To establish an 8-week afterschool program at Achievement First High School for students in grades 9-12 to learn and become fluent with the Indaba Music online platform for recording and editing, and to participate in online collaborations with other musicians. During the course of the program, students will work in groups to remix an existing song as well as create an original piece of music.

To acquaint the students with online resources for creating, editing and collaborating with other musicians

To use creative and critical thinking skills to inform their work and interpret various musical sources

To gain insight into how art/music both shape and represent the culture in which they are created

To gain an appreciation for the group and the cultural influences that will shape the end result

To work as a team to accomplish shared goals To understand new terminology, skills and ideas in

music creation To move beyond a passive listener/appreciator of

music and step into a new roles as creators, performers, innovators and designers

Standard 1Students will actively engage in the processes that constitute creation and performance in the arts and participate in various roles in the arts.

Standard 2Students will be knowledgeable about and make use of the materials and resources available for participation in the arts in various roles.

Standard 3Students will develop an understanding of the personal and cultural forces that shape artistic communication and how the arts in turn shape the diverse cultures of past and present society.

From the New York State Learning Standards, New York State Academy for Teaching and Learning

Achievement First is a public charter school in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

School strives to close the achievement gap by offering a rigorous, prep school style education to inner-city students to increase their chances of graduating and continuing to college

Open to graduates of Achievement First Middle School. Students are admitted by a blind lottery and tuition is free.

Achievement First students are 60% female and 40% male

98% of students are African-American or Hispanic72% of students are on free or reduced lunch

programsDaily attendance is 98%

Indaba is an online platform that allows musicians to record, mix and edit music either privately or in public sessions

Indaba also features a social-networking aspect as well as other tools for interacting and collaborating with other users.

Users communicate via messaging and comment boards. There is an in-song commenting feature allowing users to comments on specific features of a song.

Users have the option to reserve the rights to a song of choose a Creative Commons License.

Indaba regularly features remix contests featuring artists such as Rivers Cuomo, Mariah Carey, Yo-Yo Ma and Sleigh Bells.

Indaba offers over 10,000 royalty-free music samples and clips for use.

Basic access is free, but upgrades to Pro or Platinum packages offers more storage space, iTunes distribution, discounts on digital sheet music and online music lessons

Learning section offers text and video lessons from professional musicians and producers

Jessie Lauter, record producer/engineerGreg Osby, renowned saxophonist and composerJackie King, virtuoso guitaristScratch DJ Academy

“With broadband, social networking apps and web-based audio tools increasingly available and affordable to most people with computers, the world of music is on the verge of a big change. That perfect-storm combination of these tools will do for music creation what technology has already done for music consumption: remove barriers of time, space and scarcity.”-Wired “[Indaba] takes music production to the next level using crowd power and collaboration.”(www.guardian.co.uk)

“The Linkedin of music.”-Mashable

“Maybe if all collaborations happened on the internet, there would never have been a Yoko.”-Dan Zaccanigno, Indaba founder

Mantis is the name of the app that allows users to record, edit and mix songs. Users can record directly to the web from anywhere they can connect to the internet.

Songs can be mixed with real-time effects such as reverb or delay

Users can drag and drop clips from the library of more than 10,000 royalty-free clips

The “Learn Mantis” page offers weekly, interactive lessons to insure that users are getting the most out of their sessions.

Access to the basic Indaba Software is free and upgraded packages are affordable ($50-$200 per year)

All tools are available on the online platform meaning students can access and edit their work from anywhere they can get online

Extensive clip library means students can still create original works with limited musical resources

This curriculum could easily be adapted to an afterschool program, summer camp or library program

Remix competitions offering prizes can be used to generate interest in learning about the program