Workshops| Courses |Projects

Workshops in Schools/Youth Centres

The project „Come As You Are“ by the Banda Internationale collective strengthens intercultural development and encourages children and young people to live together in a polycultural society. Our offers are primarily aimed at children and young people in Saxony with and without a migration history, to contribute to the reduction of prejudice and racism against people with a migration background and to strengthen the cohesion between long-established and immigrant citizens in a diverse society. In cooperation with regional actors, we want to strengthen the approach of social education and the youth centre and schools as a place of retreat and support it with workshops and concerts offered throughout Saxony. The workshops include singing, percussion/beatbox, instrument making and dance.

My task was to supervise the workshops and subprojects in terms of music pedagogy and quality assurance. Fortunately, I was able to put a lot of ideas into the conceptual development of the workshop program as well as the concept „Artists@schools“.

Live Looping (Workshop or Course)

In this workshop Arystan shows all the possibilities of making music with the loop station that he has tried so far. This includes acapella pieces, instrumentals, soundscapes and live electronic music.

Goals:

• How do I focus on my musical idea while making music with the loop station that also sounds good?
• How do I build beats? Questions of timing; how do I arrange a loop song?
• Which effects, compressors and equalisers, sound quality; and of course many tips and tricks for making music with the loop machine.

All in all, an all-round intensive workshop for ALL musicians who already work with the Loopstation, or for those who haven’t started yet. See you!!

6 Days Course Description: Here

Songwriting and Rap (Workshop or Course)

How do I arrange a song? How do I write a text or even rap it? In this course you will learn to write in a group or individually. We develop a song together, look for musical possibilities and work on the individual and group performance. At the end of the course we record and produce the song and maybe even shoot a video to finish it off.

Goals

• promote musical, poetic, technical and performative skills
• encourage one’s own ability to express oneself
• find solutions with the group 

For all ages and previous experience is not necessary. I look forward to seeing you!

Producing Beats (Workshop or Course)

Intensive Course: How can I build my own beats with simple means? – Be it Hip Hop, Dubstep, DnB, Techno, House, Downtempo, etc.? In this workshop you will get the necessary tools to realise your musical ideas and learn a lot about music at the same time.

Day 1 (5h)
We learn how a beat producer thinks, look at the principle of step sequencers, try out some basic beatbox sounds, see how a sampler works, try out smartphone music apps like Loopify, take a closer look at some basic PC programs like Bandlab, LMMS or MPC Beatz.

Day 2 (5h)
We work individually and in groups on beats from different genres (Hip Hop, Dubstep, DnB, Techno, House). We learn tips and tricks on how to use the most important effects and how to make the beats even fatter and more musical.

Day 3 (5h)
Sampling – What do I have to pay attention to when choosing the right sample? How do I cut and edit samples and how do I use a standard editing program? How do I insert my own sample into my beat? We use the freeware Audicity

Day 4 (5h)
Everyone works individually on their beat and Arystan gives everyone tips and tricks on how to put the finishing touches on the beat until it is finally produced.

Workshop: The content in this case is more compact

Requirements: Smartphone, tablet or PC – No previous musical knowledge necessary

How to Dj (Workshop or Course)

How do I put on music? How does a DJ booth work? How do I make transitions? What music goes with each other? In this course we will look at how to put on music. What music fits at the right moment, and how to dose the intensity well on the dance floor. Of course, we also deal with technical and musical aspects so that at the end of the course you can get started and party with your friends or in the youth club.

Goals

• promote musical, technical and performative skills
• encourage one’s own ability to express oneself
• connect with the people through music

For all ages and previous experience is not necessary.

Introduction to improvisation (Workshop or Course)

In this course we will learn to experiment in an intuitive way with concepts of sound and sound production as individuals and as a group. My role is limited to that of the impulse giver. Piece by piece, the children take responsibility for their own sound collages and sound and song creations. We build small instruments, go in search of sounds and noises, gain first experiences with recordings, effects and live looping.

Goals:

• Development of collective improvisations and concepts of sound and noise
• Promotion of the own way of expression and Spontaneity
• Discovering musical preferences and instruments
• Sensitization for space and listening and musical feeling

For all ages, no previous musical knowledge necessary