Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

In this workshop, students will analyze & deconstruct production techniques of popular & underground electronic music while treading the realms of auditory phenomena, biology of the senses, physics of sound using cutting edge MIDI controllers. This workshop looks at current electronic & MIDI instruments and imagines what designs the future holds, while continuing to study stylistic music production trends in popular & underground cultures. Continuing to develop the art of beat-making, students dive into more complex and nuanced drum programming, recording and editing. 

Upon completion of the course students will be able to:

1. Write and sequence melodies using a variety of scales.
2. Discuss artistic and aesthetic choices with regard to cultural and historical assumptions, associations, traditions, and conventions and to one's own voice, style and/or identity.
3. Apply a basic understanding of the history of popular & underground electronic music when creating projects.
4. Demonstrate more complex drum programming, recording and editing techniques.

• Interactive, hand-on workshops with trending electronic music technology
• Critical listening and discussions with peers
• Embodied rhythm training
• Building MIDI drum sequences and patterns
• Evaluation of styles & techniques
• Instructor demonstration of music technology and place it within historical and cultural contexts
• Creation of original beats and melodies as an individual and a group

Grades will be determined by measuring student competency in the related subject matter. Methods used to determine competency might include:

• Practical Examinations
• Quantitative/Qualitative Examinations
• Individual Projects
• Group Projects
• Peer reviews/Evaluations

• Current & future electronic & MIDI instruments
• Stylistic approaches with new technology
• Exercised designed for more complex & nuanced drum programming
• Critical Listening to tone and timbre of percussive & melodic instruments
• Intro to pitch and origins of scales