November 2010

Beginning a New Program!

Rachel B. Noel Middle School

We began a new program today at a truly wonderful place, Rachel B. Noel Middle School in NE Denver! We are teaching there as part of an after school program that is sponsored by the flobots.org called Art to Action. We began the class explaining to the students who we are, as an organization, and what we do. We then gave a brief history of modern music production beginning with Duke Ellington, explained how modern sampling was born out of the New York boroughs with the dj, how it was furthered with the advancements in technology, all culminating in the modern production studio, the computer. We played examples of popular songs that used samples from songs written much earlier in order to demonstrate what sampling actually is. Then, we introduced music production software and demonstrated how to navigate it on a fundamental level.

We split the group into two with the intention of having the students pick samples, from our sample bank, in order that we might arrange them into a song together; the idea being that the following week the students would record lyrics over the song. We look forward to continuing our relationship with Rachel B. Noel Middle School, it is truly am amazing place. Check them out at noel.dpsk12.org.

Flobots.orgthanks to the Flobots.org for inviting us into their programming

Devereux Cleo Wallace

by Aaron

While these guys were out at Rachel B. Noel, I headed out to teach my first solo class at Devereux on Monday.  Since this was also a designated recording day, I asked Dylan to step up and run the recording room.  That freed me up to be with the students in the class, and I worked individually with everyone on their projects.  I got a nice sense of freedom from the responsibility resting solely on my shoulders, which may sound contradictory, but rising to any occasion in a way that satisfied one's self provides a sense of empowerment; I guess it felt like freedom to me (power/ability=freedom?).  I had a very fun day, and we even got some work done.  Justin recorded two out of three verses, and we'll finish that up and post in next week.  Dylan got a song done:

Dylan - The Devil and My Family

Tuesday, Nate joined me again, and we worked with everyone individually.  Dylan and Chad worked through the recording from Monday, adding effects and mixing the tracks, and we gave the rest of the students a new round of samples provided by Jeremy Irwin of Pushtank - Thank You Jeremy.  We have a month to go with this school term, and we've recently finished the entire set of fundamental lesson plans.  We are going back to the drawing board, so look for something interesting in terms of the content of our upcoming programming.  January will be the beginning of our advanced lessons format, and we're very excited: stay tuned.

Love Songs, Folk Rock, and Hip Hop

Shiloh House - Longmont Campus

We made a visit to Longmont this week, and we tested out workshop that we will conduct with La Escuela Tlatelolco on December 19th.  There were five students from our previous program and five new ones.  We began the class by collectively selecting ten samples, one for each student, that were arranged into a song.  While Cody finished the arrangement, the students were asked to write two or four lines that rhymed to record over the class track.  For many of the students, this was their first time recording on a microphone, and we were very impressed with the attitudes of most of them.  Here is what the boys at Longmont created on Monday:

Shiloh House Longmont - Class Song

We felt like it was a lot to do in an hour and a half, but we were successful in finishing the program within the allotted time.  The lessons we learned will carry well into the workshop in December.

Devereux Cleo Wallace

Monday

This was Jared's last week in class, and we are both happy for his advancement through the stages of his treatment and sorry to see him leave.  He and his girlfriend recorded this wonderful song together on Jared's last day of class:

Kiara and Jared - Swagga Boy

We also had a really explosive recording session between Chad and Dylan on the acoustic guitar and mandolin.  They had built up a lot of excitement by the time we were ready to record, and it was a great experience watching them process the song structure on the fly.  Listen to this:

Dylan and Chad - Hands On Fire

and, one more:

Dylan and Chad - Reyna Waltz

The other students were working on producing new content and preparing for their turn to record next Monday.

Tuesday

Video for Class Discussion:

Dead Prez is a well known hip hop group that has highly politicized lyrics.   We used one of their videos to fuel a discussion and asked them to interpret what they saw.  Some of the student feedback:

  • It is disrespectful to display gang colors in a context that the gangs would not support.
  • The video used gang symbols in an ironic sense as a way of supporting their critique of corporate-media and the mainstream vehicles of expression of black youth in America.
  • The creators of the video were being hypocritical by depending on a system that they were criticizing.

Our intention for showing this video was to use media that the students can understand and relate to in order to engage a discussion about subjects that are important but often at the margin of public discourse.  We felt like it was a good exercise, and we were impressed by the students' willingness to form their own opinions and attempt to vocalize them.

Special Guests DJ Ripm and DJ Shake One

Devereux Cleo Wallace

Monday's class was just a really fun day with the students.  People were lighthearted, everyone was productive, and we all laughed a lot.  Kiara's album was finished once she approved the final design; look for that shortly.  Justin made a new track, and we spent the day recording with the help of our new dedicated staff member, Nina.  Check it out:

Justin - Untouchable

Special Guest Speakers - DJ Ripm and DJ Shake One

Thank You DJ Ripm and DJ Shake

We can't fully express how excited we were to welcome DJ Ripm and DJ Shake One as our guest speakers.  They brought in a full setup and showed the students how to mix music and perform.  They had a super positive message, which covered the importance of working with people from various backgrounds, touching upon multiple styles, collaborating across traditional boundaries, and even of going to college and getting an education.

Nearing the Beginning

Devereux Cleo Wallace

After the excitement of last week's class our intention for this week was to have some time to focus on the student's personal projects. Regretfully we canceled class on Monday for personal reasons, the first time that we have not fulfilled our commitment since we begun teaching; it was the first topic of discussion on Tuesday.

We spent the rest of class time recording, and working on personal projects, including the album covers and the final mastering of finished songs. One of the students filled out an application for employment because it was her only opportunity to do so. We encourage the students to do other things as long as they are respectful and the task is something that supports their general well-being.

Dylan - Much of Anything

The following are three new songs from a student who has been meticulous in his approach to production. This student has produced several songs with great attention to detail- nothing from this student is done by accident, and everything that you hear is produced with the utmost intention.

Chris (Dark Blaze) - All for Show

Chris (Dark Blaze) - Matrix World

Chris (Dark Blaze) - Rave Tech