Additional guidance to help you record and share your songs in class

Review the following guidance to help you record your songs.

As you go through the songwriting process, you’ll need to record your songs to share your progress with your Peer Group. Don’t worry too much about this — you don’t need to know how to use music software or make polished recordings for this class. It’s all about sharing your songs and stories!

But, we want you to have all the tools you need to make something you feel good about sharing. So, use as much or as little of this information as you’d like, and feel free to refer back to this guide at any time throughout the class.

Using Our Built-In Recording Tools (Recommended)

The simplest option for recording and submitting your song is to use our built-in recording tools, which you can find by clicking on the "Upload Project" button on the project page. Then:

• Select either "Record Audio" or "Record Video"
• Hit the big, red record button
• Sing through your song. If you’re using a track from the Track Library, you can play your track aloud as you do this
• Hit the big, square stop button
• Submit your recording to your peer group

Using Music Software

For a more advanced option, you can also use music software or a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) to record your songs. This can be helpful if you need to record multiple tracks (such as an instrument and vocals, or multiple vocal tracks), or if you want to make any edits once you’ve recorded. But, it is also much more complicated!

Below you can find step-by-step instructions for how to make recordings using GarageBand, which is free software available on Apple computers. If you’re using a program besides GarageBand, the basic principles outlined in this guide should still apply, but you may need to look up how certain functions work in the software you’re using.

If you find yourself wanting to know even more — how to edit audio and MIDI once you’ve recorded it — see the guide for Editing Tracks.