My super cool, eye-catching marketing material that I made after embracing my creativity.
There are so many things I knew I would do in internship, but to get a contract was not one of those things. Whether I foresaw it or not, here I am in the midst of trying to do that very thing.
Final project
As part of your internship you have to complete a final project. You talk with your supervisors and decide what it will be. I in a moment of “go big or go home'” decided that I wanted to try and secure a contract with a memory care or hospice facility. In my head it sounded easy. You just do it and “bada bing, bada boom” you’ve got a new contract you’re in charge of. I was not thinking of any of the middle steps in that moment.
Breaking it down
Once I was getting closer to having to do it, it started feeling like a herculean task. What part of the elephant do I take a bite of first? That is when I met with Katey, one of my supervisors and the business owner. We made the giant task into smaller bite-sized tasks. We started with the endpoint of what I wanted and worked back from there. I quickly realized that I wildly underestimated how many calls and emails I would have to make and just how much socialization I would have to do.
Acquire a contract with hospice or memory care for 1:1 sessions.
Meeting with admin
FAQ
Program Plan
How much is going to cost
How is it being paid for
What materials are being
Expectations
Documentation
Explaining benefits
Data
Outreach to hospice/memory care company
Email exchange
Written email part
Who is this person
Pdf with information (marketing assignment)
Initial eye catching – sell yourself
Data
Memory care/Hospice
I chose this as my final because I really hope to one day work with older adults in both memory care and hospice. A majority of the contracts at MTC serve children. I love working with children but older adults has always been my jam. Not to mention the idea of bringing in a new contract and helping MTC expand was a pretty cool idea.
While in college, I worked as a student music therapist at a nursing home. It was so special to me. I loved every minute of it. I loved it even when I was in full PPE because of COVID. The same goes for when I go the opportunity to do my practicum in hospice. I fell deeper in love with music therapy in those places.
Following the plans
Starting is the hardest part. Having the first thing I needed to do be create marketing materials made starting even harder. As I mentioned in a previous post, I did not consider myself to be creative. Even now, my first reaction is to say that I am not creative. I draw stick figures. After a lost attempt on Canva and a small breakdown, I accepted some help and stopped overthinking it. I even began to have fun with it. I went so far as to even make a second flier. It also helped lead into the next part.
First contact
At this point in time I had already done research on different memory care and hospice facilities in the area and made a list of my top choices. I then had to draft an email. Lucky for me, I had a really cool, eye catching flier to do the talking for me.
In my planning, I had not taken into account the fact that I needed the email addresses of the activity coordinators which was not included on any of the websites. That’s where all the calls came into play. I had to call each facility and ask for the contact info. Most of the time, I was forwarded to the activities director who I then had to ask for their contact info since they didn’t have much time to talk. I definitely felt awkward, but I put on my big girl pants and pretended to be the most confident businesswoman version of myself.
Meeting preparations
After writing and sending the emails, I had to wait and after days had passed I sent follow-up emails. While waiting, I had to prepare for any meetings I would hopefully have. I met with Katey again and we discussed potential questions that may come up. She threw all sorts of questions at me so that I wouldn’t be caught off guard when it came to the real thing. I felt so prepared.
The day came. I got responses and meetings and calls were set up. I now find myself on the other side of these meetings waiting for any news of a potential contract. Even if nothing comes from this, I have done so many things outside of my comfort zone. I have done it once so it won’t be so scary to try again in the future or to just to keep trying.
To wrap up my final project, I will put all my correspondences with facilities together along with a sample session plan. I can’t believe that is what I have left of my final. Something so big and scary is so attainable and close now. As I wrap up, I can’t help but to think of everything I have accomplished in my time as an intern.
A picture taken at the beginning of my journey here at Music Therapy connections. I have learned so very much.
In my last blog post I reflected on growing. This week I want to reflect on learning and lessons that I have gained during internship. While creating this week’s blog, I struggled with figuring out what to write about and found myself not feeling completely done with what I started in my blog post two weeks ago. Going into my last month of internship it has been feeling hard for various reasons, so I wanted to focus on what I have learned and achieved in my time so far.
The importance of mindset
My entire life I have been a worrier. If given a situation, my brain would find all the ways it could go wrong before thinking of one positive thing that may happen. Even after finding multiple positive things that could happen, I focused on the bad. I was conditioned by life to assume the bad outcome. Life is different now. My circumstances are different. Why am I still choosing the mindset that every outcome will be bad?
We create and invite in what we think. You might be thinking ‘GraceAnne, you are sounding a little bit like a self-help book’. My only reply would be ‘Yes, I have been reading one and this resonated with me’. If I enter every situation anticipating the bad, I will only ever see the bad. I liken it to when you come across a word you were unfamiliar with and now you see it everywhere. It’s not that every book and sign added that word overnight, but that you are now conscious of that word.
It is my choice whether or not to focus on the bad even after I have come up with all the positive outcomes. I know that one does not just wake up and stop thinking negatively. It takes time and the conscious decision to do so. This week, I have been asking myself does worrying about this help me or change the outcome or does it just use energy.
Today, I talked with my coworker Jess and she gave me some advice that she used in her last month of internship. Create a sticky note wall of all the positives, all the wins from the day. Any win, no matter how small. Choose to focus on and acknowledge the positives.
The art of doing things outside of your comfort zone
You may not be surprised to learn that I don’t like doing things outside of my comfort zone. However never leaving your comfort zone is not conducive to growth and learning.
Without leaving my comfort zone, I would not have found out that I love teaching lessons. I wouldn’t try anything new with my clients. I wouldn’t have gotten this internship.
This week, I worked on going outside of my comfort zone in a different way than usual. Making calls was not in my comfort zone. Can’t it be a text or an email? Do I really have to call and talk to another human being? Oh, the horror. If given the choice to make a phone call myself or give someone my entire bank account to do it for me, it would be a tossup . Being that I can’t pay someone to make phone calls for me and that even if I could, I need my money to be alive, I made my own phone calls this week. It turns out that a part of my final project requires me to make phone calls. Having no other choice I did it and I survived.
Communication and asking for help
A big point of growth and learning has come in the form of me working to better communicate. Is it something that I am still working on? Absolutely, but I have also come a long way. In my worrying and perfectionism, I thought I had to do everything alone. I thought I had to fix the problem before anyone noticed and just hope that they didn’t bring it up. With previous experiences and my own conditioning to assume the worst, I curled up with my head as far down in the sand instead of communicating.
I am definitely not a master communicator by ay mean, nor have I gotten it all figured out, but I continue to work to do better. Communicating make me a better professional, clinician, and coworker.
What matters at the end of the day
I love myself, quirks and all. Being myself has made me a happier person and a better clinician. I trust that I am good at what I do and that I have or am gaining the skills I need to do so. As my internship goes into the last month and it feels like we have entered crunch time and are diving into the details, I am imploring myself to remember what matters most. I enjoy what I do. I am doing my best for my clients. I like who I am.
A sneak peak of me playing Like A Dino! I have been playing it all week and telling anyone who asks that it’s homework.
This weeks assignment was to find five iPad apps that are appropriate for clinical practice. I wanted to share what I found with you. Maybe the five I found seem like a stretch to you. Maybe you never thought of using that app that way or even at all. It was a fun assignment. I had no idea what apps were even out there as I scrolled through the app store. I went down many rabbit holes and had to start off with what apps do I already use with clients.
So why write about this assignment? Getting out of school, I never thought about using my iPad in sessions outside of using it for chord charts. In my internship, using games like SoundForest or writing a song with a client on GarageBand was super foreign to me. Maybe it is foreign to you too. Maybe my exploration can be of use to other interns and professionals.
Without further ado, here are the five apps I found.
No 1. GarageBand
Summary
GarageBand is an app for making and recording music. It has so many options that it is almost overwhelming. It offers a wide array of instruments to choose from, as well as the ability to directly record piano, guitar, and bass and plug in music and instruments from external apps. Melodic instruments have the options of chords or notes. You don’t need to know how to play in order to play the instrument on GarageBand. In the settings you can change the chords. Moving up and down the chord changes the voicing and a visual auto play knob adds more complexity between chord changes. Drums has a drum machine, acoustic drums, and a beat sequencer. All these instruments and voice can be recorded onto tracks that can be layered and played together. Once recorded, you can balance tracks and add effects.
Clinical use
GarageBand can be used with clients to write music. You don’t have to know any chords or actually play those instruments in order to play them on GarageBand. This makes songwriting easier for clients. Clients can use the chord function to create a chord progression. These same chords/notes can be used across instruments to add layers to the song. Clients can also use the note function to add complexity and a melody. On the note function, you can change the scales from chromatic to pentatonic or whatever is best for your client. Clients can also create their own beat, whether for their song or just to enjoy or dance to. Writing music is great for areas such as self expression, autonomy, and emotional processing. GarageBand gives them the ability to truly lead the songwriting.
Drawbacks
While I love this app, there are so many options from instruments, sounds, chords, scales, and beyond. It is easy to get decision fatigue and feel overwhelmed. Even spending days tinkering around, I have not tried even half of the options and am still feel like I am getting the hang of the basic functions. It is definitely a step by step process that requires patience.
No. 2 The Lyrics App
Summary
Staying on the topic of songwriting, The Lyrics App is another tool that can be used. The app allows you to write down lyrics and record a melody in the same place without having to flip between pages. For each line of lyrics you write, you can record a melody. A feature of the app is that it allows you to click on the word you have written and choose rhyme or thesaurus. When choosing rhyme, a list appears of words that rhyme with the one you have highlighted. When choosing thesaurus, a list appears of synonyms for that word. A play button at the bottom of the screen plays all the recordings in the order you have them and the clipboard icon copies all your lyrics. Lines/sections of lyrics can be moved around without having to rewrite or rerecord.
Clinical use
This app made me think specifically of a client I saw during practicum at WIU. She loved to write songs but never remembered the melodies she created and lacked a piano or the musical knowledge to notate the melody. When we did spontaneous songwriting in that group, I did not have a piano to notate the melody the group came up with. This could be used for songwriting with a client. In a setting where self-expression and emotional processing is the main goal, songwriting can be very helpful. Clients can process and express themselves through the lyrics they write. This app lets you record so you can hear how different melodies sound before choosing one to notate. It also can help clients by giving rhyming words and synonyms to choose from. I could see this being used in a mental health setting.
Drawbacks
It really delivers on what it says it will do, but it took poking around and maneuvering on my end to find and use the rhyme and thesaurus options. I also wish the app had a place where you could notate the melody after recording it or at least include a piano function. Besides those gripes, it is very straight forward. All the creativity in this app is in the lyrics you write.
No 3. Launchpad
Summary
Launchpad creates a backing loop. It has more than just drum sounds. Opening the app, you choose a sound pack/mood. Each sound pack has eight columns with six options each to create your music. The first column is different drum loops. The second column is percussion loops. The third is bass. Columns four through six are different melodic loops. Column seven and eight are different sound effects. You can only choose one loop in a column at a time. The loops are different in each sound pack. Within the app you can change the tempo and key and record when you like what you have. You can also pay for and download individual loops in order to create your own sound pack.
Clinical use
Similar to options on GarageBand, clients can make music with the touch of a button. This app requires less musical knowledge than GarageBand and creates music more realistic in EDM, rap, hip-hop, and lo-fi. Once recorded it can be plugged into GarageBand where you can add other instruments and tracks. Because it has buttons in a column it could be more accessible to clients than GarageBand. I could see using this app with one of the high schools I see to create a beat to add to a song or just to stand alone. I previously used the beat maker on GarageBand but they said it didn’t have enough of a hip-hop sound.
Drawbacks
My biggest issue with this app is that the music can only be in a minor key. Maybe major keys aren’t as common in the genres of music it caters to, but I would love to have the option. I also wish you didn’t have to pay for as much as you do on this app. While a lot is free, a lot of options are not.
No 4. SoundForest
Summary
Similar to a beat maker, SoundForest has four beats per page subdivided into sixteenth notes. Rather than normal drum sounds, it has different nature and animal characters, each with their own unique sound that you can place on the screen. The lower you place it in the column, the lower the pitch. You can add multiple to the same column. The characters and sounds change depending on the environment. Using the bar at the top you can speed up or slow down your song. While you can’t change the rhythmic value of any of the sounds, some are longer than others.
Clinical use
In a group setting this app can be used to work on waiting one’s turn, respecting the choices of others, as well as emotional regulation. It can also be used to work on musical skills such as subdivision and rhythmic notation. This app allows clients to create music without getting too technical and still being fun and gamified. The characters also correlate with the environment which opens up to some academic skills of where mountains or giraffes are found, while still making music. It can be adapted in many ways. In HTDA, I used this app as a fun creative way to work on rhythmic notation and turn taking.
Drawbacks
My only gripe is that I can’t change the note value. I would love to be able to make sounds last for a half note or a whole note instead of trying to imagine that it is. I also wish that the columns had lines to show the breakdown of the four pulses per column. Every time I add a sound, I hope I eyeballed it well enough for it to land in the beat I want it to.
No 5. Like A Dino!
Summary
A musical game that requires you to move the dinosaur across the screen to catch blocks of his neck to make him taller. The falling blocks are tied to the rhythm and usually the pitch of the background music. Each block is a note of the music. Long notes are long blocks. Short notes are short blocks. Lower pitches are farther to the left and higher pitches are to the right. As you progress the music gets faster. It starts at 1x speed and then gains .1x speed each round. As you make it through the rounds you unlock new music. You have three tries/mistakes before the round starts over. When mistakes happen positive affirmations pop up on the screen.
Clinical use
My first thought when looking at this app from a clinical perspective was that it could be used to target fine motor skills and motor planning. To move the dinosaur, you have to use one finger and drag the dinosaur back and forth across the screen. As levels get faster the harder it is. To up the difficulty, clients could use different fingers. Being in a game format and on the iPad could serve as a motivator for kids. I think this app could also help with understanding musical skills. Like a piano, the lower notes are on the left and the higher on the right. There is also the visual of long and short blocks to go with the auditory of long and short notes.
Drawbacks
I wish you could add your own music. This would be a great way to include client preferred music. I also wish you could choose what speed to play it on. As you progress through the level, it gets faster. It would be cool if you could choose to stay on 1x speed or 1.3x speed.
Honorable mention- Easy Play Piano
An app made by a music therapist. It consists of a diatonic scale set up as color-coded bars that is easy and accessible for everyone. In the settings you can change the key. Cool app for melodic improvisation with any age without having to know pitches or transport anything and easy for anyone to use and make a sound with. They also have an app that is just the C pentatonic scale set up the same way.
Drawback
I wish I could go back and forth between the diatonic and pentatonic scale on the same app as well as change the sound beyond the piano.
Wrap up
I would love to know if you would use these apps and how you would use them. Would you use them similarly or in a way I couldn’t even imagine? I would love to know. What apps do you use and recommend in your clinical practice?
My recent self-care activity has been getting into embroidery. This is my first project that I have completed.
With yesterday being valentine’s day, the subject of love is a common theme. There are so many types of love in our lives. The focus of my blog today is self love. How does self love or self care, a better term for this post, intersect with music therapy, internship, or overall life? It intersects through subjects I’ve been meaning to research and write about: compassion fatigue and burnout. Instead of committing to writing it, I have opted to write about easier subjects. While I love reading research, it’s difficult to find motivation when there are so few articles on the topic. I did find a couple of theses. It’s also hard to write about something you struggle with and for me that’s both burnout and self care. So in the interest of working on self growth and learning more about self care, I decided it was time to do this blog and read those theses.
Before diving into self care, I think it is important to first define burnout, compassion fatigue, and self care and their components.
Definitions
Burnout
At its most basic definition, burnout is mental/emotional exhaustion. Burnout is made up of “three distinct categories of symptoms: depersonalization, emotional exhaustion, and a lack of personal accomplishment” (Maslach & Jackson 1986). Depersonalization is explained as detachment from others, especially to the ones who receive care and services (Walker pg. 9).
In Neel’s study, subcategories such as “isolation” and “stressed relationships” paralleled depersonalization, “emotional instability” paralleled emotional exhaustion, and “lack of motivation, “procrastination”, and “decreased concentration” paralleled lack of personal accomplishment (Neel 2017). These subcategories helped me better understand but also reflect on how they may or may not show up in my life.
Compassion Fatigue
Compassion fatigue is a form of emotional burnout commonly seen in professions involved in the care of others.
Self care
The National Institute of Mental Health (NIH) defines self care as activities that help improve your life as well as your physical and mental health. Participating in self care helps manage stress, reduce illness, increase energy levels and help minimize effects of burnout.
Burnout in Music Therapy
The use of the word burnout in this setting and circumstances has been reserved for credentialed music therapists. Walker referenced data from Oppenheim’s (1987) article on factors that lead to occupational stress in music therapists. The highest reported causes of stress were “insufficient pay, lack of support and respect from administrators, and having to perform activities outside of the field” (Walker pg 11). These sources that lead to stress can also affect interns.
Besides stress, a “lack of self-awareness of needs, prolonged exposure to trauma, and lack of time or opportunities to focus personal development” can contribute to burnout and compassion fatigue (Oppenheim, 1987).
Compassion fatigue and burnout can lead to circumstances where clinicians end up leaving their profession. In a study by Cohen & Behrens referenced by Neel, “the average longevity of a music therapist is 13 to 14 years”(Cohen & Behrens, 2002)(Neel pg 12). This is not surprising when paired with data from Vega (2010) that found that music therapists are “more emotionally exhausted than the average mental health worker is” (p. 171).
So where does self-care come in?
As stated earlier, self-care can help minimize the effects of burnout, which in turn could hopefully help with the retention rate of music therapists. I have heard so many times that you can not pour from an empty cup. Self-care helps fill our cups.
My history with self-care
I have struggled with self-care. In my supervision last week, I talked about how it is hard to do things for myself. The last ten years of my life have been go, go, go. Give until there is nothing left to give. Did I give good results? Yes, most of the time, but it’s not sustainable. I found myself much like I find myself right now: exhausted. Exhausted, procrastinating, feeling guilty for staring at my assignment and not getting it done, but also feeling guilty if I stop and take a break or do something I enjoy. My team has changed my schedule around so I have time for my body to heal from surgery, to rest up, to allow me to partake in self-care, but here I am after my first week with this schedule struggling. As easy as it is to say to others, it is hard to tell myself that progress isn’t linear. Part of that progress for me is to work on my self-care
Ideas of self-care for myself
Starting off easy, I made a list from self-care activities I have taken part in before. I want there to be more facets to my being than working a lot and being tired.
Non work related hobbies
Reading
Embroidery
Baking
Going on walks
Dancing for fun
Making home cooked healthy meals
Staying better connected with my grandparents
Being more social
Taking the opportunity to try something new
Enjoying nature as it gets warmer
Therapy
References
Maslach, C., & Jackson, S. E. (1986). Maslach burnout inventory manual. Palo Alto: Consulting Psychologists Press.
Neel, Kristin Marie (2017). Self-Care For Students: A Pilot Study On Self-Care Education For The Preinternship Music Therapy Student. Appalachian State University. Thesis. https://doi.org/10.71889/5fylantbak.29862563.v1
On my first day of internship, I wrote the date on the inside cover of my notebook. That date was almost three months ago. So what does the life of a music therapy intern look like three-ish months in.
Weekly checklist
As an intern, I have a list of things I have to do every week. This includes: daily journals, where I write about my day working with clients and about how I felt; weekly assignments, which lately have been songwriting or recording; weekly repertoire checks, where I learn two songs and then lead them in my supervision; and bi-weekly blog posts, like this one. I also plan interventions and sessions for the contracts and clients I see, but this changes every week as I take on more responsibilities and lead more independently.
Mondays
I spend most of my day at Hope School. While there, I see four classes with my supervisor Emma. Before and in between sessions, we work in our office. I spend that time preparing music, writing documentation, and if I have time, writing my journal or working on other tasks I need to complete that week. After the school day, I come back to MTC where I work on assignments and observe a music therapy session led by Emma. I end my day writing in my journal about everything that happened.
Tuesdays
I again spend most of my day at Hope School, but Tuesdays are much busier. I see six classes with Emma. Many of the classes are back to back or close to it, so I don’t always get a chance to document after each session. This was hard at first, but I learned that I remember more than I thought I would. Once the school day is through, I drive back to MTC where I work on assignments before having two lessons and a session back to back. My first lesson is teaching Ukulele, then I teach most of an adapted lesson with Emma, and then straight into facilitating half a session with Molly. After it all, I write my journal entry.
Wednesdays
I start my morning off at SPARC. It is so much fun! I meet Molly there and then we rock out with group members. On special occasions, we bust out some music bingo. I then go back to Hope School where I see two more classes. When Molly and I get there we have a lot of time to prep. In that time, I document for SPARC, make sure I am ready for my classes, and work on any other tasks I have that week. I am fully facilitating both classes which is exciting and even doing one class without Molly supervising in the room. The rest of my day I spend working on assignments, meeting with Katey, one of the owners of the company over zoom, and teaching a voice lesson. Soon, I’ll be leading an evening Listen and Learn class.
Thursdays
By the time I get to Thursday, I really need the break it brings. I start the morning leading Listen and Learn, our class that serves ages 0-3. Then have time to myself to do whatever I need. I usually spend that time going home and taking a short nap and eating before heading back to the office. Sometimes, I stay at the office if there is a lot I need to get done. Once I’m back, I have a lot of time to work on assignments and prepare before supervision. During supervision I have my weekly rep check. I like to spend the twenty minutes before supervision going over my music one last time. Supervision is a time where I meet with my supervisors and talk about my week, my upcoming week, internship, and life in general. After supervision, I teach three lessons and finish by writing my journal.
Fridays
My Fridays always look a little different. Every other week I go to Taylorville. While there I see three different classes, each at a different school. The drive to Taylorville is long so I always make sure to put on a good playlist before leaving. On the weeks that I am not at Taylorville, I observe a session in our clinic. I spend the rest of my day working on finishing assignments before and in between clients. Later in the afternoon, I teach an adapted piano lesson and lead a music therapy session. After doing documentation for my client, I spend any time afterwards finishing my blog post, assignment, and daily journal.
Going Home
Most nights I don’t get home until 6 or 6:30. On a lucky night, I’m out of the office by 5:30. But what do I do with my time? I spend a lot of my time napping. Internship can be a very tiring ordeal. Lately, I have been working on having a work life balance so that I do more than work, eat, and sleep. Recently, I have been catching up on TV shows like Stranger Things, reading webcomics, and knitting (at least attempting).
Every internship is different. It is easy to compare journeys, but just like our uniqueness as individuals, each internship is unique. Every intern needs something different. I, for example, am not equally busy all week due to health issues that affect my energy levels. Because of this, my internship will be longer than my peers from Western or my co-workers who did their own internships at MTC.
As part of my internship, I have weekly assignments, some of which contribute to larger projects like my midterm. For these assignments, I have to write and record songs. While I have written songs for myself and for sessions at WIU, this is my first time recording them. At first glance, it can be really daunting, but like many things, it gets easier with practice.
For these recording projects, I have been using SoundTrap. I have used GarageBand once on my iPad, but recording is much easier on a laptop. GarageBand is the product I hear most about, but since my computer is not an Apple product, I do not have access. Lucky for me, one of my colleagues also doesn’t have an Apple computer and recommended SoundTrap. I am not good with technology, but the process of recording has been super straightforward.
Materials
Of course, you need my laptop to create any of this. You also need a microphone and any instruments you are going to use. Some things you may not have thought of, though, are headphones and a MIDI chord. Headphones will help when you are recording. You need to hear what you are recording over, but you don’t want it playing out loud, so that it can’t be picked up in the recording, plus you can just hear it better over headphones. A midi chord is going to be very helpful when it comes to adding piano. This way, you can plug it into your keyboard, and what you play is directly recorded onto the software. You can also use MIDI to record a baseline, synth, or even a guitar riff.
The Groundwork
I found out early on to start with a big, loud, steady beat. My supervisor, Katey, had suggested starting with a beat, but I thought the metronome was enough. Spoiler alert, it wasn’t. I found out quickly that no matter how steady a beat I thought I had on the guitar, I was wrong. When creating the drum rhythm, it shows you a grid broken down to the sixteenth level of each beat. It also gives you many choices of drums, starting with kick, snare, and highhat. To give myself a steadying pulse, I had the kick drum play on every beat in a measure. I started with this. Nothing fancy, just a pulse that I could blast through my headphones.
The Guitar
The hard part, at least for me, was recording the guitar. I had to have my steady pulse turned way up in my ears to try and keep up with it. I didn’t realize until recording how easy it is to get slightly off beat when playing guitar. It wasn’t noticeable to me until putting a computer-created drum beat, that is never off, alongside it. This part took me quite a lot of time for each song I recorded.
There are multiple ways to do it. You can chunk it. You can find natural stopping points in the song and record up to or from that point. This can change by the song. Some don’t lend themselves to this way as easily. You can try to record the whole song in one take. I did this often, and it was hard. If your song repeats, you can record that section and loop it. Which can be tricky when it comes to lining up with the beat, but it’s not impossible. I have done a mixture of all three. Commonly, I started off trying to record the entire song. If there were mistakes and I didn’t want to rerecord the entire thing, I would split the track and try to record that one spot. After recording, I would change the sound of the amp. There are many choices to choose from. I always chose “clean” so there were fewer effects and sounded more like my guitar. Once I had a guitar track I was happy with, I did not touch it again.
The Next Step
My next step was to record the main vocals. Once your beat and guitar track are set, recording vocals is easier. Like the guitar, you can do a single take or break it into chunks, but it’s easier to chunk vocals since you can pause after each verse or chorus.
The Fun Stuff
After I had my basics, which were all that was required of me, I could just mess around and add what I thought sounded good.
Diversifying The Beat
At this point, the only beat I had was a steady pulse. Now that I recorded the vocals and guitar and can hear it all together, I find it easier to add on to the drum rhythm. Make it more complicated than just a pulse, if I want to. I’m not super knowledgeable when it comes to making drum beats, so I just mess around until I find something I like. There are also pre-done tracks that you can add for anything, not just guitar. I personally use the pattern makers to create my rhythms, but there is a drum kit option too. Like with the guitar, you can change the sound of the drum.
Using The MIDI Keyboard
When I hear the word keyboard when talking about music, I assume piano. While a piano is involved, you can use a MIDI keyboard to create different sounds. On Soundtrap, you can use it for piano, synth, bass, guitar, and even orchestral instruments. You can do it using your computer keyboard, but it is easier to do on an actual keyboard. To do it on a keyboard, you use a MIDI chord. One end plugs into the computer and the other into the keyboard. You can then change it to whatever instrument sound you want. Just like playing piano, you play the pitch you want, and it is recorded. I used this feature to add guitar riffs, bass lines, piano background, and synth.
Last Touches
You are almost done! The last thing I mess with is the balance. On the left side of the screen, it shows you all your tracks. It is easy to adjust the volume and reverb on each track. Once I am happy with how it sounds, I save it multiple times and then download it as an MP3 file. It can be a lot of work, but it is always so cool to hear the final product and know you created it.
