Life As A Music Producer
Let’s start by asking the question, what does a music producer do?
A music producer can wear many hats but essentially that person is the orchestrator of getting a musical idea from it’s infant stages into a fully fledged and wonderful produced track known as, a song.
In many cases, some music producers will literally have no part in playing the instruments but more so know the right people for the job, the right sounds for the part and can help identify the right style or genre suitable for the artist. They are the taste makers and the trend setters in many cases as once an artist has created a trustful relationship with their music producer, they will seek their guidance throughout the songwriting process.
Having said that, there are many music producers who write, sing, play, mix, master and literally do a large majority of the songwriting process. I like to call these types “Super Producers!”
Timbaland
Pharrell
Mark Ronson
Poo Bear
And that’s just to name a few of my favourites.
Becoming a music producer is nothing short of a long journey. The best of the best have been doing it for 10-20-30 years and more as there are so many elements that come along with achieving this title of music producer.
Firstly, up-skilling yourself would have to be the most important and foremost priority to obtaining any type of success. The best thing to do, is put aside a few years for development and really invest in yourself with time and practise.
Things like:
Spending time making beats
Learning to create melodies
Learning or practising a musical instrument such as piano or guitar will really help increase your knowledge and further your ability.
Understanding the fundamentals to mixing, gain staging, mono vs stereo, panning, volume, automation, depth and space etc…
Learning songwriting, arrangement, sound pallets.
Understanding the importance of social skills and managing business, finance, the list goes on
If someone was to give me an example 10 years ago about what it takes to be a music producer I would most probably say that I would feel slightly discouraged. So here’s the key…
I would ask myself two things.
Am I blindly passionate about music and creating it myself?
And are you disciplined with a strong work ethic?
If the above two are yes! Then I would say, who cares and go for it! The journey is 80% of the fun!
If you’re an artist reading this, I would suggest again, do you want to be an artist? music producer? or both? because if it’s both, then be prepared to put aside a good 5-10 years for each!
Sometimes, it’s better to know what it is exactly that you want to achieve and spend your time with someone else who has already spent that 10,000 hours honing their craft!
There is now an abundance of information out there and although there is a lot. There is also some really good information out there such as online mixing courses, online production courses and so forth, in which I have spent a lot of time and a fraction of the cost studying these rather than the $40,000-$70,000 engineering courses. Which quite frankly, have a history of spitting out students who don’t really know what they’re doing. It is a big business after all.
Time, patience and practise are all things that I have invested in and still do to this day. If the objective is to make music, then the reality is, you will never stop learning. Spend a little bit of money on a course you believe in and I promise you, you will thank yourself for it!
There’s no reason you can’t get there without a course, but having someone who’s done this 10-30 years longer is really going to be able to help you fast track your learning and career by at least a few years! This I tell you, from a painstaking experience, of being stubborn! =)
BEST OF LUCK!
AND DON’T LET YOURSELF LOSE THE SPARK AND LOVE AFFAIR THAT MUSIC GIVES YOU!
Spike Leo
