Music From My Students – So Proud!

For the last 6 years I have been teaching Rock Band workshops at the Experience Music Project in Seattle. During the summer, winter and spring school breaks we bring teens together from all over the region and teach them what it means to play in a real rock band. We have between 7-15 students in each workshop, and we divide them into bands that compose, rehearse and perform both covers and original tunes. It’s so much fun to work with the kids and see them go from individuals at the beginning of the week to tight bands by the end of the week.

During Spring break a couple weeks ago, we did something new with the kids. Instead of performing at the end of the week we teamed up with The Vera Project and had the kids record their original music. We had 7 students this time around, many of whom played multiple instruments. So we mixed and matched two bands and wrote two originals. Here they are, in all their glory:

“Keep Playing”:
[audio:jack.mp3]

“Trapped In My Mind”
[audio:grime.mp3]

I’m so proud of all the hard work they did to get these songs in record-ready form in just 4 days! Big thanks to all the budding rockstars, my co-teacher Travis, Rowdy at Vera who engineered and mixed the tunes, and all at the EMP for giving the kids this awesome opportunity, and giving me the opportunity to rock out! And special thanks to the students for letting me play keys on the first tune.