National 4/5 Music Technology
Learners undertake bespoke units of work, designed from the SQA Course guidelines.
Some learners progress to National 4 or National 5 Music Technology having studied S3 Music Technology, while some enter the subject in S4, S5 or S6.
All learners begin by undertaking the same skills, contexts and understanding 20th & 21st century music tasks. Taking assessment evidence into account and in consultation with experienced staff, learners are then entered for the level of study that is most suited for them to achieve a full course award.
Skills
Audio Capture:
Microphone types & polar patterns
Mic'ing techniques
Monitoring and adjusting levels
Recording into GarageBand
Editing and Mixing:
Introduction to mixing
Understanding compression, EQ,
limiter and noise gate
Time domain effects
Sampling
Contexts
Multitrack
Radio Broadcast
Stop-Motion Animation
Choosing stems & mixing a piece of EDM
Creating a radio broadcast with sweeper, advert, intro, outro, and a segment on a topic of interest
Creating the soundtrack to a chosen
stop-motion animation
Sound design maps & production plans
Progress logs with screenshots
Evaluating plans, implementations
& mixdowns
Understanding 20th & 21st Century Music
Reference materials with videos & explanations of level-specific music technology and music concepts
Google Forms testing knowledge, understanding & aural recognition of technological controls, processes & effects
Overview and practice of question types used in the SQA paper
Key dates
Assignment 1 (Radio Broadcast) deadline
Assignment 2 (Animation) deadline
Final assignment refinements deadline
Thursday 30 November 2023
Thursday 7 March 2024
Thursday 14 March 2024
N5 Prelim Question Paper
N5 SQA Question Paper
TBC Between Mon 15 Jan - Fri 26 Jan 2024
09:00-10:00 Monday 29 April 2024
S4 Virtual Parents Evening
S5/6 Virtual Parents Evening
S4/5/6 Reports Issued
16:00-18:30 Thursday 7 December 2023
16:00-18:30 Wednesday 13 December 2023
Monday 26 February 2024