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Electronic Music Academy

Electronic Music Academy | San Francisco

Learn to produce the quality electronic music you love from scratch in small classes on Garnish Music Production’s Electronic Music Academy Program, supported by Ableton, Native Instruments, and Apple.

We begin by familiarizing students with their music production software and take them through to mastering their project. With hard work, students can reach their full potential with help from our superior roster of instructors, who love to share their knowledge, experience, and techniques.

Garnish was the first music production school in the world to offer the Music Grades System for music production, and all Academy learners, worldwide take a Grade 6, 7, or 8 examination. More on music production grades on our London website here. If UK music production qualifications do not obviously pertain to our students’ goals, they (and perhaps more so their parents) can be rest assured that our music production academy meets a national standard of accreditation.

Production with Ableton Live

Ableton Live is a phenomenal DAW that Garnish students get to grips with in their first module. They will discover all the key concepts that this creative behemoth has to offer via accessible hands-on instruction. This will include session and arrangement windows, scenes, warping and clips. All Garnish learners qualify for a 40% discount, worldwide.

Music Foundations

We put great stock in our music composition section, as it can save the self-producing musician hours of plugging away and hoping! This part of the program shows the student which types of chord work well together, and then how to put them together so that they do work. This section also covers how to program bass lines that will groove and lead-lines that are ‘hooky’. Experience has shown us that even classically-trained musicians gain a great deal from exposure to our methods in this section of the program.

Audio Engineering

Audio engineering is the science bit of music production that often gets over-looked and under-valued by DJs and dance music producers – but not by us! It’s pointless having great ideas if you don’t know how to lay the foundations to set them upon. We’ll show you how it’s done!

Logic Pro X

Logic is hugely popular because of its ‘sound’- and particularly in the later stages of production. We cover its application at all stages and recognize its power, which is why it’s included in our Academy Program.

“I switched to Ableton from Logic many years ago, but recently I’ve been missing Logic, so I decided to brush up to get the best of both worlds. I called Garnish, of course and the guys were great and got me back up to speed in no time” Jamie Jones

Mixing & Mastering

We approach this part of the program in two parts. Firstly, we cover acoustics, and the best ways to correctly establish a home studio environment. Secondly, we move on to the regular stuff: filling the frequency spectrum, in-depth analysis of EQ, how to mix vocals, dynamic controllers and how to create a huge sound with only a few elements.

Electronic Sound Design

There’s much more to electronic music production than subtractive synthesis, yet many producers find it hard to go beyond that. You’ll cover granular, wavetable, additive, frequency-modulated synthesis AND subtractive synthesis. This part of the program will also cover sampling, re-sampling, advanced techniques for beat-making and also glitch tips as you continue to develop your individual sound.

Advanced Ableton & Synthesis

By getting to this point in the Garnish Electronic Music Academy program, you’ll find you’ve taken your sound design skills even further than many professional producers! We introduce you to granular, additive, Max4live devices and wavetable synthesis. That’s not all – we also cover advanced warping, advanced sampling and Racks and Chains. Skills aplenty – and then, at the conclusion of the module, we look at how to apply them to your music for film and TV.

Live Performance

This part of the program puts the emphasis on finishing your projects, and employing the bespoke advice and tips learned in concentrated mentoring sessions. Further, there’s an introduction to Ableton Live for performance. This will show you how to translate your tracks to the stage to be performed live – either for yourself or for other artists. You’ll also be learning how to adapt advanced MIDI techniques to meet the demands of the different live scenarios that today’s music business demands.

Music Business

Learning to build an effective EPK (Electronic Press Kit), how to brand and market yourself and then go on to negotiate deals are the steps you’ll tackle to complete the program. You’ll also look at how to generate genuine followers on social media and get the very best out of digital distribution.

Live Recording Session

There will be the opportunity to get hands-on training on site at Soul Graffiti Studios, where you’ll record a band.  There may even be a notable client or two working in the room next door to you…. Students will also get access to a selection of vintage analog synths (and processors) in a pre-production studio – a great opportunity to source some amazing analog sounds for their projects.

Performance

Students who prove to be capable DJs and whose music can be incorporated into our club night will be invited to join our DJ graduates at said club night – they won’t even have to partake of our DJ program if they’re experienced enough.

Three Free VIP Short Course Membership, Worldwide

Want to learn FL Studio, or brush up on Sound Design again? No problem, because on completion, all Electronic Music Academy learners at Garnish will get a free VIP membership for our shorter music production courses, worldwide.  This means that you can take up to three music production courses, with just the registration fee to pay at any of our participating locations (London, Miami, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Online), subject to availability, with no cap on when you’d like to take each course.  Our offer is valid as long as there is availability at your chosen participating school.

More Free Stuff

Thanks to our exclusive licensing partnerships, we have assembled a range of specialized assets: synthesizers, effects, and samples for Garnish Electronic Music Academy students. These instruments and sounds allow us to teach producers, side by side, using the same sets of expanded resources. Our constantly evolving license partners and content producers add thousands of dollars to the value of our Producer and Academy courses. Many of these products are yours to keep. Others are free to use while you learn and are then eligible for exclusive upgrades at a fraction of their regular price.

We have our very own boutique sample label. Garnish students get a generous toolkit (mostly written and produced by Garnish instructors) for free, and an exclusive pack just for Garnish students not sold on the site! It’s recorded individual keys from Mark Ronson’s Mellotron M4000D, which our label chief Zack Johnson meticulously recorded in Mark’s studio in Hollywood. Thank you Zack and Mark!

Instructors

Electronic Music Academy Prices

$9999 + $500 registration fee | Payment Plans & Info

Six Months (Two Ten-Week Terms) | Monday, Wednesday and Friday | 11a – 6p

Academy 1: Term 1 – April 6 | Term 2: June 22

Academy 2: Term 1 – July 3 | Term 2: September 28 (skipping Thanksgiving week; ends December 11)

Academic Year | Three 10-week terms | Tuesdays & Thursdays | 11a – 6p

Term 1: 3rd Tues. of September; Term 2: 2nd Tues. of January; Term 3: Last Tues. of April

Two Year Weekend | Six 10-week terms | Sundays | 11a – 6p

Term 1 & 4: 4th Sun. of September; Term 2 & 5: 3rd Sun. of January; Term 3 & 6: Last Sun. of April

Two Year Evenings | Six 10-week terms | Tuesdays & Thursdays | 7p – 10p

Term 1 & 4: 3rd Tues. of September; Term 2 & 5: 2nd Tues. of January; Term 3 & 6: Last Tues. of April (x2)

Bespoke private tuition is also available for the whole program. Contact us for more information.

Free this year: optional Hit Songwriting classes and mentoring from our Songwriting Music Academy.

Academy Application Form

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    Testimonials

    The course does a good job of expressing the importance of all aspects of music. Art of flow, synthesis, business, and marketing/branding are all building blocks of the aspiring musician pyramid. Armed with knowledge from each category (and of course good work ethic), anyone can navigate the long, crazy road to becoming a successful and happy musician.

    Daniel Ferenbach

    Class sizes were perfect, so there was a great balance of one on one instruction and instruction on broad topics.

    Adam Booker

    The course was very enjoyable, challenging, and fulfilling. The Garnish School is a great space to learn the fundamentals essential to becoming a strong, well-developed music producer. The instructors took the time to teach & explain complex software techniques, and designed special classes to illustrate specific aspects of music making,  and vocal recording techniques. The instructors were varied in their careers & producing styles, making for well-rounded instruction. The instructors were fun to engage with and were interested in building the students and our experiences. I'm so happy this school came to LA from London, and that I made the commitment to complete this course. I feel ready to jump forward and continue working on my music. Thanks to all the Garnish instructors and to Dave for creating this fantastic school!

    Spencer Barnes @jaemisson

    The Electronic Music Academy is a good time and super informative. I've been writing and producing music for the past year. There was so much I wanted to transcribe from my mind to my DAW, but I just didn't fully know how. Fortunately, the EMA course changed that in just a few short weeks. Very exciting! Not to mention the Garnish LA folks are super cool.

    Patricia Seely

    I came in knowing literally nothing and now I can make a quality track in just a day or two. Simple as that.

    Jason Heffler @fluenceemusic

    The course helped me learn exactly what I wanted to learn and more. It was super hands-on, which will help me retain what I learned in the course for a long time.

    Benjamin S Shirken

    I loved the small classes that made it easy to interact with the instructor and let you tailor the course to your needs and areas of improvement.

    Brazzabelle

    I went to school at Stanford for three years and had been taught by many great professors. But I'm thoroughly convinced that my Ableton teacher in the Electronic Music Academy was the best teacher I've ever had. The way he mixes new content, exercises, and little projects is really affective, and I felt like I could do pretty much whatever I want in Ableton.

    William Huang

    A lot of knowledgable teachers that are down to earth and easy going… amazing school all round!

    Anthony C

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