POTSDAM, New York (WWNY) – The Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam is known for teaching classical and jazz musicians. For the first time though, the school hosted a workshop on teaching hip-hop in the classroom.
Jasmine Fripp is teaching Crane School of Music students how to implement hip-hop teachings in grade school classrooms.
Anthony Pineda is teaching them how to bring context behind the music to the forefront when teaching kids about hip-hop.
Both educators are the first to be teaching hip-hop of any kind at the Crane School of Music.
Faculty members worked for more than a year to organize Tuesday’s hip-hop workshop.
“Getting that this knowledge and this experience into the hands of our students for our future music educators is extremely important,” said Judy Lewis, SUNY Potsdam professor.
Pineda says that teaching students hip-hop is not something that’s new, but for schools of music, it is.
“Hip-hop is not necessarily new to education, it’s new to the system. We gotta keep in mind we teach all of these different areas of music, but hip-hop is the culmination of all of it,” he said.
Fripp believes teaching the genre is important as more students listen to hip-hop today than other kinds of music.
“From what we watch on our phones to the phrases that we say to the way that we dress, that’s hip-hop culture. So if you’re shutting out hip-hop culture in the classroom, imagine all of the students that you’re shutting out,” she said.
Hip-hop is one of the most dominant music genres in the industry today and the Crane School of Music is planning on adding more workshops in the future.
With a beat to their step and a rhythm to their voices, students learning hip-hop will continue to expand their education beyond the traditional way of learning at SUNY Potsdam.
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