Brashear High School (Pittsburgh, PA)
- Instructor: Daneil Lindey
- Location: Pittsburgh, PA
- School Profile:Public HS; grades 9-12; 1,266 students
- Class Title(s): Music Technology I and II, Guitar, Piano, TV Production
- Grades Levels Included: 9-12
- Structure of NTM Class(es): All of the courses listed above are non-performance based, have a cap of 35 students per class (with the exception of TV Production, which caps at 20 students), and widely appeal to students who have had little to no music experience/skills. Many of the students who are interested in the music technology courses are primarily into beat-making and creating loop-based instrumental tracks.
- Software Used: GarageBand, Ableton Live Lite
- Hardware Used: M-Audio Keystation 49 MIDI keyboards, iMac computers
- Class NTM Activities: The projects are typically loop-based compositions, but also consist of MIDI and audio remixes, film scores, and Foley sound effect stories
- History: The Music Tech, Keyboarding (using MIDI keyboards and GarageBand in iMac lab), and TV Production classes have all begun within the past two years upon my position being created to alleviate the overcrowding in the other elective classes.
- Success Stories from NTM Activities: The highlight of our projects has been the school song remix project, and the exemplars were played during the morning announcements over the course of two weeks this year. Also, the TV production students enjoyed creating the student news show theme song and competing/voting on which students' songs would be chosen as the theme song and end credits music.
- Data: As a new program, there isn't available data to show this but there is still a relatively small percentage of students in music tech courses. (Roughly 400 students have been enrolled in music tech during the past 4 semesters.)
- Advice to Others Starting NTM Project: Starting NTM Project: It's important to know the school culture and genuine student interests for the program to be successful. Don't treat it as a performance-based class, and unless the students want it, don't focus on music theory and reading of traditional notation. A focus on the basic elements of music is fundamental. Also, allow flexibility in the projects and give enough time for students to create, reflect, revise and resubmit. Show administrators the success of the program before pushing too hard for more resources (money, equipment, software, additional space, etc).
- Additional Comments: I'm planning to use the TV studio for the creation of student-created music videos and am also researching schools that have student record labels.
- Date Submitted: January 2019