Composing themselves
Music technology class opens doors for high school students
ARLINGTON - Every student, whether tone deaf or a virtuoso, gets a chance to be a composer in a new class at Arlington High.
The students learn the same music lingo, words and phrases like dominant and tonic chords, semi-tones, loops, and tremolo. Their teacher, John DiTomaso, a trumpet player in a rhythm and blues band, pushes the teenagers to brush aside fears about playing music and to create without inhibition. "You're too tense," he says to students whose fingers tighten up on the electric piano keyboards at their composing stations. The students take the class in an expansive room with 10 electronic keyboards attached to computers and an assortment of microphones and other recording equipment.
Arlington High, with a combination of school funds and donations from its parent performing arts or ganization and an anonymous donor, started its music technology program last fall as a fine arts elective. It joins Lexington, Lowell, Belmont, and other school systems that have mixed technology with instruction as a way to bring music instruction to students who are not in band or chorus.
In the program's first year, DiTomaso teaches 100 students in classes of about 20 apiece in the school's new music technology room. When students compose on the keyboards, using computer software, the room is nearly silent. The only sounds are the clicking of fingers on the electronic keyboard and occasional soft chatter between students as they listen on headsets to their evolving creation.
"While I have a lot of great students who are very eager to write music and hope that they can write the next big hit, one of the most important things about this course is to open up a new world of music to students who have not already discovered that," DiTomaso said. "The beauty of a music technology course is students are able to start right away creating music."
Erika Wong is the epitome of the student the school wanted to lure to the class. Wong detested her first experience with an instrument: group lessons on the violin in third grade. She vowed to never study an instrument again, turned off by a strict teacher and the rapid pace.
After more than a semester in DiTomaso's classes, the 17-year-old junior now plays chords on the keyboard and remixes songs with her own flourishes using computer software. She also entered the class hating Beatles' music. DiTomaso reversed her opinion on that with a class assignment: remix a Beatles song. Wong and her class partner did a remix of "All You Need is Love," incorporating other songs that they liked with it, and made a CD with a jacket.
"It's opened up my mind more to appreciate music," Wong said of the class, adding that she used to think Beatles' music was just too old for her to enjoy.
The idea of composing with technology in schools began growing rapidly in the mid-1990s as the software improved, said Dennis Miller, director of Northeastern University's music technology program. The programs are popular for various reasons, including their ability to teach students problem-solving skills.
"Composition is about making choices. You've got to decide what's going to happen," Miller said.
The class at Arlington may lead some students to a future career, said Lucas D'Angelo, 15, a freshman who plays guitar and piano and has composed at home for years. The class has helped him rise to a higher level, said D'Angelo, a part of a group of students who made a mix of "Here Comes the Sun" that the school aired as a part of morning announcements.
In last Wednesday's music technology classes, professional violinist Ricardo Odriozola, who was an exchange student from Spain at Arlington High in 1982-83, co-taught with DiTomaso. Odriozola, who came to Arlington last week to conduct master classes and perform with the school's musical groups, now lives in Norway. He teaches violin and performs with quartets and other ensembles internationally.
Odriozola, who also composes, demonstrated several concepts students are learning. He improvised using the circle of fourths drawn on the class eraser board - a diagram showing the relationship of the 12 tones of the chromatic scale. He gave the students more musical vocabulary as he demonstrated the "su ponticello," drawing the bow on the bridge, and hammer strikes, bursts of loud sounds with ever-so-gentle strokes of the bow.
"This is craft," Odriozola told the students. "It is the opposite of what I would call show business."
Show business, he said, would be a huge movement with the bow when it was unnecessary.
DiTomaso recorded the violinist's examples as tracks for students' later use in a composition. Students watched the violinist and their teacher raptly as the pair began playing a piece that mixes "Over the Rainbow," and "It's a Wonderful World," by the late Hawaiian composer, Israel Kamamawio'ole, known as Iz. DiTomaso strummed a ukulele softly and sang as Odriozola played his violin, his clear tone projecting loud enough to fill an auditorium. The students applauded loudly as the pair finished.
"I don't get the chance to see too many professional musicians," said Dan McDonald, a 17-year-old junior. "Just to see someone with that much skill on an instrument makes me want to be able to one day have the skills to be that confident on an instrument, and maybe make money doing it, too."
Linda K. Wertheimer is at wertheimer@globe.com. 
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