PC Lessons Overview
Many are teaching their students in chairs face to face, I offer this policy but I am teaching a method of instruction based around the computer! There are endless capabilities to this form of instruction, which a student may even record the lesson to practice later on! It is very basic and visual and any student should get the hang of it on their own in just a few lessons!
Music is fun and anyone can create wonderful melodies. The programs speak for themselves and there is little effort needed to achieve what the musical masters have done in the past; "To create and become the artist of a musical nature!"
There are many possibilities in my guitar instructional technique that does not imply strictly to the guitar itself. I can train an individual with little or no experience in reading music.
Besides guitar instruction, the main focus is how to record quality recordings on your computer with little or no cost. Whether it be your own original live recordings, or other's CD, Tape or old records; I can instruct how to re-record music that may sound better that the original!
Variations in training:
Why Lessons on my PC?
The main advantage besides being a visual interactive aid is that one can actually make professional original recordings at home. Studio rates are $100.00 dollars an hour and up.
The programs used are: (available on the internet)
Other programs
About Tabledit
Tabledit is a program where you can compose your own melodies, sheet music, and tab via the mouse. There is a keyboard and a fret board on the screen. By selecting the proper notes, beats per measure, metronome, one can find hours of enjoyment through music exploration. There is the capability to select any tuning of a stringed instrument. There are 27 different variations such as bass guitar, lute dulcimer, violin etc. My favorite part of the program is creating drum midi tracks to practice with.
About Cubase
Cubase is a revolutionary Home recording system that allows you to mix together different part, songs etc. and create one final mix. The program is free for trial but is available for sale at any music outlet. it comes with three programs: Wavelab; which can edit a wave file such as copy, paste, fade in and out, equalizer etc. Then there is the main function Cubase VST; the main program which has a mixer, adding effects and exporting the file to one file. They are all wave files so if you don't have at least 100MB of space on your hard disc it may be hard to work around. The last program is a fancy Burner unit, which can burn your work on CD if you have a burner.
About windows Media Player
The best on the net for free, it can make and manipulate play lists so the songs you make can be heard in "album" format, meaning that the tracks can be played on a continuous level. It has an EQ and also mesmerizing visual effects.
The process
I.I start with the Tabledit program with a certain riff or song played on the guitar and the with the limited ability to read music, re-create the melody in midi format. it is time consuming but well worth it to have your ideas permanently stored on your computer.
II. After I create a drum and bass line, I convert it to a wave file using Wavelab (Cubase). I can then edit it into a tight loop by cutting the blanks away.
III. I then open Cubase and import the wave file. After adding enhancements such as effects and panning I am ready to record another track. After that I can export the files into one wave file and wa-la! You have a finished product.
Tricks
You can import any midi files into Cubase and mute the guitar solo track and overdub a real guitar solo in the file but it remains a wave file and not midi.
You can also import samples from CD's, parts or sound that one can experiment with and just get creative!
Learning your favorite song
Almost any song can be downloaded in midi format on the net. With the aid of these programs and how to convert midis to sheet music is a simple method taught as part of the lesson.
Computer performance
Besides the required 64MB of Ram, there are a few tweaks that need to be set on your computer to run Cubase, however these are optional.
Instructional Manual
I am writing a manual how to step by step get the most for recording and editing on a PC, this will be available to the student only through more than a reasonable hourly fee.
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