13-YEAR OLD MAGNUS SHOWS WHO HE IS THROUGH MUSIC

Photo: Marianne Hjort

13-YEAR-OLD MAGNUS SHOWS WHO HE IS THROUGH MUSIC

Among computers, heavy keyboards and boxes with big headsets, 13-year-old Magnus Lindenhann produces beats and tracks every Tuesday evening. He is part of the Beat Production class at the GAME House in Copenhagen.

Every Tuesday, Magnus Lindenhann, meets five other young people who want to learn the tools and techniques of making beats and developing their own sound.

Today at the Beat Production class in GAME House in Copenhagen, they will learn about beats with intro, verse and chorus. The goal of today’s instruction is to create a three-minute beat that they play for each other and get feedback on.

We experiment with different genres and learn to sample. You take a part of a song and put it into your own song, add some drums and change it up a little. You can get something wild out of that,

Magnus Lindenhann explains.

FROM PARKOUR TO PRODUCING

Magnus’s acquaintance with GAME started long before Beat Production. In 2016, he was part of a parkour program at GAME together with fellow students from Solbakken – a school in Copenhagen for children with special education needs.

In the beginning, I thought it was pretty boring, because I had never been interested in parkour and I was not very active at that time. But I started to like it, and it gradually became more exciting for me,

Magnus explains.

While doing parkour, Magnus could feel the change in himself and he still can see the effects of this today:

I became more social after I started in the parkour program and I also became more active and stronger. Now I do running, but I still do a lot of parkour, in the breaks at school, for example,

Magnus says and elaborates:

I’m better at doing hand swings and if there are, for instance, some parallel bars, I feel like doing some leg swings or hand-walking.

DOESN’T FEEL LIKE SCHOOL

After doing the parkour course in the GAME House in Copenhagen, Magnus was hooked and wanted to try some other activities. His choice was GAME’s Rap School and, later, the Beat Production class.

In the rap school he is learning about the history of hip-hop and is being taught how to rap, rhyme and write his own lyrics. But it never feels like boring school work for him.

It is nice. I learn a lot while I am having a good time, and one of the reasons is because I don’t think that it is a school. Even though the word “school” is part of the Rap School’s name, it is still just a great place to be, with great people,

he says.

HAS BECOME MORE EXTROVERT

According to Magnus, he has learned a lot by going to the GAME House in Copenhagen. He had to quickly learn how to interact socially with strangers, and that has been good for him.

I have also started to go to another after-school activity, where I can hang with the other kids, and I have become more extrovert and happier because of this. Anyway, I am just enjoying life,

he says.

When asked about his dreams for the future, Magnus has no doubt.

The best thing about Beat Production is meeting people and that you can show who you are through the music. I have all kinds of dreams about being on stage. That motivates me to make more music, because I am thinking I want to hit top of the charts,

he says with a huge smile.