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4. The Beat Shop
9 Plays11 months ago
Liana Gonzalez, from UH, and Brianna Burns, coordinator for the Workshop Houston Beat Shop, chat about the Beat Shop, the curriculum, and issues specific to the Beat Shop.
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Transcript
Introduction to Workshop Houston and The Beat Shop
00:00:00
Speaker
Hi, this is Liana Gonzalez. I'm here again doing another podcast to learn more about Workshop Houston. Today we're talking with Brianna from The Beat Shop. So Brianna, would you mind introducing yourself?
Journey from Student to Coordinator
00:00:14
Speaker
Yes, I'm Brianna. I run The Beat Shop and Workshop Houston. I've been going to Workshop now for about eight years. I started out in The Beat Shop just learning how to make beats and now I am a coordinator.
00:00:28
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's a pretty crazy trajectory that you've had. You came in as a student, which you said before we had a recording nightmare, before that your friend kind of drafted you and you even made a bike, which is crazy. And then now you are basically running the beach shop.
Curriculum Overview: Lyricism and Beat Production
00:00:46
Speaker
So can you maybe walk us through what it looks like to a student when you want to do the beach shop? Like how do you start? What's the curriculum kind of look like?
00:00:55
Speaker
So yeah, so I've been here a while and I've gotten to see workshop evolve and when I came in and now it's still the same with the curriculum. You start with the lyricism class. You basically learn how to structure a song from top to bottom. You learn how to write a hook. You learn how to write a verse. Basically, the same way that, you know, your favorite artist is writing, you get the same treatment and you get the same like classes that they probably have taken and the same route they had to go to learn how to write.
00:01:24
Speaker
After the lyricism class, if that's something that you're not really interested in, you also can produce. You can come in here and make your own beats. So it works so well because some of our students don't like to rap. Some of them don't like to make beats. So the ones that come in and want to make beats, we have all the instruments here for them, pianos, guitars, bass, et cetera. And they get to come in here and they get to produce and they get to make the beats for the kids that want to rap or sing. So it works out so well.
00:01:51
Speaker
Okay, so I didn't realize that. So you can either literally like produce the music, write the music, record it,
Songwriting vs. Producing: Student Choices
00:01:57
Speaker
etc. And then you can also actually sing, song write. So are those kind of like two different curriculum or kind of how?
00:02:06
Speaker
Those are two totally different curriculums because the lyricism class mostly focuses on writing, song structure, lyricism, and the beat making is more so producing. So it's all just about sound and they take two totally different routes to get there and we don't force them to do anything they don't want to do. So whatever route you want to do that day, you got it. Or today, if you want to come in and you decide you want to rap or sing, we let you do it.
00:02:34
Speaker
That's so cool. OK, I didn't really I didn't realize that you could also do like the lyrics part and the songwriting. I mean, OK, this this might get cut from the podcast. But so my my I have a cousin that he is in Nashville and he writes music. He's in country music and he's like the money is in the music writing and writing. It is not in the in the performing that actually the skill he writes a lot of music for other artists. And that's OK.
00:03:03
Speaker
Most people don't know, for instance, Neo wrote single Ladies for Beyonce. And every time that song is played, he's forever getting a check from that. So it's like the writing, a lot of people, oh my God, make so much money off of ghost writing. It's crazy. Yeah, it's a huge part of the industry and a huge part of just being able to be creative. You don't also have to do the performance part. Anyways, okay, that was just a total.
Equipment and Resources for Music Production
00:03:26
Speaker
Night track, but that's really cool. I didn't realize that y'all also kind of covered songwriting and lyricism Can you maybe walk us through? I'm really intrigued by like the equipment and the setup of all the shops because you've all required such different Things in the shop maybe tell like explain what equipment you have in the shop for students available to use and Yeah, I guess that's kind of I guess the question
00:03:50
Speaker
Oh, equipment-wise, for the kids that want to work on making songs, we have microphones, we have speakers, we have computers, we have the laptops. What else do we have? We have interfaces which help us connect the guitars, the bass, the microphones to them. I believe I said headphones. And we have different apps they can use to help them
00:04:15
Speaker
with their vocal training. And then for the kids who want to make beats, we have the instruments. So they mostly focus on the instruments here. We also have a program called FL Studio, where they go in and they are able to plug in the sounds and make the beat come to life. Okay. It's a lot of equipment. It's a lot of equipment. A lot of
Challenges and Improvements in The Beat Shop
00:04:39
Speaker
things to learn. That's really cool. Can you
00:04:42
Speaker
uh can you tell us like what the biggest challenges for your shop are i know like some of the others have almost trouble recruiting students because um but i don't that's not the probably the biggest problem you guys face what's going on the beach top what's the what are the issues that you'd like
00:04:58
Speaker
Recruiting is easy. Oh my god. Everybody wants to come here and work and play around with the microphone and hear themselves That's the easy part for us. The hardest part is sometimes the equipment. Um, I would say right now we're struggling with we don't have enough microphones for everybody. Um, we have one quality microphone here one quality way and only when they're ready to
00:05:20
Speaker
Only once they're at that point where they're able to write a full song, that's when we allowed them to use the microphone. But it's hard because one microphone with about 10 kids is like, it's hard.
00:05:32
Speaker
Also, another issue, we have headphones. We need more headphones. The headphones that we have, they're kind of cheap, so they break easily. So the kids are a little rough with them, so they're breaking them pretty fast, but it's also our problem as well because we're not getting the nicest ones we could get, or we're not getting the ones that are a little bit more quality than the ones we have. Another issue I would say,
00:06:13
Speaker
two, three, five years. Well, I would say at this moment, um, also as well in here, we don't have curbs up. I don't, I don't know why, but that's one thing that I feel like the aesthetic making it more, um, fun in here. When you come in beach shop, you see equipment, you see computers and it looks like a classroom. And I don't like that feel of it because when I was here, um,
00:06:22
Speaker
I think that's our biggest issue, microphones and headphones.
00:06:34
Speaker
about eight years ago, it didn't look like a classroom. So maybe like more lights, the kids love LED lights, maybe more pictures and different things to make it feel fun like you're coming to here and you're going to an actual recording studio instead of, hey, I'm just getting out of school and I'm coming here to teach, to learn again, like an editing. What did the bike shop feel like in your mind? What kind of the feel and look did it look like back then that you were attracted to?
00:07:04
Speaker
Well, so the bike shop, right when I would come in, the creativity of the shop, they would have bikes in there that were made out of shoes. They were bikes that were made out of plastic bottles. The aesthetic in there, how can I explain it?
00:07:21
Speaker
They used what they had. I don't know. It was just super creative. I can't really explain it because it was like a museum when I walked in there. But the way they utilize the tires and the handlebars, and here I feel like we don't really utilize music the way we could. I think we just walk in, like I said, and it's just laptops. Yeah.
00:07:42
Speaker
What have y'all done to solve the equipment problem and the aesthetic? Have y'all tried anything? What's worked? What hasn't?
00:07:54
Speaker
So we would, at the moment, so as far as headphones, we would accept donations, but at that time the headphones would be like headphones probably that were sending people garage for a long period of time or they weren't using them and they didn't work as well. Or as far as like curtains and lights, we tried to collaborate with the style shop to have them make curtains for us, but I don't, that didn't go, that didn't go so well. So right now we just like looking out the window of, yeah,
00:08:22
Speaker
No coverage. Okay. And what about the aesthetic? Have you ever, like, what have y'all kind of done is for that? What's the pictures up of people, right? Like in the...
00:08:35
Speaker
Yeah, so we have about three pictures and it's pictures of like celebrities in the industry that work, but they're very small. The kids, they look over them, but they're not really interested. I think it would be dope if we just had pictures that stood out more, that maybe were a little bit bigger. Maybe that had music notes, just different things that they see themselves working on on a picture. I think that would be dope.
Engaging Gen Alpha and Influences
00:09:00
Speaker
Okay, this is a question I asked
00:09:03
Speaker
Mike and I got a shocking answer. So obviously I'm even older than you, I'm a millennial, you're probably Gen Z, but this is like Gen Alpha we're dealing with, right? This is a whole new generation of students. So what do they like? What do they connect with? What kind of is different about this generation that maybe a college student might not know about a middle school student, I guess. If our students are trying to come up with ideas, things that would really resonate with your students,
00:09:33
Speaker
Yeah, kind of tell us about them, I guess. What if they lie? Hey, that's a good question. They kind of like everything. That's hard. That's a good, that's a really good question though. Are you saying more so what they're interested in in the beat shop? Well, yeah. What are kind of, well, you know, Mike told me, I asked him what kind of stuff he was doing and he's like, oh, they're really into anime. Like I was like, oh, okay. So he was just, he's thinking like, as he's doing stuff, he's trying to incorporate anime into their curriculum. So like kind of what, is there anything specific to
00:10:03
Speaker
that you think about when you're thinking about this group of students, this generation? Okay, so I would say they kind of take on, they look up to the people they look up to. So if they see an artist and the way they're wearing their hair, the way they dress, and I think that's pretty dope because back in the day, I think hip-hop
00:10:23
Speaker
had a big influence on the way people would dress with their hair, shoes, et cetera. And now they're trying, they're kind of bringing that back. So they'll see their favorite artists and they will mimic them, like verbatim, whether it's hair color, whether it's big clothes, whether it's a certain pair of shoes. So that's mainly for me, I would say B Shop that I see, they mimic their favorite artists a lot. Okay. Who would some favorite artists be for this generation?
00:10:51
Speaker
Ooh, that's a good one. A favorite artist for this generation. I've been hearing a lot of Lil Baby. I hear a lot of Megan Thee Stallion. I hear a lot of, oh my God, what's another artist? They say him all the time. I hear DaBaby, Drake. Those are like the top four I hear from the kids right now. Okay, okay, very good. Okay, well that's,
00:11:18
Speaker
a fun little crew. I would say I know two of the four. I'm doing good. Is there anything else that's like special about the beach shop or that's like specific to the beach shop that maybe you'd like students to learn about or know about before they like kind of start thinking up solutions and ideas and stuff to implement?
Teaching Articulation and Stage Presence
00:11:38
Speaker
So things that I would want them to know? Yeah.
00:11:41
Speaker
So me, I'm big, because I'm an artist as well, so I'm big on clarity when they're speaking. I try to get them to articulate. I try to get them to, one fun thing I do is let them go through a dictionary and pick out certain words for them to make a rap out of.
00:11:58
Speaker
them not knowing you just learned a new word, but to them they're like, okay, I'm just picking a word, but no, you just learned a new word and you're up in the vocabulary. So I teach them that. That's one thing I always want them to know and stage presence. That's one thing we kind of slack on here is their performance. So sometimes when we do showcases, they kind of lack in the performance area. So I try to get them to learn breath control and how to hold a mic and just simple things that some people might not understand you have to know.
00:12:27
Speaker
Wait, okay, so what do y'all do at the Showcase? Does everyone perform a song or is it select songs? How does that work?
Showcase Performance and Learning Outcomes
00:12:34
Speaker
So at the Showcase, it's basically the end of the year. To me, it's like the Grammys for workshop or it's like the BET Awards. If a shop comes together and they showcase what each shop has going on,
00:12:45
Speaker
Um, for my shop, I allowed them to either collaborate with each other and perform. So it's basically showcase what you've been working on this six weeks because every six weeks is something new that they're learning. So if this six weeks you were learning how to make a beat at the showcase, you're going to showcase a beat. If you've been trying to write a song, um, and you finally got it down and you recorded it, you will perform your song. So it's basically a showcase to show what you've been doing throughout the six weeks.
00:13:09
Speaker
Very cool. So do y'all have like a performance or does it like, you listen to everything on headphones or like, is there like a run a show? Like how does that work? It's an actual show. So we'll do it here at our location. We go into the dance shop because it's the biggest shop here. So everybody will come together and they perform live. We have speakers, microphones. We let the kids actually put on a show. They're able to invite their parents, their friends, their family. And then each shop coordinator introduces their shop and allow their kids to do the same.
00:13:38
Speaker
them. Okay.
Conclusion and Excitement for the Future
00:13:39
Speaker
Well, thank you, Brianna, so much for chatting with me. This was super interesting. I love the beach shop. I'm actually I'm hoping to make it to the showcase. I'm really excited to see kind of what y'all, you know, making the beach shop and see it on display. But thank you for your time. I appreciate it. And thank you so much for telling me all about the beach shop. Yes, no problem. Thank you for having me.