Imagine yourself as a high school music teacher who just started a new position and was handed a substantial sum of grant money to spend on "music technology." That’s exactly what happened to Mark Foster when he joined Science Hill High School in Johnson City, TN last fall as Assistant Band Director.
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Yamaha Technology Consultant Dennis Stanfill led a one-day training session to ensure that the music faculty were comfortable operating the lab components. |
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Thanks to the grant writing initiative of June Oaks, his predecessor at Science Hill, and the expert advice of Jim Kelly and Carl Cates of nearby Cates Music Center, Foster had a hefty sum of money from the state’s Goals 2000 fund to spend on upgrading the music department’s computer and technology equipment.
Given the rare opportunity to build a lab exactly to his specifications, Foster was quick to choose the Yamaha Clavinova. "As far as standard keyboards go, nothing equals the Clavinova in terms of quality and ease of use,"he explained. "I’ve always liked the feel and response. For a high school music lab, it makes an ideal basis for a workstation."
With the help of Cates Music Center, Foster outfitted each of 12 student workstations with an impressive array of tools, including a Clavinova CLP311 and MU50 tone generator - sequencer, connected to a PC computer loaded with Cakewalk Piano and Musicware software, and headphones. For the teacher’s unit, Foster selected a Clavinova CVP79A, with all the same trimmings as the student workstations. Complementing the lab equipment are the Yamaha DOU10 and QY700 sequencer/tone generators. Cates Music Center arranged for a one-day training session led by Yamaha Technology Consultant Dennis Stanfill to ensure that Foster and other music faculty were comfortable operating the lab components.
By the beginning of October, the Science Hill music lab was all set up and ready for students in the beginning piano class. "Most students have absolutely no keyboard skills, while some have enough to skip ahead. Our lab allows the more advanced students to do sequencing using Cakewalk, while editing using the DOU10 and QY700 and even digital recording. The possibilities with this set up are endless," added Foster.
Science Hill offers two beginning piano lab courses in the spring semester, with plans to introduce additional courses in digital recording and sequencing for the 1998/1999 academic year. Another future possibility is to open the lab up for evening course open to adult beginners.
 Dennis Stanfill (center) demonstrates the variety of Clavinova features to two Science Hill High School faculty members; June Oaks and Mark Foster. |
Of the end result, Foster admits, "I
was very honored to set up the lab as I wanted. My colleagues and I are already hard at
work designing curricula for future courses and the students are getting a taste of
high-tech learning." 