Northeastern University Professor Teaches SONAR in Ghana

sonar5Head of the Music Technology program at Northeastern University, Dennis Miller and his wife, Susan, are spending spring semester in Ghana working as visiting professors for a local university. This trip marks the couple’s second trip to Ghana, having first visited the country in 2004.

The pair will spend 150 days working on the campus of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in the city of Kumasi. KNUST offers various music and arts courses through the Center of Cultural Research and African Studies. These courses include Keyboard Skills, Music Theory, Drumming, Ghanian Dance, Performing Arts Traditions of West Africa, Sound Engineering, and Music Technology.  Dennis is teaching two classes at the university in Digital Media Production and Digital Animation while Susan, a professor of biological sciences at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, is working in the department of theoretical biology, supervising a lecture hall and lab.

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Dennis’s Digital Media Production course introduces students to digital audio, discussing MIDI, how to do basic editing with tracks, load and change patches in soft-synths, adjust tempo and dynamics, and more. They are also learning about sequencing in SONAR 8.5 Producer. Dennis provided each student with basic step-by-step tutorials to help them learn the program. He also made each student a DVD that includes copies of SONAR, project demos, articles and assignment files.

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Creating Music In The Classroom With Cakewalk

On June 15 2009, Cakewalk Product Manager Samara Krugman discussed music production in the classroom with Keith Mason, coordinator of Music Technology at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee and producer for the Music Tech For ME podcast.

In this episode, Samara explains how Music Creator 5 can benefit the music student. It’s simple interface and getting started tutorials guide users through the process of recording, editing, and mixing their first tracks. Students can add sound effects and backing tracks to their projects with hundreds of high-quality instrument sounds, loops and samples built right into the software studio. With these tools, plus Music Creator 5’s various project views and assistant features, students will learn basic music composition techniques as they work toward arranging and printing their own sheet music.

Visit Music Tech for ME online to hear the interview.

Music Tech For ME covers all aspects of incorporating music technology into the K-12 school curriculum, advising music educators across the globe on the latest advancements in creating and teaching music. Even if you’re not a music educator, you can learn a lot about the numerous technological tools and resources that are available on the market today just by listening to the show.