After graduating, Adams received a copy of John Cage's book "" from his mother. Largely shaken of his loyalty to modernism, he was inspired to move to San Francisco, where he taught at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music from 1972 until 1982, teaching classes and directing the school's New Music Ensemble. In the early 1970s, Adams wrote several pieces of electronic music for a homemade modular synthesizer he called the "Studebaker". He also wrote "American Standard", composed of three movements, a march, a hymn, and a jazz ballad, which was recorded and released on Obscure Records in 1975.