February 2012

Students at Devereux running the show

We had a great week learning about metaphor, simile and imagery. This was the first of two week that we will be focusing on lyrics and lyric writing. Both at Devereux Cleo Wallace and Synergy we are recording our first vocal tracks and really there is no more exciting time be in this business because you really never know who might be capable of what. There were many surprises which should be posted next week. Here are some of the instrumental tracks from Synergy. What a great group of students!

Kenneth - Caddilac Instrumental

Gabriel - Cancion 2

Chris P. - Song 2

Chris P. - Song 3

Rodney - The King

Levi - Mine!

Serafin of Bop Skizzum, our new instructor at Synergy School

DJ Clarence - 1975

Here is the first tracks of this new year. We have been busy recording vocals this week and will master them into the tracks next week. Here are couple of  instrumentals from Devereux Cleo Wallace. In the first three weeks of class the students have learned DAW (digital audio workstation) basics, sample editing and MIDI. These are the most comprehensive lessons to date and the students were not only able to learn and incorporate them into their projects, but some were able to go even further, thus we are supplementing recording days with advanced video tutorials. Also some of the students have learned to man the recording station, freeing up our instructors to work with other students. We couldn't be more proud of our students and our partners and are starting to see some real magic happen. Peace.

Straight determination

It was a tough class last week..but this week... we rallied and the students came through setting goals and working towards them. I was so proud of each of them and look forward to tomorrow and our first recording session. We will post the new tracks tomorrow. Look 4 umm...Peace!

7th Grade Students at Pathways Middle School in Littleton

Monday morning Youth On Record began a spoken word and production workshop with Pathways Middle School in Littleton, Colorado. This marks the second time that we have worked with a group of students from Pathways and we are so excited to be back! The idea for this project was originally put forth by educator extraordinaire, Karen Kazemi, of Pathways, to expose her students to some of the remarkable things that are happening in Denver with art based education. For Youth On Record this is an opportunity to find out what it is that students of this age, outside of residential treatment, think about and desire for their futures. The title of this workshop will be, "A Letter to the Future, What I Need to Survive" and will culminate in a student produced video. The students will also produce the audio track, to be used in the video, perform their pieces at a fundraiser at the school, as well as feature the pieces in the Colorado Music Buzz Magazine.

Youth On Record takes this opportunity to expose students such as these to amazing things that are happening in the arts that they might not be aware of, as well as demonstrate the resources available to them via technology. This is most definitely an intense survey of what we do, but we love pushing the limits of what can be done. Try and deny us and the future...go ahead.

Our equipment outside Devereux Cleo Wallace

We could not be happier with the start of this quarter. Both at Synergy School and at Devereux Cleo Wallace the students are demonstrating great capacity for learning difficult concepts. This week we covered advanced wave editing and applied our first effect, the delay. Now that the classes are an hour and a half, twice a week, we are able to really push it the first day, the students demonstrating the skills they have just learned, and leave the second day for individual and group projects and recording.

The things we are not afraid of doing...

At Synergy School this week, the second full week, we had four students record lyrics over tracks that they had made the first week. AND.....the lyrics were phenomenal. It was such an amazing day. All the students are producing so well and the new curriculum, although very intensive, is proving successful.

The emotions that the video "Hip Hop" by Dead Prez brought up to the students at Synergy School

Look for new tracks next week!