Pan Pot
- Clipping
- Volume
- Arpeggio
- Arpeggiator
- MIDI Effect
- Note Repeater
- Chord Trigger
Assessments
Unit 3: Audio Editing and Recording
- Standards
- Know
- Understanding/Key Learning
- Do
- Unit Essential Questions
- Lesson Essential Questions
- Materials/Resources
- Vocabulary
- Assessments
Standards
PA Arts and Humanities Standards
- 9.1.12.A Know and use the elements and principles of each art form to create works in the arts and humanities.
- 9.1.12.B Recognize, know, use and demonstrate a variety of appropriate arts elements and principles to produce, review and revise original works in the arts.
- 9.1.12.C Integrate and apply advanced vocabulary to the arts forms.
- 9.1.12.D Demonstrate specific styles in combination through the production or performance of a unique work of art.
- 9.1.12.H Incorporate the effective and safe use of materials, equipment and tools into the production of works in the arts at work and performance spaces.
Know
- Know and identify the physical properties of sound.
- How frequency determines pitch.
- How amplitude determines volume.
- How harmonics determine timbre.
- Understand basic principles of recording digital audio.
- The meaning of equalization, compression, and reverb in recorded audio.
- How to control audio systems governing input and output.
- Generation, propagation, and reception are three processes necessary for sound to occur.
- Frequency is the rate at which a sound wave vibrates.
- Amplitude is the distance a vibration moves away from equilibrium.
- Harmonics are wave forms with frequencies related by whole numbers.
- The amplitude of harmonics within a sound determines its timbre.
- Sound pressure levels (SPL) are measured in decibels.
- Decibels are a log-rhythmic method of representing acoustic watts.
- Gain is the control that enables boosting or attenuating a signal.
- Output levels that exceed 0 dB are considered clipping - signals that clip will distort.
- Equalization allows for control over a frequency range through filters.
- Pass, Shelf, and Peak/Notch filters are used in equalization.
- Compression reduces the dynamic range of a signal and allows for boosting the quieter parts of the wave form.
- Audio files are individual files of sound represented in binary data that can be used and edited in digital audio workstations.
- The Apple OS has a 2-channel audio system built in.
- Using an audio interface may utilize a different audio system specific to the interface.
- Unity is the unprocessed signal.
Understanding/Key Learning
Do
- Edit audio files.
- Import audio files into Logic Pro
- Edit audio files in Logic Pro
- Apply equalization to audio tracks
- Apply compression to audio tracks
- Apply reverb to Logic Pro projects
- Demonstrate the use of a parametric EQ
- Mix and master a project in Logic Pro
- Operate the Built-In Audio system on a Mac
- Operate the MOTU audio system with an appropriate interface (or other brand)
- Record vocals in Logic Pro
- Process vocal tracks in Logic Pro
Unit Essential Questions
- What are the physical properties of sound? (sound waves)
- What characteristics of waveforms impact sound qualities?
- How is digital audio manipulated with the software?
- What is the process for recording digital audio?
- How is digital audio edited?
- What is an audio system and how is it related to recording digital audio?
- How are vocals processed?
Lesson Essential Questions
- What processes are necessary for sound to occur?
- How does frequency determine pitch?
- How does amplitude determine volume?
- How do harmonics determine timbre?
- What is gain and gain structure?
- How does equalization work?
- How does compression work?
- What absolutes exist when working with digital audio?
- What is the built-in (Apple OS) audio system?
- What is reverb and how is it applied to audio?
Materials/Resources
Vocabulary
- Generation
- Propagation
- Reception
- Stereo audio
- Monaural audio
- Frequency
- Amplitude
- Harmonics
- Pitch
- Volume
- Timbre
- Gain
- Boost
- Attenuate
- Unity
- Decibels
- Sound Pressure Level
- Input
- Output
- Gain Structure
- Audio Effects
- Chorus
- Ensemble
- Overdrive
- Delay
- Reverb
- Equalization
- Compression
- Dynamics
- Dynamic Range
- Pass filter
- Shelf filter
- Peak/Notch Filter
- Q
- Bandwidth
- Graphic EQ
- Parametric EQ
- Threshold
- Ratio
- Knee
- Hard Knee
- Soft Knee
- Compressor
- Trough
- Peak
- Waveform
- Soundwave
- Equilibrium
- Transient Peak
- Attack
- Release
- Make-Up Gain
- Limiting
- Ducking
- De-essing
- Sibilance Consonants
- Plosive Consonants
- Clipping