P1 Break the loop ceiling

Warm-up

10 min Hydrasynth free play — C major scale and triads, previewing the Phase 2 ladder

Study

Skim Making Music: the Problems of Beginning chapters. The real study this week is the template.

Making Music — Dennis DeSantis ↗

Exercises

• Build the one Ableton template: returns (one reverb, one delay), a reference track channel, Bluebox/Overbridge inputs, and a 64-bar grid with locators labeled Intro / A / Build / B / Break / B′ / Outro.
• Decide and test the capture path once — Bluebox multitrack WAVs or Overbridge. Pick one and stop optimizing it.
• Write the definition of done on a sticky note: length ≥2:30, has an arc, exported, given a name.

Deliverable

The template exists and a test capture made it into Ableton. Every track starts here now — never from blank.

Warm-up

10 min — C major triads up the scale degrees, Roman numerals out loud

Study

Making Music: 2–3 chapters from Problems of Progressing, each applied to the live track this week.

Making Music — Dennis DeSantis ↗

Exercises

• Resurrect loop #1 from the library and build it to maximal density — every element playing at once.
• Copy the dense loop across 64–96 bars of the template grid.
• Listening: drag Tycho’s “Awake” into Ableton, drop locators at every section change, write what enters and exits at each 8-bar boundary.

Deliverable

Loop #1 at maximal density, copied across the full grid, ready for deletion.

Warm-up

10 min — G major scale and diatonic triads

Study

Making Music: 2–3 more Problems of Progressing chapters, applied to track #1.

Making Music — Dennis DeSantis ↗

Exercises

• Subtractive arrangement: delete your way from the dense wall to a song. Ask “what leaves?”, never “what comes next?”
• Export track #1 in whatever state it is in. Ugly, derivative, under-mixed — all fine.

Deliverable

Track #1 exported: ≥2:30, beginning, development, ending, named.

Warm-up

10 min — F major scale and diatonic triads

Study

Making Music: start the Problems of Finishing chapters.

Making Music — Dennis DeSantis ↗

Exercises

• Resurrect loop #2. Build pattern variations on the Elektrons (A, A-minus-bass, A-plus-lead, breakdown) and chain them in song mode before capture.
• Capture the song-mode pass into the template.
• Listening: deconstruct a Bonobo track with locators — same enters/exits notes.

Deliverable

A captured song-mode skeleton for track #2 — arrangement thinking happened on the boxes.

Warm-up

10 min — cycle C, G, F triads back to back

Study

Making Music: 2–3 more Problems of Finishing chapters, applied directly to track #2.

Making Music — Dennis DeSantis ↗

Exercises

• Take track #2 from skeleton to export: transitions at the section boundaries, then stop adding.
• Export track #2 and give it a name.

Deliverable

Track #2 exported.

Warm-up

10 min — C, G, F triads; say every Roman numeral out loud

Study

Making Music: your pick — whichever chapter names the thing currently stopping you.

Making Music — Dennis DeSantis ↗

Exercises

• Resurrect loop #3 — maximal density or song mode, whichever the loop wants.
• Arrange the full 64–96 bar pass.
• Listening: deconstruct a Disclosure track. Notice how much is the same loop with 1–2 elements swapped — that is arrangement.

Deliverable

Track #3 arranged end to end, one session from export.

Warm-up

10 min — free run through all three keys

Study

No new reading. Re-listen to all three exports in a row and write three sentences: improved, weak, next constraint.

Exercises

• Export track #3.
• Exit check: play a reference track and narrate its arrangement in real time.
• Share at least one of the three exports with one human. A private SoundCloud link is enough.

Deliverable

Three exports exist. Starting from the template feels automatic.