Following a string of successful workshops at east London's Haggerston Youth Inclusion Project, during summer 2009, young people gathered to learn new mixing and DJing skills using a brand new mp3 DJing workstation at the Kingsland Road base for young people in the Haggerston area.
All who attended gained valuable tuition on setting up a DJ's workstation, tips and tricks on various mixing practices and scratching as well as how to record your own mixtape for demos etc.
The workshops were a hub of creativity and all the young people involved commented on how they felt the DJing allowed them to explore music in a new format.
The grand finale saw young people going to top east London venue The Vibe Bar on Brick Lane where they went back to back with 1xtra RnB DJing sensation DJ B who has supported acts such as Kano, Kanye West, Wiley and many many more. The two hour mix was recorded and has been used to help promote the young people looking for jobs and extra DJing work.
For further details on any music course please contact 020 8743 0009 where someone can help talk you through our options or check www.goldsealproject.com for more info.
Following the success of last years music project at Haggerston's Youth Inclusion Project, where we incorporated DJing supplier Stanton to help buy the site some industry leading equipment. This year we put together a 45 hour course that would help 10 young people from South Hackney gain 3 accredited units each to reinforce the skills learnt. After some valuable lessons from the previous year, the team were set to provide a course that offers more constructive activities for young people in the borough.
The program devised saw top UK 1Xtra Radio DJ, DJ B help open the course and incorporated him as a tool to engage and inspire the young people to make constructive life choices and learn new creative skills.
Needless to say the course had good uptake and the young people set about learning everything from setting up the turntables, to beat matching, mixing skills, scratching and even some basic beat juggling. Check the pics below and for any budding DJ's in the making there is also some DJing tips listed on the blog to help improve your skills.
The grand finale finished at top local east London night club Herbal. Special thanks goes to the whole team there who accommodated us at short notice and helped make it a special event for all those that attended. Once again 1Xtra's DJ B joined us again to go back to back with the young people to help create a memory to last for all those that finished the course.
18 qualifications were issued and we look forward to next years course where we hope to offer a similar program for south Hackney based young people.
For more details on any Gold Seal courses please check the website and contact the office on 020 8743 0009 for a full assessment of your needs and an exclusive tailored program.
OK, so just to let you know what has happened over the years, 2004 we finish building the studio and open some local community workshops for people in Hammersmith & Fulham and Kensington & Chelsea to check out the new facilities. The workshops are a huge success and we begin working with London's largest homeless charity St Mungos. DJing and music production goes down a huge success and more workshops spiral from here reaching 5 other st mungos sites. We register as an independent college and open as an AQA unit award scheme centre developing specific units to cover Reason, FL studio, Akai's mpc and djing units supported by Stanton. There is a huge uptake from local youth offending team in Kensington and Chelsea with help from top UK music producer Skillioso. Word spreads fast and we begin working with Southwark, Ealing, Hammersmith & Fulham and Westminster as well. Our reputation for being peoples people grows and we begin work with TCW in brick lane and are invited to host the MIM music stand at Plasa and London Calling. Workshops go from strength to strength and we have some top achievers gaining a range of qualifications with some great statistics generated for our young offenders. 66.7% dont reoffend and 75% of those remain in full time education. We begin help Southwark install a mobile music studio set up at their base in south London with huge uptake and some great workshops that have followed since. Top UK DJ One Samurai and Jump Off host Ben Scarrs join the team to deliver workshops. See below Samurai with UK urban act Sway at Childrens trust NCH workshop in west Drayton. Our undercover act 3Face comes to the limelight and starts to help with vocal workshops with some of our top students. Work with our homeless client base spreads and we begin working with Singles Homeless Project in Kings Cross delivering DJing workshops. DJing specialists Stanton help us purchase and install an mp3 Djing package for Haggerston Youth Inclusion Project. One Samurai helps with the open day and top Grime DJ, Kiss 100's Logan Sama comes down to help close the 24 lesson course. We have a busy Summer featuring at the south London connexions open day, hosted at top London Club Minstry of Sound. The Gold Seal project stand features top Grime producer and Hoodstars CEO - Werewolf helping all that enter with FL studio production. The stand is the most attended stand and interest for the borough begins to flourish. We are also invited to Hammersmith & Fulham's Urban Arena held at the Linford Chistie stadium where young hoodstars MC Nightmare/Nitro joins us to help give some music skills back to the local community. The stand is heavily attended all day and the word of the Gold Seal Gospel spreads again. October 07 sees top UK urban acts Wretch 32 & Bashy help open Richmond Adolescent Resource Team's Strathmore centre studio that Gold Seal have helped advise and fit for young people. November approaches and Wretch 32 returns to help open the new music suite at Kensington & Chelsea's Rugby Portobello Trust. Christmas is upon us and for the 2nd year in succession the stats for our work with young offenders remains at 66.7% for those who don't re-offend and again 75% of those stay in full time education. The start of a new year and we begin working with Haggerston Youth Inclusion Project again, this time delivering some music technology courses that help young people to learn about making some beats and recording some vocals. We progress into march and the project begins to conclude the work with specialised education centre, St Marks DPU. Gold Seal engage 3 young people and issue qualifications to young people that have never engaged in any form of education since the age of 10. Sadly we loose young person Jay Tamer who was tragicly passed away in a car accident. Our thoughts remain with his friends and family and may he rest in peace. We also begin working with Holborn Community Centre helping young people increase their leisure activities during half term activities. The summer period beckons again and new courses begin with Richmond Adolescent Resource Team at the Strathmore centre. The course holds new talent and welcomes the old talent in an open mic session to get the ball rolling again.
New courses funded by PAYP are put in place to help young people involved in crime and poor living conditions begin at the Rugby Portobello Trust, where 9 of the most motivated and dedicated students went on to achieve 3 units in music production and recording vocals. As the summer calls, Haggerson Youth Inclusion Project are set to begin some more DJing workshops again and Gold Seal bring down top UK 1xtra DJ DJ B, to help set the standard and have a question and answer session for the boroughs budding young DJ's. As autumn 2008 is upon us, Gold Seal send top grime acts Jammer and Bless Beats to perform for the Strathmore Centre, as part of their celebrations for Black History Month. Workshops continue to spring up left right and centre and we are proud of the work that we do to help make a difference to those who need it.
Keep reading to find the latest events and tips and tricks
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