#OpenLibri: Music Teaching and Open Source Software – Tech Economy

The Free Software and Open Source are widespread in many areas: one of those in which they are taking more and more weight is music production. The open programs to make music are many and satisfy the needs of both professionals of the amateurs, but there is another category of people for whom these applications are very useful: music teachers.

Salvatore Livecchi, author of the book we are presenting today, is just a teacher of musical subjects, who teaches in various institutions of Aosta.

Although the title might lead one to think, “ music teaching and Open Source Software “ it is not a manual, since it does not explain how to install the various software (the operating system to individual applications), nor how to use them, as well as does not speak almost no hardware.

purpose of his book is to provide readers with information on the software to use in their daily activities, presenting the advantages and disadvantages of various solutions.

the work is divided into two parts: the first are introduced the concepts of free software and open source, explains what distinguishes them from proprietary software, what role should have the technology in teaching and what is the importance of the use of FLOSS in education; the second part describes the operating systems and some software available, broken down by category (music word, sequencers, audio programming, etc.). There is also a list of GNU / Linux specification for multimedia production.

Like all books about software, this one comes up against the problem of obsolescence of the information that applications evolve and change quickly, the distributions are born and die every day and, of course, the paper media can not be upgraded easily as a page of a wiki, so the information contained in the text, at least those concerning the release of the software and the status of the distribution activities , may lose value in a short time.

Although the book is aimed particularly at teachers, it also proves interesting for all the other people who have to do every day, for work or for fun, with the wonderful world of music.

Reasons to read:

• it offers a good introduction to Free Software and Open Source
• List software for various usage levels, basic and advanced
• Explain why it is important to use FLOSS in education

Reasons for not reading :

• it may not be very interesting for those of
• Some information is slightly dated

Francis Marinucci

Passionate about IT and technology, in 2008, discovered free software and GNU / Linux, where he became a fervent supporter. Packager and member of the administration team of Chakra GNU / Linux distribution, is a member of GNU / LUG Perugia and LibreItalia. Collaborated in the translation of open source software and practices judo.

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