Hi everyone,
My child’s elementary school was looking for some adults to volunteer to teach classes on specialized topics after school. I don’t know too many skills that would interest young kids, but my wife convinced me that they might be interested in learning how to make music on a computer. So, I signed up, and will likely be teaching a class on this in March.
It will be a single class, running for just an hour. The kids will probably be around ages 9-12.
Does it matter if I’m not really familiar with the more popular DAWs? I’ve only ever used tracker-style interfaces and never felt much of a desire to move beyond those, so I’m unfamiliar with piano-roll style interfaces and such. I also have limited experience with synthesizers - I understand how they work at a basic level, but I mostly use sample-based instruments.
Here’s the rundown of what I’m thinking the structure of the lesson will be:
- The basics of how computers make music (the basic waveforms, ADSR envelopes, etc, differences between synths, samples, and directly recording instruments/vocals)
- How to write the music itself (difference between a musical staff and a track in Renoise, how to enter notes with a keyboard)
- Compose a very basic song (establish a beat, have the kids come up and help create patterns)
Since trackers aren’t as popular as piano roll DAWs, would it be worth it talk about them? Are there any free music programs that kids of that age might enjoy?