Concordia University course puts students behind the decks to learn art and history of DJing

Concordia University’s Communication and Journalism Program has a new course “Wheels of Steel,” a professional DJ class and the first semester was a success.

Professor Owen Chapman is a self-taught performance DJ who earned his doctorate in “Sample-Based Music Production” 20 years ago. Now, he finally gets to teach this hands-on, one of a kind DJ course.

He says history is important for context, “from the 70s, from the kind of disco era, I would say through the 80s, the kind of hip-hop turntable is scratch DJ era, and then right into the most recent trends and digital technologies of deejaying, club-based DJing,” he explained.

From vinyl to digital, and live sets to recording sessions, Chapman knows this music industry is massive and his students can complete their Concordia undergrad learning and sharpening skills.

Mairead Stasiulis names some of the challenges: “Beat matching, phrasing, volume levels. I definitely had lots of problems with recording and not picking things and then going into post-production and looking at the wavelengths.”

After six hours of class time each week, Andrew Conroy says he was surprised at how much math is required with mixing music.

Stefano Rebuli adds he listens to music differently now and says Chapman expected detailed explanations of each recording.

“We did a metadata breakdown document where we go right down the art as the album title, the label. When does your transition start? When does it end for each song in writing? Okay, what effect did you use? Was it good? Was it bad?” Rebuli said.

One of the many assignments was playing a set live in the student lounge in front of a live audience. Safia Hidara wants to use her new skills in art spaces to create soundscapes.

“Where can I make these pieces of puzzle come together to create a new meaning beyond what the artist originally was saying? Because you’re sampling in a way that’s like you’re reusing. You’re reusing their story to tell a new story,” Hidara said.

It’s also money in their pocket because the course has given them skills they can use right away.