Lesson 6: Your first original song!

Lead lines and harmonies

So far, students have explored pattern-based recording in the production of their drum and bass tracks. However this lesson is an opportunity for some more creative work, exploring real-time recording using a MIDI keyboard. Students will improvise and record some melodic and harmonic ideas to fit their drum and bass tracks from previous lessons.

Lesson preparation - What you need to know

Although basic real-time recording techniques have already been covered in previous lessons, some additional tips and techniques are introduced, which will help students achieve a successful result. Teaching this lesson requires some familiarity with real-time recording via MIDI keyboard and with quantizing techniques. You can prepare for the lesson by reading the following pages, A teacher guide to recording via MIDI keyboard, quantizing and grouping material. Students will probably need to edit some of their recorded material by adjusting individual note pitches and velocities, and perhaps adding additional parts. This will be covered in Lesson 7, where material can be refined and arranged to form a finished song.

! Check out the Student

Worksheet for an immediate overview of the lesson tasks.

About the lesson song files

The song file Lesson 6 is intended for you to use when introducing Task 1. It contains sequenced drum and bass tracks over which you can demonstrate improvising and recording ideas on a new track. Students will work in both Tasks 1 and 2 with the current version of their original song. For convenience, this is referred to in the teaching plan as the Lesson 4 song file.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
87

Lesson 6: Your rst original song! Lead lines and harmonies

Lesson preparation and background reading

A teacher guide to recording via MIDI keyboard, quantizing and grouping material
Preparing a track for recording has already been covered in Lesson 3. However, when recording via MIDI keyboard, there are some additional things to consider.

6
Exploring sounds and improvising
Your students will probably start by exploring one or two sounds. These will now be accessed from the devices in the rack via MIDI keyboard. To hear a sound:

! If you cannot hear any

sound, check the Preferences/MIDI page to make sure that your keyboard MIDI input port and MIDI channel have been correctly specified.

1 Select the sequencer track connected to the device whose sounds you want to hear. 2 Click the In column so that a MIDI icon appears. 3 Play your keyboard and you should now hear the sound.
D When improvising at the keyboard, students who have difficulty playing in time with other tracks may find it helpful to activate the Click button (1) on the Transport Panel.

1 ! When improvising
(and recording) more complex passages, it can also be helpful to slow the tempo by changing the setting. Return the tempo to its original setting for playback.

This provides a metronome click or beep to help you keep in time. It can also be helpful to use the Click when recording.

Further recording tips

Tracks can be recorded in several small sections - it is not necessary to complete the whole thing in one take! Move the Song Position marker to the place where you want to start recording each time. We have previously recorded pattern change information in real time. Now we will be recording note information directly onto a track. D Set up for recording as before and play the keyboard. This time, individual notes will be displayed on the track (1).

88

Lesson 6: Your rst original song! Lead lines and harmonies

Lesson preparation and background reading

Because Reason does not give you a count-in, you may want to set the Song Position marker so that the sequencer starts 1 or 2 bars before you actually intend to record, giving you time to prepare.

! If you are recording a

brand new song, you may want to allow 1 or 2 empty bars at the start.

Passages containing chords or layered textures can be recorded in several takes. The Overdub switch (2) allows you to keep adding more material in the same bars. D Set the Locators to the start and end points of the passage you want to record, and activate the Loop button. With the switch set to Overdub, you can keep recording more material each time the selected passage repeats. If you set the switch to Replace, previous material will be erased when you next record on the track.

Creating a group
If you have recorded a phrase that you plan to use several times on a track, you can group the individual notes together to form a unit which can then be moved or copied to other places.

1 Select the pencil tool. 2 Click at the start of the material you want to group and hold down the mouse button.
! When creating
groups, it is helpful to have the snap value set to Bar.

3 Drag the mouse to the end of the material and release the button.

Quantizing
When recording via MIDI keyboard, you may find that the result isnt always as accurate as you hoped! A common problem is for the recorded track to be slightly out of time with the other material, or with the Click. To compensate for this and to correct rhythmic glitches, you can apply a quantize. Quantizing moves notes to the nearest specified part of a beat, for example, a 1/16th quantize moves notes to the nearest 16th beat. A 1/8th quantize moves them to the nearest 1/8th beat. So any notes that have been played slightly before or after the beat will now be moved onto the beat. Quantizing can be used in two ways:

During recording
Depending on the complexity of the material you plan to record, you can set up a value in the Quantize drop-down menu. This takes into account the smallest note values you plan to play e.g. 16ths. By enabling the Quantize Notes During Recording button, any uneven timing should automatically be corrected as you record your material.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
89

Lesson 6: Your rst original song! Lead lines and harmonies

Lesson preparation and background reading

After recording
If youve already recorded your material and it still sounds out of time, you can manually quantize the recorded notes. You can see the actual positions of individual notes in the Key (or Drum) lane.

6
The notes in this passage should fall exactly on 16th beats, but are slightly out of time.

1 Select an appropriate value from the Quantize drop-down menu (1).

1

2 Click on the sequencer track to select it. 3 Then click the Quantize Notes button (2).
You will see that the notes have moved slightly and now fall exactly on 16th beats.

Additional idea: Real-time drum recording

So far, drum track material has been produced by first creating patterns in Redrum. However it is also possible to use your MIDI keyboard to trigger individual Redrum sounds and record these in real time. This is useful if you want to add an extra fill, or some additional percussion notes to an existing drum track.

Starting from the key C1, different notes played on your keyboard will trigger drum sounds from the patch (kit) you have loaded into Redrum. As you play each key, the appropriate Redrum sound channel arrow button (1) will light up. Exploring and recording the drum sounds is done in a similar way to exploring and recording other sounds. Refer to Exploring sounds and improvising and Further recording tips earlier in this lesson.

! As long as the switch on the Transport Panel is set to Overdub, you can record extra
material onto a sequencer track that already contains either pattern change or note information.

90

Lesson 6: Your rst original song! Lead lines and harmonies

Lesson preparation and background reading

Teaching Plan Lesson 6

Introducing the use of a MIDI keyboard for accessing sounds and recording musical ideas. Introducing the concept of quantization.

! Lesson Aims:

Exploring the use of a MIDI keyboard for accessing sounds and recording musical ideas. Evaluating some advantages and disadvantages of real-time keyboard recording. Understanding some basic functions of quantization, applying an appropriate quantize to tracks as necessary.

! Student Skills:

Introduction: Lead lines and harmonies

What makes a hit song? It might be good to dance to, but quite often its because theres a melody, lead line or hook that everyone can sing! Some styles of music rely heavily on melodies or lead lines, supported by harmonies that help create a mood, and key changes that give a feeling of movement. Other styles such as jazz have quite complex harmonies and more improvised sounding lead lines. Dance music styles are often quite rhythm based, but use repetitive chord sequences and short melodic phrases to punctuate the music. In this lesson you are going to record a lead line and some harmonies to go with your drum and bass tracks. This time however, you can record using your MIDI keyboard.

Introductory activity
D Briefly outline some ways in which melodies and harmonies are used in todays music. Play one or two short extracts from audio CDs that illustrate some of the following and might provide creative ideas for students: The roles of rhythm and lead guitars power chords, riffs, etc. Other instrumental riffs - bass, keyboards. Use of strings short melodic phrases, soaring violin sounds, chord sequences. Keyboard textures, or pads that form a middle layer between a bass line and melody. Brass stabs (octaves or chords) that add interest to the ends of phrases. Chord and key changes that create tension, or link song sections. Melodies: memorable hooks, fragmented or improvised sounding melodies, call and response between different instruments or voices. Your notes:

! If you have plenty of

available lesson time, include this task as a class listening and discussion activity. If time is limited, go straight to Task 1.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
91

Lesson 6: Your rst original song! Lead lines and harmonies

Teaching Plan Lesson 6

! To introduce this task,

you can either work with a song file of your own, or use the song file Lesson 6. This contains some drum and bass tracks, over which new material can be recorded.

Task 1: Improvising and recording

Students will improvise and record a short phrase or idea on one of the tracks. Referring to the worksheet requirements and How to... pages, briefly introduce this task by demonstrating the following: D Access sounds from different devices via MIDI keyboard. (Activate the MIDI icon on the track connected to the device whose sounds you want to hear.) D Set up a loop (4 or 8 bars) as an aid to improvising and experimenting with ideas. D Activate the Click, or slow the tempo to help play in time with the other tracks. D Set up a track for recording, enabling Quantize Notes During Recording. D Record a few bars and play these back. Look at the recorded notes on the track. D Show how to overdub additional ideas over the previously recorded material (check that the switch is set to Overdub).

! see Student
Worksheet

Student practical work

Students open their own Lesson 4 song files and work as follows:

a. Using your MIDI keyboard, start by playing around with some ideas.
Explore some sounds on the NN19 sample players and the Subtractor 1 synth. Which sounds might be good to use for i) lead lines, ii) harmonies or pads? Why? What will you try to record first, a lead line, or some harmonies? Why have you chosen to do this?

b. Is the music playing too fast for you to keep up?

Try changing the tempo to make it slower. Use the Click to help you play in time.

c. Now try recording something.

Before you start, click on the Quantize Notes During Recording button. If you want to record chords or a layered part, try looping a few bars and overdubbing.

d. Listen to your recording. What do you think of the result?

Does the rhythm sound uneven anywhere? Have you played any wrong notes? Are any individual notes too loud or too soft? Do you want to delete your recording and try again?

Your notes:

92

Lesson 6: Your rst original song! Lead lines and harmonies

Teaching Plan Lesson 6

Task 2: Making rhythmic adjustments and recording more ideas

Students can now try and adjust any rhythmic inaccuracies in their Task 1 recording. They can then record some additional ideas on other tracks. Briefly introduce this task as follows: D Show how to quantize any notes that may still be out of time in the students recorded material. Demonstrate different quantize values e.g. 1/16 or 1/8 (Undo each time). D Show how to group the newly recorded material into 2- or 4-bar phrases using the pencil tool.

Student practical work

Guidelines:

! see Student
Worksheet

a. Does your Task 1 recording still sound a bit out of time in places?
Try quantizing the track. What happens to some of the notes on the track as you click the Quantize Notes button?

b. Record some more ideas on other tracks. Each track can be recorded in small sections.
Try to think in phrases or chord sequences.

c. Group your recorded notes on each track into 2- or 4-bar phrases this will help when
you come to do some arranging.

d. Try changing the sounds on some of your new tracks.

Which sounds do you prefer and why?

Additional lesson notes and comments:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
93

Lesson 6: Your rst original song! Lead lines and harmonies

Teaching Plan Lesson 6

Student Worksheet - Lesson 6

! Use your How to
guide to help you improvise and record.

Your new song now needs a lead line and some harmonies. In this lesson, you are going to use a MIDI keyboard to help you record some ideas. Open the file containing your own song and play the tracks youve recorded so far.

Task 1: Improvising and recording

Check out: How to explore sounds using your MIDI keyboard.

a. Using your MIDI keyboard, start by playing around with some ideas.
Explore some sounds on the NN19 sample players and the Subtractor 1 synth. Which sounds might be good to use for i) lead lines, ii) harmonies or pads? Why? What will you try to record first, a lead line, or some harmonies? Why have you chosen to do this?

Check out: How to prepare for improvising.

b. Is the music playing too fast for you to keep up?

Try changing the tempo to make it slower. Use the Click to help you play in time.

Check out: How to prepare for recording. How to quantize notes during recording.

c. Now try recording something.

Before you start, click on the Quantize Notes During Recording button. If you want to record chords or a layered part, try looping a few bars and overdubbing.

d. Listen to your recording. What do you think of the result?

Does the rhythm sound uneven anywhere? Have you played any wrong notes? Are any individual notes too loud or too soft? Do you want to delete your recording and try again?

Check out: How to delete recorded material.

Task 2: Making rhythmic adjustments and recording more ideas

Check out: How to quantize notes after recording.

a. Does your Task 1 recording still sound a bit out of time in places?
Try quantizing the track. What happens to some of the notes on the track as you click the Quantize Notes button?

Check out: How to record from different places on the track.

b. Record some more ideas on other tracks. Each track can be recorded in small sections.
Try to think in phrases or chord sequences.

c. Group your recorded notes on each track into 2- or 4-bar phrases this will help when
Check out: How to create a group.

you come to do some arranging.

d. Try changing the sounds on some of your new tracks.

Which sounds do you prefer and why?

94

Lesson 6: Your rst original song! Lead lines and harmonies

Student Worksheet - Lesson 6

Lesson 6 How to student guide

How to explore sounds using your MIDI keyboard

1 Select the sequencer track connected to the device whose sounds you want to hear. 2 Click the In column on the track so that a MIDI icon appears. 3 Play your keyboard and you should hear the sound.
How to prepare for improvising

1 If you want to work on a few bars at a time, set up a Loop by dragging the Left and Right
Locators to the required places to set the start and end points.

2 Click the Loop button on the Transport Panel to activate looping. 3 If you cant keep up with the music when playing, try slowing down the tempo.
How to prepare for recording

1 Select the sequencer track on which you want to record, and click the In column so
that the MIDI icon appears.

2 Set the Song Position marker to the place where you want to start recording, and activate the Click button (1). (If you want to have a couple of bars count in, set the marker to the start of the required count in bars.)

2 3

3 Adjust the tempo (2) so that you can record at a comfortable speed. (Return the tempo
to its original setting when you come to play back your recording.)

4 If you want to record a part with chords, or several layers:

Set the Left and Right Locators to the required start and end positions and activate the Loop button. Check that the Overdub/Replace switch ( 3) is set to Overdub. Click Record, Play and add more material each time the looped bars repeat.

How to quantize notes during recording

This will correct the timing of notes while you are actually recording.

1 Set up a value in the Quantize drop-down menu (1), which allows for the smallest note
values you plan to play e.g. 16ths. (You may need to experiment with several different values to get the best result.)

2 Click the Quantize Notes During Recording button (2), and record as usual.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
95

Lesson 6: Your rst original song! Lead lines and harmonies

Lesson 6 How to student guide

How to delete recorded material

If you dont like what you just recorded, you can either: D Delete the notes using the eraser tool. D Select Undo Record Track from the Edit menu, or D Change the Overdub/Replace switch to Replace and record over the existing material. (Remember to change it back afterwards!)

How to quantize notes after recording

If the timing of some notes still isnt right, you can do some more quantizing.

1 In the sequencers Quantize drop-down menu (1), select a value. Try 1/16 or 1/8 to start
with.

1 2

2 Click on the sequencer track to select it. 3 Click the Quantize Notes button (2) you should see the notes move slightly on the
track. (If this sounds worse, select Undo Quantize from the Edit menu and try again with a different value.)

How to record from different places on the track

D Drag the Song Position marker to the place where you want to start recording. Then set up and record as usual.

How to create a group ! When creating

groups, it is helpful to have the snap value set to Bar.

1 Select the pencil tool, click at the start of the material you want to group and hold down
the mouse button.

2 Drag the mouse to the end of the material then release the button.
(Click on the Arrow tool when youve finished using the pencil.)

96

Lesson 6: Your rst original song! Lead lines and harmonies

Lesson 6 How to student guide

How to record drum sounds in real time

In addition to creating a drum track from patterns, you can use your MIDI keyboard to trigger individual Redrum sounds and record these in real time, even if you already have some pattern material or drum notes on the track! This might be useful if you want to add an extra fill, or some additional notes.

To explore the drum sounds:

1 Click on the Redrum sequencer track to select it. 2 Click the In column so that the MIDI icon appears. 3 Start with the key C1 on your MIDI keyboard, press the key and you should hear a drum
sound. On Redrum youll see a sound channel arrow button light up.

4 On your keyboard, work upwards by step from C1 and explore more sounds. Each drum
sound is triggered by a specific key.

To record the drum sounds:

1 Select the Redrum sequencer track. 2 Click the In column so that the MIDI icon appears. 3 Set the Song Position marker to the required starting place. 4 If you are adding to material that is already on your Redrum track, make sure the Overdub/Replace switch on the Transport Panel is set to Overdub. Otherwise you erase the existing material by mistake.

5 Click Record, then Play. 6 Play your keyboard. When youve finished, stop recording.
Youll see the extra notes added to your track.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
97

Lesson 6: Your rst original song! Lead lines and harmonies

Lesson 6 How to student guide

98

Lesson 6: Your rst original song! Lead lines and harmonies

Lesson 6 How to student guide