The Phreman Audio Studio Academy addresses social problems faced by young people such as STDs/HIV, retaliation violence, and truancy through an approach that successfully integrates: •Needs - Opportunities for creative expression and exploration of talents and abilities;•Objective - Provide a safe, structured, and rewarding learning experience for youth and young adults by nurturing healthy behaviors, creativity, talent development, and positive self-image through health promotions, creative and performing arts;•Project Component – Experiential, projects-based learning model - provide audio studio recording and engineering trainings, materials, mentoring and role modeling, and resources; •Outcome - Students/participants will acquire knowledge and entry-level audio studio engineering skills that are common in the recording industry and produce a compilation project with educational and health promotions & prevention messages to demonstrate competency of the project.
Workshop Presentations Each participant/student who enrolls in the PASA must attend all workshop presentations. These presentations are crucial to the overall learning experience. The workshops are designed to instill participants with critical health promotions information and role-play opportunities. In addition to preparation for the learning that will occur throughout the audio studio curriculum. The workshops will occur on Mondays and Wednesdays from 6pm – 8pm. *Mentoring - Participants will be exposed to health promotions information, and attend group sessions discussing strategies to address challenges faced by young people such as HIV/AIDS, retaliation violence, and truancy. *Entrepreneurship/Career Training Activities- As part of the core project, all youth and young adults are introduced to and encouraged to explore a variety of career options in the entertainment industry. The goal of these activities is to offer guidance to participants thinking of pursuing future careers. Students will meet practitioners in the recording and entertainment profession and will participate in field trips and excursions to professional recording studios. *Lecture Series - An overview of audio engineering beyond the recording process. Topics of discussion will include an overview of the music business, delving into areas such as studio management, music publishing, record labels and record deals, copyright procedures, artist management and more. Audio studio Trainings •Intro to Studio – Basic Song Theory, includes mastery of terms such as tempo, pitch, melody, verse, chorus, and bridge. Students will learn to count bars in 4/4 time signatures. Students will also learn how to identify the various instrument groups such as Brass, Woodwinds, Percussion, String, and electric instruments. Students will complete this course by learning various vocal ranges.• Basic Pro Tools – Introduces students to audio program. Students will learn how to open and close a pro tools file, identify and switch between the mix, edit and transport windows, save a pro tools file in a specific folder, import audio to a track and record a proper vocal level on at least three separate tracks. The student will learn how to identify various components and parts of the audio studio and pro tools hardware (Digi002 and MBOX)•Introduction to Reason Production – The student will learn the basic principles of creating music with REASON. Reason is a computer-based MIDI production workstation.
The audio studio curriculum will include discussions and learning activities based on, (a) The business of music, (b) Introduction to audio studio, and (c) Audio studio engineering. The PASA offers students real-time information, exciting strategies, and an overall education experience much different from what has normally been employed in educational workshops. With the skills obtained by participating in the PASA, participants will complete the program cycle with the potential to be recognized as a trained resource for sound production engineering, catering to local and national recording acts, advertising campaigns, and film/video production companies to name a few. Objectives The objective of the PASA is to provide a safe, structured, and rewarding learning experience for youth and young adults by nurturing healthy behaviors, creativity, talent development, and positive self-image through health promotions, creative and performing arts. Upon completing the PASC: Students/participants will increase their knowledge safe and unsafe behavioral choices, along with the acquisition of audio studio recording software and studio engineering strategies, thus acquiring the skills necessary to fully operate and better understand audio studio software and engineering techniques ideally used in a standard quality audio recording studio. Participants will acquire 36 hours of Audio Studio engineering training using the courses implemented in the 6-week PHREMEN Audio Studio Curriculum. In sum, students/participants will acquire knowledge and entry-level Audio studio engineering skills that are common in the audio recording industry. Goals •One of the primary objectives of the PASA is to build skills and enhance awareness of health and behavioral issues affecting young African American men. A secondary goal is to train participants in audio studio engineering as an engagement activity while facilitating educational workshops to mentor and promote self-efficacy and healthy behavioral choices as a foundation for youth to become successful adults. •The aim is to provide inner-city youth and young adults with exposure to industry standard audio music recording and engineering software. •Provide inner-city youth with a genuine opportunity to learn audio studio recording and mixing. •Nurture healthy behaviors, creativity, and increase self-efficacy, self-awareness, self-worth, confidence, and self-esteem among youth and young adults.
up to $50,000
Shawn L. White, Ph.D. professionally known as "Air Smooth"
One of the most recognizable attributes I have come to know about the young people I've worked with and around throughout the years is their innovative and creative minds. Part of the problem I've also identified was their lack of opportunity to express their creativity. This program was designed to address this issue. This program seeks to provide youth and young adults with a safe, structured, and rewarding learning experience. A place for creative expression through media, arts, and entertainment. The PHREMEN Audio Studio Curriculum (PASC) was developed to guide the project. The purpose of the PASC is to expose the student/participant to the major aspects of digital audio production, sound engineering, recording and mixing. The student/participant is guided through a series of courses that are designed to give one a holistic understanding of various aspects of audio engineering and production. Students/participants will be taught fundamental strategies that are common in today’s standard professional audio studio. Students/Participants are also exposed to various career opportunities that are available in finding their niche in the audio recording industry. In addition, students/participants will be mentored and receive prevention messages and effective methods to assist in the navigation towards healthier behavioral decision-making. The idea behind the project stems from the need for positive leisure activities for youth once their school day ends.