DJ school gets strong feedback

Sadeke Brooks, Staff Reporter

Created to teach people the art of being a disc jock, Xmix DJ Academy offers classes to persons who want to learn the art or already have experience in the area.

Marc Frankson, an investor in the initiative, said the school, which opened this month, was started to teach people about the craft.

"The whole idea of the school is to teach individuals how to DJ or improve on their DJ skills. We figured we would create a space where people could come and learn all that. Jamaica has contributed so much to the music industry and a big part of that is the DJ," he told The Sunday Gleaner, noting that there were no prerequisites for matriculation.

Kyron 'DJ Khemist' Fagan, a teacher at the school that is located at Unit number 21, The Trade Centre, Red Hills Road, St Andrew, said he was playing at an event when Frankson asked if he would be interested in starting a school to teach DJs.

'backative'

Coincidentally, Fagan said a school of that nature is something he had been discussing with his friends DJ Klutch and DJ Pablo for years.

"Me, Pablo and Klutch been talking about it for a couple years but we didn't have the 'backative' or time to start it," Fagan said.

Frankson explained that the classes are held on the weekends and there are no more than five students in each class. There is a beginners' course where the students are taught about the equipment and how to set it up, what a record is and how it is used, history of the art and the basics of mixing. This lasts for four weeks.

The six-week-long intermediate course is a continuation of the beginners' course with the students learning more about mixing and scratching. They are also taught how to play from a PC and how to play at events.

Lasting eight weeks, the advanced course gets even more technical as the students get more in-depth with the turntables and performing.

This might be their first school, but the teachers have experience in the art at various levels. DJ Klutch and DJ Pablo placed second and third, respectively, in the Heineken Green Synergy competition in 2004. Growing up around music, Fagan has been a DJ for 15 years and has been teaching people the art since 2007.

expansion

Notably, last summer he taught inner-city children how to DJ as part of an initiative by Konnexx Services Limited.

Although a relatively new school, there are already plans for expansion.

"We are just in the beginning stages, we want to see how it goes. The better it gets the more we would like to do with it," Frankson said.

"We want to be able to accommodate more students at a time. We want to provide an environment to teach people how to become producers. We are looking at the musical landscape in Jamaica and seeing what is needed to further its development."

Meanwhile, Fagan said there were plans to expand to include corporate Jamaica, where they would do workshops with companies. He said there are also plans to do inner-city programmes.

As for the future, Frankson says the expectations are high.

"We have high expectations. When we are planning we try to be as conservative as possible, but the feedback has been very encouraging," he said.