Capturing Creativity: Choosing and Preparing for Recording

• Music Business
• Special Education

Recording Session Planning

Learning Objective

At the end of the lesson, you will:

• Know which song you will be recording
• Know who will be in your recording team
• Have identified the instruments and personnel needed
• Have allocated roles for your team's recording session

Re-cap: What are the steps involved in planning a recording session?

Lesson Overview

You will be split into three teams and each team will be allocated one song to record

Each team will then decide on their individual roles, research the instruments needed to record the track and find the appropriate personnel (musicians!) to play on their recording. 

Game: Hit, Miss, or Split

I have chosen three songs for us to record. Listen to each one and vote on whether you would like to play an imstrument or sing on it (hit), not play on it (miss), or are undecided (split).

Set up a game of hit, miss or split on the board with student names alongside. As they vote, this will allow you to plan teams based on students' preferences (i.e if they want to play on a song, they will be allocated to a recording team for a different song).

Allocating Recording Teams

Based on your preferences, I will now divide you into your three recording teams and assign each team a song to record.

Ideally, you will NOT play or sing on the song you will be recording with your team.

This will probably need some additional explaining e.g if Marco wants to play guitar on C'mon Everybody, he will not be on the team that's allocated to record it, if Katherine wants to play bass on Another One Bites The Dust, she will be put on the recording team for one of the other songs.

Roles and Responsibilities

Now it's time to discuss the different roles within a recording team and the responsibilities associated with each role.

Roles and Responsibilities

Recording Engineer:

• Responsible for setting up and operating the recording equipment.
• Adjusts microphone placements and settings for optimal sound capture.
• Monitors and adjusts levels during the recording session.
• Ensures the technical aspects of the recording process run smoothly.

Roles and Responsibilities

Producer:

• Oversees the artistic direction and overall vision of the recording project.
• Works closely with the musicians to achieve the desired sound and performance.
• Makes decisions about arrangement, instrumentation, and overall aesthetics.
• Collaborates with the recording engineer to achieve the desired technical results.

Roles and Responsibilities

Assistant Engineer:

• Supports the recording engineer with technical tasks.
• Manages cable connections, sets up microphones, and assists with equipment setup.
• May handle tasks like organising cables, managing session files, and troubleshooting technical issues.

Discussion: Choose Your Roles

For this project, you will all be working equally within your teams. However, I would like you to discuss the roles we have just looked at and decide who will be primarily responsible for each one. 

Think about your individual strengths and interests when deciding on your roles. 

Once you have decided on your roles, write them on your planning template, along with the name of the song your team will be recording.

Emphasize the importance of effective communication and collaboration among team members to achieve a successful recording outcome.

Activity: Instrumentation Planning

In your teams: 

• Identify the instruments needed for your assigned song
• You will need to find students from other teams to play the instruments 
• Your teacher and LSPs can also play on your track if needed
• Don't forget vocals!

In the first instance, we will use Logic drum tracks but these can be enhanced with live percussion instruments (e.g cajon, tambourine)

Re-cap: Documentation Template

By the end of this lesson, make sure you have written on your template:

• The name of the song your team will be recording
• The instruments you will record and who will be playing them
• Your team's allocated roles 

Write down 3 things you learned in this lesson.

Have students enter three things they learned in this lesson. With this they can indicate their own learning efficiency of this lesson.

Write down 2 things you want to know more about.

Here, students enter two things they would like to know more about. This not only increases involvement, but also gives them more ownership.

Ask 1 question about something you haven't quite understood yet.

The students indicate here (in question form) with which part of the material they still have difficulty. For the teacher, this not only provides insight into the extent to which the students understand/master the material, but also a good starting point for the next lesson.