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At Bird, music and technology come together. The San Francisco-based school of music encourages students to use the latest technology to enhance their musical creativity. Providing instrumental instruction and band supervision to children and teens, Bird goes beyond traditional lessons. “Working with the latest digital audio workstations, all experience levels have the ability to archive their songs, jams and lessons. In addition to vital old-school knowledge like setting up amps and other analogue equipment, students gain an understanding of computer-based music recording equipment and software.” The only thing we’re missing, is workshops on how to promote newly recorded songs and videos on YouTube, MySpace and SellaBand. Business opps? Setting up (or relaunching) music schools as centres of music + community + technology, as Bird describes itself. Legions of young people have entered a world where almost anyone can reach a certain level of stardom without having to beg and pray for an A&R rep to listen to their demo tape. Which means there are plenty of opportunities for facilitators that help them acquire good-old fashioned technique enable them to create high-quality sound recordings to upload to the online music arena du jour. (Oh, and it can’t hurt to throw in some physical activity—Bird offers yoga, too.) Spotted by: Nadine Johnson