Q&A with Notes for Notes Co-Founder Philip Gilley
Published February 18th, 2025
Founded in 2006 to give young people free access to music instruments, instruction, and recording studio environments, the nonprofit Notes for Notes® (N4N®) now reaches more than 8,500 youth in 13 states with 30 studios located in Boys & Girls Clubs, community centers, and public schools.
Audio-Technica has been a proud sponsor of N4N since 2009, supporting programs that enable young artists to express themselves through music while gaining valuable experience in music production. We caught up with N4N CEO and co-founder Philip Gilley recently to learn more about the organization’s history, programs, and latest news. Read our interview with Philip below.
Can you tell us a bit about your background and what inspired you to start Notes for Notes?
Third grade was the year my formal music education journey began and ended. My music teacher Mrs. Brown told me, “If you can’t read music, you can’t play music,” which was a gut-wrenching blow for a boy who loved film scores and one day hoped to compose them but could not sight-read music. In traditional school music programs, sight-reading is the primary method of instruction. However, this approach can overlook students like me who have a deep passion for music but struggle to learn effectively through this singular method. Lacking the resources and guidance to pursue alternative learning paths, I had no access to instruments or mentors who could meet me where I was and adapt to my learning needs. So, I gave up on a dream of being a film composer. Fast-forward to high school where the music education approach had not changed and now I was years behind learning and playing an instrument. I had discovered bands like Pearl Jam and Dave Matthews Band that inspired me to explore guitar. My mom acquiesced to my pleas and purchased an inexpensive acoustic that, now combined with a previously dormant passion, allowed me to unlock a skill I wasn’t aware existed, learning by ear. Armed with a guitar, I discovered that I could pluck out what I was hearing in the songs I was listening to and so opened up a world that Mrs. Brown told me couldn’t exist.
I am not alone in this experience. It’s an all-too-common story shared by many who were turned off by their exposure to music, be it in public school or an overly strict piano teacher rapping their knuckles. It is not enough to champion “getting music back in schools” without addressing differences in learning and interests, especially regarding modern musical genres and instruments/tools. After dropping out of college and moving to CA, I found incredible enjoyment connecting with a new community by joining the Big Brother program as a mentor.
As a Big, I felt woefully unequipped, although optimistic I had something to offer even as a naive 22-year-old. As amazing as the Big Brothers program was, I felt limited in always needing to invent activities to engage my Little, as had my [Notes for Notes] co-founder, who also shared a similar experience as a mentor. It wasn’t until I introduced my Little to music that I became acutely aware of the barriers to access. I had an extra guitar I could have given him, but he wanted to play drums. Where could we do that? His school had no music program, and his mother didn’t have the resources to purchase a kit, especially living in a one-bedroom apartment. So, we did what all musicians do, which is loiter at a music store sampling all the gear. This became a routine hang for us, where I could teach him basics on the store’s demo kit. If I had to pursue a rogue approach to getting just one youth access to an instrument he wanted to play, how many more like him were also missing out on the opportunity to access the instruments and tools that allowed them to make the music they wanted to make?
It is these experiences that informed the need for N4N, but it was once we’d launched the first studio that we would witness how impactful the freedom of access, learning and finally expression would ultimately be in young lives.
How do the N4N studios operate? Do young people attend scheduled sessions or are they free to drop in anytime a studio is open?
N4N studios are recording studios that just happen to be free for young artists. They are equipped with all the resources that would allow anyone to explore, create and record music, yet are focused on serving youth. Our Recording 360 approach focuses on the studio experience as the gateway to exploring music. Without any experience, a youth can sit with an N4N producer on day one and create a song, through which they will sample producing/engineering, songwriting, instrumentation and vocals. This experience illuminates paths for youth to explore further with tailored instruction informed by their relationship with their producer. Recorded music is the output of our program and each song is a time stamp of a young artist’s journey of learning, creation and expression.
Our producers are the heartbeat of every studio. The producer and young artist relationship is built on trust developed through the process of making music together. For this reason, we do not censor lyrics to facilitate freedom of expression. We listen, learn and guide youth both artistically and emotionally. Our studios in public schools operate during the school day in addition to after school. Our curriculum meets state standards and focuses on teaching advanced skills in production, engineering, songwriting, podcasting, instrumentation, vocals and more through the process of making an album each semester.
Every studio is a community connecting youth with peers and industry that would otherwise never meet were it not for the common language of music and creating together. Youth who are motivated and driven get the most out of the studio as a resource empowering their musical journey. The studios are a hybrid of drop-in and session, designed to simultaneously allow scheduled studio time alongside open sessions where youth can access the instruments/gear on their own or as part of individual and small group lessons. The studios are open year-round, Monday-Friday, the music never stops!
What’s the typical N4N studio setup? What instruments and recording equipment are available to young musicians?
Every N4N studio features a mix room, vocal booth, podcast booth and live room, sometimes featuring a stage, space permitting. In some of our newer studios we’ve been able to advance our designs to include multiple iso rooms and a studio A and B design to increase capacity and resources for multiple sessions. The studios are packed with drums, guitars, keyboards/synths, DJ gear / groove stations, podcasting and full recording studios. We intentionally equip our studios with the resources not typically found in public schools but connect youth to more of the musical genres they listen to. Starting in 2022, we’ve launched multiple new studios in public and charter schools that have allowed us to elevate our workflow, bridging the gap between digital and analog. Our most recent studio features an SSL Origin 16, Barefoot monitors, UA Apollos and a plethora of analog outboard gear from partners like Warm Audio and Harmon. Young musicians are using and learning on professional equipment they would see in any major studio, thus preparing them for a career in music at an early age.
There is no prescribed path any youth must take in the studio. Their passion, curiosity and motivation drive their experience. Our team is a constant source of encouragement and guidance, opening up a sonic world to every youth who walks into our spaces.
Audio-Technica is proud to provide a variety of microphones and headphones for use in the N4N studios. Do you have any particular favorites – gear that gets a lot of use? What do you like about how they perform?
We are honored to have the support of A-T going all the way back to when we just had a few studios. It was Alan Parsons, who sits on our Advisory Board, who connected me with Roxanne [Ricks, Audio-Technica artist relations manager] all those years ago, and A-T has been generously supporting us in every studio ever since.
AT2020 Cardioid Condenser Microphone
The AT2020 is the best condenser mic for vocals in its class, and for an entry-level mic gives clean pro results! And the AT4040 is an incredible vocal condenser that sounds better than mics twice its price.
AT4040 Cardioid Condenser Microphone
The ATH-M50x headphones are studio workhorses. There’s a reason you see them sitting over the ears of artists in every pro studio. They’re phenomenal closed-back tracking headphones that have a full sound and dynamics that make tracking with them fun and exciting. Extremely comfortable and well-built.
ATH-M50x Professional Monitor Headphones
For young artists to walk into our studios and see the A-T logo adorning the mic and headphones they get to use builds instant credibility. They are seeing this gear in the studios that their favorite artists are posting about on social media and now it’s at their own fingertips.
A-T truly is helping N4N “Produce Tomorrow’s Musicians”!
N4N is a strong advocate for freedom of expression. How does that play out in the N4N studios on a day-to-day basis?
As a Big Brother I’d found that our bond was forming when we were making even the simplest music together, not when I played a defined mentor-to-mentee role. Our backgrounds couldn’t have been more different, but when we sat down to jam in the store, we were both musicians. Fast-forward to the first studio, which was packed with a few guitars, keyboards, drum set and a Mac computer with Pro Tools and a mixer – the foundation of a digital recording studio. The word of a free studio carried throughout the small Santa Barbara community and teens flocked to our small space inside the city teen center for a chance to record. It was those early songs that challenged our sense of responsibility. Could we let youth say “that” in a song? I was 22 when we founded Notes for Notes, only a few years older than some of the youth coming in. However, it was the trust they had in us as their producers that allowed them to open up through their music. I was learning about them and how to help them, as much personally as artistically, because of what they were sharing in their music. It was not always easy to hear but it was their reality, and perhaps for the first time they had felt like someone was listening to them. At our core, we believe in young people’s freedom to express themselves through their music. Young artists, especially those making hip-hop, are profiled by the connotation of the genre. The studio is a safe space for them to explore their music and themselves where every sound and lyric is an opportunity to evaluate, educate and advocate. We take this responsibility seriously and curate the environment to ensure it's conducive for the artist to be able to open up. It’s through this ethos that Notes for Notes seeks to support a culture where youth voice is the foundation of instilling confidence, tapping into innate creativity, compassion for oneself and others, and encouraging active participation in the community.
We’ve even launched a dedicated Advisory Board to advocate for this ethic with artists and industry such as Linda Perry, Tom Morello, Killer Mike, Kara DioGuardi, Monte Lipman, Avery Lipman, Kathryn Frazier, and Erik Nielson (author of Rap on Trial).
N4N recently shared some exciting fundraising news involving Post Malone, Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers, and RÜFÜS DU SOL. Can you tell us a bit about these efforts?
It was a busy week in October [2024] when we announced two partnerships launching simultaneously, a Post Malone and Raising Cane’s national campaign and a new studio sponsored by RÜFÜS DU SOL, powered by a ticket giveback on their upcoming world tour.
In October/November you could swing by your favorite chicken finger restaurant, Raising Cane’s, all across the country and grab yourself two different special-edition Post Malone posters, the proceeds of which supported Notes for Notes. We eagerly await the news of how much it raised but are grateful for the support and hope it’s just the beginning of more partnerships to come with Post and RC!
RÜFÜS DU SOL is atop the world, again, selling out dates worldwide thanks to their incredible new album Inhale/Exhale. We are honored and extremely grateful to Tyrone, Jon, James and their management team for selecting and supporting N4N. Their support will launch a new N4N studio, location TBD, but I can share that it will be a first of its kind and like no other N4N studio! Every ticket sold benefits N4N, and Live Nation has joined the effort with a match as well. RÜFÜS DU SOL is the first artist to support us in this way across a whole tour and we hope it’s just the beginning.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
If you’ve reached the end of this article, it goes without saying but I’ll say it: when you use A-T, you are using the best gear and supporting the next generation of artists. A-T supports our work because they believe in supporting artists, producers, engineers, songwriters and more. A-T gear powers our studios and as a customer you are too. A-T has been supporting N4N from nearly our first studio and they are a huge part of our sound. If you’d like to get involved as a volunteer, supporter or even want to help bring an N4N studio to your community please reach out to us at hello@notesfornotes.org. In the meantime, give our young artists a listen. Thank you!