JUSTIN PATE LIVE!

Justin Pate Live!

Big Idea: Knowing that during the cycle we would soon be introducing midi-boards, I felt it would be important to show these teens that, after college, one can make a living doing what they love involving the exploration of sound. And so I introduced them to my friend Justin Pate. Justin is officially a professional musician. He is a keyboard player and vocalist in four different successful local bands including Confusatron, Pablo and the HempHill 7, Horses, Darth Vato, and is working on his own solo project. He is talented in many rights, but I was excited to show off his speciality, his talent in, through midi board technology, digitally looping sounds and voice.

Dates: Wednesday, Febraury 1st

Groups Participating: Panther Teens and kids

Attendance: about 35 teens and kids combined. The teens included Michael, Braela, Jonathon, Eddie, Thomas, and Joshua

Materials: Jusin's keyboard, PA, sound pedals, gadgets, one speaker, 2 microphones, plus objects to make sounds (pots n pans, shakers, spoons, tubes, ect.)

Directions: First I had everyone leave but DesignIT teens so they could have personal time with Justin to ask questions and experiment with his equipment. We had one teen at a time step up to the mic and digitally distort thier voice by someone else waving thier hand over an infa-red distance sensor, which everyone got a kick out of. Then when they were done they rotated to the sensor to disort the next person voice. After that we all picked our favorite sound we could make out of the objects I brought, then one by one we stepped up to the mic to record about 5 seconds of that sound in a rhythm. After all were recorded, Justin looped them all together to make a song. After the teens had time with Justin, we let any kids in the club to see Justin Pate Live. Because it got so crowded he had to perform 2 seperate shows. For each show, I gave him a brief intro, then he showed off the voice distorter, then we played the loop song the DesignIT teens composed, then finally he performed 2 songs involving his digital looping technology.

Associated Concepts: I really think this helped encourage the teens to understand the technology we're just messin around with now in our after-school program couldlead to an interest in a future career if passion and hard work are invested.

Best Part: Either Justin's performance of Bobby McFaren's "Don't Worry Be Happy" and seeing the kids' faces when he began looping his voice or the teens rapping with distorted voices. Beautiful DesignIT moments happened with this visit from Justin.

Worst Part: That not all DesignIT teens were ther to witness it, however we are working on it.

Side Note: The pictures above were taken by our new DesignIT photographer Michael, who has an abstract style of his own. Even if it doesn't quite capture the events of the show, he did have a blast photographing the event.