The NOF Training Team wish to express their appreciation of the contribution to Music training made by Dennis and to note the sadness felt by all at the passing away of a very respected colleague.

Music Technology Training is gathering pace! A large number of music teachers (secondary class teachers, primary visiting teachers and instrumental instructors) have attended the round of NOF training courses on Internet, Downloading & CD Writing, Word Processing, PowerPoint and Digital Cameras & Scanners. The teachers who attended these courses have voted them a great success and acknowledged the large number of potential uses.

Over the next few months most music departments are having one or more days training on Cubase VST, both midi sequencing and digital audio recording. Cubase allows music to be played into the computer as midi files – from a pop song to a full orchestral arrangement- edited, and recorded onto CD or minidisk; the music can also be printed out at publishing quality.

The audio side of Cubase means that it can be used as a ‘digital tape recorder’; its mixing desk and effects rack make it possible to produce very high quality recordings. The sequencing facility is used for the Midi Sequencing exam, while the audio facility is used both for the Sound Engineering and by the Advanced Midi Sequencing. Staff who have recently had training in this area are now keen to have pupils take these units.

Cubase has recently been used to record Fife School Rock Bands in competition and a CD was produced; the best tracks were converted to mp3 files, using skills acquired on the downloading course, and are currently on the rock band web site

http://users.quista.net/dennis1/rockpop.htm

For many music teachers midi sequencing and digital audio recording are new avenues to explore, but are tools all acknowledge to be a major part of the way forward in music education and after their NOF training and Cubase follow-up work Fife teaches are able to integrate their use into their classroom practice.

New Music courses

Four courses were created by Dennis Webster and distributed to all Music departments in February 2002

In addition, the CD holds the midi file for the exam course, a Cubase drum map, partially complete and Goldware, a shareware wave editor. Note: Teachers wishes to use a shareware program past its trial date must purchase a copy from the author details of which are displayed when using the program. It will also be necessary to first seek permission from the school’s network person if the computer being used is connected to the school network.