Super Duper Music Looper
Kristee Summerford
I chose to go to the Royal Northern College of Music to take a tuba performance degree, but kept my computer interest up as a side hobby, and I took every electronic music course I could. At the time, MIDI was in its infancy, and it was fascinating to me to code or record music into a computer and hear it back. There was such a magic about it that I continued to develop my music tech skills as the software and hardware developed. In that way, music tech morphed from being a pastime into my full-time gig.
Soon I was teaching summer classes in sequencing, recording, and notation, so that students from other schools could enjoy learning those skills, and I was even training other district teachers in developing composition units through Music Tech.
The advent of GarageBand on the Mac meant that every school in our district could begin teaching music tech units. I developed a series of lessons for each teacher, and they really took to it well, even older teachers with just a few years until retirement.
Teachers noticed how responsive the students were to composition and music tech, and we rewrote the music expectations for the music curriculum so that music tech was now a mandatory part of the general music curriculum for students aged 11-14.
With the middle school music tech curriculum up and running, I was asked by my county supervisor to move to a high school, where we would build a brand new 25-station music technology laboratory, and I would begin a high school music technology program and curriculum.
We offered Music Technology as a class for the first time in 2007, and a large number of students signed up, since they had enjoyed the experience in middle school and knew what to expect. I also gained several students who traveled from other schools for individual lessons and mentoring, as they did not have the access to the curriculum at their own schools.
In 2010, the district decided to fund music technology labs in each high school. This meant that each school could now offer Music Technology courses to the students. We built 12 new labs, each with 20 stations, and we wrote a full year-long curriculum using GarageBand, Pro Tools, and Sibelius. Each school designated a music teacher with a strong technology background or interest to teach the course.
In 2016, we added Ableton Live to our lessons, thanks to generous help from Ben Casey and Dave Hillel from Ableton. We then extended the music technology offerings to elementary schools by inviting elementary music technology expert Amy Burns to our district to run professional development, and we also began piloting Quaver Music.
Teenagers are really discovering their identity as they move out of adolescence into adulthood, and music has always been a vital part of that discovery. For my Music Technology students, they can turn what they hear into what they create, and so it gives them a real outlet into self-discovery.
Our school is very proud of the Music Technology department, both with the achievements of our current students, and the continued success of our former students. We have a display case in the school lobby devoted to Music Technology achievements, and we have featured student successes at Board of Education meetings. We have had several articles featuring our program in local and national newspapers and magazines.
Students are proud to be known as a part of the Music Technology program, just as much as being part of a band or an athletic team. Giving music a vital visibility has been very important for the students as well as the program.
When students enjoy their experience in Music Technology class and develop a positive, nurturing experience with the teacher, they often find other ways in which they can take music classes. I have a large number of Music Technology students who choose to take guitar classes when they find out that I also teach that subject. Similarly, if students have a Music Technology class with the choir teacher, band teacher, or orchestra teacher, they are more likely to audition for them and join a curricular or extracurricular ensemble.
Making music on computers can become a solitary activity, but a key part of playing in a live music ensemble is using your aural skills to stay on track and interact with your fellow musicians. Do you teach general aural skills with technology? If so, how?
I encourage deep listening as students develop projects. I want students to really analyse music which we choose to listen to for inspiration, and I have students really squeeze as much as they can out of listening.
Finally, with my projects, effective and excellent mixing is a vital step in the process. The making of music does not end with composition. I encourage my students to listen to their own work as producers and to never be satisfied with a mediocre mix.
When I first started teaching Music Technology, I was a lone wolf. Nobody else in my school or district was teaching the subject, and I found myself developing my own pedagogy and curriculum simply from gut instinct.
Then, I began to meet other music teachers in other schools and districts through TI:ME (Technology Institute for Music Educators). We all began to realize that each of us had forged our own path in this subject, but each of us had come to the same conclusion: that creativity was the best way to teach the subject.
I am amazed, even today, that many of my peers in other schools hundreds of miles away all share the same beliefs and core methodologies. Belief in the process rather than the product is the key. Keep the students happy and creative. If they are happy, they will be creative. If they are creative, they will be happy.
Children are born creative, and childhood is about learning through making and experimenting. By high school, students have become inhibited about their creativity, probably because of unfair comparisons of themselves to others.
In our program, every class is creative. By getting kids creating in every class, I try my best to reignite that passion and make kids believe in themselves again. Creativity is a joyful experience, and I teach students never to be afraid to make choices that they believe in.
You can see the incredible results of the program in the portfolios of my students. They are encouraged to outline both the creative and technical process behind the music, from their inspirations and starting point to the challenges they encountered during the process and how they overcame them.
I am a committee chair and member of TI:ME (Technology Institute for Music Educators); this organization has been very important in encouraging the use of technology in music classrooms for many years now. One of our major outreaches through TI:ME is running Technology sessions at Music Conferences. Each of the key members of TI:ME is committed to enhancing music education by teaching others, running sessions at the conferences and supporting any interested teachers with mentoring and ideas.
Music Technology gives my students a confidence and vocabulary which often surprises professional musicians that they meet. My students will happily discuss their experiences and passions with anyone, and visitors to my class are often pleasantly surprised with the ease with which my students embrace and speak the common language of musicians.
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