Teaching Music of a Different Kind

“Right now we’re just getting the sound engineers together to have a coffee and get wild,” he said with a laugh. “Maybe even have a few biscuits.”

Mr. Greig manages the London division of the School of Sound Recording, a commercial studio and private academy based in Manchester with a branch in Indonesia and two more under development in Singapore and Thailand.

Until now it has operated as a trade school offering certificate and diploma programs. But this year, in response to prompting from the music industry, it is introducing a three-year bachelor’s degree course in electronic music and disc jockeying. The course will be accredited by the University of Central Lancashire, which already offers a degree in music production.

Paul Greene, a senior lecturer in music technology at the university, who helped design the course, said by telephone that students needed a specialized program focusing on the technical aspects of electronic dance music.

As of Friday, Mr. Greig said, eight students had signed up for the London course, which starts this month, out of a maximum planned enrollment of 15. Students will first learn about the digital equipment and computer software and will then be taught live performance techniques, both in the classroom and at local clubs. Theory classes will include writing critical essays on the electronic music genre.

The program, costing £6,000, or about $9,000, a year, will be taught by two full-time staff members, four part-time tutors and several guest lecturers.

“The D.J. — and the D.J. practice — for a long time, struggled to get taken with any seriousness,” said Mr. Greig, a sound engineer and former D.J. who, in addition to managing the London studio, will teach some of the courses. “We were always seen as the guy that played the record for everybody else’s band.”

“But the way everything has progressed so much now, it should really be seen as an art form,” he said, referring to the rise in popularity of both D.J. superstars and the genre of electronic dance music, as well as the rapid technological advancements of recording equipment and computer software.

Electronic dance music, once an underground genre, is slowly making its way into mainstream music education as private studios and schools begin working with universities to create specialized degrees. Although each will vary in terms of structure, many will have a strong business and marketing component.

“It’s fine to teach the kids how to produce the music — it’s easy to teach them how to press the buttons and how to work the technology,” said David Ward, policy director of Joint Audio Media Education Support, a British nonprofit organization that accredits music courses. “But what very often is missing in the whole package is the entrepreneurship skills, the communication skills, the marketing skills.

“They can produce the music, but then they’ve got to go out and sell it and sell themselves,” said Mr. Ward, who has worked as a promoter, a singer and a recording studio owner. “Music programs haven’t dealt with this in the past, but more and more are doing so.”

“These are life skills,” Mr. Ward added. “You can transfer those skills to any industry.”

This autumn, dBs Music, a private music academy with locations in Bristol, Plymouth and other parts of southwest England, will start offering a bachelor’s degree course in D.J. and electronic music production at a new facility in Berlin.

The program, dBs’s first venture outside Britain, will be accredited by the University of St. Mark and St. John in Plymouth.

Applicants are expected to have a reasonably high level of technical skill before entering the program, which also incorporates instruction on commercial deals, contracts and networking.

Teaching Music of a Different Kind