Vanderbilt University recently hosted a Music Tech camp for local middle and high schoolers to explore writing and producing scores for video games.
The camp ran July 12 and 13 at Vanderbilt’s Blair School of Music. Kids ages 12 to 17 from various KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) schools and the W.O. Smith Music School, among other schools, came together for two days to learn the ins and outs of music production in video games.
The camp was co-instructed by a professor at the Blair school, Pascal La Boeuf, and professional video game sound producer, Steven Pardo. La Boeuf utilized a more classical background to musical composition, which complimented the knowledge of the video game field that Pardo introduced.
“If I had access to this level of talent every day, my workload would be a lot easier. This is the first time that I’ve ever done anything like this, and I’ve been working in the industry for 12 years or so,” Pardo said.
On the first day, instructors introduced the students to the concept of video game sound production through a small game development that included quick dialogue and sound effects. They also had guest speaker Austin Wintory, a Grammy-nominated video game score composer.
On the second day, campers were tasked with writing a score and creating sound effects for a larger game entitled “The Explorer.” They spent much of the day recording noises from the footsteps of the aliens in the game to the main character’s voice.
Students also wrote and recorded the main themes for the title page, in-game exploring and battle scenes. Kaitlyn Raitz, a professional cellist with the Nashville Symphony, talked about her experience with classical scoring and then also recorded a portion of the score that was used in the camper’s final game.
“When the pandemic hit, [Raitz] began working with technology to expand her practice and layer cellos and make these interesting recording ambient pieces,” La Boeuf said. “Campers made suggestions about how to communicate emotions with music as an instrumentalist, so those students that were more coming from traditional music background could imagine themselves in that situation.”
Undergraduates from the Blair school who had experience with music technology assisted with the camp, helping campers through the composition process.
“If I had the ability to take a camp at Vanderbilt when I was 11, 12 or 13, I think it would have opened up a whole world, past video games and music, even the idea that you could do music as a career,” Demi Adetona, an undergraduate at Vanderbilt, said. “I thought that all composers were dead or dying, so the idea that it’s a growing industry. New works are being created every day. New code is being made every day. It’s evolving, and we get to be part of that new change.”
This year the camp was run completely on scholarship thanks to a donation given to Vanderbilt, but the school hopes to expand the program in coming years to be a longer residential experience geared toward a more national audience.
