Creating a Screen Recording with Quicktime Player

1. Open Quicktime Player.

2. Under the file menu, choose "New Screen Recording."

You will see this.

3. Click the red record button, then "Start Recording."

4. Make the video your are recording full screen.

5. Trim.

Mixing - Audio and Music

In your PSA, you will have an audio track with spoken word and music "behind" it. Why do you think we say the music is behind it? Right, because the music should be more quiet than the voice. The spoken words are the most important thing for the listener to hear because they have the information you are trying to relate. It should be the loudest track and the music should be more quiet, "behind" the voice in the mix.

1. Adjust your track levels using the volume sliders on the individual tracks. Mixing is an art and it can take a lot of practice to get the levels just right. It is always good to have an extra set of ears (a partner to listen) to help you and give you feedback.

2. Quick Fades. When you have spoken word with music behind it like in our PSAs or in a radio commercial for example, you will often hear the music quickly fade down (go down in volume) when the voice comes in. The music starts at a nice loud volume and once the voice starts, the music goes into the "background" and the voice becomes the main focus.

a. Click on the little triangle to the right of the volume sliders. This will open the track volume automation. 

b. Zoom in nice and close using the zoom slider in the lower left corner. 

c. Click twice on the volume automation line to create two dots side by side, right before the voice begins. 

d. Pull down the dot to the right just a bit to create a quick fade as the voice begins.

If there are points during your project that the voice pauses for a long time, you may want to fade your music back up to its original level. Or if the music plays alone at the end after the voice ends, you should fade it back up to its original level there. 

Good Luck!  :)

Recording Audio in GarageBand

You will work with a partner. Your partner will be the sound engineer and will help you record your audio.

1. Create a new track by clicking the plus sign in the lower left corner of the GarageBand window.

Choose "Real Instrument"

2. Plug in your USB microphone.

You will get a message that GarageBand recognizes the microphone, in this case, the Blue Snowball

3. Checking your level. You now will speak into the microphone to check the input level. Place the microphone about 1-2 feet away from your mouth. Just begin to go through exactly what you are recording. 

As you are speaking, the sound engineer checks the level (the green bars that go up and down as you speak.)

The most important thing here is that the level is not clipping (green bars go into red.) This means that the incoming signal is too loud and the recording will sound distorted.

You also don't want the levels to be too low in the green. This means that the recorded level will be too quiet. 

Ideally, you want the levels to be in the middle of the green.

The level will be determined by two things, the distance you are from the microphone and the volume of your voice. 

Once your level is set, you are ready to record. Do not change your distance from the mic.

4. Recording. Click the red record button on the bottom of the window. 

Make sure you are speaking clearly and your voice has personality. 

If you make a mistake, do not stop the recording, keep recording. Go back to the beginning of the sentence your mistake was in and say that again. You will edit this when you are done recording.

Good Luck!

Tom and Jerry Video Scoring

There is a Tom and Jerry video with no sound available for scoring. Connect to the server and in the Farrell folder, find a file called "tom and jerry no sound." Drag this into your music class folder. Follow the steps in the "Video Scoring Project" post on this blog to create the GarageBand project to begin composing.

Product Descriiptor for Wiley Coyote Music Project

Here are the requirements for your this project:

1. Your music must include at least 3 distinct (noticeable) changes that match with changes in the video.

2. You must include at least 2 different music loops from the loop browser.

3. You must include at least 2 different sound effects from the loop browser.

4. You must include at least 1 track of music or sounds that you played yourself on the keyboard.

5. You must be able explain why you made the choices you made in your music.

New Percy Hill Video

In March, Mr. Farrell's band reunited after an over 10 year hiatus. Here they are in Boston playing their song After All. This video was made by a professional video company, using 8 different camera angles.

Melody

A Melody is a line of single notes that move upward, downward or repeat. The melody is thought of as the tune of the song.

Here are some songs with famous melodies. Listen to each.

1. Happy Birthday:

2. Beethoven's 5th Symphony

2. Blue Danube Waltz, by Johann Strauss

3. Ode to Joy, from Beethoven's 9th Symphony

4. Super Mario Theme:

• Please make comments below about each melody. What do you think of the melody? What does it make you feel? Why do you think it has become so famous?

Chord Progressions

Here, we will explore some chord progressions or sequences of different chord combinations.

Lets look at all the white keys starting on C. If we play each white key from C to C we will have

C D E F G A B C

Lets number each note

C: 1
D: 2
E: 3
F: 4
G: 5
A: 6
B: 7
C: 8

• Play each note from C to C. You have just played a C major scale.

When we play chord progressions, we number the chords like above so a triad built from C is 1, D is 2 etc.

Here are the chords in the key of C

1: C major  (C E G)
2: D minor  (D F A)
3: E minor  (E G B)
4: F major  (F A C)
5: G major (G B D)
6: A minor  (A C E)
7: B diminished  (B D F)

Here are some chord progressions. Play and record them all

• 1, 4, 5  or  C   F   G  (we know this progression by now)
• 1, 6, 2, 5  or  C   Am   Dm   G 
• 1, 3, 4, 2  or  C   Em   F   Dm
• 2, 6, 1, 5  or  Dm   Am   C   G
• 6, 4, 3, 5  or  Am   F   Em   G

• Make up at least 2 more chord progressions using at least 3 chords in each.

Triads

Let's review playing triads on a keyboard. Remember lesson 1 in the GarageBand piano lessons? In that lesson, you were playing 3 triads, C, F and G.

Here are the triads and the notes in them:

C: C E G



F: F A C



G: G B D

 

• Experiment playing these three triads in different combinations using a Grand Piano track. If you like what you hear, record yourself. 

• You can also try recording using a different software instrument. Try changing the Grand Piano track to another instrument by double clicking on the green area of the track. The Track Info window will open on the right side. Some software instrument options would not work to play triads, like Drum Kits or Sound Effects. Some Synth instruments will also not work, because they can only play one at a time (they are monophonic.) If you are not sure if you are hearing all three notes of the triads, ask the teacher. 

• If you can play the above triads in any combination with a different software instrument and you like the sound of it, try recording it.

Now, lets experiment playing some other triads, still using just white keys

Try these:

Am (A minor): A C E

 

Dm (D minor): D F A



Em (E minor): E G B

 

Bdim (B diminished): B D F

• Try playing these new triads in different combinations with various software instrument sounds.
• Record yourself any time you want.
•  Have fun!!

May 2nd. Day 3

Today, we will discover all the sounds we can make with our keyboards in GarageBand.

1. First, we will create a new GarageBand project. Open GarageBand, choose "New Project" in the upper left corner, then double click on the Piano.

 

2. Name it keyboard.the first three letters of your name. For example if your name was George, you would name it keyboard.geo

  

3. Connect a keyboard to your computer.

4. Double click on the green area of the Grand Piano track and the Track Info window will open on the right side. This is where you can access different instrument sounds. Explore all the instrument sounds that we can play on the keyboards!

 

Video Scoring Project

Creating Original Music to a Video (Wiley Coyote)

You will create this music in GarageBand using loops and sound effects (fx) from the loop browser and recording your own sounds using the keyboard. You must have at least one track that is recorded by you on the keyboard.

Steps:

1. First watch the silent video of Wiley Coyote trying to fly with the Bat Man costume with the class.

 Discuss. What kind of music would be appropriate for the video? Where should the music change? Should there be sound effects? What are the feelings that you would want to capture?

Now watch the exemplar with music made by Mr. Farrell.

Discuss with the class. What are some things you noticed?

2. Connect to King shared server.    smb://kng.portlandschools.org    In the Farrell folder you will see a file called "wiley coyote no sound." Drag this file onto your computer, in your music class folder.

3. Open GarageBand. Choose new project in upper left corner. Then choose "Movie" from the options.

4. Name the project  wileycoyote.the first three letters of your name. Save into your music class folder. See below.

5. Drag the "wiley coyote no sound" file from your music class folder onto the movie track in the GarageBand project. You will get this message. Click OK.

 

6. You are now ready to compose music

 

Things to Remember:

• To access the loop browser click on the loop ribbon in the lower right corner of the screen.

•  To create a new software instrument track (a track you want to play yourself) click on the plus sign in the lower left corner.

Choose software instrument (click the piano) and click create

 Remember to double click on the green area of the Grand Piano track to open the Track Info window and access the many other sound that are available.

• When searching for loops, it can be helpful to search by moods. For example, if I want intense music where he is getting ready to fly, I will search by moods and choose intense.