Link to Full Textbook

MUSC 282 – see Calendar Here

Intro to Music Composition & Digital Audio Production

Catalog Info

Fundamentals of music composition with attention to creating original music in digital mediums including MIDI and digital audio. Theory and practice in improvisation as related to composition as well as techniques for reworking musical ideas towards creating a finished composition.

ACE SLO7: Use knowledge, theories, or methods appropriate to the arts to understand their context and significance.

An important “concept” in the arts is that of creativity and artistic production. The context for our work in creative thinking in music will focus on composing. An important aspect of the knowledge required to be a successful composer involves music literacy (reading standard and non standard musical notation), as well as a foundation in the perception and manipulation of the elements of music including melody, rhythm, form, timbre, texture, and expression. An ‘expert thinking’ model will be adopted which asks you to do the work of professionals in the field – thus you will practice the methods and theories of the work of the composer.

You will create ‘etudes’ – short compositional projects with specific parameters (i.e. create a piece only using percussion, or write a melody that can be used as a round). The successful etude demonstrates the knowledge/skill being asked for. You will also create original pieces where the musical parameters are up solely at your discretion. In this way, creative and artistic thinking is assessed in both the formation of the musical problem and its solution.

Because this course focuses on digital music, collection and assessment of your work will be done in an ‘electronic’ manner via sound file formats with embedded metadata/assessment. Playlists of student work will be able to be disseminated quite easily and will be shared with all members of the class as well as some selected works shared with the University community for purposes of course and program assessment.

Reinforcements
Critical Thinking: Music composition will be approached as engaging both critical and creating thinking.

Ethics: Discussion of issues related to intellectual property, copyright, ownership rights in the digital age, and fair-use vs. work for hire issues.

Course Objectives:

1. Provide basic expertise and skills in the use of MIDI technology for music processing. (Improvisation & composition)
2. Gain an overview and elementary understanding of various notation systems used in music production including: standard music notation, chord symbols, wave forms, and events lists.
3. Improvise, and then rework, original music based upon loops/patterns.
4. Compose simple and original songs.
5. Understand the legal and ethical issues regarding original music in the digital age.

Content Outline

1. Introduction to loop-based music production (hardware)
2. Introduction to loop-based music production (software)
3. Music entry & edit via standard notation, event lists, and waveforms.
   1. simple entry
   2. step entry
   3. real-time entry
4. The music production process

Textbook Author Info

Dr. Brian Moore – 358 Westbrook Music Building

Dr. Brian Moore is Professor of Music Education & Music Technology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln School of Music. He also coordinates the music technology offerings for the School, as well as the Music Technology Minor.

He holds a B.A. in music composition and a B.M. in music education degree from the University of New Hampshire. His graduate work includes a masters in music education and conducting and a doctorate in curriculum and instruction, both from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

His special areas of interest include creativity, composition, and instructional technology.

email: brian.moore@unl.edu

Calendar

Jan 2 – Jan 17, 2025

Summary of Assignments