Digital Music

Course

In Almodington

£ 513 + VAT

Description

  • Type

    Course

  • Location

    Almodington

  • Duration

    12 Months

Facilities

Location

Start date

Almodington (West Sussex)
See map
Atlantic House, 119 Third Avenue, PO20 7LB

Start date

On request

About this course

You’ll need a minimum or 3 months experience of making music before you get into DM.

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Reviews

Teachers and trainers (5)

Chuck   Fernandez

Chuck Fernandez

US Tutor

Composer and orchestrator Charles Fernandez is based in Los Angeles where he regularly writes and orchestrates for the big Hollywood session orchestras. He has scored films for Disney, Warner Bros, Dreamworks and Universal.

George   Kallis

George Kallis

Film Composer and Orchestrator

George Kallis is a film composer and orchestrator who's recent credits as a composer include Highlander the Source and Joy Division and as an orchestrator on Marvel's Dr Strange, Next Avengers and Ultimate Avengers. George studied music at Berklee in the US and then took a Masters at the Royal College of Music.

Guy   Michelmore

Guy Michelmore

Course Director and Film Composer

Guy Michelmore is both the course director and an award winning film composer. He is both an EMMY and ANNIE nominee and has scored eight animated feature films for Marvel including Ultimate Avengers, Invincible Iron Man and Doctor Strange. His other work includes landmark films for the BBC Natural History Unit, Nature on PBS and over 200 episodes of television for the NBC network, Discovery and other networks around the world. He regularly composes, orchestrates and conducts for live orchestra in Europe and the USA. ...

Jeff  MacDonald

Jeff MacDonald

US Course Manager & Tutor

eff MacDonald is a prolific Hollywood composer, with clients that include nearly every major film and television studio. He has contributed music to over 100 film trailers as well as numerous television shows and commercials, with credits that include CSI: NY, Entourage, District 9, Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen, G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra, Public Enemies, Terminator Salvation, The Departed, Audi, Honda, Toshiba, Land Rover.

Milton  Nelson

Milton Nelson

Composer and Orchestrator

Milton Nelson is a composer and orchestrator with credits including the Haunting in Connecticut, Pokemon and Jackie Chan movies, TV shows including Scrubs, The Wayne Brady Show, The Tonight Show and High School Musical: Get In The Picture. He works both with samples and live orchestra and is based in Los Angeles California.

Course programme

Overview

Digital Music is an innovative and flexible training course in music and technology. Study from home with world-class tutors.

Where else would you get one-to-one tuition from a Grammy Award winning producer, or maybe help with your chord progressions from a multi-award winning film composer? How about getting Madonna's remixer to listen to your dance music?

It ranges from structuring music and writing tunes through to how computers and software work, chord progressions and scales, digital audio and plugins, and studio design.

DM is available in both a 12 month/8 unit and a 6 month/4 unit course. We're fully accredited. It's a music production course, music technology training and music theory lessons all in one amazing package.

Programme

Digital Music is an 8 unit, 12 month course covering everything a contemporary musician needs to know.
If you want to focus on specific units then DM:Select is for you. Choose any 4 units from the list below to complete in 6 months.

First Assessment

Send in some music to your course tutor so he or she can assess your strengths and weaknesses. Together you will discuss your objectives and plot a path through the course to help you achieve them. DM is uniquely flexible and gives an enormous range of options. Your course tutor is an experienced professional computer musician who can help tailor the course to your requirements.

Note: [First assessment is only available in the full Digital Music course, not DM:Select]

Unit 1 - Musical Structure and Form

How to take a 16 bar tune that goes nowhere and turn it into a really compelling track. Why musical structure is important. Common musical forms from Moby to Beethoven, jazz to rock and roll, dance to film music. How to analyse music and how to use structure and templates to improve your own tunes. Projects for all styles of musicians from re-mixers and guitarists to orchestral composers.

Unit 2 - Computers and Music

How computers work and why they sometimes don't. Musicians need a much deeper knowledge of the inner workings of their computer than most, so this unit takes you from first principals - memory, processors, storage - through to backside cache and beyond. There's a detailed troubleshooting section with video tutorials on both Mac and PC, helping you solve problems when your computer goes wrong.

Unit 3 - Tune Writing, Scales and Tonality

How to write great compelling tunes. How the best melodies work and a step-by-step method of producing better melodies by a top film composer. Part one of our crash course in music theory looks at how pitch is notated, scales and modes. How melodic hooks and motifs are used in contemporary music. There are dozens of exercises to help improve your own tune writing. The projects offer you an opportunity to add your melody to existing tracks, or to tackle more challenging assignments including writing in modes for more advanced students.

Unit 4 - Acoustics and the Studio Design

An introduction to the principals of acoustics upon which everything else in music technology is based. A studio designer shows you how to make your studio sound better and more accurate without breaking the bank. Planning a studio upgrade? Submit your plans to a specialist in the field for detailed feedback and advice. There is an online multiple-choice test which covers the acoustic science element of the unit.

Unit 5 - Rhythm

How rhythm works, how it's notated and how sequencers approach it completely differently. How to programme better drum loops, a top session drummer gives you a guide to working with live drummers. Plus a crash course in Hip Hop from one of Dr Dre's producers filmed in a Hollywood recording studio. Watch him create a track from scratch and then examine his track in detail in your own sequencer. How to record rap vocals with an engineer and producer from the legendary Death Row Records.

Unit 6 - MIDI

How MIDI sequencers work from first principals to more advanced MIDI controllers and hexadecimal. Practical techniques for recording, editing and manipulating midi data. Video tutorials and exercises to ensure you control your sequencer rather than the other way round. A checklist of tasks every musician should know how to do.

Unit 7 - Harmony and Chord Progressions

Even students with good music theory can struggle to construct a really good chord progression. This unit not only gives you the essential theory behind harmony and the circle of fifths, but also a practical no nonsense approach to selecting the right chord progression. Again there are dozens of exercises to help you develop your technique. Join producer and songwriter Steve Hillier on harmonising an indie band tune, plus a top session guitarist talks about how to get the best out of a live guitarist. Session bassist Steve McManus and dance guru Rick Snoman both guide you through how to write the perfect bass line.

Unit 8 - Audio Sequencing

A practical guide to recording, playing back and editing digital audio. How to install and use plugins and virtual instruments. A guide to music editing with a top music editor. Extensive video tutorials all with full sequencer file support, plus a checklist of tasks every computer musicians should know how to achieve. A top film composer shows you how to write orchestral music in a sequencer, and a guide to getting the best out of the sampled orchestra.

Final Project

An opportunity to bring together everything you've learnt so far in a more substantial and challenging piece of work. Choose from a range of subjects and styles.

Note: [Final Project is only available in the full Digital Music course, not DM:Select]

Additional information

Payment options: Single Payment - £ 513.00 Extending your course and extra tuition Annual Tuition Fee Extension - £ 150.00 Tutorial Credit Pack 4 Credits - £ 120.00 Installment plan - £ 573.00

Digital Music

£ 513 + VAT