If you are tired of predictable classes, and you’re looking for something fresh and exciting to get signed up for, then our list of New York City’s most unique classes that will blow you away.
They say that New Yorkers have seen everything. We may not take a second glance at a dancing dog on a street corner, or the sea of garbage underfoot in the subway car; but we can definitely still be surprised and impressed when it comes to things that we can partake in that are interesting, unique, and appealing. When you think of the word “classes” you may think of yoga, children’s ballet, or maybe painting lessons. What you don’t necessarily think of are the classes we have compiled for this article.
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If your interests are a bit unorthodox, you’ll fit right in taking any of these classes. Some of the most unique courses I have ever taken include a build-your-own-dream-home-blueprint class, a Jazz vocal scatting class, a layered sand art class, and a basic Tarot reading class. Still, I think there must be many more interesting classes where those came from! In a place like New York, you can find people who are passionate and knowledgable about just about anything. Why not check out some of those under-explored areas of interest, and learn something a little less common?
From learning to speak music producer languages, to using humor to heal, singing along to your cooking lesson, taking a class that gets teenagers and their parents together for something that they will both actually like, allowing young children to learn STEM principles using popular toys, and even being taught to provide voices for cartoon characters, New York City (and this list) really has everything in any niche market you could be looking for.
In order to create our list of New York City’s most unique classes that will blow you away, we used ClassCurious‘ database as our source to determine what some of the most unique and interesting classes in NYC are. This list is sorted in no particular order, and represents a variety of locations, budgets, and interests.
If you want to check out some more classic offerings, you should also check our list of fun classes to take in NYC.
If you’re looking for something new, in a city of people who think they have seen and done it all, get some ideas from our list of New York City’s most unique classes that will blow you away.
6. Garnish Music
Do you have aspirations of becoming a competent music producer? At Garnish Music, you can learn the skills is takes to successfully make it as a music producer, under the guidance of Grammy-winning instructors. This school is the first to carry a UK accreditation and offer UCAS points in the United States for its year-long course. They also offer condensed 36-hour beginners’ lessons in topics like Ableton, Logic Pro, Songwriting, and Pro Tools, and intermediate Producer Courses in Sound Design and Mixing & Mastering. You can even go from absolute beginner to fluent in Ableton by taking a 120-hour comprehensive course. The company prides itself on being very up-front and realistic with its students, explaining that students will only get out of a course what they are willing and able to put into it. According to the school, it generally takes individual students 10,000 hours of practice to master something like this on their own. The school serves as a way to cut that time down to somewhere estimated between 1000 and 9000 hours, but you have to be willing to work very hard and take criticism.
5. Life Lafter Divorce
Talk about unique and specialized! Leanne Linksy’s Life Lafter Divorce, that’s next on the list of New York City’s most unique classes that will blow you away explores the connections between creativity, humor, and working through grief. This class provides web-based video comedy classes for people going through a difficult divorce. The class focuses on improvisational work and comedy writing, and the classes are held in webinar form. Even though the period during a divorce may not be the most fun time in someone’s life, these classes can help serve as a social and cathartic event to help you get through the hardships. This is a judgment-free environment that fosters personal growth and enjoyment over a strict curriculum geared toward those wishing to learn professional comedy skills.
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4. Cooking A Cappella
Lawrence Rush is quite an interesting character. He is an accomplished individual with some seemingly-unrelated interests that combine to create Cooking A Cappella. Rush is a professional singer, composer, music teacher, lyricist, caterer, and pastry chef. What do you get when you combine all of these things into one class? Cooking A Cappella is unique in that your instructor will not only lead you through different cooking techniques and vast cuisines; he will also guide everyone in the class in sing-along songs! Lessons are highly customizable. Whether you are looking for a private class held in your own home, a corporate holiday party held in your office, or even a party held in a commercial venue in midtown, Rush will accommodate your needs. The menus and songs can be tailored to your liking as well, based on theme and personal tastes.
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3. B2 Events NYC
B2 Events is such an interesting concept because it is the only business we have come across that offers events for tweens and their parent or another caregiver. It is definitely one of the New York City’s most unique classes that will blow you away! Most classes offered across most platforms are either something along the lines of a “Mommy and me” class for very young children, or a class for older kids and teens that completely excludes the family. What B2 Events does is something in the middle: it provides cool, entertaining activities for tweens to do along with their parents or caretakers. This is wonderful, as many kids of this age tend to have less and less time to spend with important adults in their lives, and less and less in common with them. The events are geared toward being attractive to both adults and tweens, and they encompass a wide variety of interests, from art to fitness to local adventures. It can be difficult to make enough time to spend with a preteen or teenager, especially considering school work, sports, dance classes, sleepovers, camps, etc; yet, children of this age do still desire spending quality time and making memories with their parents. The courses are offered as one-time lessons in fun topics, which allows families to get a nice taste of a variety of areas.
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2. Bricks 4 Kidz
Kids today are growing up in a world where technology and related fields are extremely lucrative. At Bricks 4 Kidz, STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), the number two on our list of New York City’s most unique classes that will blow you away principles are taught to kids ages three to thirteen. Though these areas of education may seem a bit advanced for kids of this age, the school breaks it down into the most basic building blocks– Lego blocks, to be specific– to create a working foundation of knowledge. The founder of the company was a teacher at a New York City public school for seven years, and has designed the school’s curriculum around this experience. The lessons focus on improving how students perform in assessments in algebra, geometry, and life science, while also focusing on experiential learning and deeper understanding. Another great thing about this school, is that they pride themselves on catering to non-English speakers, those who cannot yet read, and children with disabilities.
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1. Edge Studio
Voice acting is an arguably underrated area of performance art, with little public attention generated toward the craft. While you may think that voice actors are naturally gifted (which many are, to some extent), there are actually classes that can teach you to be a voice actor. Edge Studios produces voice recordings, coaches and supports voice actors (both new and veteran), provides lessons for narrators and spoken word performers, and offers technical support for in-home and commercial recording studios. Students from Edge Studio have gone on to work for major corporations, including Google, Chase, and even Disney and Pixar. Classes can be taken individually or in a group, and are even offered remotely via phone or internet. Whether you have your eye on working on a documentary voice-over, providing narration for an audiobook, or serving as the voice of a cartoon character for commercials or television, Edge Studios can get you on the right track.
Thanks for staying with us through our list of New York City’s most unique classes that will blow you away. We hope that you take advantage of some of these extremely interesting offerings, and have an awesome out-of-the-box experience learning something new.
