Producing Dance Music, Learn to Make Beats, DJ Producer, Hip Hop Samples - Manchester Midi School

• Dance Music Evolution
• Dance Music Production
• Course Outline
• Course Structure

Producing dance music as we know it today has its roots in Disco and the Hip Hop born out of a ghetto reaction to its mainstream direction in the late ‘70s. DJ Kool Herc came from Jamaica to the South Bronx in ‘76 and mixed a blend of disco and funk while toasting on the mic at street parties. By then mixing two copies of the same record Grandmaster Flash was able to loop the drum breaks indefinitely.... Hip Hop was born.

At the same time something quite different was being developed on the other side of the Atlantic -Techno pioneers Kraftwerk began experimenting with drum machines and synthesisers and were later to have a massive influence back Stateside with the likes of Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson.

In England, US Techno and early House were moulded into Acid House by DJ producers such as Danny Rampling and Mike Pickering at their pioneering club-nights in London and Manchester. From the late ‘80s House and Techno boomed, spawning the array of specialist ‘4-to-the-floor’ genres we know today. As the BPM of breakbeats used in tracks progressed, in hand with music technology, such styles as Hardcore, Drum ‘n’ Bass and Breaks emerged from ongoing experimentation, again pushing MIDI-produced music into new realms.

Many top flight underground producers who were DJs by trade in the late 80s and 1990s moved into creating tracks of their own through an understanding and a passion for the music they were exposed to. This path into the music industry remains apparent today - DJ producer, to record label / A&R - only now, respected producers who have never previously DJ'ed are regularly booked to play big clubs just on the strength of a tune they have released.

With the rise of the DJ Producer, dance music and club culture over the past couple of decades has come a generation of people who through their experience of new music have a desire to get involved in a particular scene - whether House, Trance, Techno, Drum 'n' Bass, Grime or a style as yet unlabelled.

This short programme is an ideal option for home studio owners, budding DJ Producers and people just driven by music. It provides a concise and intensive overview of producing dance music, from learning to make beats, to the full writing and mixdown process. Each person will work towards creating and mixing a track with the ideas, samples and music that have inspired them. This forms the basis for teaching each person about the equipment and what is relevant to them, be it working hip hop samples into a track or programming virtual drum machines. These are informal and relaxed working sessions where time is taken out at regular intervals to explain each stage in the construction of a track, demonstrating the techniques for producing dance music, whatever the style.