Click here to listen to a project produced in this class.

After a year of preparation, Elana Levine has released a new elective, that being Intro to Audio and Music Production. The purpose of this elective is quite complex, but on a basic level, it is for students of the elective to learn how to develop their own original music and produce this music on multiple platforms in multiple ways.

The wonderful elective, which takes place in room R-3, is intended to teach students how to use Digital Audio Workstations to create any form of audio they would like with a seemingly unlimited amount of music accessibility. It also delves into the instruments themselves and how physical instruments can be turned into digital sound.

“And, it is not only about producing music, so like learning how to song write and learning different instruments and instrumentation, but also a little bit of the physics of music because when you learn to record you do need to know a little bit of the basic physics of music,” Levine said.

In the class, students are able to learn how to produce music using both tangible and electronic instruments. They also learn about instrumentation and the physics of music. All of this information used together leads to students creating wonderful soundtracks and musical pieces of their own. The curriculum of the class guides the students through the various ways to use this information to create these pieces.

“The curriculum is all computer-based, or almost all computer-based I should say. It is focusing on creating electronic music and music using DAW processors, or Digital Audio Workstation, and learning about the different DAW programs and how they all work,” Levine said. “How they’re similar, how they’re different and then using those programs to learn how to write songs and create instrumentations and all of that.”

As Levine said, the curriculum for the class is mainly computer and DAW based. A major amount of music today is electronic, and this class teaches students how to create and control such music. This can be done through many platforms, and Levine aims to teach the works of all of them. All grades will soon be able to experience this and at different levels too.

“I’d love to see that as a class that students can take for a semester in 6th grade, and then possibly even a year or two years in 7th and 8th grade. We can really build on that,” said Levine.

The class is intended to be a semester class for 6th grade soon. The students that would like to continue could keep this going into 7th and 8th grade, allowing levels of skill at this topic and enough knowledge on it to allow the students many more opportunities for career options.

“I feel that this elective is really promising and could teach us a lot!” said one student.