Sound School are asking for help - here's the what, why and how:
What’s the Sound School?
Turn plants into musical instruments, turn light waves into sound waves, make music from code, make a synthesiser think it’s Mariah Carey – this is the Sound School 2018. We’re a free school upskilling and celebrating people making electronic music from the margins and we’re asking for your help!
Our 2017 semester had a super positive response – folks are hungry for high quality accessible electronic music education. The pilot project saw workshops attended by over 200 people, workshops facilitated by over a dozen local artists, and the School’s nomination for the Best Experimental/Avante Garde project in The Age Music Victoria Awards.
But there’s a problem.
Music education has to catch up with what music we find cool and inspiring! Instead of learning Mozart or “Mary Had A Little Lamb” on recorder why don’t we start off with “Sandstorm” on synthesizer? The number of students taking music at school has dropped by up to 22%. Not because kids are losing interest - instead, you have to teach yourself Ableton or Traktor in your spare time, and that's if you can get your hands on it or your head around it in the first place.
A 2015 Forbes list of the highest paid EDM (Electronic Dance Music) DJs celebrates 12 multimillion-dollar earners, all of whom are male and mostly white. Electronic music owes so much of its history to innovators who are queer, people of colour, women or femme, or on low incomes – where would house, techno, and hip hop be without these communities? Music is as much about community and survival as personal expression and it's vital to keep feeding and celebrating new talent. Let’s make music powerful and accessible for the next generation of creatives on the margins.
Where Sound School come in.
Our program for 2018 will focus on workshop series at several venues around Melbourne – all wheelchair accessible. Some will be aimed specifically at youth, others will be aimed at noisemakers of all ages. We’ll be offering 4 to 6 week workshop series in popular practices like DJing and Ableton Live, and a series of one-off workshops in topics like: live coding, circuit bending, synth building, DIY MIDI controllers, sampling, and more. We want to concentrate on skills that you don't need a ton of money or special gear for, and that participants can keep building on when they go home. We'll also be running an artist lecture/showcase series where we explore issues relating to electronic music and identity, and an insider’s look at the gear setups and creative processes of Melbourne's most innovative underground artists.
Join us!
Our 2017 program showed how much we can pull together with very little money. Many artists and supporters donated their skills, gear, and time to make possible a school that asks no fee from participants. But for next year’s program we need funding – to pay facilitators and stay true to our politics, and to buy workshop materials. We’re reaching far and wide: on top of the grants we have under application (which are spread thin under this government), and sourcing free wheelchair accessible venues and equipment donations, we’re fundraising to make 100% sure we can deliver our 2018 program whatever happens. Donate now and help us reach our fundraising goals so we can:
Pay workshop facilitators and contributing artists: The artists we enlist are from diverse backgrounds themselves and their expertise are hard-won – it’s important to pay them for their work! By donating to this project you will be helping us employ and showcase amazing artists who are queer, trans and gender diverse, women, people of colour, people with disabilities, and people on low incomes.
Buy sound equipment and materials: The vast majority of the equipment and materials we use at Sound School are loaned or donated. Some things we can’t source for free however:
- Parts to build pedals and synths: circuit boards and breadboards, chips, capacitors, resistors, wires, switches, and solder.
- Makey Makey interfaces: simple circuit boards that allows anything capable of conducting electricity to become a MIDI controller.
- Circuit-bending materials: second-hand keyboards, batteries, alligator cables.
Donate now and help us make the Sound School 2018 happen!
We are so grateful for any donation you contribute to our campaign. If you'd like to get involved in other ways we'd love to hear from you - hit us up! We are always looking for volunteers, gear loans or donations, new ideas, and other things we probably haven't even thought of yet. :)
Cool perks you can choose from - to say TYSM for supporting us :)
$30 – Vapor Noir t-shirt
$30 – Print of artwork by Anna GK
$50 – Free entry to one Cool Room event of your choice
$50 – Free entry to one LISTEN event of your choice
$50 – Bachelorette Beauty voucher for one free brow wax/tint
$60 – Bachelorette Beauty voucher for one free manicure
$80 – Bachelorette Beauty voucher for one free facial
$80 – Synth lesson with Bridget Chappell (Hextape)
$100 – LISTEN records pack inc. tote bag, four records, & pin
$100 – One on one Ableton lesson with Neil Cabatingan (Yumgod)
$100 – One on one circuit bending session with Laura Davis (Infraghosts)
$100 – Radio and podcasting 101 course with Alex of 3CR
$150 – Portrait in ink by Anna GK
$200 – Radio 101 with Oskar of Queer The Way, RRR – record a show/set in the RRR studios and learn the basics of radio production.
$200 – 6 hours Bakehouse Studios rehearsal studio time
$500 – Yumgod plays your party :)
AAAAND - Everyone who donates goes in the draw to win a custom built 3 oscillator Dracopede Skullourboros synth!
