NYU and Montclair State University
- Instructor: Eithan Hein (see update notes below)
- Location: Greater New York City Area
- School Profile: Private (NYU) and State (Montclair) University
- Class Title(s): Beginning & Advanced Music Technology
- Grades Levels Included: Intro To Music Technology; Music Education Technology Practicum; Advanced Computer Music; independent studies
- Structure of NTM Class(es): Details are available here: http://ethanhein.com
- Software Used: GarageBand, Logic, Ableton Live, assorted mobile apps
- Hardware Used:iMacs and iPads for the most part, various MIDI controllers, a few Ableton controllers.
- Class NTM Activities: I teach music technology through creativity. Students begin creating songs in GarageBand on day one. Over the course of the semester, they create a series of original tracks that focus on different aspects of the process: audio manipulation and editing, MIDI, effects, mixing, remixing. We also do critical listening to well-known recorded works, including multitrack stems of the Beatles and Michael Jackson.
- Success Stories from NTM Activities: I am a member of the NYU Music Experience Design Lab: http://musedlab.org. The group has grown from a few people sitting around a conference table to a robust and financially self-sustaining organization with a variety of institutional and industry partners. The technologies designed by the lab inform and are informed by our members' classroom activities.
- Advice to Others Starting NTM Project: The big challenge with NTM is not technical; it's musical. The music that is native to computers, and that is preferred by the students, has very different core values and assumptions than the music usually taught in schools. Electronic dance music, hip-hop, and their various related pop styles all focus nearly exclusively on rhythm and timbre, with melody and harmony as perfectly optional surface features. Any kid out there can learn a DAW or sequencer. Our real successes have come when we validate the musical culture in which our students live, and when we as instructors learn the vocabulary of that culture.
- Additional Comments:I'm an active blogger on these issues. http://www.ethanhein.com/wp/
- Update notes: Ethan Hein is now at the New School and New York University. He teaches songwriting at the New School and teaches a music technology course for music education majors at New York University.
- Date Submitted: September 2015 (Update by Ilani Santos, Feb 2025, MTLA Intern 2025)