One of Guilderland's priorities is to move students beyond New York State's standards, preparing them not just for the tests they will take in school but also for the real "tests" of life. Here is an example of how the district is accomplishing this priority:

Creating music for the twenty-first century

High School introduces innovative new course in music technology

It’s Friday afternoon and Guilderland High School senior Corinne Salada is mixing song tracks on a computer-generated soundboard in her classroom. "There are so many possibilities with this program that sometimes it boggles your mind how people did this before computers,” she said.

Salada is one of 12 students currently enrolled in an innovative new class offered at GHS this year — music technology. “It’s interesting to see how arranging music on the PC works,” said senior Michael Lamanna. “Everything is a virtual representation of what musicians did hands-on twenty years ago.”

The course, which fulfills the fine arts requirement for graduation, was designed to introduce students to today’s technologically oriented music business.

“There is no doubt that the music industry is moving in this direction,” said music teacher Lee Russo. “If you walk into any recording studio today you will see that they use top of the line software to produce music.” Now many of those cutting-edge programs, and the hardware components that accompany them, are available in the classroom, as well.

Manipulating music

Working on six computers, each interfaced with a MIDI keyboard which allows music to be saved directly into the PC, students can design, edit and record songs all with a few clicks of the mouse.
Those who play an instrument or sing can also record personalized tracks to the computer as they perform. To date, guitars, trumpets, clarinets, and percussion instruments have all been utilized in the music technology classroom.

Students will also explore the hardware of music technology, including how to properly set up microphones to record at an optimal level and how amplifiers fit into a professional sound system.
“For anyone interested in music, this course is an introduction into some of the amazing tools out there today,” said GHS music teacher Jeff Herchenroder.

A changing program

In addition to providing musicians with the skills they need to be successful in today’s recording studios, the high school music technology course also offers students who are not necessarily skilled on a particular instrument the opportunity to participate in an upper level music elective and to create music in nontraditional ways.

“We have an excellent performance-oriented high school music department, but we really were not directing music to students with a technology interest,” said district music supervisor Lori Hershenhart.
The class opens up the department to an entirely new audience, she added.

“My goal is that as many students as possible leave GHS with a great head start in the business - whether they go on to study music in college or pursue a career in the music industry,” said Russo.

--February 2005