MUSPMACT 2012 - Compositional Studies 2B

North Terrace Campus - Semester 2 - 2015

A continuation of MUSPMACT 2011s introduction to more complex compositional and production principles, this course enables students to continue developing their creative and technical skills in composition and music production in a contemporary popular music context. Seminars deliver compositional techniques for more complex work including advanced considerations for arranging, instrumentation, electro-acoustic materials and approaches to a variety of contemporary genres. Use of the recording studio as a creative tool is also explored, blurring the line between composition and production. Tutorials will enable students to develop key skills of composers and producers including reflective practice, critical listening, conceptual thinking and oral communication skills. Workshops involve the creation of small-scale works centred on the practical application of the tutorial content.

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Course Details

Course Code	MUSPMACT 2012
Course	Compositional Studies 2B
Coordinating Unit	Elder Conservatorium of Music
Term	Semester 2
Level	Undergraduate
Location/s	North Terrace Campus
Units	3
Contact	Up to 3 hours per week
Available for Study Abroad and Exchange	Y
Prerequisites	MUSPMACT 2011
Restrictions	Priority is given to Bachelor of Music students but course is available to non-music students (by audition)
Quota	28
Assessment	Reflective journal 30%, Portfolio 70%

Course Staff

Course Coordinator: Associate Professor Luke Harrald

Staff:

Dr Peter Dowdall
Phone: 83132270
Email: peter.dowdall@adelaide.edu.au
Office: Schulz 11.09

Dr Luke Harrald
Phone: 83133402
Email: luke.harrald@adelaide.edu.au
Office: Schulz 11.10

Course Timetable

The full timetable of all activities for this course can be accessed from Course Planner.

Course Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this course, students will develop:

1) An understanding of compositional and music production principles; 
2) An understanding of contemporary popular music idioms; 
3) Creativity and individuality as an artist, which enables student development of their own compositional voice; 
4) A cogent and quality creative portfolio in recorded and notated formats; & 
5) Time and project management skills relating to music production in order to manage creative and technical requirements and meet deadlines.

University Graduate Attributes

This course will provide students with an opportunity to develop the Graduate Attribute(s) specified below:

University Graduate Attribute	Course Learning Outcome(s)
Knowledge and understanding of the content and techniques of a chosen discipline at advanced levels that are internationally recognised.	1, 2, 3
The ability to locate, analyse, evaluate and synthesise information from a wide variety of sources in a planned and timely manner.	1, 2, 3
An ability to apply effective, creative and innovative solutions, both independently and cooperatively, to current and future problems.	3, 4
Skills of a high order in interpersonal understanding, teamwork and communication.	5
A proficiency in the appropriate use of contemporary technologies.	3, 4
A commitment to continuous learning and the capacity to maintain intellectual curiosity throughout life.	1, 2, 3, 4
A commitment to the highest standards of professional endeavour and the ability to take a leadership role in the community.	5

Learning Resources

Required Resources

• Class handouts and weekly materials placed on MyUni.

• USB 2.0 Stick or portable hard drive with enough capacity to store files associated with the course and formatted as HFS+ (OSX) or FAT (Windows – Do not use NTFS).

• Stereo headphones with a 6.5mm male adaptor. 

Note – students must bring both their USB storage and Headphones (with adaptor) to university, as they are required for using the EMU Audio Suite.

Recommended Resources

Reading
Beall, Eric (2009) The Billboard Guide to Writing and Producing Songs that Sell. Billboard Books: Crown Publishing Group, New York.

Blume, Jason (1999) Six Steps to Songwriting Success. Billboard Books: Crown Publishing Group, New York.

Braheny, John (2006) The Craft and Business of Songwriting. Writer’s Digest Books, F+W Publications, Cincinnati.
Chase, Wayne. (2006) How Music Really Works. Roedy Black Publishing, Vancouver.

Covach, John (2009) What’s that sound: an introduction to rock music and its history.  Second edition. W.W. Norton & Company, New York.  

Kachulis, Jimmy (2005) The Songwriters Workshop: Harmony. Berklee Press, Boston.

Perricone, Jack (2000) Melody in Songwriting: Tools and techniques for Writing Hit Songs. Berklee Press, Boston.  

Webb, Jimmy (1998) Tunesmith – inside the art of songwriting. Hyperion, New York.

Wood, Clement (1936) The Complete Rhyming Dictionary and Poet’s Craft Book. Dell  Publishing, New York.

Websites
Gary Ewers – The essential secrets of songwriting
http://secretsofsongwriting.com/index.html

Rhymer – a free online rhyming dictionary
http://www.rhymer.com

Logic Pro resources
http://www.apple.com/logicstudio/resources/

Celemony Melodyne – Polyphonic music editor
http://www.celemony.com/

Antares Audio Technologies – Auto-Tune pitch correction
http://www.antarestech.com/

Serato Pitch’n Time Pro – Time stretching and pitch shifting plug-in
http://serato.com/pitchntime-pro

Drumagog – Drum replacement and enhancement
http://www.drumagog.com/

Vocalign Pro – Audio alignment tool
http://www.synchroarts.com/

Band-in-a-Box – Music generation software
http://www.pgmusic.com/

First Call Horns – Jazz, Big Band and Pop Horn Instruments
http://www.bigfishaudio.com/detail.html?769

Spectrasonics – Virtual instruments (Stylus, Omnisphere and Trilian)
http://www.spectrasonics.net/index.php

Library
The Music Library located in the Hartley building is an excellent source for music, literature and recordings: http://www.adelaide.edu.au/library/branch/eml/

Music Resources Guide
The Music Resources Guide contains quick links to key music databases for scholarly research and online listening. It also contains links to websites of publicly available online scores, collected editions, and professional associations. Here too you can find a regularly updated list of new books, scores, CDs and DVDs available in the Elder Music Library: http://libguides.adelaide.edu.au/music.

Online Learning

This Course Profile, along with learning materials and assessment will be placed on MyUni – refer to http://myuni.adelaide.edu.au.
Learning & Teaching Activities

Learning & Teaching Modes

The course structure and content is delivered through a range of classes and materials. Class delivery modes include a weekly seminar, tutorial and practical workshop. The classes in this course use a format where students are presented with theoretical and/ or practical content through the seminar. The theoretical content creates a topic framework that students will expand through discussions and exercises in the tutorial, and practically through the workshop. Students will also be expected to further expand the topics presented through using out-of-class resources in their own time. The resources will compliment, reinforce and extend the concepts presented.

The classes provide theoretical explanations of composition and song writing techniques; discussion of their creative and technical application in various styles and genres; and their practical application to creativity and production through supervised sessions using music technology.

Workload

The information below is provided as a guide to assist students in engaging appropriately with the course requirements.

Seminar 12 x 1 hours per week = 12 hours per semester
Tutorial 12 x 1 hours per week = 12 hours per semester
Workshop 12 x 1 hours per week = 12 hours per semester
Reading 12 x 3 hours per week = 36 hours per semester
Practice 12 x 4 hours per week = 48 hours per semester
Self initiated learning & research 12 x 3 hours per week = 36 hours per semester
= 156 hours per semester

Learning Activities Summary

The course structure and content is delivered through a range of classes and materials. Class delivery modes include a weekly seminar, tutorial and practical workshop. The classes in this course use a format where students are presented with theoretical and/ or practical content through the seminar. The theoretical content creates a topic framework that students will expand through discussions and exercises in the tutorial, and practically through the workshop. Students will also be expected to further expand the topics presented through using out-of-class resources in their own time. The resources will compliment, reinforce and extend the concepts presented.

The classes provide theoretical explanations of composition and song writing techniques; discussion of their creative and technical application in various styles and genres; and their practical application to creativity and production through supervised sessions using music technology.

Semester 2
Week 1 – Pitch Editing: Compositional Uses
Week 2 – Techniques for jingle writing
Week 3 – ProTools editing to video
Week 4 – Guest Artist
Week 5 – Session singing
Week 6 – Composing using modern mix techniques
Week 7 – Manipulating drum tracks
Week 8 – The producer’s role
MID-SEMESTER BREAK
Week 9 – Top 10 discussion
Week 10 – Portfolio Consultations
Week 11 – Portfolio Consultations
Week 12 – Student Presentations

Specific Course Requirements

This course will involve using the resources of the Electronic Music Unit (EMU). This includes facilities such as studios, recording spaces and digital audio workstations.

Access and use of EMU is based upon the following:

Users must complete and pass the EMU Guide Assessment (EGA). In order to pass the EGA users must receive a 90% or above grade. Users will have a maximum of 3 attempts at passing the EGA before being prohibited from taking the assessment further. If a user fails to pass the EGA after 3 attempts, or doesn’t pass by the end of week 4 of the course, they will not be permitted to continue the course and won’t be provided access or permission to use any of the EMU facilities.

The University's policy on Assessment for Coursework Programs is based on the following four principles:

Assessment must encourage and reinforce learning.
Assessment must enable robust and fair judgements about student performance.
Assessment practices must be fair and equitable to students and give them the opportunity to demonstrate what they have learned.
Assessment must maintain academic standards.

Assessment Summary

Summative Assessment Summary
Workshop Assessment 10% (objectives 1, 2, 3, 4), TBA (in-class)
Research Essay 30% (objectives 1, 2), due in week 13.
Portfolio 60% (objectives 1, 2, 3, 4, 5), due in week 14.

Formative Assessment: Tutorials will contain embedded formative assessment tasks that may include weekly quizzes, student presentations, in-class exercises and homework that will enable students to engage with the practical and theoretical concepts presented in order to complete their summative assessments.

Assessment Related Requirements

As per Conservatorium policy, active and positive participation in 100% of classes is expected, any student who attends less than 100% of required classes without approved leave may result in a 5 (five) mark penalty for each unapproved absence. The penalties will be applied to the final total percentage mark for the year for the relevant component i.e. after all other assessments have been completed and calculated. Arrival after the scheduled starting time or departure before the scheduled finishing time may, at the lecturer or Co-ordinator’s discretion, be regarded as an unapproved absence.

Leave
The Conservatorium recognises that extenuating circumstances may occasionally affect a student’s ability to participate in a rehearsal, workshop, class, lecture, tutorial or performance. In such cases leave may, upon application using the leave form (available from the Music Office Schulz Building Level 2), be approved by the relevant staff member.

Assessment Detail

WORKSHOP ASSESSMENT (10%)
Students will complete set tasks in the workshop. These will be set by the tutor and marked in class. Students will also present one of their songs from their portfolio to their peers in week 12.

RESEARCH ESSAY (30%)
Word count: 1500 words (NOT including bibliography and references)

Essay topics will be supplied during the semester, and will relate to music production. You are free to choose a topic outside of those listed, AS LONG as it is relevant to the course. If you choose your own topic, you must gain approval from the course lecturer.

PORTFOLIO (70%)
The Portfolio represents the major practical assessment for the semester and will involve the creation of three songs. All songs are open, allowing students to continue developing their individual compositional voice. Students will utilise sequencing software and production techniques demonstrated in the workshop in the creation of their songs. All creative works will be required to be recorded for submission, an emphasis this semester is on student’s recording, mixing and producing their own work.

Submission

All assignments will be submitted digitally through the Assignments section of MyUni. Feedback on the assessments will be also be sent to students through the MyUni system.

Assessments and Exams
Students must be available during the identified University teaching, academic and examination periods. Students are not entitled to sit an examination or submit an assessment at another time, nor are they entitled to any other concessions if an examination or assessment conflicts with a planned vacation or special event. Results from assessments and examinations are usually sent to students via email and/or myUni.

Late Submission
Assignments which are submitted after the due date and time will incur a 5% penalty (from the assignment total of 100%) per day (24 hour period) for a maximum of 4 days (weekend days included). After this time the assignment will not be marked for assessment or feedback. Note – this does not apply to assessments where the assessment is conducted at a fixed time and location, such as an exam, practical test, performance or presentation.

Course Grading

Grades for your performance in this course will be awarded in accordance with the following scheme:

M10 (Coursework Mark Scheme)
Grade	Mark	Description
FNS		Fail No Submission
F	1-49	Fail
P	50-64	Pass
C	65-74	Credit
D	75-84	Distinction
HD	85-100	High Distinction
CN		Continuing
NFE		No Formal Examination
RP		Result Pending

Further details of the grades/results can be obtained from Examinations.

Grade Descriptors are available which provide a general guide to the standard of work that is expected at each grade level. More information at Assessment for Coursework Programs.

Final results for this course will be made available through Access Adelaide.

Student Feedback

The University places a high priority on approaches to learning and teaching that enhance the student experience. Feedback is sought from students in a variety of ways including on-going engagement with staff, the use of online discussion boards and the use of Student Experience of Learning and Teaching (SELT) surveys as well as GOS surveys and Program reviews.

SELTs are an important source of information to inform individual teaching practice, decisions about teaching duties, and course and program curriculum design. They enable the University to assess how effectively its learning environments and teaching practices facilitate student engagement and learning outcomes. Under the current SELT Policy (http://www.adelaide.edu.au/policies/101/) course SELTs are mandated and must be conducted at the conclusion of each term/semester/trimester for every course offering. Feedback on issues raised through course SELT surveys is made available to enrolled students through various resources (e.g. MyUni). In addition aggregated course SELT data is available.
Student Support
Policies & Guidelines
This section contains links to relevant assessment-related policies and guidelines - all university policies.
Fraud Awareness

Students are reminded that in order to maintain the academic integrity of all programs and courses, the university has a zero-tolerance approach to students offering money or significant value goods or services to any staff member who is involved in their teaching or assessment. Students offering lecturers or tutors or professional staff anything more than a small token of appreciation is totally unacceptable, in any circumstances. Staff members are obliged to report all such incidents to their supervisor/manager, who will refer them for action under the university's student’s disciplinary procedures.

The University of Adelaide is committed to regular reviews of the courses and programs it offers to students. The University of Adelaide therefore reserves the right to discontinue or vary programs and courses without notice. Please read the important information contained in the disclaimer.

Authorised by:	Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Academic)
Maintained by:	Course Outlines Administrator