The teaching practices outlined below have been developed and refined over the many years that the Young Producers Group team has been teaching music production and technology in K-12 schools.
It looks slightly different on the ground for each teacher and class, but the essence remains the same.
These practices foster engagement and creativity in the classroom – all while boosting learning outcomes. You’ll have to find the right balance for you and your students, but these instructional techniques are tried and true ways to successfully lead an inclusive, and creative music class.
There’s a fine line between creativity and control.
Keep the atmosphere light and jovial but immediately and clearly address any behavior issues without hesitation. A creative classroom can’t be too strict nor can it be too loosey goosey. You’ll need to find the right balance for you and your students.
Write down the key steps of every process, technique, or procedure.
Music production and technology is rife with technical terms and procedures. On top of that, many students speak English as a second language. Writing down steps, highlighting key words, and keeping all of that on the board while students work really helps them keep on track and engaged.
Be yourself.
Teachers often abridge their personalities in the classroom. If students are expected to be themselves and pursue what is honest to them, the teacher must model that for them.
Enthusiasm is contagious.
If you are really excited about what you are talking about, it will rub off on your students. While showing a great deal of enthusiasm might be outside of an instructor’s typical behavior, it is necessary to present topics with verve and energy. Your passion gives students license to get excited.
Keep lessons simple.
Limit your lectures to only the topic you are discussing. Avoiding tangential discussions by only presenting discrete packets of information will help students grapple with technical concepts and stay engaged as they build their structures of knowledge. This can be extended to how students engage with the assignment demonstration videos. Viewing the entire demonstration at once may not ensure full comprehension by students. Instead, having students watch specific video sections relevant to their immediate projects can enhance learning outcomes.
Show that you care and invest on the human level.
When a student knows that you care about them as a human being and don’t just see them as a name on your roster, they are more likely to engage with the material and participate in the creative community. It can be difficult with large classes, but just letting students know that you’re there for them goes a long way.
Middle vs. High-Schoolers
Any student participating in Music Production 2 has chosen to go deeper into the art form and continue to hone their craft. This self selection indicates a high level of engagement and a willingness to persevere through the technical challenges that come with leveling up. Ableton Live’s learning curve is not as steep as many comparable programs, but it is much more challenging than Soundtrap, BandLab, or Garageband. Middle-schoolers that have already completed Music Production 1 will have the base of knowledge to draw from to find success completing the more substantial projects in Music Production 2. However, middle and high-schoolers alike might need some additional scaffolds. In general, we do not recommend Music Production 2 for elementary-schoolers.
See below for some age-specific pointers:
Middle School Adaptations:
All of the information we included around student work time in the project-based learning section of the teacher resources still applies, but students this young should not be working on their own (or really doing anything in a classroom) for much longer than 20 minutes. Break it up by reaching into our supplementary materials for some games and other activities or bring the whole class together for some teacher-led games, like Electronic Musical Chairs or Transcriber Survivor. Students of all ages love coming together as a class to play games!
Middle and High-Schooler Adaptations:
Sampling is inherently abstract. We are used to hitting a key or a button on an instrument and a note or sound comes out that directly correlates with that position. When we’re sampling, we’re triggering waves to be played. The note we play usually doesn’t connect to the note we hear, unless steps have been taken to tune the sample. Furthermore, you can play a single MIDI note and a chord, texture, or other non musical sound can be triggered. This will break a few students’ brains. Take extra time with those individuals and be sure to do demonstrations of your own outside of our videos.
The Synthesizer Project is by far the most technically demanding unit in Music Production 2. If sampling was too abstract for some folks, a synthesizer will prove to a be a real challenge. With all the graphs and orders of operations, synthesis can sometimes feel more like math than anything else. Ableton’s Learning Synths website is a great companion resource to our videos and learning materials. Please refer to our page on Ableton for the Classroom.
High-Schooler Adaptations:
Some high-schoolers will be itching to go even deeper than seven projects we include in this curriculum. In the past, we’ve seen students complete projects multiple times and then pick their favorite to submit. These go-getters can compile their favorite projects into an album or EP. They will be doing just that in our Advanced Music Technology & Business Curriculum, but they can get a head start now!