Producing your own music is a great way to expand on your capabilities as a songwriter. When you produce music, you’re not just worrying about the topline of a song and what chords are being played, you’re building the world that a song sits in. It’s a really cool opportunity to shape your art in a holistic and creative way! BUT, the question is… should you do it?
Here’s the real question:
Are you wanting to 100% be a music producer, or are you an artist who wants to produce as well?
When it comes down to it, producing and being an artist are related fields, but can be entirely different disciplines. Both can take upwards of 10 years to fully develop and understand as a career. They’re similar in the same way a coin has two sides. On one side there are producers who have been producing music for 20-30 years. On the other side, you have artists like Adele and Sam Smith who have been singing and writing for their whole lives. Both industries are similar, but it takes years of dedication to master both crafts.
If you’re an artist looking to produce as well, you’ll have to decide if you want producing to be a career, or a hobby. Plenty of artists understand how to produce and can create their own demos to send to full time career producers to flush out, but very few artists have a full time and successful artist career alongside a full time and successful production career. It’s definitely possible! But be prepared to put in lots of hours developing everything!
That said, let’s dive into what it actually takes!
What skills do you need in order to produce your own music?
Well, number one, you’ll need listening skills. Sounds real obvious, right? But here’s the thing - listening to music and really digging deep into a song and listening to it are completely different things. You can jam in the car to Taylor Swift for days and days and have no idea what’s going on in the actual world of the track. Being a successful producer requires you to be able to listen to a track, pull apart the elements, and re-create them to some extent.
Sounds complicated, huh?
It can be! But the good thing is, you’ll develop these skills over time while you’re learning to produce! The best way to develop this is to just dive right in and start creating content as best you can! My guess is you already understand how a song is put together (verse, chorus, etc.). Producing music is just expanding on that knowledge to include more elements of a song and instruments as well (intro, tag, drop, bass, drums, etc.)!
Cool cool, Spike. I gotta use my ears. What other skills do I need?
Well, you’ll need a basic understanding of how computers work. Since music production happens primarily within computer programs, you’ll need to have knowledge of computers! This means that you need to understand how to operate programs and navigate the file infrastructure within your computer. What also helps is knowing to troubleshoot problems yourself and adapt to them well! Learning how to produce music is bound to throw a few curveballs your way, so being able to troubleshoot and figure out solutions to problems you face will be key!
Awesome! I think I can do that. Where can I learn this stuff or go to for help if I need it?
That’s a great question! There are tons of online resources for learning the basics of music production, as well as teachers for this kind of stuff. My suggestion is that you hop on a lesson with a friend who produces music (or you can hop on a call with me here and I’ll show you myself!) and learn the basics of your software and how to navigate it. This includes setting up a session, creating sounds, and recording audio. From there, I suggest you watch a ton of YouTube videos and try to learn as much as you can yourself! A great way to develop your skills is writing a song with a friend and trying to produce it together. That way you can experiment with different sounds and techniques with another person without it feeling as overwhelming.
Once you’ve got a good grasp of the basics, I would find a teacher or a mentor to take you the rest of the way! Once you develop your sound a little bit, you’ll have a better idea of what kind of producer would help you out the best. If you end up making a lot of hip hop or R&B, I’d love to help you out and teach you what I know! If you end up in a different genre, I can help point you towards some great colleagues of mine who would be a great fit :)
Producing music is a growing journey for most people. Hell, I’ve been at it for a while and still learn new things every week! The best thing about this journey, though, is that you can learn it any way you want. You don’t have to be at your destination in order to create some great stuff. You can create as you go - and that’s the best way to approach it in my mind.
Happy creating!
Spike
