Instructor Lucas Levine will help you learn the basics of digital music production, composition and beat making! All you need is a laptop with internet and a pair of headphones to create and mix your own songs.
No instrumental experience? No problem.
Click and add each note individually and, note-by-note, create incredible melodies and rhythms exactly as they sound in your head.
Found a really catchy melody or beat? Make it your own.
Flip it, reverse it, stretch it, squeeze, speed it up, slow it down, re-harmonize it, or make it sound like something completely different and unique for your song.
Topics will include:
- Navigating music production software (called digital audio workstations or DAW)
- Arranging loops and samples
- MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface)
- Composition using digital instruments and samplers
- Mixing
- Creating a full digital arrangement and song
Why learn digital music composition?
Music technology is currently leaping forward at a rate never before seen. Gone are the days of record labels advancing tens of thousands of dollars to book large studios to write and record a band’s album. Now, bands and solo artists are switching to self recording. The “bedroom studio” has become a staple of modern music production because almost any relatively new computer can run professional audio software. With a microphone and an audio interface to get sound into the computer, a talented individual can write and record fully professional sounding music.
Most notably, Billie Eilish’s album “When we fall asleep, where do we go?” was written and recorded by her and her brother Finneas in their parents’ house. It was a humble beginning for an album that would go on to debut at #1 on Billboard and win three Grammy Awards.
This even extends to modern composition. The modern composer does not use sheets of staff paper and full orchestra to create their masterpieces. These days, legendary film composers like Hanz Zimmer and Alan Silvestri use some of the same digital audio workstations to compose their movie scores as EDM artists like Skrillex and Deadmau5 or Pop artists like Finneas or Pharell.
Electronic music production does not just include dance music and beats. With modern sampling techniques and digital instruments, a pianist could use their MIDI keyboard to play a driving rock drum beat. Or a drummer with some electronic pads could play a beautiful piano melody. Additionally, someone with no electronic controller could use their computer keyboard to play any instrument imaginable.
