News/Announcements: Flying Lotus Announces School of Song Online Workshop

Born Steven Ellison, Flying Lotus is an acclaimed Grammy Award-winning producer, composer, filmmaker and founder of Brainfeeder Records. Throughout the course of his two-decade long career, Ellison has built one of the most influential and important catalogs in modern music, including efforts like 2010’s Cosmogramma, 2012’s Until the Quiet Comes and 2014’s You’re Dead! And he has collaborated with an impressive and eclectic array of artists from Kendrick Lamar, Kamasi Washington and Thundercat to David Lynch.

This year, the acclaimed producer and composer celebrates the 20th anniversary of the release of his debut album, 1983, which was recently re-issued and released on streaming platforms after years of semi-obscurity.

Yesterday, Flying Lotus announced a new online workshop through School of Song. The course will be taught online via live Zoom lectures across four consecutive Sundays — Sunday, September 13, 2026; Sunday, September 20, 2026; Sunday, September 27, 2026; and Sunday, October 4, 2026 — with two lecture sessions on each class day to accommodate different time zones: 11:00AM PT/2:00PM ET and 6:00PM PT/9:00PM ET. Recorded lectures will be available and sent out afterwards for those, who are unable to attend at those times.

Each week, the acclaimed producer and composer will give a lecture on subjects specific to his music making process. Each class will result in a homework assignment to write a song using the techniques discussed in that week’s lecture. In addition to the lectures, there will be weekly song-sharing sessions featuring peer review an additional hour of live Q&A with Flying Louts on the Wednesdays between class days.

The workshop costs $200 and a 20% discount is available for those, who sign up with a friend. The deadline to sign up is Saturday, September 12, 2026 at 11:59PM PT/2:59AM ET. The course is geared towards anyone with an interest in music making in general or Flying Lotus’ process in particular — and from absolute beginners to seasoned musicians. There are no prerequisites to sign up, but having an instrument that you know how to play a few chords on will be helpful if you want to complete the weekly assignments.

Course Description:

The course will dive into Flying Lotus’ approach to production and composition, as well as how to build a daily musical practice that lets inspiration flow. The course will 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. Attendees will be able to 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, attendees will 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. Attendees will 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

Attendees will 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

SIGN UP FOR THE WORKSHOP

schoolofsong.org/products/workshop-with-flying-lotus

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