I've decided to start formalizing the music against gun violence program I've been working on in my head. The bassist from my band was killed 12 years ago on the El on the night we finished our demo. It was totally tragic -- he was only 19, a multi-talented musician singer and songwriter, and it was just this horrific senseless murder. It's been a long time and it still makes me sad, but less frustrated than I was say even 5 years after. As you might guess the band broke up and that's kind of why I ended up a computer guru and not a sexed-up underground rock and roll star. Well that and because I kind of like having a warm roof over my head...

Anyway, 2 years ago I spoke and presented some music software on my laptop at an alternative high school in Chicago. I showed kids how easy it is to make music with computers without even spending a lot of dough -- just a laptop, headphones & computer speakers, a USB MIDI controller, and free swag from Computer Music UK magazine. I figured if kids can be inspired to vent their frustrations with music, then maybe I can talk some kids out of getting involved with gangs. You never know.

But this year I'm going to 2 schools with a slightly different theme; I've gotten permission to visit my 2nd grade daughter's Catholic school on the south side of Chicago as well as my girlfriend's 5th grade daughter's school in our tiny northwestern village. Rather than focusing on "buy this magazine, try this software", I'm appealing to them to use their imagination, just play and make noise. I'm planning to bring in a mini mixer, the V-Synth, my Korg Karma, and my Novation KS-4 along with my Roland JC-77 amp. I figure that they're young enough to imprint them with a memory of how otherworldly and amazing keyboards can be, with knobs and buttons and time trip pads and rhythms and vocoders and all that.

By bringing 3 keyboards that process sound so differently from each other, the 20 or so kids in each class will get a wider overview of what you can do with a synthesizer. All 3 of these I got for 1/3 of their original price -- but they're still a bit out of reach for kids this young. That's ok -- by the time they're in high school forming their own bands or writing their own songs, there will be even cooler stuff for them to play around with.

That's some really great intentions, my friend! I, too, always thought that right music can help one get onto the right path. If you need any help from me, whatever it might me, please feel free to get in touch! Good luck.

Sad story, i wish you all the best. If you decide to take this up seriously, let Artemio know and hopefully some kind of paypal site could be setup for a small donation to help your cause. Dont try a scam though, or we come after you. lol ;-)

Lets give something back people.

thanks for your offers to help out. there already is a brendan hedges memorial scholarship fund being awarded through the old town school of folk music - they actually moved the school up north near the neighborhood where I lived so it's not in the old town neighborhood any more. terry hemmert, beloved local dj who hosts the Breakfast with the Beatles radio show on WXRT is the emcee for these events, like she was for the memorial concert we played for him at the cubby bear after he died. but she and the school have not returned my calls nor ever contacted me about appearing at the event. weird.
anyway I used to host a midi support group for a year and have helped to host cubase events at my buddy's studio on the north side of chicago. so I have some experience demoing music tech live. I think for this new phase i'll set up a website and some handouts for the kids explaining some of the concepts. that way they can pick up a little vocabulary in addition to the hands on experience. and maybe the website can be a small portal for letting kids and parents ask me questions about learning music. as I don't have a degree in music -- I didn't take enough classes in college for it to be a minor - it's probably more important to focus on fun and professionalism.

I've scheduled a date for my music not guns presentation, and here's a list of the stuff I'm planning to bring. please let me know if there's anything I'm forgetting:

Roland v-synth (quick and fun sampling synth)
korg karma
novation x-61 usb controller/synth (va, lots of knobs)
roland dr-660 drum machine (easy to program beats)
traynor 3 channel amp
mackie 1604vlz mixer (it's not being used for anything else)
sure sm58 mic w/ adapter for using with the v-synth
cables, power strips
laptop w/ some kind of usb interface w/ live 4 & some acid loops to show the kids some cool computer stuff too.

I'm looking to buy some headphones and a couple of small headphone distribution amps. i'd like to give the kids 10 minutes hands-on with each of the instruments, breaking the class into several groups.

**

Here's the website for my organization.
http://www.musicnotguns.info/

We're accepting donations via Paypal. I need to round up some headphones and a couple of headphone mixers. Also some small computer-type powered speakers would be nice. Edirol makes some that are 7 watts, perfect for setting up on a desk with a keyboard for kids to play through.

many thanks to my good buddy Owel (from the studio-central site) who donated 4 brand-new mics to our project. we'll be setting up the kids to sing into Cubase -- just learned that the tech can repair my laptop -- and also plug a mic into the V-Synth for sampling action.

wow, yesterday was so much fun! the kids had a great time, learned a little bit, and even asked me to come back! looking forward to making this a regular event.

anyway, click the link on the site to see 21 kids having a blast with music tech
http://musicnotguns.info/

**

things that did not go as planned:
1) MusiciansFriend.com screwed up big time. They said they had the $20 Behringer headphone amps in stock, but the order was not rushed to me in time -- in fact when I called them to find out where the heck it was, it hadn't even shipped yet, even though I paid them $15 for FedEx next day delivery. After dicking around for another day, I ended up buying cheap speakers instead. I had first tried to purchase from Zzounds, then Sweetwater, then the local Guitar Center or Sam Ash or Gand, but NOBODY carries the cheap headphone amps, only the Rolls models that cost $50 or $100 each.

2) the only 4 sets of matching speakers I could find were $16/ set for Walmart, only 6 watts max. This was good because it kept the spl in the room to a minimum, but was bad because it wasn't nearly as loud as it should have been.

3) I had some cable difficulties on my DAW laptop and somehow ended up with incredibly distorted sound through my new Fast Track Pro USB interface. Ended up connecting directly to my headphone out on the laptop and using Asio4All drivers, which introduced considerable latency. Will have to do further testing and replace funky cables before the next school visit.

4) my buddy Greg backed out, which meant that I didn't have a second set of adult hands to help show the kids stuff. It kept me on my toes, and I ended up scrapping the use of Mics for recording and sampling -- there just wasn't enough time. Hopefully I'll have fewer crises the next time around, and will be able to use Cubase with the kids.

5) my danged ilok won't sync with ilok.com, which means I can no longer run Protools. I need to get the license key for 7.4 loaded on the ilok. maybe i'll try it on my mac.

Dude. This really rocks. You took a negative and turned it into a positive. Keep it up.

jsepeta
I apreciate so much what you're doing and think the Clan should make it more visible. The least I can do for now is to make this thread STICKY.
Good luck and Best Regards :-)

I'm a fellow Chicagoan & I'm new here. Itz cool that you are going to chat with kids. Good stuff. Add me on myspace/bruhluuhmusic
Maybe we can network somehow.
I rock the x6 & the groove synth. peace

I'm now working on putting together some presentations for this fall. I relocated to my hometown, South Bend Indiana, because of work. My good buddy from high school is a photography teacher in our old high school, and he's been introducing me to his teacher friends. I've also met a couple of principals through my work, so I have been working with 4 schools to schedule afternoon presentations. Although the company I work for is the region's Apple dealer, we don't sell much to schools since they usually buy direct from Apple. However, I expect that the Music Not Guns project is going to bring us some more visibility in the community at large.