Song 4: Route 66

Can’t believe this is song number four already!
(For more info on what this is all about, please visit my first post about lessons with Buddy)
All parts except the rhythm guitar were played/programed by Buddy. Buddy operated the computer and recorded me when I played the rhythm guitar

The process:

Session 01: I imported the original song into my recording software. Buddy then sat and (under my supervision) laid out the “geography” of the song. This involved adding markers at various points to show the different parts of the song. (E.g “Intro, Verse, Chorus, breaks etc.)
Session 02: Buddy started programing the drums. First the kick and snare, then hihats and cymbals.
Session 03: Continued with drum programming. Buddy copied-and-pasted the different drum patterns to the relevant sections of the song.
Session 04: Bass. Buddy played the different bass parts in & then copied-and-pasted them.
Session 05: Keyboards. Same as before: recorded a few bars & then copied and pasted.
Session 06: Buddy played the improvised guitar solo. I left the solo as is (ie I didn’t quantize any of the notes). The solo we used was his second take.
Session 07: Buddy operated the computer & recorded me playing the rhythm guitar parts/
Session 08: Vocals were recorded in one session. Buddy sang a verse at a time until he was happy with the take. Most of the vocals were first or second takes. We did a few more takes to try and get the difficult stop sections a little tighter.
Can’t believe this is song number four already!
All parts except the rhythm guitar were played/programed by Buddy. Buddy operated the computer and recorded me when I played the rhythm guitar

Notes:

I try to outline the objective of each lesson first so that Buddy knows what we are trying to achieve.
The sessions always follow a pattern: We start with rhythm sight reading exercises. (I find the iPad app “ReadRhythm” an excellent tool for teaching reading.) My rule is that Buddy must tap two exercises perfectly before we can move onto recording.
We then move onto recording.
Homework every week is to listen to the original song and practice a particular part for the following week.
(For more info on what this is all about, please visit my first post about lessons with Buddy)
You can read about Buddy’s other recordings here: Lessons with Buddy

Buddy does “Eye of the Tiger”

Eye of the Tiger

Song number three. 

(For more info on what this is all about, please visit my first post about lessons with Buddy)

Our studio lessons have been going well. We start each lesson with 15 minutes of clapping rhythm exercises.

I found an iPad app recently called “Rhythm sight reading trainer” (iTunes link) which is proving to be successful.
It generates 2-bar sight reading patterns. The user taps the rhythms on the iPad and the app shows how accurately it was played. It’s not the most intuitive interface for a kid, but after two lessons Buddy warmed to it and I think it will prove very useful.

“Eye of the Tiger” was Buddy’s choice of song. It had quite a few parts to it and proved rather challenging. As always Buddy programmed every part. I sometimes sang the parts to him first, then he would play them in. I quantised some of the parts, but the guitars are as he played them.

Here’s the finished song:

We Love Rock ‘n Roll (Lessons with my nephew)

Song number two is done! (for more info on what this is all about, please visit my first post about lessons with Buddy)

There are a few time signature changes in this song, so I mapped out the entire song with all the changes so that the click (metronome) would reflect them.

This one took a lot longer than the previous one did, as the December holidays arrived smack bang in the middle of it, and Buddy broke his arm at the end of January!

 

Once again Buddy played all the parts in on the keyboard. We started with drums (the snare intro first), then added bass and guitars. He practiced the different parts at home. I slowed down the track substantially in the studio so that Buddy could comfortably play the parts. I sang and/or clapped the part that he was to program and he practised along. Then I hit “record” and we put down a few bars at a time. I made him do it over and over until it was correct. I did quantize the parts once they were played in. (For non-music people “quantization is the process of aligning a set of musical notes to a precise setting. This results in notes being set on beats and on exact fractions of beats”  – Wikipedia). I taught Buddy how to copy and paste clips so that he could paste them later in the song and not have to play them again. Lastly we recorded the vocals. I got Buddy to overdub the choruses a few times (and his friend Mandla helped out on 1 take, singing “put another dime in the juice-box baby”)

 

At around 01min40sec into the song is a solo that Buddy spontaneously played and I was fortunate enough capture. I decided to leave it as is: It’s not quantized or edited in any way and was done in 1 take!

Have a listen to the song below, and as always comments/suggestions are welcome.

 

 

P.S. we started “Eye of the Tiger” last week (Buddy requested it) and will post it here once it’s done.

Music Lessons–a new approach

My talented 9 year old "aspie" nephew is nuts about about music. He's been going to piano lessons for a few years, and has perfect pitch as well as great rhythm.

I had an idea to start giving him music lessons in my studio, and approached a friend of mine (an adult with Asperger's) for suggestions on how best to go about it. She gave me some valuable advice:

1. Remove clutter/distractions. Since this was not possible in my studio, which is littered with cables, guitars, sheet music, microphones etc. I turned the keyboard around so that my nephew would be facing a wall when we worked.

2. Don't busk. Have clear goals. I sat my nephew down and explained the process. I told him that the song would take weeks, possibly months to complete. Every week I reinforced this, explaining the day's activity & outcome, and how the lesson fitted into the long term goal of completing the song.

 

Here's how the first song was put together

I chose a song (“These boots are made for walking”) which I new would be fairly simple to record.

Every week we programmed a bit of the song in my studio. Starting with the kick drum, then adding snare, hi-hat and tambourine. Then the bass intro, followed by the rest of the bass line bar by bar.

I made sure my nephew played everything in himself. We did it over and over until he got it right. (I did quantise the tracks, but since he played them so many times until he got them right, they didn’t require much correction).

I taught him how to copy and paste, so bits that were repeated didn't have to be played in again.

The only part played by me was the guitar part. But he operated the computer when I played the guitar: He armed a track and pushed record and stop. Then I got him to cut the guitar part where I’d made a mistake so that I could drop in and fix it.

His homework every week was to listen to the CD and prepare for the next lesson.

The last thing we recorded was vocals. He learned the lyrics so well that we managed to lay down vocals for whole song in about 30 minutes!

 

The song took a total of six, one hour sessions to complete.

I've added a bit of compression and some reverb to the vocals, and this is what the end product sounds like:

My nephew’s recording of “These Boots”

Next week we’ll start on another song. If all goes well I’ll post the second song here, once it is complete.

 

I'm also teaching him reading. We start every lesson with 15 minutes of clapping rhythms. I'm only concentrating on quarter note rhythms for the time being. As we progress I'll add smaller note values and eventually start working with pitch too.

If you'd like to hear the music I compose for kids, please visit: www.africantreehouse.com