The irony of the whole thing is that, if I am to be totally honest, a great deal of my motivation for creating the Contemporary Music and Sound program (CMAS) at the school was purely selfish. After a decade of teaching I found myself longing for a better way to musically connect. For a number of years it had almost felt hypocritical to be pushing students in musical directions that I myself no longer felt were valid.
And I got very, VERY lucky. When I started at the school I was brought on just to be the "band guy." A position that I enjoyed but it was never part of my true musical DNA, as it is with most excellent band directors. I was always more captivated by the possibilities of full symphonies - something I would eventually bring to the school - at one point as many as two full ensembles, actually.
In any case, shortly after I arrived I was asked to take over the guitar program - a popular if not complete waste of time for the kids as there was no defined curriculum of any kind. That took a bit of time to correct, but regardless, from there it all kinda moved along logically (except for the eventual over-stretched part of things for me as I began to take on way too much.) Kids in the guitar classes started to want to know if I might be able to teach them how to write songs since I was always playing mine for them. That lead to a songwriting class, which became hugely popular, in no small part due to the live events we started to put on that soon balloned into a kind of massive production by high school standards. (We are now a fully student produced event with a 25K watt PA, 8 moving lights, hazers, full 16 channel sound and 3 camera recording, etc. - very "Spinal Tap" at this point.)
From there it transformed again as students began to ask me if I might be able to also teach them recording production techniques to go along with what they were already doing with live sound. Keep in mind I was still running the band and orchestra programs at the same time - badly, I would think, to be fair.
The real problem now though was that in order to teach that kind of thing we would need quite a bit of additional resources. I have since learned that a CMAS program is far less expensive to run per student than a band or orchestra in the long run, but the initial investment is a bit much. So here's the really lucky part: I decided to write a complete, detailed, four year curriculum outlining every conceivable facet of CMAS.
And it is a very tough curriculum. CMAS is not an "easy grade." Not even close. I have been told many people who have since reviewed it that it is almost overwhelming the amount of expertise that is required of the students. Almost, they say, but do not change it. There is still a significant amount of "standard" elements: music theory, instrumental techniques, etc. But it is the repackaging of that material into something contemporary and immediate that seems to have caught the attention of the students.
Did I mention the lucky part? I had been getting a lot of encouragement from my administration and some fellow teachers that there were some options for funding. Specifically that the Career and Technical Education folks for both the district and the state were looking for ways to better incorporate fine arts. They loved my concept and curriculum. What I thought was a somewhat lark of an idea quickly became the model for everyone. It has been an amazing ride so far. We have a huge and growing recording lab of 16 ProTools stations and tons of outboard gear and on and on. More importantly, the student interest is massive. So much so that I cannot teach them all, even on an extended contract. Don't get me wrong, it's a great problem to have, but I know full well it is not me. It is the program. The standards I wrote have also been adopted by the state, which added a huge amount of educational credibility, and we are soon to be offering college credit for the 3rd and 4th years of the program as well. Another huge credibility factor. CMAS has changed the music education paradigm. For the better. I feel very lucky to be part of it.
(end part 2)
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