Autonomous Music Systems

A.K.A. MUS-A307; This course serves as an introduction to the intersection of music and A.I. Course topics, combining machine learning, artificial intelligence, data management, and automation with music theory concepts (low-level concepts like modes, harmonies, rhythms, and dynamics and high-level concepts like style). Students will build musical working digital systems via computer programming environments, culminating in an autonomously generated piece of music to be performed live.

Destructive and Inventive Systems Ensemble

A.K.A. MUS-A209; This ensemble uses improvisatory hardware and software hacking techniques as an approach to music making. By finding novel solutions to musical performance problems, students cultivate an attitude of creative freedom. Students experiment with improvisation, circuit-bending and destructive/creative instrument design while crafting a performance of live works.

Applied Music Technology

A.K.A. MUS-A200; This course consists of private lessons, focused on developing musical and accurate rhythmic practices with music technology as the primary instrument.  This semester utilizes the combination of a touch-sensitive MIDI Controller with a personal computer/DAW as the student’s instrument.  Throughout the course, there will be many opportunities for individual student assessment of techniques.  These lessons are a way to provide students with more direct assessment of their strengths, weaknesses, and goals.

Music Technology Lab I

A.K.A. MUS-A132; This introductory course covers a breadth of subjects to familiarize students with vocabulary and essential concepts in music technology. This course goes in-depth in the functionality of digital audio workstations (DAWs), using Ableton Live, using Max, and the ways that music is recorded and made in any digital environment. Essential methods of sound manipulation, signal recording and editing, musical computer programming, and combining audio, MIDI, and effects are presented. By the end of the course, the student will be able to work in DAWs, get around the software, and use their own equipment to record and make music.