To the untrained eye, Room 1405 may seem idle with students hunched over MacBooks, headphones on, critically examining their screens. But a closer look reveals that the room is bustling with life and new sounds as students push music to its limits. From experimenting with music in his room for fun, to taking a professional-grade music production class, senior Gabe Colgan is one of the students in South’s full-year Music Production and Technology elective.
The Fine Arts Department offers the class for students in every grade level, Brian Boron, Music Production and Technology Teacher said. Music Production and Technology 163 is the introductory course that gives students the tools they need to be able to produce music, Boron explained.
Students use school-provided MacBook’s to make their projects using Sibelius, Pro Tools, and Ableton Live; these music editing apps can be described as an advanced version of GarageBand, sophomore Mira Larkin said. After the first course, students can move on to Music Production and Technology 263. This class is focused on independent study as students decide what projects they want to create, then set goals and certain parameters, Boron said.
“It [is] a lot of creativity and independent work,” Boron said. “I [have] never had two projects that are identical in my several years of teaching this class.”
In class, students are given certain objectives before they create their own beats, samples, and music mixes together, Colgan explained. This semester, Colgan is working on an acapella project for a song he composed.
“I want to [have a future] in music,” Colgan said. “If I ever want to make dances I can cut my own music, make smooth transitions and I think it [is] always [going to be] a hobby I [will] have.”
Music Production and Technology aided sophomore Annabelle Langas in her involvement in South singing groups like Scat That, Bel Canto as well as her guitar and piano playing. Last month, Langas completed a song for which she created a drum loop—a short recording of multiple drum materials edited to loop seamlessly—to ultimately make her own beat.
“I [have] definitely learned how to be patient with my work, because there [are] only four [songs] in [the project], but it took three hours to make,” Langas said. “[Music producing is] definitely detail-oriented.”
Even though music production often correlates with music classes and extracurriculars at South, Boron encourages any student to sign up regardless of having previous experience with music. Students who are interested in expressing themselves through music while creating their own projects should sign up for this class, Boron explained.
“Music is its own language, so this is allowing another dialect within that language,” Boron said. “Even if you’ve never picked up an instrument or been in a music class, it [is] a really cool place to learn.”
