Sequence One demystifies Ableton music production
tl;dr If you're a house music fan and are interesting in learning how to make house music, Sequence One's Introduction To Ableton Live 9 is a fantastic start. Unlike many Intro to Ableton courses, it's specifically geared towards house music, and at only $99, it's significantly less expensive than other courses out there, and far more focused. Don't let the price fool you, it's chock full of valuable and useful information, and worth way more than the cover charge.
One quick note at the top. This is not a paid advertisement. I paid for the Sequence One Introduction To Ableton Live 9, went through it and was impressed enough to write about it.
Sequence One is a music school in the San Francisco bay area, headed up by veteran producer and certified Ableton instructor, Lenny Kiser. You can find many videos of him teaching Ableton on YouTube spanning the years, and it was for this reason I decided to give his introduction to Ableton course a try.
While I ended up already knowing much of what he taught in the course, I was impressed with the way he stuck to teaching things that were specifically tailored to making house music. Other courses I've seen (and paid for) end up going all over the place and off into tangents, and sometimes the instructor will do things without really explaining why, or they'll get lost in side discussions and have to retrace their steps. Not so with this course. Lenny keeps it tight and focused because it's clearly well thought out, and he's following a script, not a general outline. This is a major differentiator from other online courses I've seen.
Now, I'll admit that sometimes the scripted format can come off as a bit stilted, and it's a departure from the casual style Lenny has in his videos on YouTube when he's teaching in front of a live audience. I wasn't sure how to feel about this at first, but I realized that by following a script, it greatly improved the signal to noise ratio. There's no distractions or getting lost and backtracking, and other such problems that non-scripted courses have.
The benefit of the scripted format is that everything he's teaching is usable information. He makes the occasional joke here and there, but it's clear he's on a mission. And that is to teach you broadly and specifically the various things you need to know to start making music in Ableton right now, from beginning to end, with no filler.
Another big benefit of the Sequence One course compared to other courses and online video tutorials is that Lenny only uses Ableton's built-in instruments, effects, etc. So many courses I've seen use expensive third-party plugins in their tutorials. It's a distraction and makes you think you need these things when you're just starting out and you definitely don't. Also, his course can be taken with the free version of Ableton.
If you're interested in learning how to start making house music, I strongly recommend this course. Other courses can cost you thousands of dollars, and aren't focused specifically on house music. Free videos on YouTube are fine and you can definitely learn things from them, but they're all over the map as far as quality and topic goes. At $99, this course is a steal considering everything he teaches you and how it's taught. It's a ton of information, condensed into a nice, easy to follow course. You can ask questions below each video and Lenny will answer them. And, you have lifetime access to review videos anytime you like. He even has a 30-day money back guarantee.
You can check out information about the course and see a preview here: https://sequence-one.teachable.com/p/ableton-intro
And here's a video of Lenny teaching how to use Push 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_85I-_oWuu4
Enjoy!
