Dave and Don Megill

Music Instructors

It takes some people years to figure out which twin is which. And Dave says when he looks at pictures of the two of them, sometimes even he has to look twice to figure it out. No question about it, though, Dave and Don Megill bring a creative force to MiraCosta College--as individuals and as a team.

Since Dave and Don began teaching at MiraCosta in the 1970s, the music program has grown from a “sleepy department” to a dynamic, hands-on learning environment that attracts students from all over the region and professionals from all over the state who want to see what’s going on here. What they see is a LOT is going on! Commercial music students perfect performance skills, use programming skills to compose music, work in the studios, create CDs, produce concerts--everything they would do if they got a gig in the real world, which many go on to do.

In addition to working with students in “real” time, the Megills are also heavily involved in online education, collaborating to develop courses that are used “in house” and in the past few years, publishing online courses for much wider use in subjects including rock ’n’ roll history, jazz history, music appreciation, and theory. The twins are also involved developing and reviewing materials for “MERLOT,” which stands for multimedia education resources for learning and online teaching, an international database aimed at online instructors.

“We’re helping students learn what they want to learn. We’re a culture in addition to being a curriculum. In a lot of places, curriculum is all you have.”