How to Become a Music Producer Without School?

Music production is one intricate business in the world of music-making. In the end, it does not matter how beautiful your vocals sound, or how harmonious the melody of the songs are, if the production of the music is not executed properly and professionally, then you have to expect a bad output of the song or songs, and some very strong criticism from experts, consumers and critics alike. Let us know ‘How to Become a Music Producer Without School?’

How to Become a Music Producer Without School?

How to Become a Music Producer Without School?

Now becoming a producer without going to school is not impossible but it is also challenging, as a lot of discipline has to be exerted to learn on your own or be self-taught. Note that it takes a lot of time of learning, unlearn, relearning a lot of musical theories and topics before you can become a music producer. So, to become a music producer without school all you have to do is download, or purchase online materials on how to become a music producer and study them like you were in school.

What is the role of a Music Producer?

A music producer is traditionally by definition the person who generally oversees and manages the recording and production process of a song. You could also say a music producer organizes recording, how the song would go, the duration of the song, and the arrangements of melodies and voices. Over 30 years ago one would have said it was difficult, maybe impossible to study music production without going to school because of the expensive hardware and devices you required for a proper music production session, but the music world has developed radically in that sense as you can now acquire tools for music production with your laptops or software devices, making music production more flexible than the four walls of the school system, giving people access to tools and materials to learn and produce good music. A music producer’s role is ideas creation, recording, editing, mixing, and mastering.

Diversity of a Music Producer:

Even as music production advanced in its adaptation and development, it also diversified as well. In its difficult to learn and master, music production can also be rewarding and lucrative because a music producer can produce or write music for movies, produce music for a rapper or a singer, create sounds for video games, record and organize live band music, make music for advertisements and live shows, or just produce music for themselves. These are the plethora of options and opportunities music production offers.

The Two Types of Producers:

These two types of producers are different because of certain factors.

A Solo Producer is a producer that does all the work by themselves. It could mostly be because that producer does not have a large budget and cannot hire personnel to divide the work, or they do not have the expensive hardware needed and can only access alternative options. Most times these producers can only work with upcoming artists, or new artists, even if their work is really good. A solo producer:

  • Creates and records musical ideas, melodies, harmonies, and vocals.
  • Arranges these ideas.
  • Mixes and masters the ideas.
  • Handles the sound designs.

A Team Producer, on the other hand, is a producer that has access to both a large budget to hire enough personnel to divide the work, and the required hardware to make music production. So, unlike the solo producer, this producer has a person for every task on that production job. These producers are the ones that handle top artists because the division of the workload because of their large budget helps them achieve top-quality productions in their music. So you would have someone creating the ideas around the song, someone creating melodies and harmonies in situations where the artiste cannot or, is not writing the songs, one to work with the artist(s), and another person would mixing and mastering the songs, and so on.

How To Become a Music Producer Without School?

Now there are some basic requirements you need to start the journey of becoming a music producer, Let’s get to know these requirements:

Here are the Hardware needed:

  • Computers
  • Microphone
  • Samplers
  • Drum pad controllers
  • Studio monitors
  • Audio interface
  • DJ controllers
  • Midi keyboard
  • Headphones

You would need Software like

  • Digital Audio Workstation (DAW), like GarageBand.
  • Loops
  • VST plugins

After you have gotten all these needed wares, the learning process can begin.

Your Preferred Genres of Music:

First, you would want to understand the genre you love listening to and connecting to. There are over 1,200 recognized genres in the world of music, as sub-genres are also recognized as genres. But here are some popular genres in music:

  • Country music
  • Hip hop music
  • Pop music
  • Latin music
  • Jazz
  • Punk
  • Rock music
  • Metal Music
  • Reggae
  • Soul and R&B music
  • Religious music
  • Polka
  • Folk and Traditional music
  • Funk
  • Electronic music

You would have to research and analyze everything about the genres you are drawn to, sub-genres, and every successful song, and recording in those genres. This would help you find out the factors that make those genres of music appeal to you. After you have gained a level of expertise in your preferred genres, you can delve into other genres if you desire to, as the knowledge and experience from your preferred genres might help understand the concepts of these different genres you want to try.

Ears of Music:

The next thing you would want to do is train your ears. As a music producer you are expected to have the ability to hear, listen and understand the role of every input in a music recording or song. You also need to be able to recognize details in beats to know what instruments you need to implement or add to your beats and music production. You need to focus your attention on the styles, audio mixing, special effects, structures of songs, sounds, and mastering techniques of songs in your line of genre and other music producers to try to create your style.

Start Creating Music:

After going through these two drilling processes, then I believe you are quite prepared to start your music production journey properly.

Now you can create your music with all the knowledge and understanding you have gathered. Remember consistency is key to growth, progress, and improvement in any endeavor, even in music. It helps when you produce music consistently, not necessarily producing music for consumption, but to get better, especially if you are in your learning phase as it would help you monitor your progress, learn from your mistakes, improve on your successes and become a better music producer. Always remember there are no rules to music productions. Create your own unique and refined styles in the confines of your preferred genres. Also, remember that staying away from music environments like a studio may result in you being rusty and losing pace a little. Work with a schedule or timetable, you can plan to make music daily or weekly, so you can have the time to review and process your progress.

Music Comparison:

To be able to identify and adjust your mistakes and weaknesses in music production, then you should not be scared to compare and contrast your works with works of successful, experienced, and renowned producers in the genre field you are in. This helps your development, adds to your knowledge, and expands your production abilities. You can also learn a lot from online tutorials regarding problems you might face while producing.

Knowledge of Audio Mixing and Mastering:

Mixing is a process more like enhancing and improving on all multiple sounds in a song. The vocals, effects, pitch corrections, volume adjustments, dynamics levels, and frequency, among other sounds, are all processed and cleaned up to give an arranged and professional sound.

Mastering is the final process of music production. This is the process that prepares the song or songs for distribution and consumption in its demand market. Mastering is basically the process of unifying the general sound of the songs so that they have the right volume levels, the right warmth, and the loudness. You can also correct all imperfections that were missed during the mixing process.

Get Critical View for Your Works, Connect

You might be scared of what people might think about your productions, but you also might get stunt growth if you do not send your work out to people to listen and give feedback because this is the last stage of knowing you deserve to be called a music producer, from the critical feedback of music consumers, lovers, and fans. These people might include family, friends, supporters even your music idols and models.

Sending your work out to the large public is not really advised though. You could gather family and friends, play these songs with them and get their honest opinion about the songs, or you could host a small listening party. Interact with people, exchange ideas, and get feedback on your work.

This feedback would help you to fully know what areas of your production need improvements, adjustments, changes, or appraisals and the areas of quality and excellence. Truth be told, sometimes you might get some very destructive criticism from people, but still, you might get very constructive feedback, praise, love, and support from people. One thing to note is, you cannot control what people say, but you can control what to take home from what people say.

Build Relationships

Releasing your work for criticism and feedback can help you build relationships and networks with other musically inclined people around you or even around the world. This can also help in growth because there will be a lot of idea-sharing and collaborations happening back and forth, and you’ll eventually notice a massive improvement from when you were still hidden from the world.

The Process of Music Production:

Music ideas can come in different forms, from different things. It could be from a drumline, melody, lyrics, chord progression, or something abstract or natural. That begins the process of music production. What are the steps to making music? Let’s take a look:

  • Musical Ideas: all the ideas are gathered at this stage for rough arrangements and voicing.
  • Recording: this stage requires all the vocal recordings to be done, melodies and harmonies.
  • Editing: This is where individual performances are edited, also the arrangement of the whole work.
  • Mixing: when the editing is done, proper arrangements and effects additions are made to complete the full process.
  • Mastering: this is the stage the song is finally prepared for distribution. Some final adjustments are made to the recording at this stage. 

Job Opportunities for a Music Producer:

Music production is one of the most lucrative and diverse careers in the music world because as a music producer you open yourself to many opportunities for work.

Here’s a list of job options available to a music producer:

  • Audio director
  • Concert technician
  • Mastering engineering
  • Boom operator
  • Music editor
  • Mixing engineer
  • Live sound engineer
  • Production sound mixer
  • Sound editor
  • Recording engineer

How Much Money Can a Music Producer Make?

This question really is dependent on the music producer’s experience, ability and influence. A small independent producer will definitely not get the same amount of cash payment as a top-artist producer would. According to reports by Berklee College of Music’s Center for Career Development, record producers earn as much as $25,000 to $1,000,000 annually from music production.

Conclusion:

There is a lot of exposure attached to music production. Not only music exposure but also business, relationship, and financial exposures all come with the package of being a music producer. The process is sure a difficult and challenging one especially when you prefer to study music production outside of school, or you prefer to be self-taught on being a music producer. But as you grow and develop, you would, and just like every other process of learning in life, begin to reap the success of all the hard work you have put in overtime towards learning, practicing, and mastering the craft of music production.

How to Become a Music Producer Without School?

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