Who/How/What To Study Regarding Music Production

OGBama

Big Clit Energy
Keep in mind my goals I stated in Help A Sista Out (if anyone hasn't seen it please read and respond as I'd appreciate it) and because producing has so many aspects such as sound selection, sound design, composition, arrangement, mixing and mastering, knowing this is why I keep my expectations lowered and my goal realistic. I'll admit that in my life I never had much in the way of a formal music education.

I find sampling interesting but would rather learn to compose from scratch.

I like instrumentals that aren't "busy."
 
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Scales, chords, and chord progressions. Once you understand the chord you are currently in allows you to improvise freely within that chord to make melodies all day. You can layer on top of that chord to harmonize by adding notes within the scale of the chord.

You need to train the ears to hear when keys are off, this comes with the understanding of the above.
Practice, and a bit more practice.

Where you go really depends on what you want to do, do you want to sample or compose music?
Or both?

Sampling takes some practice to learn all the little tricks to do it well and composing and layering samples takes either a good ear and/or an understanding of the theroy behind the practice, and a bit more practice, and a bit more.

If making the music is for you, then learn an instrument, a keyboard is a good place to start for a beat maker as most is done with one if you wish to compose music. If sampling is more your thing then the mpd style midi controller might be more for you.

Id go the software route at first, its not so expensive, you can start out pretty cheaply, so then if you find out once you have tried it whether its not for you, then no great loss you can try something else, at least you had a go.
If it is for you and you enjoy it then you can start taking things further.

Every journey starts with taking the first step.

And yeah, something about practice, and practice and more practice, practice until the people you look up to for inspiration reach higher leagues and give you more goals to set yourself and achieve, and keep going and going, it can take a lifetime to master. Most importantly, express yourself, put your heart and soul into it, thats how the best music is made, even if that means using somebody elses music or words to do it in a fresh new way like with sampling.
 

Iron Keys

ILLIEN MBAPPÉ
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 543
Music theory will help you greatly.

Initially it will also hinder you.

I can't remember/not sure if i ever really understood what your goals are.

But the important part of making music is making something people "feel". Your main focus as a creator-producer should be making something people feel.

Having a basic understanding of engineering will be useful, but don't get sidetracked by it. There will always be mix engineers with 30+years experience and £100,000s of pounds worth of equipment who can make your stuff sound good.

Maybe you learn to engineer your stuff quite good, but that's of trivial use if your tracks are uninspiring.

To emphasise this point, you can drum on your table and have a friend humm a catchy melody and it be better musically than someones dead yet well polished production.

That spark of magic is what captures people, makes your track popular or make labels/top artists look at you. The rest is just presentation.
 

crog85

Back to the Grind...
Battle Points: 815
U know... I received some wise words once, from a fortune cookie

“Dont spend your time stringing and tuning your instrument, make music now!”

U can try to learn as much as u can, but until u open up your daw and actually start making some music, u wont start making music... make sense?

Learn as you go as, im sure the vast majority of us here have done... experience is the best teacher.

Many people make beats with little to no knowledge of music. If it sounds good to u...
 

Iron Keys

ILLIEN MBAPPÉ
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 543
None of the people succeeding I'vehad advice from including artists, songwriters, A&Rs etc have ever really mentioned about "quality" of tracks, it's always the quality of the song they've emphasised.

That's why I now try focus on that, and why any of you with the same agenda should too.

If your track isn't making you move at the composition/production stage no amount of engineering will really remedy that - just make it sound nicer. (It can help certain elements but still)
 

crosstevsky

beats architect
Battle Points: 127
None of the people succeeding I'vehad advice from including artists, songwriters, A&Rs etc have ever really mentioned about "quality" of tracks, it's always the quality of the song they've emphasised.

That's why I now try focus on that, and why any of you with the same agenda should too.

If your track isn't making you move at the composition/production stage no amount of engineering will really remedy that - just make it sound nicer. (It can help certain elements but still)
I agree that some of us are expecting too much from the mixing process, but i also will add that mixing and production lines are blurred together sometimes...like when you saturate or distort an 808...is that engineering or producing? I always tend to think of the mix when im making my sound choices in the production stage...
 
None of the people succeeding I'vehad advice from including artists, songwriters, A&Rs etc have ever really mentioned about "quality" of tracks, it's always the quality of the song they've emphasised.

That's why I now try focus on that, and why any of you with the same agenda should too.

If your track isn't making you move at the composition/production stage no amount of engineering will really remedy that - just make it sound nicer. (It can help certain elements but still)
I agree. No matter how much you polish a turd its still a turd. You can tie a nice ribbon bow on a piece of shit and make it really presentable, but its still just a piece of shit. I can tell a good song even if it isnt mixed too great.
 

Crispifier

The Real SlimSpaceship
Battle Points: 15
Scales, chords, and chord progressions. Once you understand the chord you are currently in allows you to improvise freely within that chord to make melodies all day. You can layer on top of that chord to harmonize by adding notes within the scale of the chord.


Ok so this is completly true dont be put off by theory it' super helpfull, you start by learning chords/a simple song ... say... let it be by the beatles... guess what now you also know no woman no cry... guess what! you also now know dont stop beleiving,country roads,with or without you and hundreds of other pop songs from those 4 chords

here's a video that i find pretty funny on the subject



after that learn the minor and major versions of the other 8 dont worry about inversions and all that crap yet you can play a simplified version of any song if you know the minor and major version of each chord


scales sound complicated when you start but when you break it down there are only 12 notes in total (in western music) thats it... every song everything from justin beiber to mozart is a combination of these twelve notes, get a piano its by far the instrument that is the easiest to get started with and as a bonus you will pick up theory just by it's layout.

you also know a lot more music theory than you think i've linked this video before but i still use this tech if im stuck when composing



anyway good luck learning an instrument its super fun ! ^^
 
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Crispifier

The Real SlimSpaceship
Battle Points: 15
U know... I received some wise words once, from a fortune cookie

“Dont spend your time stringing and tuning your instrument, make music now!”

that chinese fortune cookie has never had to play guitar live hahaha
 
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Keep in mind my goals I stated in Help A Sista Out (if anyone hasn't seen it please read and respond as I'd appreciate it) and because producing has so many aspects such as sound selection, sound design, composition, arrangement, mixing and mastering, knowing this is why I keep my expectations lowered and my goal realistic. I'll admit that in my life I never had much in the way of a formal music education.

I find sampling interesting but would rather learn to compose from scratch.

I like instrumentals that aren't "busy"
Everyone is different so just work on whatever gaps you have. For instance I've always been decent at melodies because I've been playing piano forever. So I spend time working on drums, sound design & what not. I'm not a big fan of music theory, I feel like it's just way too confusing. But again, it might help you or whomever is reading a lot.
 
Here is also my advice...Drumming...forget melodies...just work on drumming. Melodies will come naturally after that. The best songs have one thing in common..Drumming thats so good that it drives the melody no matter how shit the melody is. Also a note on offkey notes, believe it or not, off key songs actually sound good if you prep them right.
 

Crispifier

The Real SlimSpaceship
Battle Points: 15
Here is also my advice...Drumming...forget melodies...just work on drumming. Melodies will come naturally after that. The best songs have one thing in common..Drumming thats so good that it drives the melody no matter how shit the melody is. Also a note on offkey notes, believe it or not, off key songs actually sound good if you prep them right.

Interesting im the complete opposite i listen to melody and composition first maybe your musical background and what you listen to most affects this ? :) but yeah like i said i find that facinating i think perhaps different artist/genres/producers lean to or focus on one or the other though in my opinion you need both at a passable level for something to be considered good
 

YannFer

The Mr Bernard Who Laughs
Battle Points: 166
My son can't read but he draws letter like "MMKGFGHHHJK" and asks "papa, what have I written ?".
Knowing music theory is exactly that. You transform the guessing into writing melodies/progressions...

The important thing in hip-hop is the originality of the sonics you use, not the complexity of the melodies. All the producers listed in the" best producers" thread have that in common I think. They have their own sound, not complicated melodies.

But taking away all the guessing regarding your piano roll will give you more time to work on the sonics. But learning the theory takes time as well ...

My piece of advice would be "focus on your bassline... Find a kick you like... You're good to go."
 
Interesting im the complete opposite i listen to melody and composition first maybe your musical background and what you listen to most affects this ? :) but yeah like i said i find that facinating i think perhaps different artist/genres/producers lean to or focus on one or the other though in my opinion you need both at a passable level for something to be considered good
I actually started off with melodies but I dnt know my beatts didn't have that oomph. Until I met my now best friend who is also a producer and his drumming was like wow, so I did his melodies and he did my drumming
 
Interesting im the complete opposite i listen to melody and composition first maybe your musical background and what you listen to most affects this ? :) but yeah like i said i find that facinating i think perhaps different artist/genres/producers lean to or focus on one or the other though in my opinion you need both at a passable level for something to be considered good
Agreed, what I find is sampling just makes it easier to compose beats around it. Than you get producers who play from scratch and just always sounds original. That's what I love about people doing things from scratch.
 

Iron Keys

ILLIEN MBAPPÉ
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 543
DRUMS vs MELODY

on this topic, i alwaaays used to start with drums first. I used to see it as building a foundation.
Building a groove for the rest to sit on.

I've now tried changing that and starting with melody first.

Both ways are workable.

Timbaland... probably best known for his drums. Most often starts with melody first I believe.

What it comes down to (depending on your goal i guess) is finding something infectious... whether that's a melody, sound, or groove, and then adding to it.

You've got to remember...
 

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