Jacob Vosmaer's blog

Audible Genius Building Blocks

2025-07-23

I have started doing another self-study music course from Audible Genius, the people behind Syntorial. In this post I will reflect on how I like it so far.

What is Building Blocks?

Building Blocks is an online self-study course about composition and music theory using a sequencer. It is geared towards electronic pop music. It consists of:

By "recreation exercise" I mean that you get an example piece of music and a blank canvas, and you have to recreate the example on the blank canvas. Sometimes the canvas isn't entirely blank and you only have to fill in one instrument. The instruments on the blank canvas have been pre-selected to match the example so if you do things right it is possible to get a 100% identical recreation.

The "blind" variant (called "Mind's Ear") is also about recreating an example, but with the added difficulty of not hearing your own version. You can only see the notation of your recreation. You have to "visualize" (auralize?) what it sounds like and compare that to the sound of the example.

It is the same concept as Syntorial except applied to sequencing rather than synthesizer sound design. Guided ear training in a controlled environment with a computer program grading your work.

You were very enthusiastic about Syntorial, what took you so long to pick up Building Blocks?

I had some of the same resistance to Building Blocks that I had to Syntorial at first:

None of these objections hold up to scrutiny. I am self-taught in making electronic music so I have skill gaps; a beginner course is the best way to cover all the gaps. The computer is just a study tool and the skills I learn transfer to my preferred (computer-free) music making environment. The sum of my musical influences won't get erased by 1 or 2 courses with mainstream pop music in it. And just because I rely on "happy accidents" in my creative work that does not mean that having a better command of my tools is not helpful.

What do you like about Building Blocks so far?

I really like that it is a self-study course where I can set my own pace. I like this in general and in this case, with a subject that I first started learning over 25 years ago, it is good that I don't have to adapt to the pace of a classroom of people around me. I can slow down and speed up exactly where I want to.

There is no leaderboard or any kind of social excitement going on in this course. I like this because I can get competitive which is not helpful for my learning.

As with Syntorial, I think it's great that the controlled environment allows you to create a 100% identical copy of the example when you are doing an exercise. This never happens "in real life" if you have to recreate something but for learning / training I find it very helpful.

Anything you don't like?

The browser based learning environment can be a bit janky at times. If I do some lessons, take a break and come back, I sometimes have to restart my browser to get the audio working again. There are also occasional glitches that you would not expect in "real" DAW software. But they don't happen in the middle of a lesson and I don't loose work so I can manage.

I really don't like writing music by clicking with a mouse on a piano roll. But I understand why the course is built around this mechanism and I can go back to my regular way of working when I'm not studying.

So far I'm progressing through the course much faster than I did with Syntorial. I don't know if that is because I'm still too far ahead as a student or if there is just less material in this course. I'm not bored and I am learning things. I'll probably slow down when the course gets more difficult further ahead.

Conclusion

I'm glad I got over myself and started doing this course. It feels good to work on my skill gaps. I look forward to reporting back here when I'm further along in the curriculum.

Tags: music syntorial

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