Timothy Edwards Middle School (South Windsor CT)
Instructor: Thomas Nasiatka
School Profile: Public middle school, 6th-8th grade, around 1,350 students total
Class Title(s): There are three Music Matrix classes, which are the general music classes for 6th, 7th, and 8th grade.
Structure of Your NTM Class(es): There are three sections of Music Matrix (divided in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade) offered school wide to students who opt not to be in band, choir, or orchestra. Each section has separate curricula that incorporate technology in a different way. There are four Music Matrix teachers that all teach different things. Students who are in the Music Matrix meet every day for two quarters. There are more stand and deliver lessons at the beginning of the quarter on how to structure compositions and show how the software works before the lessons transition to more projects.
Describe Class Activities: For the class activities, there is a lot of figuring out stuff by ear to help the students develop as musicians. Mr. Nasiatka indicates that he is an advocate for sound before sight and don’t teach traditional notation to the 7th and 8th graders in the music Matrix classes. At first, there are more parameters for the assignments and then slowly, the parameters get taken away. This way, the students start developing ideas of what they want. Predominantly a guitar class, the 6th grade class has the students record their progress on guitar and record their guitar compositions into soundtrack. The final project is to record a duet by themselves with outlined parameters. The 7th grade class incorporates more group projects, more virtual instruments, creates virtual instrument ensembles, uses controllers in different ways, and introduces the students to soundtracks and electronic music. Not only do the students receive teacher instruction, but they also learn from each other. One of the projects they do is called “Building a Beat Together” where each student has a role such as music producer, drum master, executive producer, etc. The 8th grade class is a more traditional music production class. They use more loops, virtual instruments, recording, other music production work on the Chromebooks. Additionally, they complete a “Musician Profile” project and share the music they like to listen to. This music then is analyzed and shapes the future class projects. I try to incorporate as much multimedia into these lessons as possible.
Software Used: The Music Matrix classes utilize Soundtrap, Noteflight, and Mixcraft.
Hardware Used: Chromebooks (owned by the school) are the main hardware used to access the technology.
History: Before starting my first music technology class, shares Thomas Nasiatka, I had little training on how to teach a secondary classroom music technology class. One day, I hopped on the subway, and on the way home, noticed that everybody around me had earbuds in their ears, except for me, the music teacher. This experience hit me right there. Everybody in the subway car was having a separate musical experience and I knew my students consume music in the same way. I knew that if I can get into their device, that’s an impactful way of of teaching music to them by making a solid connection between what they listen to as a valid form of music consumption. So I pitched an idea to my principal at the time, brought her a budget, and shared a list of supplies needed to start an electronic music program. To start, we used Mixcraft and a laptop cart. I was inspired by the MusicFirst curriculum, took a graduate course in music technology one summer, and used a lot of trial and error in piloting the first program.
Advice to Others Starting NTM Project: Focus on staying at least one day ahead of the students. Piloting a program like this can take a lot of trial and error. Attend conferences. Read books, especially ones written by Jim Frankel and Barbara Freedman. Follow social media pages that are geared to music technology. Katie Argyle has periodic newsletters and has a “Technology Tuesday” that has been extremely interesting. The MusicFirst company, is outstanding and incredible. Learn more about AI. Stay curious. Use your available resources. Build the relationships with your students because they will compose better for you and feel more comfortable accepting your feedback and workshopping things with you if you have a good relationship with them. Relationships come before content. And with music technology, music comes first and technology comes second.
Key Metrics/Data % of Students in Music Tech Classes: Out of ~1,350 students in the school, all of them are in a music class. Around 60% of students are involved in a music matrix class and the other ~40% are in traditional ensembles such as band, orchestra, or choir.
Additional Comments: Relationships is teaching and teaching is relationships. Classes often look different based on who's in the class, and it is important to become an intuitive teacher.
Date Submitted: February 2026 by Anna Guelcher (2026 MTLA Intern) from an interview with Thomas Nasiatka