The music department is adding Rock Band as a new elective for the 2018-2019 school year. The department is also changing a class name. The class formerly known as Music Creativity will now be identified as Studio Music Production.

The Rock Band class been a course proposal for some time now. Music department heads James Baum and Aubrey Prince hope the class will be finalized and ready for students to enroll in for the upcoming school year.

“For four years I’ve been creating course proposals and when I’d give a proposal [the administration] would give me feedback on what they needed. Last year I put up a proposal along with Mrs. Prince, and now it looks like it’s going to happen, so it’s exciting,” said Baum.

Rock Band is an entirely new class to RBHS where students learn the instruments, music, and background of rock and roll.

“Rock Band is a class devoted to teaching instruments of rock and roll along with teaching historical and cultural implications. We’ll be doing everything from The Beatles to Metallica to current Twenty One Pilots,” said Baum.

The class’s intent is for students to learn and come together to learn, perform, and enjoy all aspects of rock and roll.

“The focus is really on allowing people to learn maybe a secondary instrument like piano or guitar or bass or drums, some of those more traditional rock band instruments. The real goal is to put people together with like minded interests so they can form bands amongst themselves and start forming student groups,” said Prince.

The music department is also changing the name of one of their present classes, Music Creativity, to Studio Music Production as the old name was a somewhat inaccurate representation of the class.

“Studio music production is a little bit more more descriptive about what we do in the class. The class is geared towards whatever type of music you like and want to create. It’s very widely adaptable to any style of music that a student likes and wants to know about,” said Baum.

The main objectives of these two classes are to encourage every type of student to try something new and to broaden their horizons through music.

“Every kid in the building likes music and now we have a way for every kid in the building to engage in music and create it. We’re getting closer to having a class for every kid in the building,” said Baum.

Adding Rock Band and more accurately representing the music production class are two of the ways Prince and Baum hope to increase the amount of children involved in music here at RB.

“I believe, right now, RB roughly has about twenty percent, maybe less, people involved in performing ensembles, and there’s the whole eighty percent of people who I think would love to do some sort of music. We’re trying to find classes to tailor to their needs and interests,” said Prince.

These classes reflect the music department’s drive to get more students involved in music and a way for students to gain access to learn and experience the many aspects of it.

“The goal is just to get more students involved in music. There’s a sad statistic that says seventy percent of adults’ biggest regret in life is not learning how to play an instrument. We have to be able to give our awesome RB students the chance to learn something musical,” said Prince.