You might be asking yourself "what education is needed to become a music producer"?
The truth is all you really need to get started is:
- A computer
- Determination
- A good ear for music
Learning the basics online with Producertech is also a great place to start!
If you’re new to the Producertech site or new to music production, you might be a bit confused and wondering what to learn first. In this blog post, I hope to offer a little guidance on which courses you might like to start with and a rough order to follow.
Beginner’s Guide to Beats Production
This course is a great starting point for complete beginners. Learning to produce beats can provide really good foundations on which to start making music. If you have zero experience in music production, this course will get you up and running making beats, and also help you decide which way to potentially go in terms of acquiring music software.
Tech House Production with Loopcloud Part 1
This is also a very simple course, so can be another good starting point. It shows how resources like Loopcloud make it easy to create the building blocks from which arrangements can be made. Loopcloud is also free to download so you can start practicing basic music production on a shoestring budget.
The Art of Sampling
Sampling is a fundamental part of modern music production and one of the most popular means of making music, from beats to melodies and more. This is a great introduction to sampling, explaining the controls on a sampler and how they differ from each other, so you know what to expect when working with samplers in any music software. You’ll also learn how to make different types of sounds with samples.
Beginner’s Guide to a DAW
Getting a bit more in-depth and software-specific now, we show you how to get up and running with a Digital Audio Workstation or DAW, covering all the basics of using audio (samples) and MIDI instruments to make music. By the end of these courses, you'll feel much more confident using your DAW and able to make simple arrangements with ease.
Our flagship course is the Beginner's Guide to Music Production with Ableton Live, which is probably the most popular DAW and available to both Mac and PC users. This course also comes with assignments throughout, for trying out your newly-acquired techniques!
Music Mixing Fundamentals
Once you’ve learnt to make a track, you’ll probably want to learn how to make it sound good! That’s where learning the basics of mixing comes in handy. A word of warning, mixing is quite a big step up from other music production skills, and certainly starts to move into a more technical domain.
That being said, this is a great summary and you can use the course as a reference when you’re finishing your first tunes. Each lecture provides a thorough explanation of the mixing stage being taught, which you should find accessible even as someone with not much production experience, due to the tutor's clear and detailed teaching style.
EQ and Compression Fundamentals, Art of Filtering
These are useful courses that explain various fundamentals of music production. Having learned some of the basics of EQ and compression on Music Mixing Fundamentals, these effect-specific tutorials are great next steps, to really understand and master these essential audio processors, when you're really wanting to hone your technical skills and take your production up a notch! They are short, comprehensive guides to important effects and will provide you with some serious knowledge in each area.
Beginner’s Guide to Music Theory for Producers
Music theory is a highly useful skill to have, whatever style of music you're making, unless it's atonal Techno of course! Learning a bit about musical notes and chords will help you make informed decisions on basslines, melodies and the overall harmony in your music, which can be invaluable when wanting to make tuneful tracks.
Beginner’s Guide to Synthesis
How about something a little more advanced? It’s time to learn about synthesis! This is actually a nice, relatively straightforward intro to a more complex topic. If you’re interested in sound design, start here. No need to fear synthesizers anymore, as this course will help you know what to expect in terms of sections and controls, and enable you to edit patches as well as design your own simple ones from scratch!
This selection of courses should get you up and running - You’ll be ready to take our more advanced courses and masterclasses in no time!
