A Nbisiing Secondary School student strums his guitar while teacher Sean Kelly, the guitarist for Nelly Furtado, guest hosts the first class of The Music Business program on Tuesday. PHOTO BY LIAM BERTI
Music has always been a big part of Kirby Shipman’s life.
An avid listener with a wealth of knowledge, Shipman has always had the desire to discover the music industry and learn whatever he can.
Now, thanks to a partnership between Coalition Music and Nbisiing Secondary School, he can.
Shipman is one of the 12 students at the high school enrolled in a brand new exclusive program titled The Music Business, a comprehensive class covering a myriad of industry knowledge, with hopes of planting the seed for potential careers.
Whether it be artistic avenues like songwriting, performance skills, and music theory or fundamental business and legal concepts like finance, marketing and branding, the program lays the foundation for the stage, the studio and the boardroom.
“I’ve been listening to music since I was a little kid and I want it to be a part of my life even longer,” Shipman said on Tuesday afternoon. “I’ve never had any experience with any instruments, so I took this class so I can learn to play the guitar, keyboard, or do anything really.
“It’s like stepping over a boundary,” he added.
Now in its fourth year as a recognized grade 12 Ontario Secondary School Diploma credit, The Music Business officially launched at Nbisiing Secondary on Tuesday morning, who becomes just the second school outside of the Greater Toronto Area to offer the course.
The program falls under the direction of Coalition Music, a Toronto-based music management company, record label and recording studio who manage star acts like Finger Eleven, Simple Plan and Our Lady Peace, to name just a few.
The concept started after Coalition identified what they thought was an untapped area in the education system. They say they saw many high school students with a strong desire to work in the music industry, only to fall victim to a lack of vision for not knowing what opportunities were available to them.
“A lot of kids think they want to be professional musicians so they drop all their business or math courses because they want to focus on their craft,” said Rob Lanni, co-founder of Coalition Music. “But when they get out in the world, they can easily get misled.
“We want people that are engaged and want to turn a passion of music into a potential new career path that they might not even know existed,” he explained.
Coalition delivers the program through their charity, Through Education Music Provides Opportunity (TEMPO), allowing them to offer the program on a non-profit basis to schools and school boards.
Dig a little deeper though and you will find that TEMPO provides a unique avenue for opportunity and valuable exposure for the students.
Whereas traditional music and business classes often find a wide divide in the conventional classrooms across the province, TEMPO bridges the gap between a talented musician to a music industry professional.
Three days of every week in the course will be dedicated to the creative side of the music industry, while the other two will zone in on the business and legal aspects.
“A lot of them present themselves in a reserved way, so I think this opens up the opportunity for them to show expression and for them to be able to explore that creativity that they might not get otherwise,“ said Mark Burns, the Nbisiing teacher heading up the course.
“They are asking to take homework home, they want to take instruments, so it makes me excited to teach them something that they are excited to learn about,” he added.
In their very first class on Tuesday, the students sat encapsulated by Canadian musician Sean Kelly, who currently plays guitar for Nelly Furtado, one of the many industry connections that Coalition utilizes for the course.
Kelly had the students all participating in songwriting and singing exercises while breaking down song structure as well.
“These are a dozen students who really have never opened up like this to anybody else and already they are throwing ideas around because there is no such thing as a bad idea in songwriting,” said Lanni.
The students will have the opportunity to travel to Coalition’s studios at the end of the semester to record their very own tracks, while also being responsible for an all-encompassing project where they must host a concert that they organize, promote and perform.
“It’s amazing to have the opportunity to go to an actual studio, it makes it more real,” Shipman said. “Having the Coalition here gives us the background into how they have done everything and how they have handled previous opportunities in their careers.”
And to think, Tuesday was only day one of what is sure to be an intriguing semester in The Music Business.
For more information on TEMPO programs, click here: http://tempoeducates.com/
