Dr. Ronda DePriest, director of the music program, stands in the middle of the Fine Arts Department’s Mac Lab as eight students sit in front of computers, clicking mouses in response to her instructions  DePriest awaits MUS 295, Computer: Tech for Musicians, to become a reality.

MUS 295 is aimed to allow “musicians to have a tool to write their music done and potentially publish,” DePriest explained. She is teaching her students Finale, a music notation software that, in her opinion, is the best out there.

“A lot of the notation software programs out there are meant for non-readers of music,” DePriest said. “We will touch on those if they know how to work Finale and SmartMusic, they are going to know how to work those programs. Finale is like the granddaddy of music notation software and you have to be a reader and have some understanding of music theory to use Finale.”

DePriest has been planning for this course since before the Fine Arts Department’s Mac Lab took the place of a storage close, which was back in 2010. , DePriest planned for this course. Even though nine years have past, DePriest believes the course is still relevant and needed for music students today.

“I think it goes hand in hand with the 21st century with theory learning,” DePriest said. “If you know music theory, that’s great. If you can input it into a program as you learn, I think that education for the 21st century is pretty necessary. You need to be digital literate in the 21st century.”

DePriest hopes the course will become a requirement for music ministry majors and the music therapy degree, if the degree is approved.

There are currently are eight students in the course. While the class  isn’t  required  for any major or minor, the music majors and minors can apply the course for their general education computer science course. Music students aren’t just using this class as a cop out from other computer science courses.

Briana Ryan, music ministry and arts administration major, feels  the course will help her during her career.

“I want to go into music education, so it’s an easy way to teach students,” Ryan said. “This is the only class you can learn [Finale], other than just doing it on your own.”

The course will consist of projects that require students to make music by using Finale and other programs such as SmartMusic. The course doesn’t teach about Digital Audio Workstations. The reason being, DePriest said,  because those programs delve into a different area than practicing music theory and composing.

“I know that is valuable,” DePriest said. “If we ever had a straight music industry degree, I would say yes, because those guys are going to be really involved in recording studios, which is all tech in terms of what they would be doing with that. If these guys are going into entertainment arts, that would be more in that area.”

DePriest said that Without the donations from various sources, MUS 295 would not be possible.

“We feel so blessed to have this lab and were it not for several alumni [who] created the funds that allowed us to build this,” DePriest said. “We want to make sure to say thank you.”