Project brief & details

Launched in November 2013 (read about the inaugural Soundshop), the music education program is now a quarterly affair, and gives students a chance to learn the basics of beat making and lyric writing with experienced local mentors guiding them through the process.

Along with Supergroupers Najafi, Scott Ohtoro, and Illisit Martin (who developed the curriculum), special guest instructors were Punahele and Mox.

The workshop is about as inclusive and encouraging as an education program can be—I’d never witnessed adolescents being so enthusiastic. As much as Najafi downplays the importance of the results, they were just as impressive as the process.

One group of aspiring composers (all of them engrossed in notepads as they jotted down lyric ideas) told me that not only had they been looking forward to the field trip, they hoped to use what they learned in Soundshop and apply it in the future. “We want to learn to write songs, be creative, and express ourselves,” echoed all members of the group.