At North Miami Senior High School, a talented crew of music producers is on the rise. They’re called The Hitmakers, and under the leadership of mentor Wyatt Meagher, they’re learning how to create original beats that are sure to be the next big thing.
“These guys have been making new beats almost every class for a little while now,” Wyatt said. “The beats all start with drums loops for the most part. Then they build on and morph their ideas, and add in other instruments.”
The students, who are juniors and seniors at North Miami, have learned to use Ableton Live software to create their beats. “Ableton Live is a DAW (digital audio workstation) that is used to record and produce music, and also for live performances,” explained Wyatt. “Some of the biggest names in the industry rely on it for their live shows, like Drake, Kanye and Daft Punk. It’s one of the most used softwares in the industry.”
Wyatt created a video to celebrate his students’ accomplishments over the past semester. In the video, you can see the students using equipment called Push to produce their beats. “Ableton also makes Push, which are the controllers with all the buttons and lights that you see the kids using [in the video],” Wyatt said. “This is an instrument/controller that allows you to have an enormous amount of functionality, without even having to touch the computer.”
With professional industry software and equipment at their fingertips, The Hitmakers are well on their way to a successful path in music production. Harvey (“Lamination”), Sarah (“Dyenamine”), Darlens (“DBO Beats”), Samy (“Samy Sosa The Wolf”), Jessica (“Electric Saturn”) and Greg & Rashaun (“21 Ice”) have worked hard to develop their ideas into original music, learning to navigate professional technology to bring their vision and creativity to life.
“My favorite part of teaching is the Wow Factor,” said Wyatt. “I love when I show the kids something that really blows their mind and sparks the next wave of creativity.”
Check out Wyatt’s video of The Hitmakers below, featuring original beats by DBO Beats, 21 Ice, and Dyenamine.