Our COURSES

Gotham Music Academy offers the following courses for all experience levels:

Strings: Guitar | Uke | Bass

The Strings Course teaches acoustic and electric guitar, ukulele and bass. Students have the opportunity to focus on one of these instruments or pick different instruments for each class.

On the guitar and ukulele, they will progress from basic control of their instrument, including strumming open chords, arpeggio picking and open scales; to barre chords and advanced fingerpicking; and onward to advanced left-hand techniques (e.g., hammer-ons & pull-offs, string bends, etc.), chord-to-melody runs, percussive rhythm playing and alternate tunings.

On the bass guitar, students will start with first position scales and arpeggios, hone their skills with walking, muting and hammer-ons & pull-offs; and advance to slapping, ghost notes and syncopated rhythms.

Keys: Piano | Organ | Synth

The Keys Course teaches students piano using professional 88-key digital pianos with full mechanical hammer actions.  In addition to the piano, students have the option to learn how to play other sampled instruments on the keyboard such as pipe or drawbar organ. Moreover, students will have the opportunity to create their own sounds playing a synthesizer.

All students will methodically progress from basic control of the keyboard, including middle-C hand placement, right-hand melody and left-hand chord playing; to arpeggiated chords, multi-octave runs and finger- and hand-independence; and onward to syncopated blues piano, intermodulation into all major and minor keys and fluid position changes.

On the synthesizer, students will learn how to  deploy oscillators, filters and envelopes to shape sounds using subtractive synthesis.

Drums: Drums | Percussion

The Drums Course teaches students how to lay down the rhythmic foundation of songs in contemporary genres including rock, jazz and blues.

Using full-sized professional electronic drum sets, students will learn to keep time with the bass and snare drum as well as hi-hats; play rudiments; progress to devising tom and cymbal fills; build a go-to set of drum patterns for typical time signatures and song structures in contemporary genres; and explore complex rhythm patterns and multi-rhythmic playing.

The course also introduces students to various percussion instruments including congas, bongos, timbales and cowbells. These percussion instruments help students explore rhythms and musical styles from genres and traditions beyond the Western canon.

In addition, Gotham Music Academy offers the following advanced courses:

Songwriting


Are you looking to write  songs in contemporary genres such as pop, rock, folk, Rn’B or blues? Then the Songwriting Course is for you!

Learn how to develop a musical idea, using either a melody line or a chord sequence as a jumping-off point to a full song arrangement.  Progressing from the exploration of counterpoint and harmonization, students will learn how to employ different song structures, create arrangements that optimize dynamics and frequency balance, craft lyrics to match beat, tempo and instrumentation, and vary sonic contours and textures to maximize their songs’ emotional impact. 

Students will practice each new skill with hands-on exercises using either guitar or keyboard.  Throughout the course, students will be working on writing their very own original song.

Recording

Want to bottle up the magic you make when your music moves air? The Recording Course will teach you how!

Students will learn how to record vocals, acoustic instruments and amplified electronic instruments; clean up and combine the best takes; mix down the tracks using dynamics processors, EQ and effects; and “package” the polished product into audio files that you may share with others.

The Recording Course is an excellent complement to the Music Production Course, enabling students to elevate their beats with vocal tracks. Among other, students will practice proper mic technique for recording vocals; overdubbing; and double tracking.  The course is also a perfect companion for the Songwriting Course, providing students with the opportunity to record their own original song.

Electronic Music Production

Ever wonder what it takes to make music that sounds like songs you hear on the radio? Take our Beatmaker Course and find out! 

Students will learn how to produce music for modern genres including pop, hip hop and EDM on digital audio workstations (DAWs) using pad & keyboard controllers.

Students will design virtual drum kits, program beat loops and compose bass and melody parts; progress towards sequencing loops to form a complete song; and advance to creating custom patches through gating, compressing & expanding, applying EQ and adding effects.  

In the process, students will explore principals of music arrangement; learn and apply music theory to improve their ideas; and hone their ears and aesthetic judgement; taking them from “trial-and-error” to skilled music production.

With our innovative courses, flexible class schedule and competitive pricing, what are you waiting for? Let’s move on to Enrollment!