These students participated in Music Row Job Shadow Day, a program put on by Junior Achievement of Middle Tennessee (JA) to give high school students with a penchant for music the opportunity to explore all the components of the music industry. The event was held across Music Row Oct. 24.

“Students were given the opportunity to get an idea of what it takes to succeed in the music business by shadowing some of the industry’s best executives,” said Charlisa Pugh, JA’s job shadow coordinator. “JA uses all of its in-class and hands-on programming to prepare kids to be successful in life and to follow their passions.”

The day began for the students at Rocketown with a question-and-answer session from Jack Gavin, drummer and road manager for Tanya Tucker. Gavin also treated the students to a tour of a million-dollar tour bus to give them an idea of the experience of traveling with an artist on the road.

Fourteen companies around Nashville hosted students for the 11^th-annual event. Some of these companies included veteran participants Compass Records, Curb Records, Haber Corporation and Word Entertainment. Sony/ATV Nashville, Still Working Music and NSAI were first-time participants in the event.

SESAC also hosted students again this year, as they have been for several years. The managers at SESAC “really enjoy” the experience, according to Lisette Balducci, executive assistant to the President and COO of SESAC, who helped coordinate the students’ experience at her company.

Zach Culp, a Martin Luther King Magnet School senior who plans to attend Middle Tennessee State University to study the recording industry, was one of the students who spent the day at SESAC. Culp, who has “been interested in the music business for awhile,” applied for Music Row Job Shadow Day hoping to get a better understanding of the industry.

While at SESAC, Culp and the other eleven students assigned to that location spent the morning around a table with Brian White, writer of “Watching You,” SESAC’s 2007 Country Song of the Year. White strummed his acoustic guitar while he shared tips to the students on effective songwriting. He advised the students to always keep paper or a tape-recorder nearby to avoid forgetting a really good idea for a song.

For students, the job shadow program provided a chance to learn more about what the town can offer those with musical talents and interests.

“Nashville has more opportunities to learn about music,” said Magan Berman, a sophomore at Hume-Fogg High School and a violin player. Berman visited Word Entertainment, where she met artists and got a behind-the-scenes look at the process.

Lauren Siren, a freshman member of the choir at Riverdale High School, also visited Word. “I love music, so [Music Row Job Shadow Day] was perfect for me,” she said.

“It was so interesting. This is definitely something I would do again,” Siren said.

Some students took tours of recording studios, others met artists and executives. Some students got a little more hands-on in the process. Allison Quintanilla, a ninth-grader at Hume-Fogg, made a promotional cut and did a little producing at 94FM The Fish.

Quintanilla, who has participated in JA’s job shadow programs before, applied for the program to learn other aspects of the industry. Last year, she focused on songwriting but claimed learning about the production side of the business was her favorite part of the day.

“The goal of this day was to give these students a realistic view of what goes on behind the scene of their favorite stars success,” Pugh explained.

Music Row Job Shadow Day changed Culp’s perspective of this field. “From the outside looking in, you only get to see the finished product, the artist and the album,” he said. “But because of this experience I got to see how actually complicated it all is. So there so much that goes into it and so much more to the music business than music.”