Learning to Use a Music Player

Lesson 7: Computer Application -

Learning to use a music player

AIM

In this lesson you will learn:

How to use a Music Player

LESSON OUTCOME

After you have studied this lesson, you will be able to:

Play music files using a music player

We all enjoy listening to music, don't we? You may have listened to music in these ways:

From a CD using a CD player

[Kaumudi - simple drawing of a CD and a CD player]

From a cassette tape using a tape player

[Drawings of an audio cassette and a cassette player]

As you may know, the music is stored in the CD and the cassette tape. The CD player and the tape player are machines that can play this stored music. But did you know that we can listen to music using a computer as well?

[Drawing of a couple of kids listening to music on a computer.]

Just like music is stored on a cassette or a CD, it can also be stored in music files. You can make out a music file by its icon. For example:

When we play music from a CD we use a CD player. In the same way, we open a music file using a program called a music player. But here it is much easier to play -- if you double-click on a music file's icon, the music player will open and start playing the file! The following picture shows a music player program.

(too many options, may be high floor for class I student)

You must have seen that CD players and tape players have buttons on them. Using them we can start the song, stop it, or make the volume louder. Similar buttons are found on the computer's music player shown in the picture. Can you guess what each button does?

Play starts the song.

Stop stops the song.

Pause will stop the song when it is pressed and continue it when pressed again.

Rewind and Forward can be used to move to a different part of the song. If you liked a part of a song very much, you can use rewind to listen to that part again. If you are listening to a boring part of the song, you can use forward to skip that part.

Volume can be increased or decreased by using the slider.

Mute will turn off the volume when it is pressed. Pressing it again will turn on the volume. This is different from pause because the song continues to play when mute is pressed. You just cannot hear it.

Previous and Next are used when there are many songs being played one after the other. Then, the songs are arranged in a play-list. These buttons are used to move to the previous and next songs in the play-list.

You may have a different music player on your computer. But it will have similar buttons. Now, take the help of your teacher and start playing music on the computer!

WORK SHEET

1. Say which of the following is like a music player and which is like a music file: [Replace with drawings?]

a.

b.

2. Match the Music player button with its use:

For the Teacher

• Prepare for the lesson by creating an icon for the music player on the desktop. This is done as follows: Clicking on Applications=>Multimedia gives a list of music and movie playing software installed on the system. Drag the entry corresponding to a music player on to the desktop to create an icon for it.

• Introduce the topic by asking students how they usually listen to music. Expected answers: tape recorder, radio, CD player, maybe even mobile phones and computers.

• Show them the music player icon and double click to launch it. Let the application already contain some music files so that when we open it, children can see a list of songs.

• Select a file and click on the Play button. Let them watch the window as the music plays. Ask them to find other buttons. Show the pause, next, previous, and stop buttons.

• Click on the pause button and show its function. Similarly click on other buttons and show they do.

• Ask the students to play a song by themselves.

• Show them the play list and explain the idea of music files as where the music is contained. Say that the music player is similar to the CD player or tape recorder, and the music file is similar to the CD or the cassette. Ask them whether we can hear music using other files such as those created using paint.

• If possible, create a small recording of some of the children singing and play it to demonstrate how music files are made.

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