Brookwood High School (Snellville, GA updated February 2025)
- Instructor: Dr. Chris Costigan (originally submitted by Ken Simpson in 2011)
- Location: Snellville, GA (Atlanta Metro Area)
- School Profile: Gwinnett County Public Schools, 9-12 , 4000 enrollment
- Class Title(s): Beginning, Intermediate, Advanced, and Mastery Music Technology
- Grades Levels Included: 9-12
- Structure of NTM Class(es): 4 Beginning Music Technology Sections & 1 Combined IntermediateAdvanced/Mastery Class. 30 student seats in each class with 1 additional workstation available for audio recording.
- Software Used: Garage band, Logic, Soundtrap
- Hardware Used: iMacs & Mac Minis
- Class NTM Activities: Classes are primarily composition based although the beginning class is open to all students. Students have a variety of simple composition projects (usually weekly ) that includes composing for certain aspects of media. ( ex. jingles for commercials, video games, audio books, etc. ). These projects progress in length and complexity all the way up to composing music and creating foley for film scoring.
- History: Ken Simpson notes: Class started with old Macs that were going to be surplused. We started with 8 stations & 13 students, but have gone through 3 renovations after the demand for more space. We now have a 23-station lab and a designated recording studio with Logic. We produce 2 CD's each year that are service projects to get our music out in the community and raise money for local school charities. Chris Costigan's notes: We now have a 30-station lab and a designated recording studio. We produce 2 student compilations each year. www.soundcloud.com/brookwoodmusictech
[Dave WIlliams note: I consider Ken Simpson's program in 2011 one of the pioneering success stories of reaching out to NTMs, having started this program over 10 years ago and expanded to reach some 60% of the students in his high school! ] - Success Stories from NTM Activities: Several students leave the music tech program at Brookwood and attend such schools as Full Sail, Middle Tennesee State, Belmont, and Berklee. Several alumni are working in the Music Industry today. Here is a link to their SoundCloud page, as they produce an album annually: https://soundcloud.com/brookwoodmusictech. Update 2025: Brookwood student Jared Robinson's composition "Artificial Intelligence" was featured along with other student works at the 2024 NATIONAL Association for Music Education Leadership Assembly in Virginia.
Here is a link to that piece: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gE7_qzW6XH35jt7aPviBjvgMb6TDs9r0/view - Advice to Others Starting NTM Project: Attend as many conferences as you can to keep up with the latest software and improvements in technology. TI:ME organization is an excellent resource. Talk to as many colleagues that are using technolgy as you can.
- Additional Comments: I always try to make my emphasis music first, technology second. Technology is great way to teach music to students !
- Date Submitted: August 2011 (Updated February 2025 by Latrice Green, 2025 MTLA Intern)