Last night I had the honor of spending a few hours with my colleague Jean Spivey’s wonderful class at ACC as her substitute teacher.  MBPT students are required to take traditional music classes such as Music Fundamentals to address the constants of music as well as classes in music business and technology. There are classes in Commercial Music Theory, Songwriting, Applied Music Lessons and several Ensembles. The MBPT course inventory includes classes such as Survey of the Music Business, Legal Aspects of the Entertainment Industry and five other courses to enhance student’s knowledge of the music business. There are sixteen Music Technology courses including MIDI and Synthesis classes, Live Sound and Audio Engineering, taking students from beginner to advanced levels. While these classes teach the fundamentals of the technology they also address changes as they occur. They also  stay connected to the community recording in-store performances at Waterloo records, student internships at local music businesses (RajiWorld has had many ACC MBPT students over the years) and by providing volunteer opportunities for students at events such as SXSW. The faculty remains connected to the community via live performances in and around Austin and working with local music businesses and charitable organizations. I shared my excitement for Black Fret, SIMS, HAAM and all of Austin’s unique organizations we are so grateful to have available. I was able to hear about each of their current experiences in addition to goals they had for my talk and post graduate level work. Each and every one of these students was engaging and I think an asset to our local business landscape. I learned a lot just being with them. To The Future!