Computers Power Learning

In a world awash in Idols and Internet, two new programs stand out. Drexel University has backed its Drexel Idols show with a music industry degree curriculum -- and its own student-run label. Meanwhile, Berklee College of Music is using the web for its new extension programs.

For three years, Drexel's Philadelphia campus has been the home to a bachelor's degree program in the music industry, in which its 150 students can get a "real life introduction to the ins and outs of the pop-music biz," according to Gregg Wrenn of MacWorld magazine. Wrenn writes, "the centerpiece of the program -- which teaches students how to manage talent, marketing and distribution -- is a $250,000 professional-quality recording studio equipped with Macs and the latest in audio software.

Recently Drexel staged its first "Drexel Idols" competition to showcase the launch of Mad Dragon Records, a new music label the university has launched as part of that program. According to the University's press release, "Students will be in charge of artist development, production, recording, marketing, contracts and distribution, while MAD Dragon musicians - also students - will get royalties from the sale of CDs and singles, public performances, and licensing and soundtrack deals. … The label will help them compete with established top-tier music programs while giving students real-world experience. 'They are going to run into the same roadblocks that everybody else does, but while in school they'll learn how to move around the roadblocks and succeed,' said Marcy Rauer Wagman, an assistant professor who helps oversee the record label."

The release notes that Wagman herself is not purely an ivory-tower academic. She has mixed it up in the real world as an entertainment lawyer, former lead singer of a rock 'n' roll band, and a successful songwriter and producer.

In Boston, further north on Interstate 95, renowned Berklee College of Music has entered the world of distance learning with its new online extension program, Berkleemusic.com. In addition to offering a range of services (many of them free and open to all site visitors) intended to help musicians develop their careers, the site provides the opportunity to take actual online classes taught by Berklee faculty members or other experts.

Berklee alumni and holders of a $49/year "Berklee Passport" get extra access to a Jobs & Gigs section, tips on resumes and cover letters, additional discussion boards, a web page for self-promotion, featured placement in directory listings, and course discounts.

Instructor-led courses cover music theory, production techniques & technologies, writing, and the music business. They're NOT entirely self-paced, and they combine aspects of real-world and virtual classrooms. (The next term for these begins Oct. 6, 2003.)

In the August 2003 issue of Acoustic Guitar magazine, writer Nicole Solis tested the Music Theory 101 class. She was "impressed by the well-thought-out design" and intuitive navigational structure of the course. She describes the instructor as clear and concise, with a good balance of active and passive learning. Though "not for everyone," Solis compared her online experience favorably to the course she took in college.

Visit Mad Dragon Records and read the announcement of their formation, or explore the rest of Drexel University

Find the MacWorld article about Drexel's programs [not much available online]

Visit Berklee College of Music and their new online extension school

Browse the August, 2003 issue of Acoustic Guitar