How With These Hands DJ Academy™ Founder Claude Whitfield Teaches Music Education and Entrepreneurship
Written by Meg Seitz · Photography by Julia Fay
As I sit with Claude Whitfield in a quiet, backroom of Hygge’s Camp Northend location, he draws my attention the way the air vent built into the ceiling above our heads is puffing out air.
“I hear that, and I’m making music in my head to it,” he admits, motioning towards the unit with a nod of his head. “I make music all the time.”
I didn’t hear it until he mentioned it which made me realize quickly that Whitfield hears things the rest of us don’t. And rightfully so. {Continued below}
He is the Founder of the award-winning With These Handz DJ Academy™. He comes by it honestly; his father was a DJ which meant that Whitfield grew up around the music scene, playing with his father’s reel-to-reels and listening to his tapes. He fell in love with all genres of music at a young age.
DJ-ing took care of Whitfield when he was a student at Eastern Oklahoma State College; he was fortunate to stay with it, learn more about it, and then go on the road, touring because of it.
What emerged years later was his passion to teach DJ skills; it’s in teaching it, that Whitfield realized he could be part of a tradition responsible for keeping the art form of DJ-ing alive. Whitfield started With These Hands DJ Academy™ in 2009. And it’s been a hustle and grind ever since.
“I hear that, and I’m making music in my head to it,” he admits, motioning towards the unit with a nod of his head. “I make music all the time.”
“I started out doing private, DJ lessons to get it off the ground,” he recalls. “I was out at The Music Factory when they broke ground; I was in the building by the volleyball court; I was in there for a year with no students.”
He moved the Academy from that location when he partnered with the Mecklenburg County Parks and Recreation Department for a couple of summers before moving into ImaginOn. He took a year off to re-organize before then moving into the Area 15 building in NoDa. It was there that one of America’s biggest brands approached him for a partnership. Today, With These Handz DJ Academy™ is now presented by Sprite®. Another win? Sprite® introduced Whitfield to his now business partner.
Today, With These Handz DJ Academy™ offers private instruction and group classes to students of a variety of ages and music education experiences (no music experience is needed or expected); there are four-week semesters that start with the basics, including the history of DJ-ing which, in theory, dates back to Thomas Edison’s invention of the phonograph.
Regardless of the size of the class or the experience level, Whitfield is cognizant of how each student learns. “I’m out of the box when it comes to creative, music education,” Whitfield notes, both proud and humble. “And I make sure we hit all different learning styles because everyone learns differently.”
Whitfield teaches satellite courses at the Blumenthal, but he was looking for a space that would serve as more of a home for the Academy. “I’m a firm believer that if you get into that rhythm of looking for a space, the space comes to you,” he shares.
“We’re teaching students entrepreneurship; when you’re a DJ, you’re in control– which is exactly what you do as an entrepreneur; you’re in control of your business, whatever that business is.”
Just last month, he found that space – Hygge’s Camp NorthEnd space. He launches his full menu of classes from that location this month.
“I just love Hygge’s ‘keep it easy’ tagline,” he shares. “I believe in that; and it’s cool for me to be in an environment where there are creative minds everywhere; we don’t even have to speak, but there’s a connection, and that you can come as you are, and I can just be me, and that’s what allows creativity to flow.”
Whitfield also attests to the fact that Hygge’s Camp NorthEnd gives the Academy the ability to create a good, quality classroom experience. Because his students aren’t just learning DJ skills.
“Being a DJ is being an entrepreneur,” Whitfield acknowledges. “We’re teaching students entrepreneurship; when you’re a DJ, you’re in control– which is exactly what you do as an entrepreneur; you’re in control of your business, whatever that business is.”
One of Whitfield’s life – and entrepreneurial – lessons he can teach better than anyone? “It’s all still a hustle and a grind,” he says. “And it’s my passion.”
Meet the Author: Meg Seitz is the Founder and Managing Creative Partner of toth shop, an agency with one goal: Elevate your brand’s content through powerful writing, creativity, and strategy. She also serves as an Adjunct Professor with Queens University and Founding Partner of the children’s book series, “Bea is for Business”.
She’s an English major with an MBA, so she can talk Homer’s “The Odyssey” just as well as she can talk sunk costs – though she’d much prefer the former.
Meet the photographer: Hi, nice to meet you! I’m Julia. I’m my happiest self when my camera is in hand and I’m taking in this big beautiful world around me! People are my jam and the fact that this job brings so many wonderful people into my life is pretty special.
I grew up performing mostly in front of the camera! Singing, acting, comedy improv – anything on a stage or in front of a lens. The roles began to switch as I entered my freshman year of college and found a creative outlet through photography. My first “real” shoot was when an engaged friend of mine asked me to photograph her and her fiancé. Within moments of getting started, I knew that this was it. Telling peoples love stories, that is what I’m supposed to do! I shot my first wedding at nineteen, and well you know what they say..the rest is history! We’ve been together ever since 🙂
