My wife helps at girls week at the local Christian camp. She wanted to offer my music video project (which I've written about extensively here) as an option for the interest groups. I think the project transitioned very well to that setting.
First I had my daughter make a song in the format we were planning, then my wife made one as well, just so she could see all the parts of the process.
Our outline was:
Do some reflection and read some Psalms to find an idea for your praise/worship chorus.
Pick one verse or short passage to read in the song.
Make up a melody and record it in GarageBand. (At camp this ended up being done in a hot van to block out background noise! Not ideal, but I thought the girls did a great job with it.)
Import the mp3 file into UJam.com and make adjustments until you're happy with it.
Download a few versions of it including just background music, one with vocals and one as instrumental.
Mix the various tracks in GarageBand.
Make the final video.
My wife made her video in Video Star for iPad (with help from me as the camera person and I added the title at the start in iMovie). It is an easy way to go. For my daughter's, we used still pictures and put them into a video using iMovie on the iPad.
At the camp, only one group selected the music video project. We ended up taking many pictures and video clips, so I compiled them on my home computer in the evenings. I also experimented with some drum loops in GarageBand on my daughter's Mac. I really liked what I could achieve between UJam and GarageBand on the computer.
Because of privacy concerns I won't show the girls' video, but I made a simple lyric video just so you could hear the final result.
My daughter's video: (This was the first time I could get her to sing! I liked her voice and I hope this will help draw her out of her shell.)
My wife's video:
The lyric video of the original song they created at camp:
I've been doing more music in school the past two months and I'm finding it very encouraging. Obviously many students have a passion for it. Several of them are talented in that area and technology is making it easier than ever to create music even without a lot of skill.
For almost a year I have been testing and tweaking a process of creating simple songs and music videos based on classroom content. (Here's the post where I compiled all my music resources.) The videos below highlight my latest attempt to present the basic idea.
I created a song and recorded it in UJam in about an hour. I finished a couple short videos in one to two more hours of total work time. That time wasn't all in one setting, but I'm confident that with some focus and solid deadlines a group of students could make an original song and video in around three class periods.
This first video explains the process and contains all examples. Here's the breakdown of the video:
Quick tips 0:38
Writing the lyrics 0:54
Recording the melody using GarageBand 1:21
**Using UJam to make the music 2:33 - UJam is amazing! Definitely watch this part if nothing else.
Recording the video with Video Star 4:53
Editing the video in VideoStudio 5:54
The example videos I created are at the end of the video, but also you can find them separately below.
So much of my blog has been about creativity games, but I realized this week music has shown up now and then. It has always been a huge part of my personal life and recently I have seen how it can motivate students in school.
When it comes to infusing passion into a lesson, not much can compare to the effect music has on many students. Some of those who are hardest to reach are also deeply interested in music or musically inclined.
Technology has made it easier that ever for anyone to create something along the lines of a song or music video.
Here are a few thoughts and resources that I have posted previously.
The main idea behind these projects is to encourage learners to make something that involves passion and creative expression, publish it and learn from it so they can do better next time.
It's easy to spend a fortune on good equipment, but in all my efforts with recording I keep it simple. Even a mediocre musician like me can get a lot of mileage out of free online resources, Audacity for recording and Gsnap for pitch correction. You'll probably need a mic and headphones too, depending on how you plan to perform and record.
GarageBand for the iPad is amazing. For several months I thought of it as just a tool for sketching song ideas. Lately I have been using it to record short songs like some of those shown below. I use the iRig Mic Cast microphone and iRig guitar interface with it for recording.
My latest music video with students - Two middle school students wrote this song. I helped them record it and I edited the video using mostly video and pictures taken under their direction.
My example of a math music video - When I told students about my ideas, some were afraid to sing or perform on video. I made this video as an example to encourage them to take the step.
Scientific Method Rap - This is one example from my first effort to assign a music video project. The post is the best example here of what worked from start to finish in the classroom. I did about eight hours of work on this after the students finished, just to see what was possible and how much work it would take.
Another rap - This example also came out of the class project above, but without my additional editing.
Kevin Honeycutt - Since I first came across Kevin's conference session in 2011 he has been an inspiration to me. I love how he inspires students to be creative and get their ideas out there.
Music Video for Tech PD - This is a song we had some fun with for a PD session. I was encouraging teachers to put some passion in their work and to do something new. This song was a result. It also serves as an example of what can be done using just the iPad for recording.
I worked with Andrea Thelen and her class this past marking period. The class is called SETS - Students Engaged in Technology and Science. This is a video project we assigned at the end of the course. The hope was to follow a process like I outlined in this post from last year about music creation in the classroom.
As it turned out, we almost ran out of time. I worked with the group of students to create the lyrics and we recorded a rough version in the very last days of the class. I took some time on spring break to spice it up on my own. Details of the process are below, but here's the final result.
It is not perfect, so I pose this as a challenge for other groups. Do something better!
Here's the Project Process:
First I had the students do this assignment to research and review the scientific method.
I didn't show them any examples of existing videos. Instead, I just asked them to write the lyrics for a rap after they did the above assignment. This group featured above turned in some great work, but I was disheartened to find a very similar version online! We had a talk about using online content in acceptable ways and how to give credit where it's due.
I then worked with them to write the lyrics shown in this final version.
Using my iPad with an iRig Mic Cast microphone, I recorded the students while they rapped. I made one simple track using the Smart Drums and then recorded their vocal part on a few other tracks as we accumulated takes. This took longer than I expected, but it was a great learning process for them as we had to tweak their lyrics to fit the beat. After class I took time to put the good takes in order.
The students then took the iPad while I worked on the same process with a second group. They used the free Video Star app to record their lip sync performance. They came back with one rough take. I told them to go do a few more. In the end they had four videos.
I should note that Video Star is a great, fun app for adding effects to a lip sync performance. But I was glad that three of the four takes that these students gave me did not use the video effects. Instead, they just used the app as a means of syncing their performance with the song. I suggest that because it's better for a polished video to add the best effects during post-production.
The videos that the students made at that point were acceptable for purposes of the class. We were out of time anyway, so I did not have a chance to take them through the editing process.
Since it is spring break, though, I had a lot of time to play around with it on my own. I did the following:
I created a few background tracks using options using UJam. That site makes it easy to try the options, download an mp3 and then try another version. I made two that I liked based on their hip hop styles. One important point to note is that UJam was a great seller for this project. The students liked how it immediately spruced up a vocal track. I was disappointed we didn't have more time to use this in class, so I hope to start the project earlier in the marking period next time.
I combined, rearranged and mixed the vocals and UJam track using my old version of Music Creator. While I did put in some effects from that program, mostly I choose it over Audacity only because it lets me easily cut the tracks right at the measures. This makes it extremely easy to move parts around and repeat them.
I then combined the parts from their video performances with my audio track using Corel VideoStudio. I love the program, but see the details I wrote about the good and the one big negative I had. I really enjoy video editing, so I had fun with this. I have to admit it took several hours just to make this short video, though, and it is not realistic that our students would have created something this complex within the usual time limits of our classes. I hope to get them there someday though!
Doing this project with this group was my dream project this marking period. I was hoping to give them something to make the class very memorable. Since it was rushed and we worked around other distractions, I'm not sure I achieved it. I did build a couple important relationships, though, and I set the groundwork to do much better the next time around.
I have always said that nothing provides an option for more content and important skills at a variety of levels like a good video project. Though it can complicate an already complex process, I'll go further and say that a good music video project adds several other advantages to the mix. Not the least of which is that the students who are hardest to hook often have a love and talent for music.
On the second site the student has posted his podcast project, both in audio and video format. If you want to see the video as an example of the final project, here's the link.
