Engaging young creative minds with music
A man and girl sit in front of a desktop with a speaker and recording keyboard in front of them
This month, we’re sharing more about SPCA’s music programme Studio Time @ Shed Music.
Over the past 6 weeks, SPCA has hosted audio engineer and youth worker Marc Brown to put on Studio Time @ Shed Music, a youth programme for Camden residents aged 13 through 25. This programme was a resurrection of a previous music engineering programme that Marc delivered in the 2010s at SPCA.
Marc shared that he began his career in music production as a DJ and record collector, following his lifelong love of music and turning that passion into a creative outlet. He values the creative process very highly, and strongly encourages anybody willing to engage with the world in a creative way to give music production a go.
A girl plays the keyboard
Marc creates a space for this creativity to flow during music sessions for each individual attendee’s needs and creative energy. He divides up the sessions so that everyone gets a fair amount of time. During these sessions, he organises activities and exercises to help attendees gain familiarity with the audio software Logic. Using the program, participants have worked on beat making, sound processing, song arrangement and vocal recording.
A desktop with show an audio file in progress with many colours
Marc hopes that the young people who attend these sessions, in addition to creating their own music, enjoy the same emotional and psychological benefits that creative output brings up for him. Not only does music making engage the creative mind, but it is also an outlet for self expression, a crucial need for everybody, particularly young people still sorting out their own identity and relationship to the world.
Marc also reflected on the significance that his music programming sessions has had on young people in the past. The former Shed programme, which ran in the old SPCA building for several years, was ‘a hive of creative activity’. The young people who frequented the studio were able to develop personally as well as professionally, with many of them going on to become artists and engineers.
The new and updated SPCA studio space is a modern, functional space that has the capacity to serve as a launchpad for a new generation of music makers. Marc hopes that more young people continue to take advantage of the facilities, engaging and focusing on this creative and therapeutic work.
A desktop with pedals to adjust audio quality
A man stands in a music studio behind a desk with two speakers, a desktop with audio files, and a MIDI keyboard
