Step 1: Listen… and imagine. Imagine what you might play, or sing. And imagine what other people might play as well. This will help you to leave space, not only for other players, but for the imagination of the listener. We want to fit at least 50 people in this. How ever much space you want to include, include a little more. Explore the boundaries of silence.  They are way out beyond the horizon. Play one note for your whole track and you’ll be amazed at what it can do. One technique to try is to limit yourself to 10 notes for the whole song. You can put them all together in an instrumental section or you can play one note every 20 seconds.

Here are some things to think about when recording. I will be doing a lot of creative editing to get as many people as possible into the song.  I just want to make sure you’re cool with having your image made smaller moved around, changed in any way or your audio sliced and diced if artistically warranted. I might use only a small portion of what you contribute. You can specify your needs in the survey.

You can video yourself while you record or you can video yourself after you record, playing along, pretending to record. In addition to the image of you, you can also include any images that you think could go in the movie, but please, I want to see your face.

Step 2: Record yourself 

You need headphones or I probably won’t be able to use it. Without headphones the mic will pick up not just your voice or instrument but the music you are playing along with and I won’t be able to edit and mix it properly. You can use earbuds.

If we can get my vocal part down to one line I will be happy. I want as many people singing lead as possible. Same thing for background. Same thing for all the instruments. We might have a dozen drums playing at once, or maybe each gets one measure. We’ll just have to see how it turns out. 

Remember that my philosophy is that music is life and life is music. If you are a human being you have music in you that we need. 

Reaper. Reaper is my current favorite DAW. It runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux. It is produced by a small company that uses the honor system in its pricing. $60 for most casual users. It includes the ability to edit video which is why I’m using it for this project. It’s pretty complicated though. Only use it if you want to have recording be big in your life.  I can help you with.

Logic Pro is the program I’ve used since I first got into digital audio in the 80s, that’s the 1980s mind you. I’m starting to prefer Reaper though. Logic only runs on Mac. It’s kind of Garage band’s stepmom.  You can get a free 90 day trial at Logic Pro trial. 

Be the artist you are! Let yourself go crazy with your creative self. Try not to think about whether I will like what you do. I might like it but only use a tiny piece because that’s how I see it fitting into my version. If you don’t like how I use your contribution, make your own version. Download the tracks from the shared folder and put them in your DAW. Set the tempo to 170 and go wild!

Step 3: Upload your contribution. First read this entire page and then fill out the survey and submit it. Name your media exactly as you did in the survey. That’s it. I will contact you whenever I have added new material to the song.

If you have any questions please email me at jb@comMUSIKey.org and I will get back to you as soon as possible.