Duxbury High School (Duxbury, MA)
- Instructor: Joe Pondaco
- Location: Duxbury, MA
- School Profile: Public HS. 9-12, total 1200 enrollment
- Class Title(s): Music Technology I, II & III, Piano Lab I & II, Music Business, Music Appreciation, Music Theory
- Grades Levels Included: 9-12
- Structure of NTM Class(es): All non-traditional music classes meet on a rotating schedule, which is usually 3 to 4 times a week. They are half year courses that run each term. Class size runs from 17 to 25 students.
- History: The original tech program was starting with a grant for one workstation many years again. Over time more stations were purchased or upgraded every year, usually one at a time. As the number of stations grew so did the enrollment. This allowed us a good part of the budget when they built a new high school and new technology room just last year.
- Software Used: Cubase, IK Total Workstation (Sample Tank/Tron/Synth/Moog, T-Rax etc.., Reason 7, Ableton Suite 9 (select stations), Pro-Tools LE, Finale 2014, Garage band, Audacity
- Hardware Used: Mac computers, M-Audio Keystation Controllers, M-Box interfaces, Korg GEC Module
- Class NTM Activities: Music Tech I focuses on learning the software and basic music writing, Music Tech II incorperates advanced songwriting, harmony, audio production and audio/video sync. Music Tech III allows students to choose their own projects to work on though out the year. Piano Lab offers piano practice time with coaching. Music Business surveys historic and current trends in the industry for students interesting in pursuing this as a career.
- Success stories: These classes have helped the music department to reach so many other students that would not normally be in music class. The music business course especially has found a number of students with aspirations of going into the music industry that we otherwise would not have found.
- Advice to Others Starting NTM Project: Start small and use what you have. If the kids are interested they will enroll and more enrollment = more resources.
- Data: There are 1112 students in the school. There are a lot of students in performing groups, about 413 students. This year we have 223 students taking NTM classes. Though there is some overlap, that is about 57% of the school talking a music class and about 20% that take NTM technology classes.
- Date Submitted: March 2015