After teaching audio engineering at SAE for 13 years, the opportunity came up to help write and create the curriculum for the new Music Production programmes at SAE Auckland.
When designing the programmes, a big part of the process was collating the feedback from our industry consultations. I talked to Auckland recording studios, engineers and studio managers to find out what they would like to see from SAE’s Music Production graduates.
It's been interesting for me to have a hand in the development of the programmes and understand the cohorts of music students - surprisingly they are generally quite different than audio students.
Audio engineering is methodical, and is based around science and technology. They work alongside musicians as a field expert, whereas music students are much more creative. Immersed in the popular music culture, my students personally invest in each other's work and thrive in collaboration.
One of the benefits of Zoom classes during the COVID-19 lockdowns was the regular collaborative tasks I created. Allowing the students some time at home to develop their ideas and share it with the class created a real community feeling. It became a coping mechanism for me and my students, to jump online and stay connected through music.
Music students are very interesting and artistic. It’s been really rewarding for me, leading them on this journey to help nurture their creativity, energy and enthusiasm for learning while giving them the tools to produce their own music.
David Chechelashvili is one of SAE Creative Media Institute Auckland’s experts in music production and audio engineering.
Celebrating 15 years of teaching, David has produced a multitude of albums under the artist name ‘waker’ and is undertaking his PhD in music composition using modular synthesisers at Griffith University.