Ableton sessions – Creative jamming with Ableton
Course offered Fall 2024
Teaching institution: Conservatorium van Amsterdam
Course Tutor: Ferry Ridderhof
Contact email: Ferry.ridderhof@ahk.nl
Course level: Undergraduate/Postgraduate
Credit size: 2 ECTS
Maximum number of students: 20
Ableton sessions – Creative jamming with Ableton
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Ableton Live is currently one of the most creative Digital Audio Workstation software available. The intuitive layout, combined with the immense power and capabilities of this program, allows to produce music in countless ways across various genres at every skill level.
The Ableton Sessions course focuses on the use of the session view within Ableton. The main objective of this course is to playfully discover the creative power of Ableton without the immediate concern for a perfect final product. Step by step, you’ll learn how to assemble the various layers of a musical work in your own unique way.
Elements covered in the course include beats, melodies, chords, and effects using drum racks, synthesizers, software instruments, and effect racks. There is even a lesson dedicated to modular synths. In the final lesson, we learn how to record our jam sessions to potentially refine them into a fully releasable product after the course. Only Ableton Intro software is required for this course (€79, edu price €39).
THE GOALS OF THIS COURSE
- Learn to independently create music in Ableton Live.
- Construct beats using stock samples or your own samples.
- Create and manipulate melodies and harmonies using piano rolls, sequencers, and plugins.
- Edit your material with effects such as delay, reverb and distortion
- Use macros to dynamically vary elements of your songs live.
- Explore the limitless possibilities of modular synthesizer setups.
- Generate usable final products through jamming.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of this course, the participant will be able to independently produce music with Ableton Live.