Introduction - The Creative Process

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• For the first time, Students will need to create their own "Personal Project" before they can add it to the Assignment. Explain how after you are done with this class, BandLab is still available and they can create their own music at home (with parental permission).

• Our Final Project will Revolve around one song, one image, and the students' own interpretations of sounds and stories for the character in the image. Discuss how songs can be created from personal experiences, as well as from taking inspiration from other places. 

• Show the class the Album cover for their song for the first time. Let them discuss with each other to create their own storylines in their head for how this character got here, list things they see in the picture, and then bring those ideas to the whole class. 

  • You can give an example using ideas you hear around the room, or choose to let students work completely independently.​

  • I find that if I give examples, a lot of students just use my ideas rather than creating their own. There is a lot more creativity when I don't give them my version of the story.

• This is the image they are using:​

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Creating a "Personal Project"

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• Students will need to create a personal project for this assignment so that they can continue to work on it in future weeks under different assignment names and directions.​

• Demonstrate the entire process:

  • Go to the library tab.​

  • Click on "Studio."

  • Click on "Voice/Audio" to create the first track.

  • Name the track "Drums" by clicking the 3 dots and "rename."

• Then show them how to add more tracks by clicking "​Add track."

• Repeat the process 4 times naming the next tracks: Bass, Other instrument 1, Other instrument 2, Sound effects.

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Create your song's "Vibe"

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• Now that they have their whole project set up, they need to incorporate their story for the picture into the creative process.

• Demonstrate (by randomly selecting Drum sounds from the BandLab Sounds library) how different beats can create different feels for the music.

  • Ask students to work together to pick one for the whole class example on the main board, then pick a Bass sound that MATCHES THE SAME FEELING.​​

    • BandLab will automatically set the BPM and key for the song after you click "set," It will also transpose any samples you choose after the fact to the same key as the song.​

  • Send them off the find their own sounds for just the Drums and Bass tracks.​

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Looping and Measure counting

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• Re-explain the concept of Looping

• Go through the process of Looping 1 track at a time. 

  • Common mistake (Probably the most common mistake students make) is grabbing the side of a track and creating dead space instead of clicking the loop circle at the top.​

• As an extension, or if they are really tech savvy, re-teach them how to drag select multiple clips and loop all of them at the same time.​

• Send them to loop their own Drums and Bass  tracks to stop RIGHT AT MEASURE 21.

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Whenever you set your students loose to work, monitor and help as needed. Again the most common mistakes you will see are:

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• Looping wrong, not clicking the little circle and just dragging empty track.​

• Double clicking a clip and accidentally opening the editor window, you just have to "X" it out for them most of the time.

• Losing their clips because their playhead keeps going when they aren't paying attention.

• Putting clips on the wrong tracks.

• Picking beats that sound HORRIBLE together, just try to have them pick which one they like better, and then find a match for the other track.

 

Beginning the Lyrics Process, Writing down Ideas

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• Bring the class back when they have followed the steps for everything above, then show them where to find the "Lyrics/Notes" button next to "BandLab Sounds"​

  • In future weeks students will be writing lyrics for 2 verses in this song. They (and you as the teacher) will have the choice of whether they create songs with melodies, or just rapping words on top of their instruments and beats.​

• Look back to the picture as a class and write some words on the board that you either see in the picture, or that you come up with as part of the story.​

  • Examples: Compass, Dust, Cowboy, Star, City, Robot, Running​

• Have students jot down these words in their "Lyrics/notes" section.​

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Saving their work and submitting to an Assignment

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• Since this is a personal project, it is not automatically saved to the assignment page for you to check.

• After they save their work, have them go back to the assignment page and:

  • Start Assignment​

  • Personal Project

  • Next

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