SUMMER COURSES
2024
UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music Summer Courses
Register Now!
LGBTQ+ Perspectives in Pop Music
In this course, you will survey English-language popular music in the 20th century, with a focus on lesbians, gay men, and members of other sexual minorities as creators, performers, and audience members. Formerly Music History M137. Same as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Studies M137. Letter grading. GE-approved course.
Summer Session C
August 4 – September 12, 2025
Tue & Thu, 11:00-2:00 p.m.
August 4 – September 12, 2025
Tue & Thu, 11:00-2:00 p.m.
Legends of Songwriting
In this course, we will cover songwriting, arrangement and record production, music publishing, and the recording business in the 20th and 21st centuries. The class experience features in-depth interviews with music industry songwriting professionals who will demonstrate individual creative processes, discuss their paths to songwriting and their place in the world of music. Note: this course is not a workshop or tutorial on how to write songs. If that’s your goal, please check out Music Industry 112A.
Summer Session A
June 23 - August 1, 2025
Online, time to be determined
Instructor: David Leaf
June 23 - August 1, 2025
Online, time to be determined
Instructor: David Leaf
Music of Latin America
In this course you will study traditional and contemporary musical culture in Latin America; Mexico, Central America, and Caribbean Isles. Course M108A is not requisite to 108B. Same as Chicana/o and Central American Studies M108A Fulfills the Visual and Performance Arts Analysis and Practice requirement. GE-approved course.
Summer Session A
June 23 - August 1, 2025
Tue & Thu, 10:00-12:30 p.m.
June 23 - August 1, 2025
Tue & Thu, 10:00-12:30 p.m.
Cultural History of Rap
This course will introduce you to the development of rap music and hip-hop culture, with an emphasis on musical and verbal qualities, philosophical and political ideologies, gender representation, and influences on cinema and popular culture. Same as African American Studies M107. Fulfills the Visual and Performance Arts Analysis and Practice requirement. GE-approved course.
Summer Session A
June 23 - August 1, 2025
Mon & Wed, 1:00-3:30 p.m.
June 23 - August 1, 2025
Mon & Wed, 1:00-3:30 p.m.
Global Pop
In this course, you will explore the development of world music or world beat, including its meaning and importance to contemporary culture as well as its history and impact. Fulfills the Visual and Performance Arts Analysis and Practice requirement. GE-approved course.
Summer Session A
June 23 - August 1, 2025
Mon & Wed, 10:00-12:30 p.m.
June 23 - August 1, 2025
Mon & Wed, 10:00-12:30 p.m.
India through Music
Exploration of major aspects of society, history, and culture in India through music. Highlights lines of power in particular, notably, those of caste, class, gender, colonialism, and nationalism. Satisfies Writing II Requirement.
Summer Session A
June 23 - August 1, 2025
Tue & Thu, 1:00-3:30 p.m.
June 23 - August 1, 2025
Tue & Thu, 1:00-3:30 p.m.
Engineering and Production
Engineering and Production Fundamentals This course will provide an introduction to basic acoustic principles, practical techniques, and working procedures for equipment used in contemporary music production, including microphones, mixers, recorders, synthesizers, and sequencers. Basic sound processing operations (equalization, compression, distortion, reverberation). Operating principles of most popular systems of music production software and hardware (Ableton Live, Apple Logic, Avid ProTools, etc.). No prior musical training is required to enroll. Letter grading.
Summer Session C
August 4 - September 12, 2025
Mon 2:00-3:50 p.m., Wed 1:00-4:50 p.m.
Instructor: Lily Shabibi
August 4 - September 12, 2025
Mon 2:00-3:50 p.m., Wed 1:00-4:50 p.m.
Instructor: Lily Shabibi
Rock/Pop Studio Ensemble
This course will provide you with a performance-based introduction to popular music styles, forms, and competencies through immersion in studio performance techniques. Students will play in groups to develop ensemble, create material and produce recordings. P/NP or letter grading.
Summer Session C
August 4 - September 12, 2025
Mon & Wed 12:00-2:50 p.m.
Instructor: Lee John
August 4 - September 12, 2025
Mon & Wed 12:00-2:50 p.m.
Instructor: Lee John
Introduction to Songwriting
Learn and employ the craft of songwriting in this course. Students will examine, analyze, and implement song structure, lyric and melody writing, arranging, orchestrating and recording techniques. Students will also learn about the evolution of songwriting in modern society, as well as how songs and society both affect and reflect one another. No prior musical training is necessary to take this class, but you will be required to make music and perform at your level of ability. Formerly MSC IND 112. Letter grading.
Summer Session A
June 23 - August 1, 2025
Thu, 4:00-8:00 p.m.
Instructor: Amy Kuney
June 23 - August 1, 2025
Thu, 4:00-8:00 p.m.
Instructor: Amy Kuney
Fundamentals of Music Industry
Introduction to current music industry. Overview of career paths, monetization strategies, organizational behavior, and entrepreneurial thinking. Designed to serve as gateway for music industry degree programs. Students familiarize themselves with basic functions of industry that are covered in greater detail in upper-division coursework. Letter grading.
Summer Session A
June 23 - August 1, 2025
Wed, 6:30-9:30 p.m.
June 23 - August 1, 2025
Wed, 6:30-9:30 p.m.
The Art of Music Production I
Explore techniques, methods, and processes of music production and larger issues in the art of making music. You will learn how to foster and capture performance and emotion in music using a variety of methods and tools, including artistic direction in studio and choices made in sound, arrangement, and application of technology. Letter grading.
Summer Session A
June 23 - August 1, 2025
Tue 3:00-5:00 p.m., Thu 3:00-6:00 p.m.
Instructor: Adam Moseley
June 23 - August 1, 2025
Tue 3:00-5:00 p.m., Thu 3:00-6:00 p.m.
Instructor: Adam Moseley
Preparatory Music Theory
This course will discuss music fundamentals, including musicianship, theory and terminology. Letter grading.
Summer Session A
June 23 - August 1, 2025
Tues & Thu, 10:00-12:50 p.m.
Instructor: TBD
Summer Session C
August 4 - September 12, 2025
Tues & Thu, 10:00-12:50 p.m.
Instructor: TBD
June 23 - August 1, 2025
Tues & Thu, 10:00-12:50 p.m.
Instructor: TBD
Summer Session C
August 4 - September 12, 2025
Tues & Thu, 10:00-12:50 p.m.
Instructor: TBD
Beginning Keyboard
Students learn simple keyboard skills together with basic aspects of music theory and its practical application to keyboard: sight-reading, tonality, chords, scales, cadences, simple compositions, and improvisations. May be repeated for credit without limitation. P/NP or letter grading. Offered in summer only.
Summer Session A
June 23 - August 1, 2025
Mon, Wed & Fri, 9:00-10:20 a.m.
Summer Session C
August 4 - September 12, 2025
Mon, Wed & Fri, 9:00-10:20 a.m.
June 23 - August 1, 2025
Mon, Wed & Fri, 9:00-10:20 a.m.
Summer Session C
August 4 - September 12, 2025
Mon, Wed & Fri, 9:00-10:20 a.m.
Beginning Guitar
Receive an introduction to guitar techniques, accompanying, and arranging for guitar; coverage of note reading and tablature. May be repeated for credit without limitation. P/NP or letter grading.
Summer Session A
June 23 - August 1, 2025
Mon & Wed, 12:00 to 1:50 p.m.
Summer Session C
August 4 - September 12, 2025
Mon & Wed, 12:00 to 1:50 p.m.
June 23 - August 1, 2025
Mon & Wed, 12:00 to 1:50 p.m.
Summer Session C
August 4 - September 12, 2025
Mon & Wed, 12:00 to 1:50 p.m.
Vocal Technique for Beginners
This course provides voice instruction for singers at the beginner to intermediate level. You will explore the fundamentals of vocal technique, including an overview of the basics of proper breath control, resonance, care of voice, diction and interpretation. Beginning vocal repertoire will be used as a vehicle for understanding these concepts. May be repeated for credit without limitation. P/NP or letter grading. Offered in summer only.
Summer Session A
June 23 - August 1, 2025
Tues & Thu, 11:00-1:50 p.m.
Summer Session C
August 4 - September 12, 2025
Tues & Thu, 11:00-1:50 p.m.
June 23 - August 1, 2025
Tues & Thu, 11:00-1:50 p.m.
Summer Session C
August 4 - September 12, 2025
Tues & Thu, 11:00-1:50 p.m.
Writing about Music
In this course you will learn specific skills, incorporating technical description, historical contextualization, subjective reaction, and the certain stylistic conventions necessary in writing about music. Formerly numbered Music History 12W. Letter grading. Enforced requisite: English Composition 3 or 3H or English as a Second Language 36. Satisfies Writing II requirement. Summer Session A
June 23 - August 1, 2025
Mon & Wed, 10:00-1:00 p.m.
Online
AND
Tue & Thu, 10:00-1:00 p.m.
Online
June 23 - August 1, 2025
Mon & Wed, 10:00-1:00 p.m.
Online
AND
Tue & Thu, 10:00-1:00 p.m.
Online
Writing about Music
In this course you will learn specific skills, incorporating technical description, historical contextualization, subjective reaction, and the certain stylistic conventions necessary in writing about music. Formerly numbered Music History 12W. Letter grading. Enforced requisite: English Composition 3 or 3H or English as a Second Language 36. Satisfies Writing II requirement. Summer Session C
August 4 – September 12, 2025
Mon & Wed, 10:00-1:00 p.m.
In Person
AND
Tue & Thu, 10:00-1:00 p.m.
Online
August 4 – September 12, 2025
Mon & Wed, 10:00-1:00 p.m.
In Person
AND
Tue & Thu, 10:00-1:00 p.m.
Online
History of Rock 'n Roll
In this course, you will analyze the forms, practices, and meanings of rock and roll music, broadly conceived, from its origin to the present. This course will include an emphasis on how this music has reflected and influenced changes in sexual, racial, and class identities and attitudes.
Summer Session A
June 23 - August 1, 2025
Mon & Wed, 1:00-4:00 p.m.
Online
June 23 - August 1, 2025
Mon & Wed, 1:00-4:00 p.m.
Online
Film and Music
History of music and cinema, particularly ways music is used to produce meanings in conjunction with visual image.Formerly numbered Music History 7. Lecture, four hours; discussion, one hour. P/NP or letter grading. Credit for both courses 7 and 177 not allowed. GE-approved Course.
Summer Session A
June 23 - August 1, 2025
Tue & Thu, 9:30-11:50 a.m.
June 23 - August 1, 2025
Tue & Thu, 9:30-11:50 a.m.
History of Electronic Dance Music
In this course you will survey groove-based electrified dance music from its origins in 1960s pop and soul to present, covering disco, house, techno, ambient, rave and jungle. This course will emphasize the interaction of technology, musical structures, psychoactive drugs, and club cultures to induce altered states of musical consciousness; promise (versus the reality of) political and spiritual transformation; electronic dance music as new art music. Formerly numbered Music History 8. P/NP or letter grading. GE-approved course.
Summer Session C
August 4 – September 12, 2025
Mon & Wed, 10:00-1:00 p.m.
Online
August 4 – September 12, 2025
Mon & Wed, 10:00-1:00 p.m.
Online
Follow Your Curiosity
2024 Summer Sessions begin June 24 & August 5.
Register now!
Current matriculated UCLA students can enroll in summer academic courses beginning February 1 on MyUCLA.
Commit to your craft or field of study, get a head start on college credits, or complete GE or prerequisites to help accelerate your academic progress as a matriculating UCLA student.
The UCLA Herb Alpert School School of Music offers a number of summer courses in music performance, music industry, music history, and world music. Courses are open to high school students as well as musicians and scholars at any skill level. (Some courses have pre-requisites; students may petition for an exception by contacting info@summer.ucla.edu.)
Study alongside scholars, musicians, and music industry professionals to expand upon your current skill set or follow your curiosity and explore something new!
Register Now!