demystifying music technology

Welcome to the August 2010 edition of the Midnight Music newsletter

In this month’s edition:

1. •New BYO Laptop workshops: Victoria-wide, Queensland and Tasmania
   

2. •Audacity: Preview Cut
   

3. •mtec2011 news

Bring Your Own Laptop Workshops: Geelong, regional Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania

All the best,

Katie

Contact:

Email: katie@midnightmusic.com.au

Phone: 0412 403 704

Twitter (Katie): @katiesw1

Twitter (mtec2011): @mtec2011

Hands-on music technology training: www.midnightmusic.com.au

Free video tutorials and articles: www.musictechtips.com

Do you have a training enquiry?

Fill in a booking enquiry form for more information about:

1. •Booking a training session at your school (group training or one-on-one)
   

2. •Hosting a BYO laptop session for schools in your local area

Would you like to host a "Bring Your Own Laptop" workshop in one of the above areas? Expressions of interest are being sought from schools in areas beyond Melbourne who would like to host a workshop for local music teachers. Workshop options include:

1. •Great Ways to Use Technology in the Music Classroom
   

2. •Amazing Audacity
   

3. •Sibelius Scores and Worksheets
   

4. •Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Professional Learning Networks for Music Teachers
   

For more information, go to the BYO Laptop Workshop page.

If you're interested in hosting a workshop in your area, fill out this form.

If you'd like to attend a workshop, sign up for BYO Laptop email updates.

Audacity is a fantastic free audio editing tool which allows you to carrying out editing tasks quickly and easily. 

If you ever need to chop out a verse or other section of a song, you can do it easily in Audacity by highlighting the relevant section (drag the mouse across the blue wave) and pressing delete.  The section disappears and you can check your handy-work by playing back the song.

But what if you'd like to listen to a preview of the cut before you press delete? 

Try these steps:

1. 1.Select the part of the song you’d like to cut out.  You can click-drag your mouse over the relevant section to select it.
   

2. 2.Fine-tune your selection if necessary by hovering your mouse at either end of the selected area.  You mouse pointer will turn into a hand and you can click and drag to adjust the size of the grey area.
   

3. 3.To listen to a preview of the cut you’re about to make, press the letter C.  Audacity will play 1 second of the song before the cut, and 1 second after the cut - as if the selected area is not there
   

4. 4.If you like what you hear, press Delete.  The selected area will disappear and the two remaining sections will join up automatically.

Planning is well underway for the mtec2011 conference which is taking place in Sydney from 11 - 13 April. 

There's been a great response to the Call for Papers and registrations have now opened.  mtec2011 will be a great opportunity to learn about the latest developments in technology for music teachers, see examples of best practise and attend hands-on lab sessions.

It's not too late to submit a Call for Papers.  Submissions close this coming Friday 27 August 2010.  All the details can be found here.

If you would like to register for the conference, visit the mtec2011 registration page.

Audacity Tip: Previewing A Cut

mtec2011 news