For Kids: School of Rock ‘n’ Roll
Aspiring rockers can enroll in any of the three semesters throughout the year. Students can learn how to play the keyboard, guitar, drums, or bass, and take voice instruction. Every week, students participate in a 45-minute lesson and a three-hour group rehearsal. The school also offers summer camp sessions where students get lessons in recording their own music and marketing. Last summer, students at the school came up with their own band names and made T-shirts and fliers.
What about something like this with a hip-hop twist. Urban students could easily be introduced to a variety of music by mixing various musical genre’s together. Learning a mixing board is a considerable skills, drum machines are valid instruments, learning the skills of a turntable is more difficult than turning a record and students can utilize “traditional instruments” like the Roots do. Creating lyrics can improve linguistic skills – intelligent rap artists like, Common, Lupe Fiasco, Listener, Deepspace 5 , the Roots, Jurassic 5, La Symphony, Kanye West, and Crossmovement actually have a great deal of linguistic competency.
Can we publicly and academically establish rap as art? I hope so. I would love it if my child comes home and has to evaluate the cultural relevance and musical structure of Grandmaster Flash’s “The Message”
Rhymes of a Neosoulist 