Making Music Mixes with Mixcraft Recording Software
Lessons for May 5 – May 9, May 12 – 16, 2014, © www.musictechteacher.com
School Testing is in progress this week and may affect class time.
Essential Questions / Ideas:
* What is a music mix?
* How do you create the mix?
* What features in Mixcraft software will you use for creating your song or music mix?
Objectives:
* Students will learn to use basic features in Mixcraft music software from Acoustica.com.
* Students will create a short project using Mixcraft software using their computers.
* Selected band students will practicemusic to prepare for the programs at school.
* Selected students will try-out for band for the next school year.
* Students will review basic note names and simple rhythms, along with scales.
Materials:
* Keyboards, computers and an Internet connection.
* Computers with Mixcraft software installed (students may have to share computers due to installation limitations).
* Digital / Video camera for recording students rehearsing music.
* Music selections for Band (Maya Kingdom, Flight of the Banshee, B.B. Rock, Windsor Overture, Coldwater Creek and other selections).
Standards:
National Association for Music Education Standards:
(2) Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
(3) Improvising melodies, variations and accompaniments.
(4) Composing and arranging music within specified guidelines.
(6) Listening to, analyzing and describing music.
TI:ME Technology Strategies:
(4) Technology-Assisted Learning
(5) Multimedia and Digitized media
Procedures:
1) The teacher will introduce Mixcraft recording software from Acoustica.com. Demonstrate features from the Mixcraft PDF Manual.
** Basic Features: Starting a new song; Opening the Library of Loops; Dragging loops to the timeline; Deleting loops; making loops longer or shorter; adjusting the volumes on each track; Playing the music mix; Making an MP3 file; Saving files.
** Advanced Features: Pan (controlling which speaker plays); Adding effects (echo, delay); Adding our voices or instruments (microphones); Adding video (digital camera or video camera).
2) The students will create a short loop-based project with Mixcraft in class after learning the features. The kids take quite a lot of time looking through the loop files and deciding which ones they like. Suggest folders of files that the students might be interested in to save time. Notice how students place the loops on the timeline and see if they can tell if the music ‘sounds good’ or if they are just stacking loops up visually instead of aurally. Students should save their work so they may continue working on it next week.
3) Students in the band will play for the graduation program and other activities as needed during May. Graduation will be on May 29th. The PTA Reflections Banquet will be on May 25th. The teacher should make a video of each rehearsal and play back sections for students to review and critique their performance. Review the video from the All City Band Evaluation.
Selections for the programs may include: Maya Kingdom, Flight of the Banshee, B.B. Rock, Windsor Overture, Coldwater Creek, Kwanzaa Kwanzaa, Martin Luther King March and others. Some of the keyboard students can help with the music selections. Students attending the PTA Reflections Banquet will play their solos for the audience.
Attention should be paid to the balance, intonation, posture, notes, rhythms, breathing and other aspects that come during rehearsals.
Students should review the names of music notes and rhythms to help with scales and sight-reading activities.
4) Begin recruiting students to be in the band for next year. Allow students to try-out various instruments to determine what they play the best. Create a flyer or newsletter to distribute to other schools. Test students first who are already enrolled in the keyboard class this year. Contact music stores to get help with recruiting materials.
5) Extra activities: There is a free version of a loop-based program (Acid Express 7) on the Internet on AcidPlanet.com. Students may make their own loops and music mix projects at home if they have an Internet connection or download the free program. This is a similar program to Mixcraft. Students may also continue writing songs with their Noteflight account provided by Ms. Garrett.
Essential Questions / Ideas:
* What is a music mix?
* How do you create the mix?
* What features in Mixcraft software will you use for creating your song or music mix?
A music mix is an arrangement of music loops or tracks from a software program. The mix can also include vocals or instruments recorded live by students. Some mixes can even include videos.
Students take music loops from the music library and mix them up in any order along a timeline to create a song. Every song will sound different, depending on what sounds or music loops are used. The students can save their music as an MP3 file and it can be copied to a CD, flash drive or to our website.
Some of the many features used to create the music mix are:
- loops in all styles of music, such as hip-hop, jazz, rock, house, R&B, etc.
- adding a real instrument like a keyboard or a vocal track of students singing,
- adding a video to the mix to work with the music that is created,
- controlling the volume and pan for each track (pan is sending sounds through different speakers).
Evaluation
-
Students will demonstrate how to create and save a short loop-based song using music from Mixcraft. (Progress will be noted by the teacher.)
* Students will verbally call out letters in music to identify notes and rhythms. Students can perform at least 4 music scales accurately.
* Selected band students can perform (on video) the selections of music that will be performed at programs. Testing may affect the amount of time spent with the students this week.
* Selected students can demonstrate the ability to hold an instrument properly and play a sound on it to determine which instrument they will play in the band next year.
