Music enthusiasts of all ability levels who want to learn how to mix their own songs using the newest tools on the web can now learn online from the experts for free as part of “Play With Your Music” #PWYM – an online community and course offered through the cooperative efforts of the music technology program at the NYU Steinhardt School, recording artist Peter Gabriel and Peer 2 Peer University. Signup is open now at playwithyourmusic.org, and the course will commence on May 16, 2014.
Students will explore creative music production through working with two of Peter Gabriel’s famous multi track recordings – “In Your Eyes,” and “Sledgehammer.” Learners will use the latest web-based production tools, analyze songs of their choice, and mix, remix and share their work, helping to build an audience for their music.
The course will be augmented by interviews with musicians who’ve performed and recorded with Peter Gabriel, including Jerry Marotta, percussionist on Gabriel’s So album, from which both tracks were taken, and Kevin Killen, Gabriel’s sound engineer. Supplemental instructional content on audio FX techniques (Alex U. Case, UMass Lowell) and songwriting (Phil Galdston, NYU Steinhardt) will also be available.
“I am a big fan of what the Peer 2 Peer University is trying to do to open up education to the world, and am very happy to be supporting this music project with NYU Steinhardt. It should make the world of music production much more accessible for those who want to explore it,” said Gabriel.
“This course creates a unique opportunity for anybody with a computer and an Internet connection to learn the ins and outs of creative music production through working directly with musical multi track recordings of music legend, Peter Gabriel,” said Alex Ruthmann, Associate Professor of Music Education and Music Technology at NYU and lead designer of Play With Your Music.
The course builds upon the success of the first iteration of #PWYM, which attracted 5,000 learners in the fall of 2013. New learners will explore multitrack recordings in Soundation’s online Digital Audio Workstation, and are supported by the active Google+ community of over 1,700 members and the bustling SoundCloud group which has over 30,000 listens. “We are particularly excited about designing examples for online learning that look nothing like a typical course, but take advantage of the loose and distributed nature the web has to offer” said P2PU learning lead Vanessa Gennarelli.
The “Play With Your Music” course in partnership with Peter Gabriel is free and open to all participants. For information on how to sign up, visit playwithyourmusic.org.