Course Description:

We’re honored to announce that Flying Lotus (Steven Ellison) will be teaching a workshop with School of Song, beginning Sunday, September 13th. Flying Lotus is a Grammy-winning producer, composer, artist, filmmaker, founder of Brainfeeder Records, and has collaborated with everyone from Kendrick Lamar to David Lynch. We’re lifelong fans and are deeply honored to facilitate this workshop.

The course will dive into his approach to production and composition, as well as how to build a daily musical practice that lets inspiration flow. We’ll cover a range of topics, including:

The ‘Sketchbook’ Approach

FlyLo will share his sketchbook approach to music-making: using the DAW as an exploratory environment rather than a place where every session has to become a finished song. We’ll look at his techniques for gathering sounds, loops, and samples in Ableton, focusing especially on the practical methods he uses to fashion those fragments into finalized songs.

Improvisation in the studio and on stage

Drawing from his evolving live setup, we’ll look at how preparation, organization, and flexible systems can create more freedom in the moment, whether you’re building a solo set, playing with a band, or thinking dynamically about stems, beats, and instrumentation. We’ll explore trial and error not as failure, but as a vital way of discovering what a performance or song actually wants to be.

Accessing new dimensions via practice

Albums-deep into a career centered on the DAW, FlyLo committed himself to really studying piano. This practice has revealed dimensions of expression he didn’t know he was missing. He’ll share his journey of developing facility on an instrument, highlighting the parallels between transcribing and sampling, where theory helps and where it hurts, and how to practice when nobody’s holding you accountable.

Individuality

We’ll explore the role of individuality in developing a creative practice: learning how to trust your quirks, sharpen your point of view, and develop a distinct musical sensibility over time. In a cultural moment that pushes artists toward sameness, we will consider how sound, presentation, and instinct can come together to help you make work that feels personal.

For more information, contact: hi@schoolofsong.org

About Flying Lotus
This year, Flying Lotus marks the 20th anniversary of his debut album 1983, newly reissued and back on streaming platforms after years of semi-obscurity. In the two decades since, the producer, composer, filmmaker, and Brainfeeder Records founder has built one of the most influential catalogs in modern music, from Cosmogramma and Until the Quiet Comes to You’re Dead!, alongside collaborations with artists from Kendrick Lamar to David Lynch.