Record a Story
Activity 1: Listen
(5 minutes)
Listen to the story How Wisdom Got Out, a folktale from Ghana. What do you notice about how the narrator used his voice while reading? Were you interested in the story? Why? How did this experience compare to watching a video of a story? Jot down your ideas and/or share them with someone else.
Activity 2: What would you like to read?
(15 minutes)
Choose a children’s picture book, a short story, or an excerpt from a chapter book to read aloud. If you choose a children’s book, you could donate the book and your recording to an elementary school classroom to help younger readers or to an organization for people with visual impairments. You could also record something for an online volunteer project, like LibriVox, which makes public domain audiobooks available for free on the internet.
Choose something that takes just a few minutes to read aloud. After you have practice-read it a couple times, look at these tips for improving your delivery. Choose one or two things you think you could work on and read the text again.
Does your story include any important noises that you could include in your recording? For example, if your story includes a character walking up the stairs, you could pause after you read that sentence and record yourself stomping your feet. If a phone rings in the story, maybe you could record a phone ringing as you read. You could also ask a friend to play the part of one of the characters if your story includes a lot of dialogue, or you could change your voice to represent different characters, for example, making it deeper if a giant is talking.
Activity 3: Read and Record
(20 minutes)
If you are using a PC download the free sound editing software Audacity. If you are using a Mac you can download Audacity or use GarageBand. If you want to record yourself without downloading anything, you could use SoundTrap
If you don’t know how to use your recorder, first experiment. Try to record a test (by pressing the toolbar button with a red circle), stop recording, and play it back. If you are in a room with background noise, use headphones. Does the recording sound ok? Is your voice a good volume? If you get stuck, search for an online tutorial.
When you feel confident with both reading aloud and using the recording program, record your text. If you make a mistake or there is a noise disturbance, like sneezing or a door shutting, don’t start all over again. Instead, continue recording but stop reading for a few seconds. Then go back to start the sentence again from before the interruption.
Activity 4: Edit
(20 minutes)
Play back your recording. While you listen, note any mistakes or interruptions that you would like to edit out. Write down the time that the interruption occurred during the recording. After you have listened to the whole recording, go back and cut the sections you don’t want. Experiment with this and simply learn by doing, or if you get stuck or want a little background knowledge before giving it a try, use online tutorials. Here is the online Audacity Manual. If you prefer you can look up specific tutorials on YouTube. Play back your recording after you cut and edit to make sure the words still make sense. After you are happy with all your edits, save the file.
Activity 6: Share and Submit
(10 minutes)
How would you like to share your audio book recording? Would you like to play it for a group of your peers? Would you like to share it one-on-one while the listener reads along? If you recorded a children’s book, would you like to share the book and the recording with a younger member, or group of members? Whoever you share it with, ask for feedback.
Want to earn a few digital badges in audio production? Email the digital media you created to BGCAmediamaking@gmail.com
Still Interested? Take a look at these resources:
Article: Can You Get Through A 60-Sec VO Spot Without Stumbling? Tips For Fluent Reading ...
Video: Audacity tutorial: Using common effects | lynda.com
Video: Good Vocal Effects on GarageBand : GarageBand Tips
Instructions: Audacity
What You'll Need:
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Record and Edit an Audio Story
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