Make a melody in just six minutes

How to record a song in six minutes

A music box has arrived on Tyneside, giving you the chance to record a music track and video in just six minutes.

Billed as "Guitar Hero meets installation art", the Youth Music Box is at The Sage Gateshead until 12 November to encourage children to play.

The box allows four people - of any age and musical ability - to play electronic instruments and work together on digital music projects.

Finished pieces are uploaded to a music sharing website.

Mixing audio

So how do you make music inside a cube?

Inside the box instruments are built into a round table - two electronic keyboards, electronic drums, and a digital turntable.

Working in a group of four, you and your "band" sit at the table and choose a music genre from reggae, drum and bass, urban, afro beat, classical and disco/electro.

This puts a sample backing track down so the players can keep the beat.

They then put their instrumental skills to the test.

The cube looks similar to console music games

Behind the scenes, two technicians in the control room are responsible for mixing the sound and monitoring the video.

The control room houses a digital audio console which is used to provide a live mix for the participants and to lay down the final track.

This is uploaded to Youth Music where people are then able to view and share their videos.

Games consoles

Youth Music Box has been created by Youth Music to encourage more children and young people to take up musical instruments through the medium of technology.

Christina Coker, chief executive of Youth Music said: "Our research found that for many young people, their first experience of music making happens via technology.

"As an entry point to making music, console games such as Wii Music and Guitar Hero are more mainstream than anything that has been available before.

"We are hoping that our Youth Music Box will enable young people to be creative and inspire them to go and find out more about music-making opportunities in their local area."

Youth Music found that up to 2.5 million young people in the UK - or one million aged between 12 and 18 - have been inspired to progress into "real" music-making because they have played music-based console games.

Youth Music Box is free and open from 4pm - 8pm weekdays and 9am - 5pm at weekends from 4 - 12 November.