Tag: education

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3 Different ways You can use MIDI Drums for songwriting

MIDI Songwriting
MIDI Songwriting

Here are three quick ways.
1. In the beginning – It can start out as simple as just looping one of the drum tracks and singing a couple of lines of your newest song over and over again. The drums give you a great sense of rhythm and if you use your imagination, you can actually hear other musical parts being played along with you.

I use this technique a-lot in my songwriting. I am able to come up with a more ‘pure’ melody that way. Playing the piano while I sing is great, but it limits where I can go melodically especially during the ‘birth’ of a song. Also, later on when I’m stuck on a song and can’t seem to come up with any interesting background parts, I’ll strip it back down to just the drum track and melody line. For some reason, this really helps in creating interesting features to the music, like horn hits, or harmonic runs, or creative musical breaks. I would suggest that every songwriter try this. It’s so easy, and it will give you a new perspective on your music.

2. The middle – When I have a song that is basically done musically, I like to go in and replace the drum track with a different rhythm style. In fact I often try the song with 10 or 15 different alternate beats. This is a great practice…. but one that can’t easily be done if you used a live drummer for your recordings (unless they’re good with a metronome). When you do this, the songs take on a whole different feel. After listening to several rhythm tracks, I’ll choose the one that I think is the best and the song now has a new groove.

3. The end – I have several songs that are headed for the recording studio shortly. When I go in to record the songs, my piano tracks are already finished. I record them via MIDI on my home computer while playing to one of these looped drum tracks. The drums keep me exactly on tempo and give me a great sense of rhythm to play off of. So when I go into the studio, I hand the engineer my floppy disk (That’s right ‘floppy’ – why waste a whole CD on files that are so small?) and he pulls them up on his system. He’s got a ton of sampled grand pianos that he can route my MIDI tracks through. So now instead of paying him $130.00US for 2 hours of recording time, I have a prefect piano track that took about 3 minutes of studio time. And the tracks are in perfect time sync. because I played them to a looped midi drum track that is rhythmically perfect

I hope you will try some of these techniques on your own. And let me know if you have success with them. Also, any other suggestions that you might have, please send them to me.

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Can MIDI be used for education?

MIDI Education
MIDI Education

As we know MIDI can be used for fun and for composing music, but are there any educational benefits? Not surprisingly the answer is “yes”. MIDI is quickly being recognized as an excellent educational tool too.

There are two reasons why MIDI is a good educational tool. First, because the technology is becoming much more affordable, schools and institutions are able to afford the computers and MIDI instruments. Second, the power and flexibility of MIDI allows instructors and students to try new things easily.

Using MIDI to learn how to play a piece of music or an instrument.

Since each instrument in a MIDI performance is on a separate track from the rest, it is easy to listen to (or print out) just one individual instrument line and study it so that you can replicate and play that same part yourself. Plus if the piece of music is in the wrong key, it’s simple to transpose the part to the desired key and continue playing.

The educational value of isolating single voices in this manner is amazing. Imagine being able to select only the flute playing out of a complicated piece of music. Not only can you listen to that part individually, it’s very easy to print the isolated musical line onto paper in any key you desire. This is a wonderful tool for teachers as well as students.

Experimenting with various instruments.

The feature of being able to mute voices goes even further. Perhaps you are composing a new piece or experimenting with an existing piece but it just doesn’t sound right. With the power of MIDI you have the ability to change the sound of any instrument with ease and replay the piece.

Perhaps you recorded it with a flute but would like to know what an oboe would sound like. Easy. Simply use your MIDI editing software and select the voice that you wish to change. Once selected changing the instrument and save your work. Now when you replay the piece it will have the new instrument added so you can judge the effect.

Play with a band.

After practicing by yourself for a while it is always nice to try your skills playing with other instruments. Perhaps you wish to ensure that you can jam smoothly with others, that your playing of a piece is technically accurate, or just want to hear what the piece will sound like when played with a band.

The solution is easy. Select a MIDI file and mute the voice that you personally intend to play. Then replay the MIDI piece as you normally would – but instead, you play the part that’s missing. If you desire, you may be able to record yourself playing and compare it to the master recording and see how close you came to duplicating the part.

 

Record and edit your performance

A MIDI Sequencer is a great way to evaluate your own progress, or even to study how someone else plays. A person can record their efforts and email to transfer their file to you. Once you have their MIDI file you can play it back to find any problems and advise on how to correct them. This is great for music teachers.

If the piece is to be used as is, you can also edit out any imperfections! If you play a wrong note, you can just change it using your sequencer’s editing tools. And if you find you just can’t play fast enough to keep up with the tempo, you can slow it down for recording and speed it back up for playback.

Collaborative playing.

Like most musicians, you probably have a circle of friends that you used to jam with back in the day. Wouldn’t it be nice to get them all together again for old times sake? This may not be physically possible to do with people moving and such, but MIDI and the Internet provide a perfect solution

Perhaps you, as the lead player for the group, could lay down a single MIDI track. Then you email the piece to one of your friends and have them add their track to the file as they play along with you. Then they pass it along to another friend. Soon all of your friends will have added their parts to the piece and you will have a complete jam session recorded without ever having to travel.

As you have seen, and probably found out from experimenting yourself, MIDI is an excellent tool for both educational purposes and advancement of your talents. The possible uses for MIDI are only limited by your imagination.

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Cool ways to use these MIDI drums for fun.

Music Fun
Music Fun

Forget work, huge recording studios, expensive gear, towering effects racks, and sequencing learning curves. Let’s talk about how to use these MIDI Drum Files just for fun.

Out of the 10,000 or so people that have accessed our drum files recently, a large percentage of them use the files to back up original music tracks. Another block of people download them specifically as cell phone ringtones (more about how to do that in a later email). But hidden in there somewhere is a group of people that come up with creative uses for these files just for fun. I thought you might like to hear some of the stories and get some creative ideas for yourself.

Take Mary (San Francisco, Ca), for example. After getting our complete set of MIDI Drum Files, she selected about 35 and proceeded to chain them all together using Cakewalk’s Sonar 3. She added some strings over the top of the beats and converted them into one long MP3. Now they can be heard almost every day in the lobby of her ‘modern dance’ studio in Southern San Francisco. Thanks Mary.

Then there’s Toby (Springfield Mo.)… Junior High camp director. He bought these files for a 2003 summer camp he was involved with in Missouri. Selecting out the Rap and Rave, beats he gave the students one week to come up with the best rap about their counselors. The kids were able to pick the beat they wanted and could perform it in front of everybody. The show was a screaming success and the performers had their friends rolling on the floor with laughter. Thanks Toby.

OK, its Halloween night, the lights are dark, the spider webs are hung above the entry way. Who better to greet unsuspecting trick-or-treeters than Snoop Doggy Dog Himself…. Or at least Mark H. of Houston TX. made up to look like ‘The Dog’. The drum files play all around his house to make it sound like one of his rap song drum beats. He greets the kids who stop by. Most of them ask if he really is Snoop. Thanks for the creativity Mark.

These are some stories that have come from creative people over the years who not only get good use out of our MIDI Drum Files, but also have fun with them in the process. If you have any stories like these of creative ways to use our drum files… Please let us know about it.