META24 WORKFORCE LAB · GRADED TO THE CORE · PROJECT-BASED · MUSIC THEORY & MUSIC ENGINEERING · THE LAB'S YEAR · MIDDLE SCHOOL · UPPER SCHOOL · GRADE 6–12 · 1 CREDIT · META24 LAB COMPETENCIES
Music Theory & Music Engineering · the year
Make the Track · Music · in Make the Track · Music
My track · the teardown · the elements · the genre kitchen · the release
This year is laid from the lab’s own calendar — every course inside the lab end to end, then its floors — not written quarter by quarter. The weeks are the lab’s; the quarter windows are the catalog’s.
THE MIX · HOW MUCH OF EACH CORE SUBJECT THIS COURSE CARRIES · IN ORDER
ART & DESIGNMATHHISTORY, GEOGRAPHY & HUMANITIESSCIENCECODING & AITECHNOLOGY & TRADESREADING & WRITINGBUSINESS & ENTERPRISE
The squares are a picture of a course — how much of each core subject its own rooms carry, read from the rooms’ text — never a score of a student. Every course in a lab is graded to the core across the board; the squares say which columns it feeds most.
WHAT YOU WILL BE ABLE TO DO
- Turn a story or feeling into a finished song
- Read rhythm + basic theory by ear
- Record, arrange, mix, and release a track
AT A GLANCE · 36 WEEKS
Q1 Music Theory · sound to song — A released track (stems + master)
Q2 Music Theory · sound to song → Music Engineering · THE SOUND — A beat built on the grid
Q3 Music Engineering · THE SOUND → The floor — A released track (stems + master)
Q4 The floor — A beat built on the grid
THE COURSES INSIDE THIS LAB · 2
THE ROOMS · 8 · BEHIND LOGIN
Semester 1
WEEKS 1–18 · QUARTERS 1 AND 2Quarter 1 · Music Theory · sound to song
WEEKS 1–9 · IN THIS OFFERINGTHE WEEKS · THE ROOMS EACH ONE OPENS
WK 1Sound ItselfMUSIC THEORY · SOUND TO SONG
Before music, physics. Everything you’ll ever do — every EQ move, every mix decision — starts with three facts about what sound actually IS.
WK 2Rhythm
The foundation everything else stands on. You already feel it — this week you learn to hear, place, and control it, down to the millisecond.
WK 3Melody & Pitch
Intervals are feelings with names. You already know every one of them by ear — this week you learn to name them, and it’s the single highest-ROI skill in music.
WK 4Harmony
Chords are how notes stack — and a shockingly small handful of chord progressions run the entire world of popular music. This is the week the curtain gets pulled back.
WK 5Song Form
A song is architecture. The notes matter, but where you put the walls, doors, and empty rooms is what makes a listener feel something.
WK 6The Instruments
A band is not a pile of instruments — it’s a set of JOBS. Somebody keeps time, somebody holds the bottom, somebody paints the chords, somebody sings the story.
WK 7History & The Family Tree
This is the best story in American culture: one family tree, from work songs in a cotton field to trap on the radio today.
WK 8Genre Anatomy
Every genre is a recipe — a specific set of ingredients you can name, take apart, and reassemble. Once you can list the six ingredients of any style, you can reproduce it, teach it, or fuse two into something new.
WK 9The Gear
The most hireable knowledge in this whole course: how sound actually travels from a voice to a speaker, what every piece of gear in the chain does, and how to FIND THE FAULT when the sound dies.
THE PROJECT · WHAT THE QUARTER IS FOR
A released track (stems + master)
The question. Can you turn a story or feeling into a finished song?
The make. A released track (stems + master)
The evidence. Handed in through Make the Track · Music’s own surface and kept in My Work; the Report reads it from there.
Quarter 2 · Music Theory · sound to song → Music Engineering · THE SOUND
WEEKS 10–18 · IN THIS OFFERINGTHE WEEKS · THE ROOMS EACH ONE OPENS
WK 10Recording & MixingMUSIC THEORY · SOUND TO SONG
Where a pile of recorded tracks becomes a song. The secret pros wish beginners knew: most of a mix is just VOLUME, done in a specific order — and you can’t mix your way out of a bad recording.
WK 11The Voice & Performance
The voice is the oldest instrument and the one every listener judges first. This week covers how it actually works, how to stack and layer it like the pros, the honest truth about auto-tune, and how to command a mic and…
WK 12The Business
The difference between a career and a story about one. Talent gets you into the room; understanding rights, money, and the real jobs keeps you there.
WK 13The MapMUSIC ENGINEERING · THE SOUND
Music Engineering · THE SOUND — week 1 of 10.
WK 14The Line
Music Engineering · THE SOUND — week 2 of 10.
WK 15The Credit
Music Engineering · THE SOUND — week 3 of 10.
WK 16The Band
Music Engineering · THE SOUND — week 4 of 10.
WK 17Ear
Music Engineering · THE SOUND — week 5 of 10.
WK 18The Room
Music Engineering · THE SOUND — week 6 of 10.
THE PROJECT · WHAT THE QUARTER IS FOR
A beat built on the grid
The question. Can you read rhythm + basic theory by ear?
The make. A beat built on the grid
The evidence. Handed in through Make the Track · Music’s own surface and kept in My Work; the Report reads it from there.
Semester 2
WEEKS 19–36 · QUARTERS 3 AND 4Quarter 3 · Music Engineering · THE SOUND → The floor
WEEKS 19–27THE WEEKS · THE ROOMS EACH ONE OPENS
WK 19The Restoration BenchMUSIC ENGINEERING · THE SOUND
Music Engineering · THE SOUND — week 7 of 10.
WK 20The Bench
Music Engineering · THE SOUND — week 8 of 10.
WK 21The Deck
Music Engineering · THE SOUND — week 9 of 10.
WK 22The Atlas
Music Engineering · THE SOUND — week 10 of 10.
WK 23–24My trackTHE FLOOR
The floor — the work is done in the room, logged in the room, kept in My Work.
WK 25–26The teardown
The floor — the work is done in the room, logged in the room, kept in My Work.
WK 27The elements
The floor — the work is done in the room, logged in the room, kept in My Work.
THE PROJECT · WHAT THE QUARTER IS FOR
A released track (stems + master)
The question. Can you record, arrange, mix, and release a track?
The make. A released track (stems + master)
The evidence. Handed in through Make the Track · Music’s own surface and kept in My Work; the Report reads it from there.
Quarter 4 · The floor
WEEKS 28–36THE WEEKS · THE ROOMS EACH ONE OPENS
WK 28The elements (continued)THE FLOOR
The floor — the work is done in the room, logged in the room, kept in My Work.
WK 29–30The genre kitchen
The floor — the work is done in the room, logged in the room, kept in My Work.
WK 31–36The release
The floor — the work is done in the room, logged in the room, kept in My Work.
THE PROJECT · WHAT THE QUARTER IS FOR
A beat built on the grid
The question. Can you turn a story or feeling into a finished song?
The make. A beat built on the grid
The evidence. Handed in through Make the Track · Music’s own surface and kept in My Work; the Report reads it from there.
A course is a quarter, a semester or a year — nine, eighteen or thirty-six weeks — a project a quarter. Offered as the year, a semester or a quarter, it is the same course seen through a window. A lab is a family: its year, each of its tracks as a course, and its rooms. The evidence is what a student hands in through the room; the Report reads it from there. Nothing in the catalog is a grade.
THE PASS · THIS COURSE AND EVERY OTHER ONE
One pass includes Music Theory & Music Engineering · the year and every course in the catalog. Pick a pass, or enter a school code; checkout stays on this page.