MILWAUKEE — On most days after school, Milwaukee-area high school student AJ heads to a recording studio. The space is adorned with a wallpaper collage of music posters and guitars hanging on the wall, and neon lights glowing from recording rooms equipped with professional-grade equipment and instruments.
“They taught me how to play guitar, piano, drums, how to read notes — stuff that I never thought I would be able to learn, I know it now,” AJ told WTMJ.
AJ is one of the first kids to take lessons at an after-school and summer program that’s filling a void in music education, thanks to an organization founded by the drummer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Chad Smith. He chose Milwaukee to start the Chad Smith Foundation, and be the launch city for its After-School Music Program (AMP).
“It’s really a way for kids to be exposed to music,” he told WTMJ’s What’s On Tap with Sandy Maxx. “If it wasn’t for me being able to do that way back when I was in high school, I probably wouldn’t be drumming.”
The foundation is run as a family, with Chad’s nephew Lewis Smith serving as executive director.
“The gap has been there’s no instructors,” Lewis Smith said. “The demand is there and most places even have instruments, but it’s who is teaching them how to play those instruments and why are they showing up consecutively.”
The AMP is a collaboration with Notes for Notes, a nonprofit that builds recording studios and fills them with instruments and instructors. Smith works to bring these resources to Milwaukee area organizations that already have youth programing or some type of after-school program in place.
Running Rebels is one of those organizations that didn’t have a substantial music program before the AMP. Co-Executive Director Dawn Barnett says programs like Running Rebels are sometimes a student’s only option to learn music at a time when schools are cutting arts funding, or didn’t have it in the first place.
“Anytime that a young person is involved in something that they want to do and they look forward to doing, that puts a different element in their life,” she told WTMJ. “That means they’re less likely to engage in things that will take them away from being able to do their goal.”
The AMP sites look different from most traditional music classes in a school setting. Not only does each space resemble a real recording environment, but the kids are in charge of their learning.
“It’s not top-down learning, it’s bottom-up learning,” Program Specialist and Producer Kevin Christianson said. “Oftentimes they’ll come to me with a suggestion of I want to learn this song, or I want to be able to do this. It’s about getting there together.”
Students get regular one-on-one instructor time and access to the instrument or software of their choosing. Some of them work on long-term projects over the course of the school year and set ambitious goals, like one high school senior who used the AMP to record his first EP, “Street Life.”
“It was about the artistry for me,” said Ty. “I made this EP for myself. . . and kind of added a little bit of everything.”
As a Leader of Tomorrow in the Running Rebels program, Ty has become a mentor for younger kids just starting out with their music journeys.
“It’s become the groundwork for the man that I want to become,” said Ty. “I feel that every young man and every young girl should be in some type of programming. We try to make sure that even if this may not be your thing that you give it a try.”
As the Chad Smith Foundation begins to launch the AMP in other cities across the country, Smith says they’ve designed it with long-term success in mind by offering incentives — returning to the program week after week lets kids unlock various levels of “perks.” For example, achieving proficiency at a Red Hot Chili Peppers song earns them a band t-shirt, and completing a certain number of lessons can unlock the chance to perform a recital for classmates, or even perform at Summerfest.
For the first students to graduate high school after being part of the AMP, it’s clear that many are taking lessons with them for life. Ty finished his EP, and AJ said he wants to pursue music classes in college.
“[Music] is something I really want to use as a career in my life now,” said AJ.
