2100 Lakeside: First Music Class!

Last week, I was given the opportunity to teach a music workshop to some of the guys here at the shelter. Starting off with very few participants, I was worried it wouldn't go very well and this would be my only opportunity to share my talents and creativity with the men here. But to my surprise, several guys showed up part way through and were extremely interested in learning music technique and just talking about music in general. One gentlemen specifically was about 19 years old and had one of the most amazing voices I had ever heard. Using a donated piano, I was able to accompany him for a short duet, and to see how excited he was about having someone there he could share his talent with was incredible. After going over some basic musical theory, we had a discussion about popular music that then branched off into more specific types of music that the guys enjoyed listening to. Thinking that most would like the hard-core rap, I was surprised to see that almost everyone in the group had a gentler side and actually were more into soul music than anything else. I will be continuing my workshop every monday, wednesday, and friday for the rest of the project and can't wait to see what else I can find out about these guys from music.