MWF 3rd period (9:35a, Section A)
Tuesday 9th period (4:05-6:00p) and Thursday 9th (4:05p, Section B)
Music Building 147 Lab
Instructor: Matthew L. McCabe, M.M. <mccabem@ufl.edu>
Office Hour: Tue 3-4pm, Wed 10:30-11:30am

March 23 - April 8

• During weeks 12 - 14, we took some time out to read DJ Spooky's book Sound Unbound.
• We resume projects on April 9, when we will begin learning Reason. Unfortunately we haven't been able to get the latest version, but we'll work with what we have. I handed out the Reason Assignment sheet on April 9/10.
• Here are some ideas on musical materials that you can use:
  • Non-major/minor scales like whole tone scales (which are cool because there are only two of them!)
  • Messiaen's modes of limited transposition including the octatonic scale
  • the nonatonic scale Mr. McCabe uses (alternating whole and half steps)
  • 12-tone techniques
  • jazz scales as long as they don't end up sounding tonal
  • sounds you download from the freesound project a la electroacoustic music
  • birdsong sounds
  • Or really anything else... if you need to record something, ask Matt! You may also write your piece for prerecorded sounds you make in Reason along with live musician(s) if you like, it can be improvisatory or scored out, or use text or simply human sounds, but turn in your sheet music along with the project.

March 16 - 20

• March 16: No Class, the lab is not yet fully functional.
• March 17 4pm-6pm, March 18 9:35am-10:25am: Optional class time to come in for final website help.
• March 19 4:00pm: Tu/Th full class meeting; March 20 9:25am: Full class meeting. During this class we will discuss how to upload your sites to your plaza.ufl.edu account. Once your site is done, perform this process and you will be able to see your website on the web at http://plaza.ufl.edu/yourgatorlink/.

March 9 - 13

• Spring Break!

March 2 - 6

• This week we are on a normal schedule, continuing on our website authoring unit. Please continue working on your personal websites using the guidelines on the website assignment sheet.
• Sometime this week, during lab time or on your own time, please go through the W3Schools CSS tutorial. We'll talk a little about this in class on Mon/Tues.
• Here is my handout on HTML colors, which my clarify things for you if you are confused by hexadecimal. Here's the handout on a brief introduction to CSS.
• Here is the XHTML document template that you should use for each and every website you write in this class. If you need to copy/paste, here is a plain text version of the same thing.

February 23 - 27

• This week we are on a normal schedule, continuing on our website authoring unit.
• For starters, please go through this article on CSS color modes. Don't worry too much about the details yet, we will go over this in class.
• Continue working on your Website Project. This week, you also have a HTML Practice Assignment 2 to get you further along with HTML. here is the image used in the assignment and a screenshot of the page you are to replicate.
• Here is another handout on HTML tag arguments and entities which we will cover during lecture. Remember if you are using accent marks or special symbols to look up how to render them in HTML!
• Here is the XHTML document template that you should use for each and every website you write in this class. If you need to copy/paste, here is a plain text version of the same thing.

February 16 - 20

• We're back on a normal schedule this week, and starting on our website authoring unit.
• I handed out the Website Project Sheet on Monday, 2/16. This week, you also have a HTML Practice Assignment to get you started using basic HTML tags.
• Here is a HTML cheatsheet which covers everything I did in the first lecture. Also, sometime this week, please complete the W3C's HTML tutorial as well as the XHTML tutorial. Please note that for the purposes of class, we are using XHTML. Remember to take into account the aspects of (older) HTML that are no longer valid in XHTML.
• Here is the XHTML document template that you should use for each and every website you write in this class. If you need to copy/paste, here is a plain text version of the same thing.

February 2 - 13

• This week we continued work on the 2nd Finale Assignment. I've changed the project due date to February 16. Please turn in your copied version and the original by 9:35am on that day.

January 26 - 30

• This week we began the 2nd Finale Assignment.
• If you want to watch some of the videos we've viewed in class again, I've uplodaded them to my server: Copyright Criminals and the video about Urtext inscribing at Brietkopf.

January 19 - 23

• We continued working on the first Finale project during regularly scheduled sessions. The project is due on 1/23.
• Remember to keep up with the syllabus on your writing assignments.

January 12 and 13

• We continued working on Finale functionality. If you need additional help with Finale, there is extensive documentation. Check the Help menu from inside Finale. There is also a new website called The Finale School that has free online video tutorials that you can use.
• Just as a reminder, your Finale project is due on January 23, and your first short essay is due on Friday the 16th.

January 14, 15, 16

• Lab sessions with Mr. McCabe and Mr. Udell.

January 6 and 7

• Please be sure to order your copy of Sound Unbound (the required text) soon. You can purchase it through these links if the bookstore is out of copies:
  • amazon.com
  • Barnes & Noble
  • half.com
• We went over the Syllabus and your first assignment, which is to send me an email. My email address is mccabem@ufl.edu. Please note this does not mean my name is "McCabem" -- my name is Matthew McCabe. Send me an email and let me know something about you (where you're from, instrument, experience with music tech, anything else interesting) for credit.
• Please note you are required to attend the lecture periods as listed in the syllabus. You are also required to attend 1 additional lab period per week. You are required to sign in during lab sessions for attendance purposes.
• For those interested in the sampling of 20th/21st century classical music in popular music, check this page out. Pretty cool.
• Here is the website for Copyright Criminals, the short teaser we watched about hip hop and sampling. Interestingly enough, one of the filmmakers, Kembrew McLeod, owns a trademark on the phrase "Freedom of Expression".

January 8 and 9

• I handed out the Finale Assignment I sheet which outlines the first section of your Finale projects. The project is intended to get you using Finale and making nice-looking single page documents using this powerful piece of software. The project is due January 23 by 10:25a (the end of that Friday's lab period).
• If you need help with scales, check your theory textbook. Usually there is an appendix with scales and modes.
• For help with the overtone series, check the wikipedia article on the harmonic series, or visit here, here, and here.