Whether you’re a student at CHS, a parent, or a community member, you have probably heard of Mrs. Waters. She teaches and conducts the orchestra and many other ensembles. Among her prestigious classes, she recently founded the music production class.
Around four years ago Mrs. Waters expressed the need for virtual music. She said, “During COVID, a lot of my colleagues started using digital audio workspaces.” After using the equipment, she realized the helpful impact it had when making music. She believes that since “it’s not ensemble based, you don’t have to know how to play an instrument.” This availability and accessibility made it an appropriate substitute for people who were stuck home alone.
As COVID became less of a constant fear and school transitioned back to in-person learning, Mrs. Waters didn’t want to stop using the digital workspaces. She thinks that “it’s a much easier point of entry than, say, my orchestra class here.”
In her second year of teaching the class, Mrs. Waters, with the generous help from the school, was able to purchase “$40,000 worth of equipment.” With this kickstart to the program, Mrs. Waters was able to start doing more of the things she intended to do.
First, Mrs. Waters wanted to make a distinct difference between the music her other ensembles were playing. “We play the music of dead white people,” she said. In her music production class, she wants to share, “many, many other ways that music is made and played in other parts of the world.” She emphasizes, “We just need to be representing everything and everyone.”
Mrs. Waters also covers college opportunities regarding music. She said, “It’s definitely a popular career field, music production, music, like audio engineering, music technology in general.” She believes it “definitely could lead to career opportunities,” which has already worked out for a couple of her students who are __.
Ultimately, Mrs. Waters’ goal to teach music making as a creative outlet is what led her to start the music production class. “I was mentioning earlier about orchestra the being kind of a place where like the notes are already there and we’re just playing them. But in music production, we are creating our own music.” Music production is a project-driven class, meaning that students are given a general prompt and are encouraged to creatively complete their task. “We usually do a genre project where students get to pick which genre they’re going to present on, and then make a song, at least with the inspiration of that genre.”
In 2024 Mrs. Waters collected 19 student-made songs and compiled them into a publishable album. She encourages students to post their work and to take it a step further than just a class. This year Mrs. Waters stated, “[the album] is just a matter of getting a distributor. So we didn’t really talk about it as part of the class, but I would like to do more this year.”
The music production class is open to every grade level and everyone is encouraged to join next year. If you want to get in touch with Mrs. Waters, she can be reached at [email protected] or in the orchestra room or the studio. She adds, “Come find me.”
