A new music club has been born inside from the old walls in STA.  However, the students in this club don’t need instruments, a conductor, or even sheet music.  All these students need is a computer.

For the past few weeks after school in portable eight, students have been exploring a different way to make music.  A few students, supervised by student teacher Mr. Ashish Seth, have been cutting and mixing music to create a song of their own using a program called Sony AcidPro. 

Sony AcidPro is an example of a DAW- a digital audio workstation.  This program uses sound manipulation to sample, mix, and compose music, then put it all together to make a brand new music file.

“Editing software in itself is a musical instrument- it is a studio…choosing your software is like choosing a guitar,” Mr. Seth explained, “using these programs is like painting with sound.” 

Students had the opportunity to take their own selections of music and sounds from a wide variety of genres, mix them together, and collaborate on a whole new sound. 

At first, the students were tentative about using the software, but with a little encouragement from Mr. Seth, they began making more complicated songs, and exploring all facets of the program.  “You can’t be afraid of failure,” he observes. “You have to learn how to fail before you can learn how to succeed.” 

The students have really taken this message to heart, as there have been many versions of the song, with many different samples that just didn’t work.  But that’s okay.  As one student put it, the club is all about, “learning how to express yourself through music in the new age of technology.”

Mr. Seth, a student teacher from University of Toronto, wanted to teach students an alternative way of making music and introduce students to sampling and mixing. “In school, you’ve got your music class, your instruments.  I got kicked out of music class in high school…because I wasn’t at their level of knowledge.  I looked for other ways of making music.” 

To create the music, students ’sample’ existing songs from their favourite artists.  Sampling is the process of isolating a few seconds of one instrument from a song, then using it elsewhere.  Sampling has become a huge part of popular music.  It is a true reflection of the artist, as it shows their personal musical tastes.  It lets them take a part of one of their favourite songs from one context, and use it in an entirely new context.  It is a form of making music that is accessible to all people, regardless of background or experience.  All you need is a love for music. 

Mr. Seth saw the opportunity to share his joy.  “It’s a passion of mine.  Just sharing that with someone is something I love to do.”

 Click the links below to listen to the songs our students have made:

*Note: there are two versions of the Fish song: one was the rough version the students, calling themselves the New Age Prophets, finished on their own.  The other has been edited by Mr. Seth to clean up the choppy bits.

The Fish Song (debut version) - the New Age Prophets
http://www.box.net/shared/a02crdfeps

The Fish Song (version 2) - the New Age Prophets
http://www.box.net/shared/kq0gx6an34

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