We’re very excited to announce the first artist to be involved in the Google Hangout of the Academy of Electronic Music. The finalists will take part in a once-in-a-lifetime hangout with no one less than Armin van Buuren! During the hang-out, the lucky 7 have the opportunity to ask Armin their burning question. And the best part is – everyone can watch!

This session will expand on your chord knowledge by focusing on chord progressions. Ski will show how to define chords as roman numerals and how to combine major and minor chords - and how to use a 'chord device'. Ski will deconstruct 'Spectrum (Calvin Harris RMX)' by Florence & The Machine to demonstrate the chord progression and then provide the acapella to the winners to try it out themselves.

Berlin resident Ian Pooley's music career spans three decades, with over 400 singles & remixes and 7 albums. Pooley's sound - influenced by time spent in musical meccas Berlin, Chicago, Detroit and Rio - is dark and hypnotic, with a signature infectious groove. Striking a balance between his status as a cult underground DJ and being an established mainstream producer, Pooley’s first album in four years entitled What I Do is a sublime collection of house and techno productions, true to the crowd-pleasing techniques of his multi-faceted music.

This is a very special hangout in which German trance legend Mike Koglin will give a detailed appraisal of the class of 2013’s seven winning tracks. He will offer advice on production and arrangement and assess what steps need to be taken before final submission to Armada for release. After absorbing Mike’s tips, the winners will have the following week to polish up their tracks.

Not just known as the featuring singer on the records of Armin van Buuren, Tiësto, Benny Benassi, Paul van Dyk and BT, but also a talented songwriter, that’s Christian Burns. Christian just released his debut album, ‘Simple Modern Answers’, on Armada Music, and has 10 years of experience working in the dance scene. In our Hangout with Christian, we discover his views on songwriting, and get to know important factors when using vocals in dance music. 

We start with an introduction and explanation of what to expect during the next few weeks. In this lesson expert tutor Ski Oakenfull from Point Blank will teach the seven winners about key signatures and major and minor scales. The group will listen to some example tracks to determine their key and gain access to a key signature test project. Although quite rudimentary, this lesson is designed to provide a solid foundation for future masterclasses.

After covering some of the basics last week, we now turn our attention to creating parts and in this lesson we focus on the bass. Ski will start off by deconstructing Storm Queen’s ‘Look Right Through’ in Ableton Live which features a great funky bassline. The parts to the track will be made available to download after the hangout for students and audience to try out some alternative basslines. We will also have a listen through to the students’ reinterpretations of Florence & The Machine’s ‘Spectrum’ which was the task set in the previous masterclass.

Having looked at chords & basslines, it’s now time to turn our attention to melodic riffs and the role rhythm plays in adding interest with syncopation and cross-rhythm. Ski takes a track suggested by one of the winners, Heatbeat’s ‘Chow Mein’ and breaks down some of the melodies and rhythms of the track. Ski will set a task for the students to come up with some alternate rhythms and melodies for a downloadable project. The audience will also have a chance to get involved via a Soundation.

Max Graham is the proud owner of Re*brand Records and runs the successful weekly 2 hour show Cycles Radio. He is also the producer behind such smashes as ‘The Evil ID’, ‘Where You Are’ and ‘Diamonds’, as well as a DJ who loves to interact with his fans on social media. As an artist with fifteen years of experience under his belt he is looking forward to talking to the 7 finalists about his approach to making music and building your profile.

For the penultimate EMC session, Ski will demonstrate the actual process of deconstructing a track and show how beneficial this can be for your own productions. Using the recent massive remix by Cedric Gervais of Lana Del Rey’s ‘Summertime Sadness’ as an example, he will focus on chords, melodies, bass lines and structure. As a task, Ski will ask the winners to have a go at deconstructing a track of their choice.

Following on from the previous lesson, we will look at constructing basic chords and arpeggios from the scales we studied. Ski will examine the chords of Deadmau5’s 'The Veldt' by deconstructing it, and then applying key signature knowledge to try out some new chords and arpeggios. The winners will download the acapella to try it out for themselves.

The co-host and side-kick to Armin van Buuren’s A State of Trance radio show, a successful DJ and passionate producer, label-owner to his very own Statement Recordings and, last but not least, one of the reviewers of the DJ Mag NL magazine. We’re talking about Ruben de Ronde here! Keeping his ear out to new talent constantly, Ruben is a big fan of the Academy of Electronic Music and was more than happy to do a live Hangout with the 7 finalists and other viewers!

After an intensive first two weeks which covered the basic aspects of building up musical parts and remixing acapellas, we now turn our attention to working with a real live vocalist! In this session Ski will start by deconstructing a track requested in week 2 by a YouTube viewer, and will then be joined in the hangout by the fantastic Viv May who plans to write some vocals over one of the winners’ instrumental tracks.

Following on from Monday’s hangout session with top London vocalist Viv May, we will now turn the ideas into reality with a live recording session. After a discussion on the arrangement of the instrumental track, Viv will join Ski in Point Blank’s broadcast studio, and with the involvement of the seven winners, lay down some vocal takes. As an assignment, the students will then have the opportunity to take away the resulting acapella and provide a remix for the final week.

One of the fastest rising talents in electronic music, Chris Schweizer has seen his productions end up far beyond the outskirts of his hometown Buenos Aires. With releases on A State of Trance, Trice Recordings, Tone Diary and High Contrast, Chris has worked himself up as a next level producer in both the trance and house scene. During his Hangout with the Academy, the 7 finalists will be able to ask him all about producing tricks, how to define your style and all else that might help them for the future!

"Building a fanbase on YouTube and Google+, how do you do that? A representative of YouTube will tell you everything you need to know on how to build an audience and make sure they keep coming back to your music."

In this lesson we return to the subject of chords but look beyond basic triads to 7ths and 9ths. We see how they can bring extra emotion and feeling to our progressions. Ski will examine the chord structure of Armin van Buuren’s track ‘Waiting For The Night’ and as a task, the students will be asked to write chord progressions using extended chords to an Armada acapella. At the end of the class we will check out some of the students’ basslines from the previous hangout.

Next up for a Hangout with the lucky 7 is the talented producer Estroe. The Rotterdam-based DJ/producer likes to think outside the box, producing tracks that lay between tech-house, ambient and anything else that moves her. Her second album 'Comfort and Closure'will come out next month under her label EevoNext which she runs together with Stefan Robbers. EevoNext is not only a home to their own productions, but has a regular pool of artists, both established as new talents. Recently Estroe founded her own advice agency for producers and dj's: www.estroe-advice.com.Being a regular remixer (Estroe did remixes for John Digweeds Bedrock and for labels as Oliver Lieb's Maschine, Snejl, Connaisseur Recordings, Proton Music and many others) - Estroe will share some of her tips about how to remix a project and give it your own interpretation.

We kick off the final week of the academy by focusing on arranging tracks which, for many producers, is often the hardest part. Using Ramon’s instrumental as the basis for the session, we will look at how to use Viv May’s newly recorded vocal in the most effective way, by analysing the structure of a big selling track to use as a possible template. To finish, we will listen to the other winners remixes of Viv’s acapella.

It’s the last hangout session and time to look at the final stages of production. With the advent of DAWs which offer instant ‘total recall’, many computer-based producers mix as they go so we will examine this process and see if there are ways to improve the overall sound of the winners’ tracks. The session will also be a chance to assess how the winners have progressed through the Academy, with a member of the Armada A&R team joining the hangout to offer advice and discuss their future.