About 50 middle and high school students spent the week learning ways that technology and music intersect at St. Vrain Valley’s Innovation Center.
“We’re using design thinking to look at how we can use music to add or change value,” said instructor Kyle Liss, who is Frederick High School’s orchestra director and a professional musician. “I love just watching and supporting the kids. From where they started to where they are now, it’s just incredible.”
The Innovation Center is offering the Music Innovation camp, designed to appeal to both musicians and students interested in other areas of music, for a second year. The camp, taught by a director, four music teachers and nine Innovation Center students, culminates Friday with students presenting final projects to their families.
“I want them to have fun and learn how few limits there actually are with music,” said student designer Katherine Zajicek, who graduated in December. “Music is not just performance. It’s not just band or choir. Students have all these opportunities here. There’s so much more than just what’s offered in school. They can find where their passion is in music. I tell them to just find the fun.”
The first three days of the camp included opportunities to explore, learn through formal lessons and work on group projects. Students also heard performances by a pipe band and by their teachers. Students spent Thursday finishing up their projects, getting feedback and rehearsing.
Instructor Tom Burrish, a music teacher at Northridge Elementary, gave feedback to several groups before playing guitar with a student who was playing a drum set for his project. He encouraged one group to turn the volume down on the snare drum and up for the “woosh” sound they added to the piece they created.
“Make sure you focus on the mixing part so your listeners get the experience you want,” Burrish said. “The woosh sound, it’s a really cool idea to have that come sort of out of left field for the listener.”
Students could focus on different pathway areas, including vocalist, creative innovator, audio alchemy and producer.
The producer path, for example, taught students about songwriting and how to use GarageBand and other technology to create and mix original songs. In the audio alchemy path, students could learn about the techniques needed to record music in a studio and how sound engineering is used for live performances.
“I’ve realized there’s a lot more technology involved in music than I thought,” said Owen Arthur, who will be a freshman in St. Vrain Valley’s APEX Homeschool Program. “It’s fun to use all this technology.”
Peyton Weichel, an incoming freshman at Mead High School, signed up for the camp for a second year and brought his bass and double bass guitars. He was part of a group that’s performing live and included two bass guitarists, two trombone players, a vocalist and a technology specialist.
“I came for the music,” Weichel said.
The vocalist, incoming seventh grader Francesca Chavez, said it has been challenging to learn how to use all the technology, but worth it.
“It makes the music sound better,” she said.
Frederick High School incoming freshman Lyla Alderman, who is handling the technology for the group and plays in the school orchestra, is adding piano, drums, saxophone and flute pieces to a live performance. She said her favorite part of the camp was learning to better navigate GarageBand and to use a MIDI keyboard controller to its full potential.
“You can basically do anything in GarageBand,” Alderman said. “It’s really fun to learn how to make music with it.”
Leaf Barnes, an incoming freshman at Lyons High School, said he discovered he wanted to play the guitar after attending the camp last summer. At this year’s camp, he said he has learned more about the live side of music, including using mixers and speakers.
“It’s a lot of work, but it’s a lot of good work,” Barnes said.
Incoming junior Emily Whiteley and incoming senior Tyler Detro, who attend Erie High School, are on the Innovation Center’s new drone performance team. They’re using the camp to learn more about creating original music to go with the drone shows.
“It’s been very helpful,” Detro said. “We want to learn to make our own music. That makes it more original.”
