Some of us can sing, or rap, or play an instrument, but every one of us has a voice and story to tell. How many great musicians, artists, and storytellers have gone unheard? How many stories have been lost because they were never recorded? I once met a musician whose band had opened for Ray Charles on tour for several months, but never had the opportunity to record a single. Can you imagine how good that band had to be? But the financial barrier was too high, and the power to record and distribute songs was in the hands of the wealthy. Today, with the advent of digital technology, when we make a sound, it can be shared worldwide, but too many of us don’t know how to capture our sounds, mix them, edit them, and share them.
I decided to start Just Add Beats in 2015 when I was working on music for a VR video game and I realized that audio recording technology was finally affordable enough to bring to schools. I imagined that if I wrote a curriculum and purchased the equipment, I could teach kids how to create their own songs, stories, and sound effects with the same equipment that I use as a professional in my own creative audio agency, Yawp Records. I spent a year writing the first curriculum. I created the prototype and assembled our mobile recording studios that fit in a suitcase and run wireless for 2 hours to ensure quick setup time. I played over twenty music shows for kids as Andyroo and the Andyrooniverse from Black Friday to Christmas Eve and spent all of the money on the first batch of equipment, and I reached out to friends in education that could help me connect with public schools, non-profit community organizations, and private schools. We launched Just Add Beats in June 2016 at the Urban Enrichment Institute, and since then, we have served a few hundred kids in grades 2-12 at over 15 different learning venues. One of our students from that first June 2016 class at UEI even became a co-teacher in Summer 2019 and has his own ALBUM of music that he produced himself coming out soon (but that’s a whole other post). Your stories, songs, sounds, and the creative process to craft them matter. They are the reason why Just Add Beat matters. Please explore the student work and the testimonials we’ve collected, and contact us.
Best,
Andrew Karnavas
Founder & CEO of Yawp Records
Creator of Just Add Beats
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