This project came to be through the question I asked myself before the pandemic school year began: “How can students could still perform even though we could not have live concerts?”
Much of my time thinking about what I could use to make this happen during the last part of summer 2020 started by practicing cello and then recording our performance literature in the software Garageband to see what I could do with it. I then realized I could keep each instrument separate and create “click tracks” for each part as well as what the music sounds like as a whole so that students could use it as a reference and practice tool in addition to our in person and virtual instruction.
These were taken and given to the students through google classroom, the steps that came after that were the tricky part to put in order. Here is the best way to describe it:
- Teaching students how to record themselves
- Practice assignments students record and turn in to get used to practicing with a click track, much like a studio musician
- The concert assignment deadline for recording the entire piece individually. This could be broken into specific measures and rehearsal markings.
- Putting the tracks into Garageband and lining up the recordings students made.
- Recording a video of the students performing with the click track and then replacing the click track with the students’ recording
Wasson Music 