Beats4Lunch is a ready-to-launch, free, in-school, lunchtime Hip Hop beat-making workshop designed to teach urban middle school students the fundamentals of Hip Hop music production. It will also include a film-making component in which students will record the process and produce a mini-documentary. Using Hip Hop, the dominant musical culture and art form of urban youth in Oakland, Beats4Lunch will utilize creation of music as an outlet for self-expression and increased self-esteem through a mastery of culturally relevant skills for the students at West Oakland Middle School (WOMS).
Beats4Lunch will run at WOMS during lunchtime for two weeks, conducted in twelve consecutive, half-hour sessions during students’ lunch period. This will give 60 West Oakland Middle School students a hands-on opportunity to learn music production. Working closely with local Hip Hop producers, students will have access to industry-standard music production hardware and software. With these technologies, students will learn the basics of a variety of Hip Hop beat-making modalities. Over the course of the workshop, students will be guided in creating their own collaborative “beats,” or Hip Hop music compositions. These creations will culminate in the professional grade production of an original musical album showcasing the students’ work, through which students can share their accomplishments with their families and communities. Students will receive a copy of the professionally packaged CD compilation, and will also be able to download and share it online for free.
The project will also have a documentary film component that will allow students to capture the creative process of their peers learning music production. Those students that assist the video production instructor will have a pre-production introductory workshop to familiarize them with the cameras and software used as well as post-production intro-to-editing workshop. Please past a workshop here: http://youtu.be/QUI7_wHJq40