Jon Bellona likes challenging his students to take risks. 

“One of the great things about teaching is when you see students going up to the precipice and deciding to take a leap,” he said. “It’s different for everybody where that is, but you recognize they are taking a risk or challenging themselves in a certain way. 

"Building up that confidence through risk-taking is really satisfying.”  

Bellona is an instructor in the School of Music and Dance who teaches the technology of music, and how to record and produce music. A self-described sound artist who specializes in digital technologies, Bellona gets into the nitty gritty of music production, such as how to go from live music to a finished record, where to set up microphones in the studio, and how to overdub.  

For his work instructing students on how to listen to music and how to make it, Bellona received the Herman Award for Specialized Pedagogy, which recognizes senior career faculty members for innovative, creative, and exceptional teaching.  

When academic leaders showed up in his classroom to surprise him with the award, Bellona said he was overwhelmed, and it was all he could do not to cry.  

“My heart was racing, and I was starting to sweat and I honestly thought I was in trouble.” he said. “I was just very grateful, very humbled.”  

One of Bellona’s favorite courses is Audio Recording Techniques III, commonly referred to as the Challenge Song. At the start of term, the students vote on a favorite song they would like to reverse engineer and then they spend the next 10 weeks figuring out how the artists created the song and the sound, and how to recreate it in the recording studio.  

Last spring, the students picked the song “Baby Come Back,” a 1977 chart-topping hit by the British-American band Player. The soft rock song has since been covered by other bands and has become something of a pop culture meme in TV shows and movies.  

The students spent a week figuring out how to get the same guitar tones as on the original track. One student sang the vocals and taught other students how to sing back up. Bellona wore the producer’s hat to make everything was on track. 

“That’s super fun,” Bellona said. “The students are really challenged. They learn a lot just by going through that process.  They’re really bringing all of their musical minds and skill sets to bear, leveraging each other’s strengths within the classroom.”  

A byproduct of students working together is that they form bonds inside and outside the classroom, and collaborate musically, joining or creating bands.  

“We’re trying to create community within the classroom dynamic, and through engagement with other students, they end up forming a band,” he said. “I feel proud as a teacher to have helped students in some way to help get them there.”  

For instance, a group of students who met in his class formed a group called Bowl Peace. The band put an album up on Spotify and have been playing around Eugene over the last year. 

“I think that was super awesome, the fact they take those skills and are actively engaged with it.”  

— Tim Christie, Office of the Provost Communications