A Diva Gets Scared

               Reading about the technical aspects and terms of multimedia this week was surprising for me. I was amazed at how many of the terms I had heard before and actually knew something about! For example, I’ve worked with mp3’s to make my own mixes to listen to in the car and I knew about bit sound file sizes. This was encouraging to me as we enter Week 3 of this technology course.

                A few months ago, my husband and I took a weekend trip to go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. One of my favorite sections of the museum was the area about the development of the modern recording studio. The lecture this week briefly touched on that, mentioning that artists used to only have one chance at recording their song the way they wanted it to sound. With the invention of tapes, and now computer technology, artists can record and re-record as many times as they want to get it just right. Also, the soundboard enables the artist to adjust aspects of the song manually even after the recording is finished (for example, Auto Tune). This allows for greater efficiency in the recording studio (even though it can sometimes result in a “less true” sound – I’m looking at you, Kanye West).

                The video on the John Lennon Educational Tour Bus was inspiring – the song that group of kids came up with after only 6 hours (not to mention including a music video) was surprisingly very good! I think that in a time when music classes are being cut due to budget concerns, that projects and programs like this are vital to sustaining a music culture in our schools. I also think it’s important for inner city students, who have even less resources, can get this glimpse into the music production system, from the music to editing to collaborating with others. As the student in the video said, it is oftentimes that music is the only thing that keeps some of these kids in school. That same student also stated that the lessons they learn in music can be applied to every other subject in school, and also in areas of their lives; they learn qualities like determination, motivation, creativity, and problem solving.

                This video was also encouraging to me as I look ahead at the projects for this course. The thought of having to write my own song, including lyrics and instrumentation, is truly terrifying to me. I have never thought of myself as a creative person, so to have this project looming before me is enough to induce panic attacks! However, I like to think that if these students can do it in 6 hours, then perhaps I can come up with something in 3-4 weeks. Stay tuned to see if I keep all of my hair by the time this project is due!