Touching Sound and Music by Lukatoyboy
Luka Ivanovic
Cika Ljubina 6
11000 Beograd
Serbia
lukatoyboy@yahoo.co.uk
Experiences of the series of electronic music workshops for kids realized 2008-2012
kids workshop electronic music
INTRODUCTION
I have started a workshop of electronic music intended for kids in 2008. Since then, I met more than 100 kids who participated in the workshops which, almost always, ended in a form of a concert.
The workshop was initialized after an unexpected encounter of a 4 year old kid and my music equipment, and soon it became an hour long session.
One unsuccessful start and some months later, I wrote a proposal to which I, almost immediately, got a positive reply. So far, the workshop was held at ~15 festivals throughout Europe and two in the USA.
Here’s what I have learned from kids.
LE(T’S)GO BASIC
As someone who came from a LEGO obsessed generation, I was struck with a BASIC series target group: 5-12 years old. I already knew that kids are becoming smarter and smarter every year, and I noticed how Nintendo have put on their games the age of 3 as the lower level, I’ll get back to Nintendo later.
The average group of kids participating in a workshop consists of 6 kids - sometimes 4, sometimes 8, and is pretty much gender-equal. A few times, surprisingly for electronic music, there were all female groups. By having the different age span, they could more easily establish their own hierarchy, and their own help center person(s).
The electronic music instruments which were used in workshops were various types of Korg Kaoss Pads synthesizers/samplers and Nintendo DS game consoles. There are two different approaches: the very basic idea of sampling, musique concrete and the acousmatic sounds was introduced only as a practice on the DS console - with a home-brew touchscreen sampling “keyboard”, and the basic - and really used in the same way - ways of producing and performing pop music - using the touch-pads to make loops, and effects to modify voices. The lessons and practice are several hours long, with an idea to form the ensembles which would perform the next day. What was the playground one day, the next day became a staged performance, with the announcements, sitting audience, and the final applause.
This was always an important moment, where shy, proud or deeply concentrated and thereby totally unaware kids have shared the stage, usually with a result similar to the average up-and-coming electronic music producer’s concert.
COOL KIDS & THE HOT TOPICS
This title may sound like an ancient band, but it’s actually something else.
There is a certain moment in the teen age period, when some things are starting to be very cool, and some others not so cool. When is the exact point when recording your voice and playing it backwards, looping it, cutting it up or time stretching it isn’t considered cool anymore? What makes a kid defend the crown of coolness? The fear of laughter from the other kids involved, or, even worse - the audience, may be one of the answers, but that same laughter can still sound the same but mean something very different if the fear and the shame don’t cut that kid off the equipment and/or stage.
There were also some tears involved.
Three young guys have staged a radio show, with processed voices. The leader, much older than the other two, proposed an interview, and changed the effect to a high-pitch voice. One of the younger kids immediately started to cry, because he didn’t want to sound like a woman. A huge gender identity debate enrolled with the microphones turned on, and genders shifting under the moving pressure on the effects pad - and in the end, that part of their radio show was scrapped, and the older guy took a female role - as an example, I guess.
TOY + GAME = MUSIC INSTRUMENT ?
The history of music instruments dedicated to kids had some great moments - like Casio sampling keyboards in the ‘80s, but the market is much bigger for the games. A recent trend in rhythm action games and rock band simulations brought music as a gimmick in the gaming industry, even though the portable console like the Nintendo DS and iPhone/iPod carry such a big potential toward kids’ music making.
Usually, music instruments manufactured for kids stay out of th electronic realm, which sounds absurd because kids are using the computers and game consoles from a very early age.
The gaming industry, lead by Nintendo, struggles to get people to pay for the game titles on cartridges, while the other side of the copyright perception struggles to make cartridges to which someone can copy a downloaded software to. Some of that software is made to be free, and some of it is even designed to be used as the music instrument for kids - but Nintendo’s policy is to ban use of unapproved and unofficial software on its products - and have sued the several companies which made those cartridges.
The big three of the elctronic music instruments and other equipment - Roland, Korg & Yamaha - still don’t have special products for kids, despite the countless videos of kids using their products in a very creative way. Korg has made a step toward toy-looking Mini Kaoss Pads - but they still don’t market their Kaossilator as an updated and much better instrument than countless versions of kids’ keyboard synthesizers. As much as the DIY / make scene of the home-brew instrument making can be strong, the power of distribution is crucial for the popularity of the instrument - which have to be loved by the kids and approved by the parents and/or teachers in order to be bought.
That’s until kids start making their own instruments - and let’s hope that that moment will come soon.
Touching Sound and Music
(cc) Luka Ivanovic / Lukatoyboy