01 — the course

Decolonize Your Ears

and Your Production

A 4-week intensive Course

This course gives you the tools, frameworks, and hands-on practice to move beyond Western sonic defaults — equal temperament, grid-based time, and standardized listening practices — and develop a production practice rooted in your own cultural reference points.

Together we critically engage with the assumptions embedded in the DAWs and plugins we use, and develop alternative approaches to composition through deep listening and hands-on practice.

Rather than treating music theory as neutral, the course reframes it as a site of epistemology, chronopolitics, and cultural authorship.

what you'll learn
06 learning outcomes
  • 01 /
    Understand sound as a culturally and politically constructed system
  • 02 /
    Analyze rhythm beyond grid-based DAW structures
  • 03 /
    Compare multiple tuning systems and their cultural contexts
  • 04 /
    Work with non-standard pitch systems using Apotome
  • 05 /
    Design and implement a personal tuning system
  • 06 /
    Produce a composition using self-defined sonic parameters
why it matters

Most software we use today — from DAWs to MIDI — was built on Western musical assumptions:

  • —fixed tempo grids
  • —equal temperament
  • —standardized listening norms
  • —linear composition defaults

These systems are powerful — but they are not neutral. They shape how we produce, how we listen, and ultimately how music sounds worldwide.

This course opens up those systems — and shows you how to move beyond them.

02 — 4-week intensive
01
Sonic Epistemologies — Why does a "correct" sound exist?
Who decides what counts as "correct" sound — and how did that authority become naturalized? This week introduces sound as epistemology: knowledge encoded in listening norms. Students engage with how sonic authority becomes naturalized through culture, technology, and institutions, and what it means to decolonize listening itself.
Sonic authority & cultural normativity Listening vs. hearing Sonic citizenship Decolonization as practice, not metaphor Guided listening exercises Annotated reading excerpts Listening journal entry
Week 1
02
Chronopolitics of Rhythm — What does the DAW erase?
How does grid-based time structure shape what we perceive as rhythm, control, and "tightness"? We examine how dominant rhythmic frameworks become naturalized through technology, notation, and production practices. Students explore alternative temporal logics and build rhythmic structures outside the DAW grid.
Polyrhythm & polymeter Additive vs. divisive rhythm Cyclical vs. linear time Quantization as normalization Clock time vs. embodied time Turkish usul Arabic iqa'at West African drumming Vijay Iyer Kofi Agawu
Week 2
03
Tonal Systems & Sonic Identity — Why 12 notes? Why A = 440 Hz?
How do tuning systems encode cultural assumptions about sound, identity, and harmony? This week introduces tuning not as neutral technical standard but as a historically and culturally constructed system. Students begin hands-on experiments with Leimma and Apotome, working with Maqam, Raga, and just intonation as alternative frameworks.
Microtonality as sonic divergence Tuning as cultural identity Maqam traditions Raga systems Leimma Apotome Fanny Gribenski Maqam Rast Just Intonation
Week 3
04
Autonomy — What would you sound like if you chose your own reference point?
From critique to system design as authorship. Students design and implement their own tuning systems, compose from a consciously chosen reference point, and present their work in a final listening session. Each student leaves with a composition, a tuning file, and a Sonic Manifesto.
Designing tuning systems in Leimma & Apotome Bending DAW defaults Min. 7–24 tones Self-defined rhythmic rule Workflow in Ableton Peer feedback circle Final listening presentation
Week 4
week 4 deliverables
Composition
One original piece (2–6 minutes) using self-defined sonic parameters
Tuning File
A custom tuning system
Sonic Manifesto
One page: the rules you created and why
learning approach
Critical theory
Reading, discussion, and theoretical grounding
Listening & discussion
Guided listening from outside Western defaults
Hands-on production
Working directly in Ableton, Leimma & Apotome
System design
Not only questioning frameworks — building new ones
assessment
Weekly participation & listening reflections 30%
Week 2 — Rhythm experiment 15%
Week 3 — Tuning exploration 15%
Week 4 — Final system + composition 40%
03 — theoretical frameworks
Walter Mignolo
Local Histories / Global Designs
Locus of enunciation — local histories as sites of knowledge the universalizing narrative of modernity renders invisible.
Eve Tuck & K. Wayne Yang
Decolonization is Not a Metaphor
Decolonization is not diversity work or curriculum reform — it requires material and epistemic restitution, not just expanded representation.
Achim Szepanski
Ultrablack of Music (selected excerpts)
Programming standards are neither neutral nor naturally given. They are historically grown, economically framed, and aesthetically normalizing.
Wendy Carlos
Tuning at the Crossroads
Electronic music as a site for rethinking tonal systems — pitch not as fixed architecture but as a field of cultural choice.
Pauline Oliveros
Deep Listening
The difference between hearing and listening. Sonic citizenship as the practice of attending to the full field of sound — not only what is culturally sanctioned.
Fanny Gribenski
Tuning the World, 1859–1955
A = 440 Hz was not a neutral acoustic decision — it was a political settlement between nation-states, military bands, broadcasting corporations, and music industries.
04 — tools & software

The course combines a standard production environment with specialised tools for alternative tuning and sonic exploration.

participants will work with

  • —Leimma
  • —Apotome
  • —Ableton Live

Together, these tools support both critical reflection and hands-on experimentation beyond standardised music production workflows.

Leimma — isartum.net/leimma
A browser-based tool for exploring, hearing, and building tuning systems. No specialist knowledge required — participants begin by choosing their own reference pitch rather than inheriting A = 440.
Apotome — isartum.net/apotome
A browser-based generative music environment for working with alternative and non-Western tuning systems. Extends Ableton by enabling tuning systems that equal temperament cannot express.
Ableton Live
The primary production framework. Participants critically engage with its grids, MIDI, and equal temperament defaults — turning the industry-standard tool into a site of productive friction.
05 — from participants & curators
"'Decolonize Electronic Music' by Seba Kayan made exemplarily visible how deeply colonial structures are inscribed in digital production tools, and how urgent it is to critically question and expand them. She not only shifted perspectives, but also showed how much potential lies in a truly open sonic practice."
Eva Fischer
Civa · sound:frame
"Decolonize Electronic Music challenges how electronic music is shaped by dominant histories and listening habits. The format makes these questions tangible — connecting critical reflection with collective listening and lived sonic experience."
Mimie Maggale
Sonic Territories
"Working with external tuning systems in Ableton became much more approachable through the hands-on examples. It gave me fresh ideas to experiment with in my own work."
pfizerpizza
artist
"Seba Kayan taught me a softer approach — she taught how to access techniques within the DAW so that the electronic sounds could be molded gently around the traditional music I sample."
Chaia
artist · chaia.online
book the course

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Book a 30-minute call or write directly. No commitment required.

Book a call → contact@sebakayan.com