October 2011

Devereux Students with Chris Guillot, owner of Cherry Sound Studios

Students from Devereux Cleo Wallace earned a trip to Cherry Sound Studios as a reward for all of their hard work. The students were able to master one of the tracks that they have been working with in class, as well as record lyrics. Thanks to our good friend Chris Guillot for hosting these fine young men.

So much going on! All classes are running smooth, meaning that the student's music is on point. Never have we experienced so much quality production in the classroom! We will be posting new music soon. Also, check out our student's writings in Colorado Music Buzz Magazine. Shout out to Denver's own Dj Vajra, 2012 DMC World Champion. Thanks for representing our beautiful city.

Dj Vajra 2012 DMC World Champion

Yonnas Abraham, founder and lead emcee of Denver's long time hip-hop group Pirate Signal and emcee of Blkhrts, taught with us this week at Savio. He treated the students to a performance and then did  the same piece a capella, so the students would be clear about the meaning of his words. Yonnas brings so much to the classroom production wise also, having produced most of his own music for almost fifteen years. Thanks brother! We are constantly trying to reinforce the idea to our students that there is a rich music community here in Denver for them to plug into and guest artists is one way of proving this to them.

Yonnas Abraham

Another fantastic artist, singer and songwriter, Matt Herz performed for us at Devereux Cleo Wallace this past week. Matt is also a profession sound engineer and holds a degree in kind from the University of Colorado at Denver. He performed for the students and then answered questions about working as both an engineer and artist, and what it takes to be successful at both. Thanks Matt!

Matt Herz at Devereux Cleo Wallace

Again, all the classes couldn't be going better. It seems that the constant refining of our lesson plans and our unwillingness to yield to the many pressures and challenges we face, are beginning to really pay off. For example we have begun teaching music theory in all three classes using the circle of fifths as a tool to melody writing. We are so excited because if the students we work with can learn to navigate and produce quality music with some of the most advanced software available, what else might they be able to do?

Recording at Savio