Pop Music Design

Our mutual goal is to awaken and expand your creativity in songwriting. We'll show you how to come up with ideas for lyrics, how to best craft them into songs, and how to harmonise them. For this we will sing a lot of repertoire, so that you can get to know all styles of popular music in order to expand your horizon in your own writing. This also includes a lot of healthy vocal techniques, because each style requires different techniques.

During the first year, we try to raise you to the level needeed for your band in singing and songwriting: How do I write lyrics? What tools and tricks will help me sing in a healthy way? What kind of sounds can I create with my own voice? How can I improvise with my voice?

During the remaining years, we look at themes such as circle singing, writing choral arrangements, working with the loop station, ad-hoc songwriting, International Songwriter Week, singing repertoire, getting to know other singing techniques, interview training, artist profiles, stage work and much more!
Artistic/technical advice and project support: Alex Mayr. Further lecturers.

Whether you love heavy metal or acoustic, funk or the indie-music scene: As long as you do that well, while remaining open and curious about new things, you’re in the right place. We want to educate you both as an independent artist and as a competent sideperson. There are technical standards that will make it easier for you to work professionally later on. But just as important is your personality, which lends creativity, power and warmth to the artistic component of music. This means: We want to promote your strengths individually, while minimising your weaknesses.

Major

• 1st & 2nd semester, lecturer Prof. Peter Wölpl: Improving general timing & technique, pentatonic level 1, scale level 1, rhythm guitar in various musical styles, rhythmic note-reading, rhythm pyramid, improvisation with target pitches
• 3rd & 4th semester, lecturer Jan Zehrfeld: Pentatonic level 2, scale level 2, rhythmic modulations, solo improvisation versus solo composition, fingerboard navigation, three- and four-part chords with extensions and inversions
• 5th & 6th semester, lecturer Kosho Koschorrek: Fundamentals of gripping, picking and strumming technique for acoustic guitar, percussive acoustic guitar as accompanying and solo instrument, fundamentals of Latin/flamenco style, bottleneck/slide playing technique, alternative improvisation concepts

Minor
Lecturers: Gagey Mrozeck & Kosho Koschorrek; no prior experience necessary

• General fretboard navigation, basic overview of correlations between chords & scales, open tunings
• Chord inversions to develop and expand songwriting skills on the guitar
• Song examples, guitar riff compilation and exercises for different guitar styles
• Relevant basic knowledge about the different guitar types and their sound and playing types; amps, effects and sounds

Artistic/technical advice and project support: Prof. Peter Wölpl. Further lecturers.

We will prepare you for a sustainable career as a live performance and recording session musician. The emphasis in the classroom is on sound formation based on influential bassists, sensitivity for tone lengths and timing as a groove factor and phrasing as a basis for bass lines and melodies. You will also develop your pick and slap as well as synth-bass techniques.

Grouping, phrase-shifting and equipment instruction are key topics throughout the course of study. We also include stylistics and a detour into the sight-reading genre such as musical, orchestra pit and conducting, the ternary rhythms as well as ethnic and fusion music with all its complexity.

Our goal is to set you up with the broad skills needed to meet the challenges of a career as a professional bassist.

Artistic/technical advice and project support: Prof. Frank Itt. Further lecturers.

A career as a drummer can be multifaceted. In our studies we prepare you to be a drummer in a wide variety of areas.
In our classes we deal with technical skills such as technique, coordination, dynamics, sound, different meters, improvisation, timing and move through different styles. Creativity is important to us, because that's what music lives on. Therefore we deal with our own drum arrangements within song structures as well as in soloistic aspects.
In addition to these basic topics, we also take an individual approach based on your skills and interests.
With the constant development of the music industry, the demands on drummers are also changing. It is not uncommon for drummers to take on the role of a "musical director", creating playback tracks or samples, etc. Hybrid playing techniques and their electronic aids are therefore part of the lessons.

Artistic/technical advice and project support: Anika Nilles. Other Lecturers.

As a keyboard major, you will receive a foundational and comprehensive training that prepares you for a career as a professional musician.

You’ll learn to express yourself in different styles using their respective sounds. Styles include: Soul/Funk, Latin/Reggae, Gospel/Blues, Jazz, Hip Hop/R&B and modern genres like House/Dance, Drum & Bass, TripHop/Electro or Dubstep/ElectroPunk. These basics are complemented and supported by technical exercises that enhance your fluidity in playing and your ability to improvise. With these skills, you will also compose and arrange your own songs. In doing so, you can recombine what you have learned to develop your own signature style. You’ll pick up current trends and let them flow creatively into your work.

In addition, you’ll learn about solutions for the stage and studio, such as the targeted use of laptops, software or virtual instruments.

Artistic/technical advice and project support: Prof. Mathias "Maze" Leber. Further lecturers

In the Producing programme, you’ll explore and learn about all topics affecting current and future professional music producers throughout their careers. Unlike degree programs focused purely on sound engineering, there is a special focus on the entire genesis of produced music, on workflow, methodology, aesthetics and stylistics. However, as producers today must consistently be able to produce their productions on a technical level themselves, sound and production technology goes beyond basic knowledge. It is developed and deepened during a variety of workshops with specialists and experts for popular-music-relevant skills.

The multitude of musicians-in-training, soloists and bands at the Popakademie will provide you with a wide variety of tasks and production situations. The individual supervision of your own student projects and working methods by specialist lecturers allows you to foster your own potential.

Contents in detail
Common and lesser-known production philosophies and approaches, production of your own projects and individual tasks, one-on-one lessons, recording of live instruments and ensembles, band producing, electronic sound and groove design, vocal-producing, vocal arrangement and choral arrangement in the studio, orchestral arrangement and studio recording, listening in the studio, sound and recording technology (basic and specialised knowledge on the topics signal flow, digital technology, microphone technology, use and selection of microphones, acoustics, psychoacoustics, use of signal processors of all kinds as well as analog outboard and effects, special workshops for the most important recording tools/programmes used, among others through tutors/manufacturer clinics, mixdown: in the DAW, at the mixer, excursions to the studios of the masters, mastering/distribution, production analysis, music business for producers, introduction to film and game scores.

Major in Electronic Music Producing (EMP)

• Producing & Sound Design: EMP-specific application in the DAWs, beat programming, intensifications, NI Massive and Reaktor, Ableton live, Cubase Profi WS, hybrid production, connection between DAW and analogue technology, MIDI setups, automation techniques, summing and mixdown, combination DJ/Production Gear. Modular sound design: basics, set-up, how the individual modules on the system A100 work, sequencing within the system, connection with DAW systems, creating complete tracks in the system, producing business for EMP producers and DJs, booking, management, branding, social networking, streaming/broadcasting, licensee/contracts, merchandising, Beatport & Co
• DJ*: Typing of genres (Deep House, House, Techno House, Electro House/EDM, Progressive House, Techno, Trance, Minimal, Dubstep, Electronica, etc.), mixing basics, set planning, performing with Pioneer CDJ, NI Traktor with Control S4 with optional twister hardware, Abelton with various controllers, combination of Pioneer DJM 900 with Traktor software, integration of outboard gear, use of effects, live remixing and broadcasting

Artistic/technical advice and project support: Prof. Florian Sitzmann and Manager EMP Arno Müller. Further lecturers.

What looks to some as just the mathematics of music studies is for us the key to making everyone a better musician. Three passionate music-systematists who gained their knowledge mainly from musical practice, teach true theory of popular music.

Ear training, harmony and rhythmic training expand your musical perception, improve your overview during songwriting and train your sense of rhythm and body. Communicating principles of music theory means bridging the gap between theory and practical music making. We’ll improve your musical ear, music theory knowledge, rhythmic consciousness and individual compositional skills. This area includes the subjects Music Theory I-IV, Rhythmic training, Listening and Analytical Listening.

Artistic/technical advice and project support: Prof. Alexander Paeffgen. Further lecturers.

A freelance popular music artist’s income is often a patchwork. Artists pursue their own projects, work as music service providers and earn part of their income, at least in phases, by teaching. Teaching as a part of their activities is a favourite pursuit of many artists, as they are able to pass along their passion and make money without losing their credibility or sacrificing actual artistic activity. In this constellation, they often feel that teaching is a personal asset.

The course "Band Training/Ensemble Management" familiarises students with the basics of popular music didactics. This subject is closely interwoven with our successful music education project "Pop macht Schule". The students get to know different methods and concepts of the practical teaching of popular music and apply them in day-long workshops with pupils from schools in the region.

The methodology and didactics of Pop macht Schule provide a very activity-oriented music education that offers students opportunities for aesthetic experiences through creative processes. The tools taught enable a variety of creative processes through popular music when working with groups:

• Body percussion
• Singalong
• Words & Raps: lyrics and rapping
• Meet the Band: Band work for beginners
• Band coaching: Intermediate band work
• We are Producers: Music production on the computer
• Global Music Ensemble: Learning about and trying out various instruments from around the world

Artistic/technical advice and project support: Prof. Axel Schwarz. Further lecturers.