Kids are often "shushed" at museums, instructed to quietly observe the exhibits and appreciate creations from a distance. They’re certainly never — ever — permitted to touch a piece of art.
The GRAMMY Museum's newly opened Sonic Playground upends that "look don’t touch" approach, encouraging young visitors — with or without their parents — to engage with 17 unique interactive modules and make their own art of the sonic sort.
Young visitors are the creators, either on their own, with friends or classmates, other museum-goers, or their parents. Whether it’s bashing on drums, creating loops or learning what loops are, or trying out your DJ skills on a pair of turntables, Sonic Playground is designed for intuitive play — often instructed by virtual hosts such as H.E.R., Jimmy Jam and Prince Paul. The goal is for Sonic Playground visitors to be as rule-following or rule-breaking as they desire.
"It’s an ongoing exhibit where we’ll update content over time," says Chief Curator Jasen Emmons. "We’re just open, but a year from now we’ll see what’s been working with people, what’s not, and refine it from there."
Sonic Playground launched with a plethora of opportunities for even the shyest of kids. "We were aware that when you encourage people to make music, it makes a lot of people anxious," Emmons says. "So at the center of it, we created two experiences that are basically non-traditional; there's no right or wrong way."
Several youth advisors have helped ensure that Sonic Playground serves teen and pre-teen participants. "Everything here is really for everyone; a professional musician can come in and jam or sing a song or perform, and then someone who's never touched an instrument can learn about anything in music," youth advisor Maya Delgado says. It's really special in that capacity."
At the end of the day, Sonic Playground players can actually go home with their art. After visiting the vocal booth or the jam room, participants get a QR code to access their Playground projects from anywhere.
As Michael Sticka, President/CEO of the GRAMMY Museum concludes, "This installation is more than an exhibit — it’s an experience designed to ignite the creative spark in everyone while showcasing the endless possibilities of a career in music."
Thanks to an endowment, admission to the entire Museum, including all Sonic Playground opportunities, is free to anyone 17 or younger. Before visiting the GRAMMY Museum, read on for five insights from the brand new exhibit.
The Electric Forest Pulses With Life
One of the two "non-traditional" sonic opportunities for attendees,16 immersive columns of light and sound can be manipulated to create new aural art. The Recording Academy and the Museum Commissioned original music to soundtrack the forest: a 19-minute movement written by Shaun Chasin, a prolific composer for film, TV, and the gaming industry.
"From the get-go, we knew we had a combination of acoustic sounds with electronic sounds, so we have live strings, live winds, live guitar, but also analog synthesizers," Chasin says, adding that he used "weird effects and different, atypical sound sources that we tried to blend them together, so it felt natural and organic."
Visitors alter the sound and intensity of Chasin’s composition by touching the columns to move the sounds up like a fader on a recording/mixing console, effectively allowing 16 people to mix Chasin’s composition. "Because you can raise the different components, you might walk through and hear, say, three strings playing in more traditional harmony," Chasin explains. "Somebody else might hear cello with banjo with synth with bass guitar, and then that's not a combination that they might have expected."
SoundTrax Career Wall: When A Dream Job Becomes Reality
Some kids may be eager to pattern a career after producer Jack Antonoff, be a jazz stylist like Samara Joy or score a TV or film soundtrack along the lines of what Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt composed for Barbie. Others may not know what scoring is, or realize that there are hundreds of ways to be professionally involved in the music business. An amazing 125 job opportunities in the music are represented in the SoundTrax section of Sonic Playground.
Chief Curator Emmons holds one of those more unusual music biz jobs. He spent 18 years at Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture, and was the ideal person to conduct in-depth video interviews with 27 professionals across all aspects of the industry for the exhibit.
The interviews include practical questions, and chart professionals' career paths "to help young people imagine how they could pursue this." Emmons notes. Among the interviewees is music supervisor Mary Ramos, a regular collaborator of Quentin Tarantino: "I wanted to be an actor or a director. I met [actor] Tim Roth, who was in a movie. And I met a crazy guy with energy who turned out to be [director] Quentin Tarantino. His music supervisor needed an assistant," Emmons paraphrased.
Thirty years later, the former assistant has become one of the most in-demand music supervisors. She’s worked on 150 film projects, including blockbuster features, documentaries, and critically acclaimed TV series.
The Roland Stage: Becoming A Rock Star
For some, being onstage, in the spotlight shredding on a guitar solo or crooning to an adoring stadium crowd is the dream. Sonic Playground offers a taste of that stage stardom on the Roland Stage. Provided are a Roland RD Stage keyboard, an AX-EDGE Keytar and V-Drums percussion, allowing newbies or more experienced players to have their time in front of an audience.
Next to the Roland Stage are images of and quotes from shapeshifting artists like Chappell Roan and David Bowie to help kids realize that they can create "a persona. What you do on stage doesn't have to be who you are day to day," Emmons notes.
And if the Stage is simply too out there, Sonic Playground offers several soundproofed rooms. There, you can make as much noise as you’d like, or, using the video screen, take virtual guitar or bass lessons. It’s a stellar opportunity for kids who don’t live too far from the Museum’s downtown L.A. locale to come by a couple times a week and utilize the booth and lessons as a no-cost practice space.
Songbuilder’s Hub: If You Build It, They Will Come
Inside the singing booth/jam rooms, GRAMMY winners guide visitors act as virtual guides for participants as they freestyle, mix samples or jam as a band via video.
The singing booth is youth advisor Maya Delgado's favorite part of the exhibit. "I'm a singer, and I love all of the effects you can put on your voice to experiment with your sound," she says, adding that "seeing people now interact with it is super rewarding."
The four songs available to sing are tracks by Nirvana, Pharrell, Shakira and Mariah Carey, featuring the original stems. "One participant can act as producer as two people sing. You can use Auto-Tune, add echo; you can really manipulate the vocals," Emmons explains.
"One of the things that's been satisfying is seeing how it's become a shared experience," says Emmons, as he’s seen parents and kids interact around music. "They're kind of discovering things about one another. Like, ‘Wait a minute, I didn't know you knew how to play guitar.’ Dads tend to really want to show that they're Travis Barker!"
Voices Carry: Music Supervision, Voice Acting & More
Next to the spotlight, but not physically in it, is a busy locale for many music pros. The Sonic Playground has a voice acting booth where participants can choose from six different projects to work on, including a movie trailer and a TV commercial.
Each project has a script, which kids can follow or improv upon, and participants pick the music for the project based on notes about what the director is looking for. Then you audition the music, so you hear how it fits with a scene." Ultimately, Emmons says, it offers an opportunity to role play. "Try out being a producer, try out being a DJ. Does that resonate with you? We want to give opportunities to see if, oh, this could be something I could pursue."