Introduction
Songzap is a songwriting and pre-production mobile phone app designed specifically with musicians in mind. That is, we’ve built it as an easy-to-use solution for performers who play – predominantly – acoustic instruments (and/or sing), and who are looking to record, layer, shape, reflect upon and share their recordings with the world. Why do musicians need to record themselves? Fame, notoriety, money, fandom? Sure, but also because recording ourselves helps us understand what we are doing well, and highlights areas in our playing that can be further improved.
Practising the art of recording-our-performances is vastly different to just practising an instrument. Have you ever experienced going into a studio to lay down a part for another musician or as a member of an ensemble? Or have you ever been asked to perform for a live show that involves samples, beats or electronics? Many musicians new to such scenarios often find it hard to adapt their playing to the technological and performative challenges these experiences introduce. Think about it… Playing to a backing track alongside a metronome blasting in your headphones, or needing to adapt your feel to a pre-established groove constructed out of layered drum, bass or rhythm parts is vastly different to simply practising scales or playing songs in the comfort of your own home, shed or basement.
Recording performances is also a bridge towards understanding musical arrangement and song production better. It forces you to think about how parts will work together, how they may be layered on top of one another, how busy they should be and what sonic registers they should occupy. Many contemporary musicians compose through the medium of recording technology, not necessarily hearing the imagined parts in their mind’s ear and jotting them down on manuscript paper (like Mozhart or Bach once did); but instead recording performance after performance, and experimenting with complimentary parts until they get it right (not dissimilar to buskers or pop stars using loop pedals to create mini-orchestras or instrumental armies of themselves). So, recording – importantly – also leads to composition, experimentation, unique ideas, hey, even new musical styles!
So what is the problem? Well, if you are not a sound engineer or electronic musician already quite experienced with music technology, we think, most of the recording solutions out there have not been designed with you in mind. They tend to be complex and they assume you already understand a lot about recording craft and the tech that’s been developed over the past few decades to capture it. We wanted to simplify all this, make it accessible (and cheap), and help you record and shape your ideas wherever you may find yourselves… and with a minimal learning curve. We also want you to focus on what’s important when capturing and developing ideas as an instrumentalist and songwriter. And we want you to do this on a device almost everybody in the world owns… a mobile phone!
The Songzap for Pianists Series
Songzap’s creative director, (Stereo) Mike, understands all this because he was a pianist long before he became an engineer, programmer, hip-hop producer or app developer. Just as we’ve focused on guitarists and singer-songwriters elsewhere on this website (the User Guide and Blog), in this blog series, Mike will take you through a bunch of approaches to recording – specifically – acoustic (upright) piano using Songzap. He will cover:
Part I – understanding and capturing the sound of the piano
- microphone technique and placement
- optimising your piano setup for recording on a phone
- considering the acoustic properties of the piano
- left and right hand parts, and useful registers in piano arrangement and performance
Part II – groove, arrangement and multi/tracking
- playing to a metronome and/or drum beat, and developing your rhythmic feel
- isolating parts for recording, reflection and analysis
- layering and compositional approaches
- recording piano parts over backing tracks
Part III – crafting structure and composition
- crafting song sections and variations
- stylistic requirements and song structure (loop-based vs. linear approach)
- infusing dynamics, maintaining interest and creating excitement
- tying it all together
Part IV – shaping the end sound and pre/production
- balancing your creations and layers
- extending the depth and image of your captured sounds
- sharing a song
- exporting individual parts and taking it to the next level!
Come along for the ride and dive into everything you need to know about capturing the full spectrum of the upright piano – using your mobile phone – in Part I of the series.