Wauwatosa teacher to speak at international conference on music software

Wauwatosa teacher

Journal Sentinel: Wauwatosa East High School orchestra teacher Mike Hayden is heading to Germany in November to speak on integrating modern music technology in the classroom, a passion he’s developed in his 11 years of teaching.

Hayden will speak at the Ableton Loop Festival to attendees who are either teaching music production formally, in an after-school program or looking to start a music program.

Although he’s a regular presenter at state music education conferences, this is the first time he will travel to speak internationally.

Hayden has been using the Ableton Live software throughout his teaching career, which has included teaching a variety of music courses, including orchestra ensemble, a rock band class and digital music.

Although another teacher is in charge of the digital music classes at Wauwatosa East, Hayden helped create some of the curriculum for that class, and he still finds ways to integrate the software into his orchestra classes.

“I’m still able to do a lot more composition and improvisation activities in orchestra,” Hayden said. “We record and listen, we’ll use trap beats sometimes instead of our traditional metronome … I show kids that it’s OK to have fun and incorporate the stuff you like to listen to with what you play.”

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