Art and Music, through our previous music technology fee is currently offering four sections of Music 236: Introduction to Music Technology and Music 336: Digital Music Composition with 13 computers allocated for student use and one for instructor use. These classes have been extremely successful since they began more than ten years ago and the department will offer five sections in Fall 2025 to fulfill the 200-level composition/performance sequence of the Music Minor as well as the final 300-level course needed to complete the minor. This request is to provide a one-time software license of $2000 for Ableton, a digital audio workstation (DAW). The license would allow us to add the software to our 13 computers as well as place the software on at least five other computers that students would have access to in the library or elsewhere on campus. The remaining two licenses would be used on class instructor laptops and for use in MUS 202: Songwriting.
Access to the software is for current students in the music technology courses and is for primary use during class meetings, but the software could also be made available through the library reserve room during school hours for students to use. The instructor supervises the classroom at all times and the reserve librarians place time and location limits on the computers used for digital audio work.
All class meetings for MUS 236 and 336 courses are held in Haaren 423, the digital music classroom.
This software will help with the current music offerings in the Department of Art and Music and allow the department to serve the creative and technological needs of our students in three different classes. Their primary use is in the guitar course, which fulfills the Gen Ed requirement in the Communications area of the College Option or as an elective, as well as counting towards the music minor.
Updates for this software will be ongoing as needed to avoid any delays in instruction. The Art and Music Department manages access to the computers. All computers are stored in a locked classroom in the department except for those in the library.
During class periods the Art and Music instructor supervises the students. Students will be allowed to sign out the computers with the software.
For John Jay students to succeed in the music minor program they need access to high quality and technologically superior software that allows them to learn in a limitless creative environment with the instructor when executing musical concepts. This software will facilitate fun and efficient learning of the fundamentals of digital music composition. Advanced students will make further use of this program in upper-level classes to successfully complete the music minor.