A 12-week course for complete beginners

learn to make music
on OP–XY

rhythm, harmony, melody, synthesis, arrangement and mixing — taught one 30–45 minute session at a time, with every button press shown exactly as it appears on the device — and the stories of the machines and records behind each idea.

every instruction verified against the official Teenage Engineering OP–XY guide · your progress and notes save automatically in your browser

Accuracy note — this guide was drafted with AI assistance and reviewed by a human, but it will contain mistakes. When this page and the device disagree, trust the device's screen and the official guide. Spotted an error? Open an issue — corrections are the point of hosting this publicly.
01 — Before anything else

meet the machine

this is the OP–XY top panel. fourteen zones, four rows of keys. every lesson below refers to these by name — come back here whenever a button name doesn't ring a bell.

02 — Eight words

vocabulary

electronic music on OP–XY is built like nesting dolls: notes live on steps, steps form patterns, patterns stack into scenes, scenes chain into songs. learn these eight words and the whole device makes sense.

03 — The plan

The 12-week roadmap

two to three short sessions per week. the goal is never theory — it is a finished musical artifact at the end of every session, and one finished track at the end of week 12.

each week is its own page — start with Start here, or jump back in anywhere. your progress and notes follow you across pages.

The course track map

A new OP–XY project loads instruments in this order — the course uses the device's own defaults, so nothing needs reassigning:

1 Drums
2 Second drum kit / percussion
3 Bass
4 Pluck — stabs & arps
5 Lead — melody
6 Soft pluck
7 Strings — chords
8 Pad — alt. chords

How this course teaches (the science, briefly)

Four habits are built into every session, because the research on learning is unambiguous about them:

  • Warm-ups make you remember before you re-read. Recalling something strengthens memory far more than reviewing it (the testing effect) — always try the warm-up before scrolling back.
  • Quizzes close each week. Answer out loud first, then click to check. Being almost right and then corrected is exactly where memory forms.
  • Short sessions, spread out. Two or three 30-minute sessions beat one 3-hour marathon (the spacing effect). Stop while it is still fun.
  • Every session ends with something you can play. Hearable progress is the motivation that survives to week 12.