Copy this Google Form Teen Music Survey Before starting your own after-school music program, it is helpful to understand what type of music programming is most interesting to your participants. What was popular and trending a month ago (let alone how you learned to play music) may not be what current teens are into. Click on the Google Forms link below to make a copy of our sample “Teen Music Survey” Google Form Template. Feel free to edit your copy and send it to your teen participants to collect valuable feedback on what types of program ideas, workshops, performances, or changes to the program they would like to see.
Click on the link below to make a copy of our sample “Teen Music Survey” Google Form Template:
Thank you to our generous Music Impact Network members who have helped create the following resources for after-school music programs and summer camps. If you would like to share and feature your Summer programs please contact info@musicandyouth.org
DIY Summer Activity Kit
Fun and unique “Do It Yourself” activities including – Naming Instruments, Guitar String Bracelets, Recycled Guit-ART, Drum Head Do-over, Embroidery Headphones, MintySynth, Musical Timeline, Drumstick Design, Make Your Own Cajon, Makey Makey Beats, Build Your Own Ukulele, Press Your Own Vinyl Record, Vibe Lighting Materials needed to run these activities can range from no cost to about $100
Download the DIY Summer Activity Kit
Click the image or link below for more details:
Sample Your Summer
Reclaim your participants’ passion for music by introducing them to the limitless possibilities of sampling and field recording. We’ve curated a list of projects to help your participants reconnect with each other and their surroundings as they recover a sense of creativity. Sample Your Summer takes advantage of the nice weather, the smartphone devices they already have (no additional equipment required), and a world reopening around them… through sound.
Whether your summer music camp is going to be all virtual, in-person, or a bit of both, below are some programs to help engage your participants this summer. Download includes ideas like 4 Virtual Programming Ideas, Virtual Listening Party, Tackling Social Issues in the Music Industry, Rhythm Roulette (Using Splice), and Cover Song Challenge.
To download ALL Virtual Summer Camp Resources – Click below:
Advice on Retaining Summer Participants
So your participants had a great summer experience… now what?!
Does this sound like your typical summer experience? You spent countless hours forming relationships with camp members teaching them to play instruments, record songs, perform on stage and more. The summer ends and you never see those participants again… it’s frustrating! Below are some strategies that have worked for seasoned Youth Development professionals to help retain summer participants in the new school year.
The placement of your Music Program facility is critical to its success and can significantly affect other program areas as well. Below are some practical guidelines to consider to identify the right space for your Music program facility.
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Overall room considerations:
Total Square Footage – Music program facilities vary widely in size, ranging from a minimum of about 600 square feet to more than 1,000 square feet. Many music program spaces feature a large multi-purpose room for general music activities that may include:
Housing and displaying guitars, keyboards, drums, and bass guitars for workshops and lessons
Computer or iPad workstations for participants to make beats and write or produce songs
Lounge atmosphere for participants to hang out (e.g. sofas or high-top tables)
A small stage used for performances such as Open Mic Nights
Some larger spaces often include pre-existing smaller rooms, which can often be repurposed as break-out rooms (or “Studios”). Depending on the day and activity, any of these “Studios” can be used for recording a song, workshops, practice rooms, and/or rehearsal spaces.
Room Shape – The shape of the existing location will impact the overall design of your music program. Rectangular-shaped rooms work well, while more unusually shaped rooms might require more design creativity.
Desirable locations:
Highly visible location – A highly visible Music program is very visually appealing to teen members and will help attract new members. Highly visible rooms also allow for greater communication and supervision between various rooms. Music program staff should be able to stand in the center of the multi-purpose room and easily monitor all rooms.
Teen Center proximity – Music programs often work well when grouped near an existing teen center or near other arts programming such as visual arts, video production, or dance programs.
Dense walled and/or isolated locations – Whether located in a basement, top floor, or separate wing of a building, Music programs often work best when isolated from other program areas. Dense wall construction is ideal. For example:
Cinder block construction
Poured concrete foundation
Brick construction
Avoid placement near “quiet” locations:
Music programming is often loud and can disturb other program areas like academic classes, nap/rest areas, study or homework centers. Avoid placing music program facilities near:
School-age, childcare, or preschool programs
Academic study rooms such as homework help, SAT prep, and libraries
Offices or administrative areas
Avoid these “noisy” situations:
Similarly, Music programming can be disrupted by noise from areas outside their facility, such as:
Under or near basketball gyms – The impact noise of participants running and playing in a gymnasium is very difficult to isolate. While Music programming will rarely disturb gym activities, a bouncing ball can be easily picked up by highly sensitive recording studio microphones or disrupt lessons and rehearsals.
Active/noisy streets – External windows are a challenge to soundproof. High traffic patterns, ambulances, and general city life can disrupt Music activities.
Central heating, air conditioning units, elevators – The motors or background noise of these types of units are problematic, especially when near recording studio facilities.
Room acoustics recommendations for your Music Studio rooms
Room acoustics refers to the sound properties within a particular room. You want to control the amount of echo or reverberation by absorbing or diffusing the sound within a room, primarily through using soft materials and irregular wall surfaces. If you have ever dined at a crowded restaurant with all hard surfaces, you can relate to the issue of not having effective room acoustics!
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A common misconception about the properties of sound is that acoustical materials (like “egg crate” foam”) will also provide soundproofing characteristics, but generally, they do not. Room acoustic treatments only affect the sound properties within a space, not how sound is transmitted to and from a space. You’ve likely experienced this when a car with a loud stereo system passes by. While the treble frequencies are absorbed by the car’s interior fabrics, the thump of the bass frequencies can continue to be heard as the car drives down the street. Bass frequencies carry more energy and have longer wavelengths making them trickier to absorb.
Consider these acoustical treatments for your Studio/s and multipurpose room/s:
Prefabricated vocal booths (such as www.whisperroom.com) will have pre-installed acoustical treatments.
Use acoustical treatments such as absorption panels (fireproof foam-like sound-absorbing materials) on walls and/or ceiling. These types of products are widely available by searching for “acoustical treatment”
Avoid rooms where all the walls are parallel to one another. If building a space, create one wall that is on an angle, which helps block the way the sound travels. If your room already exists, consider placing irregularly shaped objects, such as bookcases, which will change the way the sound travels.
Install carpeting or use area rugs, which will help absorb sound.
Add soft furnishings, such as couches, upholstered chairs, and wall hangings.
If you have exterior windows, installing draperies will help absorb sounds.
Note: smaller rooms have more echo and reverb than larger rooms and may require greater attention.
If you have a music-themed Hispanic Heritage Month resource or project to share, please post it on the Music Impact Network Facebook Group and we’ll add it to the list.
Best practices for soundproofing your Music Studio rooms
Soundproofing refers to the noise transfer from one room to another. To control the amount of sound transfer between rooms within your Music Studio and between your Music Studio and adjoining spaces in your building it is best to think about the following:
Use dense and air-tight materials.
Walls are the most soundproof part of the studio.
Alternatively, problem areas are:
Windows
Doors
Pipe or cable pass-through
Anywhere the wall is penetrated
Shared HVAC ductwork that interconnect rooms
Walls that do not extend to the structure above (floor, ceiling or roof)
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There are two common methods for creating an effective soundproof environment:
#1 – Purchase a prefabricated vocal booths
We recommend installing a prefabricated vocal booth (such as www.whisperroom.com) in your recording studio.
Prefabricated vocal booths are a great solution for achieving a high degree of soundproofing and room acoustics.
They can be purchased in a variety of sizes and configurations depending on your needs.
#2 – Construct walls, ceilings doors and windows with the follow specifications in mind
Interior and exterior walls and ceilings. A best practice is to use dense and airtight materials.
We recommend extending a solid wall to the ceiling or roof above. If this is not possible, a “solid cap construction” ceiling (2 layers of wallboard) is recommended.
Drop ceilings are not recommended for Music Studio facilities.
Cinder blocks, poured concrete, or brick construction are ideal wall materials.
For new walls, we recommend a single stud wall with 2 layers of wallboard on each side of the studs:
Homosote sound board (inside layer)
5/8” gypsum board on the outside faces of the studs
Rockwool batt insulation in the stud cavity
Solid walls (no windows or doors) provide the highest level of soundproofing. Tips for optimizing areas that provide lower levels of soundproofing:
Windows – Ideally use double-glazed with thick lites (i.e. 3/8” to 1/2”) and a 2 to 4-inch air space in-between. One of the lites should be laminated, which provides sound reduction properties.
Doors – Use solid-core acoustical doors with non-adjustable neoprene gaskets (at the head and jambs), as well as an automatic drop seal at the threshold to provide the best sound isolation.
Pipes or cable pass-throughs – Avoid using these when possible. Tightly seal anywhere the wall is penetrated.
HVAC
If possible, use Packaged Terminal Air Conditioner & Heat Pump units (PTAC).
Forced hot air HVAC systems are not recommended in the recording studio rooms. If the existing facility uses forced hot air, you may need to contact a professional to help design a system that provides very low background noise conditions.
Avoid shared HVAC ductwork that interconnects between Music Studio rooms (especially recording studio rooms). Sound will travel through the ductwork transferring a significant amount of noise between rooms.
Audio Wiring and Connections – Audio equipment uses specialized cable connections and wiring. It is best to contract with an audio specialist to help determine the needs of your Music Studio. You may consider a cable pass-through like a “Wiremold 4000 large raceway cable channel.” This allows for a custom and organized way for interconnectivity between various rooms in a recording studio facility, but minimizes the sound that passes from one room to another.
NOTE: Any featured products are based on the experience and opinions of Network members and Music & Youth. We do not receive any financial benefit from the vendors to promote their products. We just thought they were helpful and you might like ’em.
“Found Sound” Sampling Project – Send participants on a soundscape scavenger hunt, creating unique beats using field recordings from their surroundings. Get participants to critically listen to their surroundings and use those sounds to create music that is unique as they are. These projects also empower participants to utilize the technology they bring with them everyday in innovative ways, as an alternative to traditional instruments.
Voice Memo App (FREE) Voice Memos turns your iPhone or iPad into a portable audio recorder. Easily capture and share audio clips using built in editing tools like trim, insert, and replace let you fine-tune your recordings.
Garageband (FREE) You can record (or sample) a sound using a microphone, or add an audio file, and then play it back like a melody on the Sampler keyboard.
Koala Sampler ($4) Koala is the ultimate pocket-sized sampler. Record anything with your phone’s mic instantly. Use Koala to create beats with those samples, add effects and create a track.
Flip Sampler ($10) Flip is a sample-based mobile music studio that was designed for a fast and intuitive workflow. Import your own sounds via AirDrop or the Files app, or record sounds directly with your device’s microphone or a connected iOS interface.
iMaschine 2 ($10) Create a beat on 16 pads with hundreds of professional sounds. Use the Smart Play keyboard to add melodies and basslines that are always in-key. Spice up your track with vocal and field recordings or sample directly from iTunes.
Samplr ($15) Explore the samples melody and texture using the different play modes and create compositions with the gesture recorder. Samplr is the ideal tool for audio experimentation, music composition and live performance.
Two sound design projects that will build your participants’ critical listening skills and creativity. Help your participants tap into their inner voice actor or foley artist by encouraging them to rebuild the audio for short video clips.
Create a community podcast to get youth talking about their experiences from this past year, social issues, music, sports or whatever topic they’re interested in. Have them interview each other, staff, parents and local leaders in the community.
Need more Ideas for your Summer Programming?
DIY Summer Activity Kit – Fun and unique “Do It Yourself” activities submitted by Music Impact Network members
Virtual Summer Camp – Whether your summer music camp is going to be all virtual, in-person, or a bit of both, below are some programs to help engage your participants this summer.
Send participants on a soundscape scavenger hunt – creating unique beats using field recordings from their surroundings
Music is everywhere and the sounds in the world around us can inspire an original beat or song. Found Sound Sampling Projects can get participants to critically listen to their surroundings and use those sounds to create music that is unique as they are. These projects also empower participants to utilize the technology they bring with them everyday in innovative ways as an alternative to traditional instruments.
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How to…
Equipment needed:
Smartphone or tablet
Note: Recording in stereo is essential for capturing ambience – Starting in iOS 14 and iPadOS 14, you can now capture stereo audio using the built-in microphones on supported devices
Plan your Found Sound scavenger hunt – Send participants to explore sounds in various settings like:
In your building
Outside or in nature (take a field trip!)
At home or at school
Around town or in the city
Encourage them to go to a location and sit in silence and just listen to their surroundings or experiment by interacting with everyday objects in uncommon ways
Discuss and explore different environments and textures and how those sounds will influence the beat and those creating it. For example:
Sounds from nature vs. sounds of the city
Sounds from machinery vs. organic sounds
Sounds made using your body (e.g. stomps, claps, sound effects, etc) vs. sounds from an object
Sounds from everyday objects that played like instruments (e.g. touched, plucked, struck, etc)
Consider a found sound checklist – e.g. collect sounds that sound like:
Drums e.g. Kick, hi-hats, snare, toms, cymbals, shakers, etc.
Pitched samples e.g. taping on a glass or blowing into a soda bottle
Vocal samples e.g. people talking in a room or someone shouting outside, etc.
Risers e.g. doppler effect of a car or train passing by, etc.
Bass drops e.g. sound of an elevator or engine
“Seasoning” e.g. anything out of the ordinary or unique
Load samples into Sampler apps and start creating
Encourage participants to use their creativity to come up with unique sounds
Experiment with effects to manipulate the sound (e.g. EQ, reverb, chorus, gates, transposition, panning, reverse effects, pitch correction, distortion, chopping samples, etc.)
Finalize the project with ideas like:
Create a custom drum kit or sample pack and share among youth participants
Write lyrics that fit the mood that inspired the beat
Share your participants’ creations!
Optional project:
Consider starting with a premade beat (especially for younger or beginner participants)
Ask them to find samples that sound like the following:
Kick Drum
Snare Drum
Hi-Hat
Percussion
Etc.
Replace the samples and play the altered beat
Tweak the mix, effects or record new samples until participants like the sound
Perfect for beginners on guitar, drums, bass, piano or vocals
Categorized by Key
Simply add them to your library
Here is how Josh uses these playlists in his programming everyday. “I spend a lot of time building relationships with my teens. I try my best to listen to them and understand what they like – this means spending time each week listening to top 40 music. When a participant requests a song or I come across a popular song, I learn it and add it to the playlist (if appropriate). This way I have go-to songs ready for participants to learn which keeps them motivated to keep playing.”
Do you have a Spotify list that your participants can’t get enough of? Please share it on the Music Impact Network Facebook Group and we’ll add it to the list.
Created to assist advanced, stylistically diverse female guitarists with their educational development.
The Smart Women in Music (SWIM) Fund – The SWIM Fund supports women in the music products industry in the development of their leadership proficiencies and aspirations.
SoundGirls.com – Extensive list of scholarship information
If you have a music themed Women’s History Month resource or project to share, please post it on the Music Impact Network Facebook Group and we’ll add it to the list.
