ILM Academy

The ILM Academy abbreviation for "I Love Music Academy" is India’s first electronic music school. The ILM Academy was first started in Bangalore and is currently located in DLF Phase 1, Gurgaon - Delhi NCR.

Founding

The I Love Music academy was started in 2009 by Nakul Vagale and his partner with the intention to provide quality music education in India.^[1] Music is essence cannot be taught but can be experienced and passed down from musician to musician through experience and interpretation. With the advent of the Internet, information once inaccessible is now freely available to all, but the sheer amount of information available can be mind-boggling. With little or no control of the quality of information being passed and often unreliable practices, a student in the field would not know what is right or where to begin. At I Love Music Academy, the founders of the institute understood this and formulated a teaching approach, where practicing musicians act as guides rather than teachers and help students along their musical paths to achieve their learning.

In April 2012, I Love Music Academy, Gurgaon (Delhi-NCR) was founded by the ILM Academy original founder Nakul Vagale along with longtime supporter, friend and benefactor of the academy DJ/ Producer Arjun Vagale (Jalebee cartel).^{[2] [3]}

Purpose

At the I Love Music Academy, students are presented with the right information with a view to use that information when presented with a real world scenario. The intent is to present students with a real world situation and help them reach their musical goals. Though concentration is on Electronic Music and related fields, the courses at institute are not genre specific.

I Love Music courses

Courses at I Love Music are normally 2 hours per day - 2 days a week with additional projects and practice time at the studio's. Though a minimum is set, students can avail of the studio facilities throughout their course duration subject to booking and availability.

• DJ

A 3-month comprehensive program on DJ'ing. Students learn their basics on Turntables and progressive with technology onto CD players and then are introduced to Digital DJ'ing. This course also covers business aspects of the industry such as Marketing one's services, Music Business, Event management, Communication and presentation skills.

• Advanced Digital DJ

Digital DJ's are the musicians of tomorrow, combing their skill on hardware such as CD players and Turntables coupled with MIDI able devices and software, a DJ knows no bounds to performance. Once students have mastered the hardware decks, they are exposed to the Digital world of DJ'ing to take their performance to the next level through a 1-month crash course. But mind-you, ILM Academy strongly believes in Hardware before software, at least till records and CD become obsolete.

• Electronic Music Production (EMP)

As the name suggests, students will learn to make music electronically using software on a computer. Primarily music software included is Ableton. Students spend 5 months learning the fundamentals of EMP and the software platforms. Multiple other such Music Software exist, with the applications performing mostly the same tasks with a different GUI. The course comprises 3 modules :

• Production techniques,
• advanced production with mixing & mastering
• Synthesis
• DJ Producer

As the Dj craze catches on, it has become more and more difficult for serious artists to present themselves simply as DJ's. It is now as important for Djs to produce music to further their careers and get recognition. Music production is not so much a revenue generator for Dj's as much as a means to market oneself through spreading their unique sound and further giving them the ability to play and perform original music that they have created. The Academy developed the course over a period of two years at their gurgaon facility to introduce the 9-month DJ producer course. The course combines the EMP, DJ and Digital DJ individual course into a 9-month-long part-time course allowing enough practice and self exploration time in the studio. Students who avail this course are benefited by learning music production first and then Dj'ing as recommended by the academy unlike other trainers who would go traditionally with DJ'ing before production.

• Audio Engineering (AE)

The Audio Engineering Course at ILM, is unique in such form that the basis of the course is music. Expanding from the EMP course, the AE course includes audio studio and related subjects: recording, microphones and micking techniques, analog and digital mixers, routing, laying down a track, mix downs and mastering; as well as more mass-media-related audio work such as dubbing, voiceovers, jingles, background scores, sound design techniques and business of music. All of this is packed into a mere 1 year of intense hands-on classes with numerous projects and submissions.

^{[4] [5]}

Craft courses

• Guitar
• Keyboard

Associations and support

The courses are not accredited to or supported by the Indian government, nor any domestic or international universities. Based on their teaching style, methodology and reputation of the team concerned, Courses at I Love Music Academy are supported by Industry leaders in the Audio Industry including:

• Native Instruments - Germany
• Ableton Live
• TASCAM
• ADAM Audio
• Mackie
• Pyramind, San Francisco - International Training partner ^[6]

“I Love Music Academy is currently the only Pyramind-approved school in South East Asia, which is a great honour and achievement. It speaks to our methods of training and standards of education, and we are proud to be associated with them,” says Arjun Vagale, Director, ILM.

References

• Indiatoday
• Gibson Guitar India
• Midday
• Rolling Stones India
• Indian Express
• www.Pyramind.com
• Jalebee Cartel

External links

• ILM Academy