For the past 2 years I've handled most of the tech stuff for our school choir and since I'm graduating this year I've been asked to try and train a replacement. Ideally they'd be able handle setting up sound for concerts, recording and mastering both the audio and video for them, doing live mixing, and installing stuff in the theater/auditorium. I managed to figure out all this stuff of the past year with a bit of help and lots of random button pressing but I'd like to make it a bit easier for the next person.

Problem is....I have no idea where to start. I tried starting with the basics but I never manage to stay on track. Anybody here have any tips for teaching this kind of stuff?


Thanks guys

get everything on paper...

Directions such as... For this operation, follow this procudure...

For decision making, use flow charts.

All depends on how much work you want to put into it.

To expand on TiZ's post, why not make an outline of how you would setup for an event. Or a flow chart, but for this I think an outline would be esier.

1 Setup speakers
A)Run power
B)Run speaker wire
2 Setup Amps
A)Power
B)Connect speakers.
3 Setup mikes...

Just off the top of my head there, don't know jack about how to do what you are talking about, but if you get it on paper on how to setup, you can then add to it and it should be simple for them.

Auto formating kinda killed my outline! I think you will get the point though!

Quote: Originally Posted by Fred_G To expand on TiZ's post, why not make an outline of how you would setup for an event. Or a flow chart, but for this I think an outline would be esier. 1 Setup speakers A)Run power B)Run speaker wire 2 Setup Amps A)Power B)Connect speakers. 3 Setup mikes... Just off the top of my head there, don't know jack about how to do what you are talking about, but if you get it on paper on how to setup, you can then add to it and it should be simple for them. Auto formating kinda killed my outline! I think you will get the point though!

From what I can see, this method is really good. Because at our school (I'm saying this because I'm in 10th grade so I have at least two more years left with the sound equipment) What we do is when we need to find a replacement, we do it at least when its during the middle of the school year so me and the IT teacher can help out the newbies and train them so they can replace us. We don't do the wrting stuff for some reason but my teacher talks to us about it and he will encourage us to take notes. But talking to your recruit and asking how he learns best will really benefit you.

I learnt by word of mouth and by pushing some random buttons two

Anytime you want to teach someone anything, the best thing to do is start with an outline. I usually start with something like this:

1. Objectives and Definitions
2. Getting Started
3. Details
4. Troubleshooting

So in you case you might want to start with definitions of common terms and abbreviations. Stuff like that. In the "Getting Started" section I would document where everything is, what equipment the choir owns, passwords, codes, keys, etc. How to get stuff, who to go to when you need help (like the cabinet is locked and I can't get the microphones and the event starts in 5 minutes!).

Section 3 is where you put the details of how to setup each piece of equipment, what you need for each type of event, etc.

Section 4 is some of the common problems that you have had over there years and how to fix them.

Of course there can be more or less depending upon what you are teaching, but this is a good starting point. It also works for writing documentation.