Sound Learning
at
Centennial Place

At Centennial Place Elementary School, the third graders were involved in a digital music project in which they wrote, recorded, and packaged their own music while basing the songs on what they have learned this year about the human body.  We combined science, technology, music, and art in one exciting project.  Jason Pellett and Adam Neal are the resident musicians in this project, and they worked closely with the teachers to make this sucessful.

In our first visit we explored the different layers of the Ciara song I'm Lookin at You, and based on what we heard in that song we wrote our own little song fragments.  It is amazing what they accomplished in 45 minutes. 
Group 1
Group 2
Do it at Home!
Would you like to try recording at home?  You can download Audacity, the recording program that we are using at school, for free here.  There are also several other free programs that you may find interesting.  All you need to buy is a cheap microphone to get started, although you will definately notice a difference with a nicer microphone, and either bypassing or upgrading the soundcard in your computer will also make a big difference (a great way to bypass the soundcard is to get a USB mixer like this one.  It's what I use and am very happy with it.  The advantage of a mixer over just getting a better soundcard is that you have more control over the sound and can use several microphones at the same time with a mixer).
If you run into any difficulties doing this yourself you can email Jason for help.
We came up with the following steps in the recording process for the students to keep in mind: 
1.Listen
2.Create
3.Practice
4.Record
5.Evaluate

We also broke songs down into the following tracks:
1.Bass line
2.Beat
3.Lyrics
4.Other fun stuff (keyboard, guitar, sound effects, etc.)

After the first visit the students were split up into small groups.  Each group was supposed to write and record their own song with lyrics about the body systems (originally they were also supposed to be able to run the recording equipment, but because each group only had about an hour of individual instruction we decided that it would be better to let them concentrate on the artistic side of the project).  Each group got to work with an instructor twice for about half an hour, and the first time was mainly focused on getting a good bass line, and some groups also recorded a beat track.  The songs were finished during the second session with it being up to Adam and Jason to do the final mixing and mastering.  The students will name their groups and songs soon, but you can hear them now:
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