Beats for Love at Wichterle Grammar School
A rather different music lesson. Under the guidance of a Beats for Love festival DJ, students of an Ostrava grammar school were introduced to the art of DJing.
The organisers of the Beats for Love festival prepared an unconventional music lesson for the students of Wichterle Grammar School in Ostrava. Sheet music and singing gave way to contemporary dance music, modern equipment and music mixing, which the students could try out for themselves.
The programme of the music workshop covered a DJ’s work from A to Z. The students learned what DJ equipment is for, what effects the individual controls on a mixing desk can create, and what rules apply when mixing music. In addition, they found out what the DJ craft actually involves — from practice through communicating with the audience to self-promotion. The unconventional „music class” was highly interactive, so the students could get their hands on the DJ equipment and try it out live themselves.
More than fifty first- and second-year students of the grammar school took part in the workshop. „We greatly value our cooperation with Wichterle Grammar School, because the target group of our festival is above all young people. But we don’t want to entertain them for just three days a year. Our aim is to contribute continuously to their growth and to broadening their horizons,” notes Kamil Rudolf, director of Beats for Love, the biggest dance festival in the heart of Europe. The workshop was led by DJ Lowa, one of the festival’s organisers, who can boast several prestigious awards from the Czech and Slovak DJ scene as well as his own rap work.
The grammar school welcomed the unusual music workshop. „Our school has long sought to offer students a varied range of opportunities for their development. In the same spirit we also organise, for example, first-aid days, workshops in which pupils become architects for a while, or days with robots. We see practical teaching of the DJ craft as a valuable refreshment of classic lessons — one that is attractive to young people and has the potential to enrich their leisure activities as well,” praised Jan Netolička, headmaster of Wichterle Grammar School.
