“To study music we must learn the rules.
To create music we must forget them.”– Juliette Nadia Boulanger
“To achieve great things, two things are needed;
a plan, and not quite enough time”– Leonard Bernstein
Course Descriptions
School of Rock 1 A, B
Credit: CTE or Elective
Prerequisite: None
Length: 1 year
Grade Level: 9, 10, 11, 12
Learn and apply skills in music recording techniques, music editing, mixing, and creating finished musical recordings for distribution as sound files in order to enhance, convey, and capture the expressive intent of music. Includes instruction in sound equipment operation and maintenance, music composition, dialogue recording, sound effects and Foley, sound track editing, dubbing, mixing sound, final media production and export. You do not have to be a musician to take this class, just love music and sound! You can even join SkillsUSA and compete in regional and maybe even state competitions. Remember skills pay the bills!
School of Rock 2 A, B
Credit: CTE or Elective
Prerequisite: School of Rock 1 A, B
Length: 1 year
Grade Level: 10, 11, 12
This course is a continuation of School of Rock 1. Learn to express yourself through creating music. Along with musical instruments and vocals, technology is be used for creating, recording, and performing music. Students will also perform compositions formally or informally and respond to music created in the classroom. Join forces with other talented students to create, produce, record, and perform music and sound compositions. Dive into the process of advanced recording techniques and live sound production. Produce sound recordings as finished products or as components of film/video, broadcast, live, and mixed media productions. Learn to work with musicians, producers, editors, directors, artists, and production managers from industry. You can even join SkillsUSA and compete in regional and maybe even state competitions. Remember skills pay the bills!
The Arrangement: Where It All Begins
Good balance starts with a good arrangement. It’s important to understand arrangement because so much of mixing is subtractive by nature. This means that the arrangement, and therefore the balance, is changed by the simple act of muting an instrument whose part either doesn’t fit well with another or doesn’t fit in a particular section of a song. If th
e instruments fit well together arrangement-wise so they help build the song dynamically and don’t fight one another frequency-wise, then the mixer’s life becomes immensely easier.
Tension and Release
All art is built around tension and release, which is just another expression for contrast. It’s big against small, fat against slim, wide against narrow, and black against white. In photography it’s shadows against light, in painting it’s light against dark, in music it’s loud against quiet, and in mixing it’s full against sparse. That’s what makes things interesting; you never know how big something is until you see something small to compare it to, and vice versa.
All good arrangements are filled with dynamic changes, which means loud versus quiet and full versus sparse. One of the jobs of a mixer is to create this tension and release when it’s not there, and when it is, to emphasize it. This is done by muting and unmuting tracks and changing the level of certain vocals or instruments at points within the song.
Learning Two Languages
While students are learning in your course, they will be learning two distinct but related languages.
- One is the language of sound and music analysis, which will begin with analysis of individual sounds, recordings, song structures, film soundtracks and build into understanding institutional, sociological, historical, and theoretical topics related to audio recordings.
- THIS RECORDING IS IMPORTANT (TO ME) BECAUSE . . .
- One is audio recording and mixing language itself and particularly those skills needed by the audio recorder, audio engineer, mixer, mastering mixer, and sound designer/sound editor.
- LOOK AT WHAT IS IMPORTANT (TO ME) . . .
Syllabus
Social Media Contract
Teams
- Most productions will be in teams with students taking on various creative and production roles and documenting progress in a rock production journal, a WordPress blog hosted by Edublogs.org (free)
- View Chandler’s blog as a sample
MEIEA Material
Course Units
| Unit | Hours |
| Unit 0: Career Essentials | 30 |
| Unit 1: History of Audio Recording and Popular Music | 10 |
| Unit 2: Digital Audio Workstation | 20 |
| Unit 3: Microphones | 10 |
| Unit 4: Equalization, Dynamics, and Processing | 10 |
| Unit 5: Mixing and Mastering | 30 |
| Unit 6: Music and Sound Basics | 50 |
| Unit 7: Instruments / Voice | 20 |
| YEAR ONE TOTAL | 180 |
| Unit | Hours |
| Unit 8: Sound for Film and Games | 15 |
| Unit 9: The Session | 30 |
| Unit 10: Live Sound | 20 |
| Unit 11: Working in Production Roles | 25 |
| Unit 12: Pre-Production | 30 |
| Unit 13: Production | 30 |
| Unit 14: Post-Production | 30 |
| YEAR TWO TOTAL | 180 |
Unit Schedule
Resources
The School of Rock framework is designed with information from numerous industry and professional sources including:
- Eargle, John (2005). The Microphone Handbook. Focal Press; Second Edition.
- Goodall, Howard (2006-11-18). How Music Works Series. Channel 4, BBC.
- Hass, Jeffrey, Gibson, John and Warren, Alicyn (2016-06-29). http://www.indiana.edu/~emusic/ Center for Electronic and Computer Music. Indiana University.
- Bruce Ronkin (2010). Music & Entertainment Industry Educators Association (MEIEA) Standards, http://www.meiea.org/Journal/Vol.10/Tough-2010-MEIEA-Journal-Vol-10-No-1-p149.pdf.
Northeastern University with support from Belmont University (Google Doc Link) - Owsinski, Bobby (2013-05-01). The Mixing Engineer’s Handbook, Second Edition. Course Technology PTR.
- Owsinski, Bobby (2013-09-30). The Recording Engineer’s Handbook. Course Technology PTR.
- Plummer, Mary (2014-07-09). Apple Pro Training Series: GarageBand. Pearson Education.
- Powell, John (2010-11-03). How Music Works: The Science & Psychology of Beautiful Sounds, from Beethoven to the Beatles and Beyond. Little, Brown & Company.
- Randlette, Peter, (2016-06-29). Instructor of Digital Media, Sound Design, Media Technology. Evergreen State College.
- Weiss, Matthen, (2014-09-10). The Pro Audio Files http://theproaudiofiles.com/teaching-music-production/
The Power of Project Based Learning
- This course is based on project-based learning or PBL, an educational model demonstrated to help students develop 21st skills.
- Why Project-based Learning?
- 21st Century Skills
- Washington State Standards
Screencasts – Assistance in Self-Directed Learning
- Screencast videos are recorded of many lessons to support learning and are available on the web site for viewing anytime at school or at home
- Instructional Formatting (How to read Mr. Le Duc’s directions)
Academic Integrity
Grading
- Projects and Daily Work
- Final and Portfolio Tools
- These tools are used throughout the year
- Final Requirements
Grade Scale
| Level | Letter | Skyward High % | Skyward Low % | Descriptor |
| 4 | A | 100.00% | 92.50% | Advanced. Consistently exceeds proficient level of standard(s). |
| 3.5 | A- | 92.49% | 86.67% | Proficient but partial success at advanced level. |
| B+ | 86.66% | 80.84% | ||
| 3 | B | 80.83% | 75.00% | Proficient. Consistently (usually) meets standard(s). |
| 2.5 | B- | 74.99% | 66.67% | Basic but partial success at proficient level. |
| C+ | 66.66% | 58.34% | ||
| 2 | C | 58.33% | 50.00% | Basic. Inconsistently (occasionally) meets standard(s). |
| REDO |
Grade Scoring Table
Self Authored Projects
- Technical and creative media skills are developed through project work, working toward mastery
- Projects are composed of a plan and a product
- Each project is about two weeks in length
- Students produce projects throughout the term
- Students present the product the last day of the project cycle
Skills Development Projects
- Skills development is embedded into each project with emphasis on 21st Century world of work core skills
Workflow Flowchart
Daily Work
- Students will receive a daily grade for being on task with the daily work. Credit will be reduced for any conduct not contributing to an academic atmosphere. Credit will not be granted if the student is absent, but the points can be made up upon return. Please refer to the online class schedule for missing work and consult with the teacher for make-up work.
Self Evaluation
- Students will publish blog entry detailing their work for projects
- Included in the entry will be a paragraph highlighting what was done and learned
- A screenshot showing an example of the work and progress will be included
- Sample Student Evaluation
Journal
- Students will maintain a journal
- The journal details what was done and learned
- Sample journal entry
- Some student blogs
Leadership
- Students will contribute to the learning community in some meaningful way
- Student-lead leadership projects will be developed between 1st and 2nd semester
- This project is aligned with CTE standards
- Leadership sign up form
Capital High School 