GREELEY - With technology rapidly replacing rote memorization of keys and chords as the learning tool of choice, educators in Northern Colorado are paving a digital highway for music students across the country.

A walk through the University of Northern Colorado music-technology labs, filled with the most up-to-date computers available, makes it clear that technology has turned traditional classrooms into computer havens.

One lab is lined with electric keyboards, each attached to an I-Mac laptop. The student can run programs for training, composition or recording on the laptop and input the musical information on the piano.

Instructors are able to listen to each student from a computer system at the front of the room, plugging into each workstation, tracking each student's progress on an individual basis.

"I think it's made (teaching) a lot more effective," said John McClaird, director of music technology at UNC. "Unfortunately, we have lots of majors, about 450, and there's no way we can give them all piano lessons. Having the instructor be able to communicate with each of the students individually I think as really helped us."