Benjamin E. Mays High School celebrated the ribbon-cutting of its new, state-of-the-art music studio, where students can explore their creativity and get a hands-on learning experience with the brand-new equipment.
The new learning space has everything an aspiring musician, producer, or digital creator would need. The studio has podcast equipment, production equipment, a DJ controller, and enough microphones and headsets for a full classroom of creators.
Mays High School Band director and the new instructor of the Music Technology course, Dr. Brian Lyles, loves the new energy that the studio has given his students.
“Everybody has been locked in,” he said. “The moment I brought them into the room, it clicked that this is real.”
During the first week of school, Dr. Lyles stopped Mays High School principal Dr. Ramon Garner in the hallway to let him know that the excitement was back in the classroom. The studio has created a new access point for students interested in digital media, music production, and content creation.
“This starts the beginning of getting kids in a different space than what we were able to offer before,” Dr. Lyles said. “We do band, orchestra, chorus, and dance, but we still missed a lot of students because we didn’t have this available to them. Having this creativity at all levels, it’s going to be great to serve everybody.”
While it’s great to have a new learning space with all the bells and whistles, Music Education Group (MEG) founder and CEO Ric Ross wants to ensure that the students at Mays get more than just equipment.
“Our mission is to teach life skills and career development through music, film, and digital media,” he said. “Anybody can put equipment in these spaces. The issue has been the follow-up once the equipment is in.”
“We want to make sure that our young people understand how to use the hardware and the software for their career development,” he added. “If this is something that they want to go into as a job, then they’ll have some type of knowledge of how to use the hardware and software from the production side.”
MEG partnered with the Save the Music Foundation to bring this studio to life, and MEG staff engineers will come and coach students and teachers on how to make the most of their new studio.
The students have already taken full advantage of the new studio and have started making music, experimenting with the editing software, and even going through a few test runs on the Raiders Pulse podcast. In its first few months of being open, the studio has successfully engaged students and provided a space where they can be creative while developing future job skills in an industry many of them aspire to work in.
“One of our goals is to make sure we have something for every single student,” Dr. Garner said. “This is something that they’re interested in, so we know that they’re going to come to school and be locked in.”
“This is going to help them reach their goals and dreams, which is our biggest job; to make sure that they are exposed to what they need to do what they want to do after high school.”