Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

This is a compressed, immersive workshop serving to bring together electronic music producers and those just getting started to practice the Art of Beat Making and Critical Listening. This workshop includes group discussion around production techniques, stylistic & aesthetic choices, while practicing embodied rhythm training, notation skills, drum programming and sequencing with the powerful software, Ableton Live, and a variety of MIDI devices including the Push 2.

Upon completion of the course students will be able to:

1. Apply the fundamental ideas and practices of electronic music in the completion of projects.
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 electronic music history when utilizing current technology.
4. Notate music in standard western and alternate notation systems.

• 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

• Foundation & history of rhythm
• Listening & Identifying percussion 
• Sample & Synthesized Drum Machines
• Embodied Rhythm Training - coordination
• Intro to Standard, Drum and Grid notation
• Evolution of Instrument Design - Acoustic, Electric, MIDI
• Intro to the Push Controller - Drum Rack & Sequencer
• Drum Programming - a stylistic approach