A month into the school year, the 24 students of Beth Hollenbeck’s music production and recording arts class are diving into the technical world of the recording industry.
The class, which includes students from Scotts Valley, Soquel, San Lorenzo Valley, and Santa Cruz high schools, meets in Scotts Valley High’s one-of-a-kind recording studio and introduces students to what a career in the music industry entails.
They will use high-level recording equipment to learn how music is produced.
Funded by the Santa Cruz County Office of Education Regional Occupational Program, and bolstered by grants from the Grammy Foundation, Scotts Valley-based Universal Audio and Antares Audio Technologies, among others, the class introduces students to the following topics:
- Basic theory and keyboard instruction
- Operating digital audio workstation programs, such as Apple’s Logic, for recording and composing
- Basic microphone and mixing techniques
- How to prepare a contract as a producer-engineer
- How to promote and market music
- How to be a successful “working musician”
Hollenbeck said that the class, which is in its first year, is an intermediate step for students between GarageBand music production class at Scotts Valley Middle School and collegiate-level courses.
Throughout the year, recording industry professionals will give presentations to the students. The latest was an introduction to the Logic Pro suite by Ian Smith of Universal Audio.
