By the end of this lesson, you’ll understand the concepts of listening to music emotionally and technically. Strategies for maintaining objectivity and using kinesthetic observations to discover musical effectiveness will be internalized. You’ll train yourself to make distinctions on what works and what doesn’t work, rather than just passively listening as a fan.

In this lesson, you’ll hone in on your identity as a recording artist: who are you, and what are you meaning to convey through your music? You’ll work on refining your vision and intention for the recordings you’ll make employing these skills, and record and post a “work tape” of a new piece of music.

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to employ several useful techniques for strengthening your songs and instrumental tracks. You’ll acquire skills in prosody, focus, and an intelligent approach to repetition. You’ll also learn to craft better melodies, write better lyrics, and construct a musical form that best suits the emotional contour you are trying to accomplish with your recording. You’ll understand the principles of getting the most out of feedback on your recordings, in order to gather valuable perspective to better convey your intended response. You’ll incorporate notes from your colleagues to further refine your recording and re-post an updated version.

By the end of this lesson, you will address the sonic signature as it relates to your intention and vision, as well as your technology resources and acoustic space. You’ll learn about microphone techniques, getting good levels, and mixing with reverb, EQ and compression. You will record your material, having made some deliberate decisions about the sound of your record, and post your recording for peer review according to specific criteria.