Popular Music Performance: Production

Student Learning Outcomes, Goals, Objectives:

Students successfully completing this course will be able to:

• Apply music technology tools and software, including DAWs, plugins, synthesis, and recording equipment, to create, edit, and refine original music.
• Analyze and deconstruct commercial and original works to identify song form, production techniques, and stylistic elements that inform creative decisions.
• Demonstrate working knowledge of music fundamentals, including rhythm, harmony, and basic theory, relevant to music production and arranging.
• Strengthen critical listening and ear training skills to recognize and reproduce specific timbres, mix characteristics, and production details, including the ability to interpret and apply musical information from written or digital sources when appropriate.
• Show progressive technical proficiency and creative growth through lesson projects, recordings, or live demonstrations, reflecting consistent engagement and practice.
• Integrate personal artistic vision with contemporary production practices, making informed aesthetic and technical choices in their work.
• Attend one individual lesson, the PopTech Seminar, and a Repertoire Class for their instrument or voice each week.
• Learn new music each week and receive positive, instructive commentary on creative work.
• Complete listening assignments focused on knowledge of musical repertoire in current and historical genres.
• Engage in improvisation, composition, and theoretical study as part of weekly lessons.
• Read and sightread music fluently in weekly lessons through traditional, graphical, spectral, tone-envelope, and other notational settings as part of editing, creation, and production.
• Meet expectations established and agreed upon in the first lesson, which may include the number of pieces to be learned, the nature of improvisation/composition/theory instruction, additional listening, analysis, or compositional etude work, and project deadlines.
• Perform one to three pieces each semester in addition to completing the Jury Exam.
• Attend assigned concerts each semester.
• Demonstrate technical skill, improvisation and composition, knowledge of music in cultural context, and communication of expressive intentions in the End of Semester Jury Exam.

Course Grading Information:

Activity/Performance Measure	Percentage/Points
Lessons	60%
Jury Exam	25%
Attendance and Participation	15%

Grades are assigned using the following scale: A = 90–100% for outstanding, exceptional accomplishment; B = 80–90% for excellent accomplishment; C = 70–80% for satisfactory accomplishment; D = 60–70% for poor accomplishment; F = below 60% for work that is not done, incomplete, not attempted, or of inferior technical craftsmanship. Jury grades are assigned by each member of the jury, with each category weighted evenly, and the average of the composite grades produces the Jury Exam grade. Failure to appear or present materials for the End of Semester Jury results in an F for the semester.

Attendance/Participation:

Attendance in lessons and Repertoire Class is required. Students may have two unexcused missed lessons without penalty; three unexcused missed lessons lower the semester grade by one fraction, four unexcused missed lessons lower the semester grade by one letter, and missing more than four weekly lessons results in an F for the semester.

If a student misses more than five classes, the student may make up the impact on the grade by contacting the professor once before midterm grades are due and once before final grades are due; make-up opportunities depend on the days missed and may involve assignments, reflections, or equivalent work.

Course Materials Purchased by the Students:

• A laptop
• Studio headphones

Highly Recommended A DAW, such as FL Studio, Cubase, Logic Pro, or similar software