YOu have 1 web page to teach kids about the recording process, you would include..?

[Inca]

Okay, so I'm meeting with my web developer today to start the design of my children's music website. I will be using a character I created while teaching the past 6 years to be the face of the site. The kids sometimes think he is real. ha

He will be the entire focal point for the site. I really would like to include a link to a page that breaks down how the songs are recorded...i.e. the recording process. I think this would be really cool and educational at the same time.

I'm going to be adding a singles to the site with a description of the song and the instruments being used. I really want to give my kids an insiders view into the musical journey from song creation, recording process, to performance.

I had my first show for over 1,500 kids and the response was overwhelming. Oh, by the way, the music will not be your typical hokey pokey kids music. Nothing wrong with that, but I have to rock too. ha

So, any ideas on what might be cool to include on the "recording process page" for kids.

Thanks for the input Slutz

[Kyle S]

Ethan Winer's tech articles.

i would have died to see Classic Album's Dark Side of the Moon episode when i was in 2nd grade.

Showing the kids that the same methods of recording music is also used for movies (what kid doesnt have at least 10 fav movies?) would be pretty cool i think. I bet theyd really dig how some sfx guys get the foley sounds they get for animated movies. I know I would if i were a kid still.

[jinksdingo]

Depends if you want the viewers to want to become audio geeks or to amaze an astound them into consumerism.

Why not teach a real audio recording basic that will help them with their own
consumer audio visual competence.

Very simple basic:
"OUTPUTS PLUG INTO INPUTS"

Teach that one datum

Don't try and explain the whole process in one go as you'll loose them.

You can still show a singer recording but show the simple "outputs plug into inputs" datum thru the recording chain.

Make it your theme. Introduce the mix desk using that one datum.

Tone control, "the equalizer", you get the idea; signal flow no more than "inputs plug into outputs".
Do that and you'll teach them something

You get the idea,

[sweetsci]

What are the age of the kids that the site is aiming for? Obviously, the older they are, the more they'll understand deeper concepts.

I tried a short and what I thought was a simple lesson on how sound is recorded and reproduced for a class of third graders. At the end I had a word-to-picture matching worksheet. The majority of the kids didn't recognize pictures of a microphone or a speaker (much less understand what they did), things that I would have thought they'd seen on TV or in everyday life. Of course, a few kids picked up on the entire lesson with little effort at all. So when we teach recording concepts to kids we have to remember that they probably won't understand things that seem basic to us. After all, how many posts have we read about adults coming into a studio for the first time and thinking that a pop filter was a mic...

"OUTPUTS plug into INPUTS" Yes yes yes!!!

Basic song construction - drums make these sounds at these points; the bass plays the low notes; rhythm guitars usually play chords; be prepared to explain "chords", the idea of chord changes, and melody in very simple terms (depending on the age and experience level of the kids, of course). Sounds like you're already doing this.

This looks like a fun project! There's so much you can cover!!!

[Inca]

Thanks guys, yeah, I've gotten really good at bringing things down to their level. You have to teach it very slowly to the little ones.

I guess I will say my target market is anywhere from elementary to high school kids. I was pretty shocked at how many high school kids wanted to buy the tunes. ha.

So, I think a page that shows a simple diagram of the signal chain would be kind of cool. Also, I thought it might be nice to include pictures of the instruments used in each track. You know, they could roll their mouse over the icon and it would play the sound.

I did my family musical nights this past year. The music teacher did the first one and did some lame ass music games (i.e. board games.) I got to do the last two and I brought in drums, amps, keyboards, and a ton of hands on stuff.

The kids went crazy and the best part was all of the effects pedals through the guitar amp. I have a bunch of kids walking around my school now calling each other wah-wah and Rat pedal. Kind of funny, but really cool. The MXR phase 90 is now, "the swirly, swishy pedal". haha

Keep the ideas coming and thanks.

I have so many ideas circulating through my tiny brain right now. ha.

[NorseHorse]

1. Talk about how microphones are like ears. And how they have a diaphragm like an ear drum. Kids like that. Even better, get out a big drum and bang on it and pretend it's a giant microphone or something.

2. Demonstrating FX pedals sounds like a neat idea. You can have some fun with delay. You can have some fun with delay. Why are you repeating everything I say? Why are you repeating everything I say? (You get the picture... kids will relate!)

3. Demonstrating how MIDI can be used to play different sounds is a good demonstration. Play the intro from Toccata and Fugue in D Minor on organ. Then have it play back as a kazoo sound. Or play Happy Birthday on bells. And then play it on distortion guitar.

OK, so I just realized I've gotten away from the whole ONE WEB PAGE idea and gotten onto the LIVE DEMONSTRATION idea. Sorry, getting back to the issue at hand...

Definitely make a little diagram that shows the signal chain and put it in a human head. You can make the DAW be the "brain". The microphone be the EAR. The preamp to be the nerve which gets the signal to the brain. And then you can branch off into bells and whistles from there.

Good luck. Let us know when it's done.

[joelpatterson]

The "abstractions" of recording are pretty basic-- at the summer piano camp I work at, some kids will wander over, see all the blinking lights and get a kind of lost look and ask, "how does that work?"

My first response: "It's really very simple." Which it is, when you know how....

I've tried the metaphor where we have all these parallel railroad tracks (signal chains) leading into the station (L-R mix.) That seems to spark a bit of understanding-- imagining invisible "lines" where the sounds are all moving, like strings, and at several points along the way you can affect them (compression, EQ, side-chaining, send to effects....)

Seems as though that's the first hurdle: create that abstract template that displays to the completely uninitiated what is going on.

Then--in concrete terms--if i was little, I'd like to see "real" gear in a simple set up, labelled, something that I could go out into the real world and touch. An "SM57 microphone" plugged into a "Tascam Porta-studio tape deck" with the sound sent out to a "Crown power amplifier" and playing out of some "Yamaha speakers."

Leaving it at a "generic microphone," I might have trouble identifying that on a test, too.

[amishsixstringe]

www.gearslutz.com


Neil

[Inca]

Wow, all some very great ideas. I like the idea of using the head as a diagram. The railroad tracks is neat too.

Uhhhh, I don't think my principal would like me sending them to gearslutz.com...hahah