Hands down the most useful, engaging class I've taken at UCLA. Keeps you busy writing a song per week, but it prepares you for a real job working in the industry as a producer or songwriter. Alan is extremely cultured and an expert in his field. He's well connected in the industry and will answer questions/help you in all aspects regarding it.

so i took this class about a year ago and it was dope. Alan pushes you to make about a song every 7-10 days or so, alone, in groups, with one other person or some weird variant of this. This for me was hella heavy cause I make electronic music and that shit takes a long ass time. but he improved my songwriting ability to no end, helped my composition and also hooked it up with general sound dynamics. everyone can offer input after a song is played out in class (yes everyone gets embarrassed by this but its extremely helpful), which is also a great way to gain a more modern insight to your own music. That's not to say Alan's is not helpful (he was A&R for Prince, lol) but its just a generally great way to offer a different perspective to your track.

you get graded for attendance and for having a track ready. HAVE A TRACK READY or he will shit on you.

also: he only lets people in the class once they have sent him a track. so you need to know how to make music to a relative degree already. (i sent him absolute garbage though, you literally just need to prove you have the ability to create some sort of music somehow)

This class switched up the way i think about music. take it. I'm actually gonna take it again in the future, just to gain more experience working with other people.

peace