Week 1- Skills 1: Templates and strategies for composition using sequencers/DAWs (1.8.18)
In addition to various points of interest throughout my music education journey, this blog will follow each lesson in Technology in Music Education (Sydney Con, mued4002).
In lesson one, Liz introduced us to a few commonly used DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations). We had a play on Chrome Music Lab working with the song maker, which was very easy to use and simple. It seemed like the kind of thing that would work well with primary and early secondary students, as there were a lot of limitations which make music making much easier. I think it would fit in well with ideas and lesson plans I've created and run in the past around Auxy, which is also a simple sequencer.
We then ran through the basic functions of Garageband which I was already familiar with, having written a number of songs on it in the past. I would love to get more practice on Garageband and maybe even get into song writing as a hobby. One thing I didn't know about garage band was that you can build multiple layers on a single audio track, so that was cool.
The last DAW of the day was Soundtrap. I have very limited experience in Soundtrap so it was interesting to get to know it a little better. Because I was using the free version, I was limited in the things I could do and often found myself wishing for some of the features of Garageband. I did thoroughly enjoy the collaborative task, which would've been impossible on Garageband, so I can see where Soundtrap would be useful for group work.