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Recording Vocals

Shiloh House – Adams County

Week Thirteen, Lesson Twelve

July 27, 2010

We have begun letting one student perform on the keyboard in front of the class, and selection is based on behavior, so we have a nice incentive and this feature gives each individual the chance to shine. It's actually pretty special to watch. After a great Hendrix-esque performance, we settled in to watch the inspirational video of the day:

After the opening discussion where instrument signups took place, everyone returned to their computers to resume working on their tracks. Cody set up a vocal recording station, and continued the precedent of taking his time and focusing on quality and learning to feel comfortable with the recording process. The new students are doing really well, and almost everyone got to play either the keyboard or bass guitar. These guys are a handful, since they're as young as seven years old, but clear boundaries simplify things for everyone, and it was a really good day.

Almost There With a Finished Product

Shiloh Home – Longmont Campus

Week Fourteen, Lesson Thirteen

July 26, 2010

It was an interesting challenge this week, because Nate is on a much deserved vacation in Portland, so Cody and I had to manage the students and get them ready to finish up their work for the program. We opened the class by showing everyone the work that the other Shiloh students are doing out in Adams County. The Adams campus is full of seven year olds, and we did a group vocal recording project a few weeks ago where everyone got on the microphone. The song is really fun, and you can check it out a few posts back. The quality demonstrated what the Longmont boys could look forward to, so we lined up the remaining students who have yet to record their vocals and Cody set out to get it done. I gathered everyone's finished product as a pre-mastered file that we'll mix and finalize this week so that we can walk in prepared for next week's final lesson. We also took photographs for their album covers, and we had the usual instrument stations set up for those who were ahead of the game. Next week, we will record the last students, and the following week we should (hopefully) have songs posted and the class album finished. Stay tuned...

Group Song

Shiloh House – Adams County

Week Twelve, Lesson Eleven

July 20, 2010

It works better for us to give these guys something hands-on to do, so we brought in and set up multiple instrument stations for them to play with. We've done this before, instead this time Nate created a song with parts for each instrument, and they each took turns either playing as a group or watching as a group. The group that sat and watched had a task to develop some constructive criticism of the group that was playing. This kept them involved, and it helped them develop their listening skills.

Last week, we had the students take turns on the microphone, and Cody created a song using the vocal recordings we took. Here it is:

Shiloh Adams County - 01

We burned each student a copy of the song along with the current song they are working on plus a donated boombox for them to listen to their music through.

Group Vocal Project CD

Nearing Completion/Vocal Recording

Shiloh Home – Longmont Campus

Week Thirteen, Lesson Twelve

July 19, 2010

We only have another week to go before the Longmont boys finish their first batch of songs, so time was spent with students taking turns on the microphone. We also had a dj station, a bass station, and one for working on album covers as well. We were very pleased with the willingness of everyone to approach the microphone despite their uncomfortability. Everyone is really positive, and we are impressed with how well they get along and act like brothers.

DJ Lessons

A Group Vocal Recording

Shiloh House - Adams County

Week Eleven, Lesson Ten

July 13, 2010

Today we had a great class. One of the boys who had a shorter attention span on the computers has really taken to the keyboard. We gave him a moment to shine at the beginning of class, and the rest of the students loved it. We encouraged each of them to let us know what they were really interested in, and we promised to help them explore it in their own unique way. We also took some of the most complete songs, those that had recorded vocals on them, and showed them in front of the class. We did this to encourage some of the others to accept the recording process and all that it offers.

This was our inspirational video for the day:

We used the video to segue into the new lesson from last week's drumming extravaganza. This week, we had each student write a few lines of lyrics, and they each took turns recording in a sequence over a track that Cody had previously produced. Once each had a moment on the mic, they went to a new station to begin designing the covers of their albums. It was a really great day.