Sound to Song: A Comprehensive Intro to Music Production (for Beginners)
It was an old silver record player. One of those with the plastic cover missing. I remember the feel of the rubber circle on my fingers. That was where the records went.
You had to place the needle down softly over the correct spot on the record or it wouldn't play. Or worse yet, you'd scratch it. Lord help you if you scratched it.
I can't recall how old I was when I learned all this. Can't even remember who taught me. It was probably my dad.
Growing up, I felt like a cool kid in school. I would tell the others in my class, "Did you listen to the radio today? If you did, you probably heard my dad."
He was a radio DJ back when it mattered. Before the days of anytime podcasts or YouTube, the radio DJ was a vital component of the community. He advised, forecasted, announced, and of course, played music.
Music was everywhere when I was a kid. My dad had hundreds of vinyl records that he cycled through on a regular basis.
I grew up with all the classics: Stevie Wonder, Earth, Wind, and Fire, Michael Jackson. But alongside them (primarily thanks to my older brother) I was exposed to hip hop, jazz, and rock.
I've always been a listener of music. But I had no idea I'd ever make it.
Why I started making music + Why I wrote this
Music licensing laws suck.
When I decided to add music to my audiobook Cereus & Limnic in early 2021, that was the conclusion I landed on after hours of researching things like "how to LEGALLY put music in my podcast."
There's something sad and frustrating about the multiple legal cages most popular songs are jailed in. The keys are scattered among many guards. Finding them requires incredible costs and time cutting through the thicket of administrative processes and paperwork.
Fuck that.
I'll make my own music. I told myself.
But for a while I didn't do it. I had no idea where to start.
That's the primary reason I'm writing this post.
To give you who are interested in making your own music, an entry point into the world of music production or composition.
Let's begin with how to get started.
Where should you start?
Learning any skill is much easier today than it's ever been in human history.
But here's the rub, it's easy to get pulled down internet rabbit holes and start in the wrong place.
You might watch a YouTube tutorial for an advanced musical concept or a production technique used by a career producer and get overwhelmed and discouraged.
Raise your hand if that's ever happened to you? **Raises hand**
I want you to avoid those ill-feelings. So my advice for where to begin?
Wherever your background or fascinations lead you.
My start in music
Before I started making music, I was a high school math teacher. I had no connections to music at all.
In fact, I began at a time when music had faded in importance in my life. In my haste, to earn my teaching credential, I wasn't listening to music casually like I used to when I was younger. (A bummer indeed.)
However, I did have math. I had fallen back in love with the subject during my teacher training. By March 2021, I was teaching Algebra 1 full-time, yet was still eager to absorb anything marginally related to it.
Music was one of those topics.
Two YouTube videos enflamed my passion for music: Andrew Huang's 30-minute music theory video and one connecting math and music.
Andrew Huang's music theory video
The Math Behind Music and Sound Synthesis
I can recall watching both of these back to back, feeling ecstatic about the connection between math and music. I had never thought about it that way up to that point.
A few hours later, I had purchased Andrew Huang's music production course -not an affiliate link, I just like the course- on Studio (formerly Monthly) and ordered my first keyboard -also not an affiliate link- from Amazon. I couldn't wait to get started.
If the idea of math and music has you wanting to swipe away from this article, then ignore my story.
If you want to make music what's your connection? What's your in?
Ask yourself:
What is my background?
What do I know well?
What do I like?
How does it connect to music?
Answering these questions for yourself will take you far and might just reveal your best access point to producing music.
After you do a bit of soul searching and (hopefully) find your inspiration you'll know it. You'll FEEL it. Then you'll probably be fired up to start buying things like courses, instruments and the like.
But before you drop any money on things you potentially DON'T NEED (more on this below), let's discuss the pink musical elephant in the room: music theory.
Do you need music theory?
Music theory is the how behind the music. It deals with the individual components of music and describes how they work together to produce distinct sounds and types of music.
If math is the language of the universe, music theory is the language of music.
Learning any language is a sore spot for many who had terrible teachers or bad curriculums early on in school.
Often they were forced to take dry unexciting classes, muddled through with an average or even a high score and moved on with the bitterness from the experience weighing on their minds and hearts.
Has this happened to you? If so you're not alone.
So it may come as a relief for me to inform you,
YOU DO NOT NEED TO LEARN MUSIC THEORY IN ORDER TO MAKE MUSIC TODAY.
Most modern music production interfaces are super helpful when it comes to guiding you to create something that sounds listenable to most human ears.
I've watched several YouTube tutorials about how to write melodies, hooks, and entire songs WITHOUT MUSIC THEORY (they will usually put boldly in their title).
HOWEVER,
knowledge of theory WILL make you a better producer, composer, or songwriter in the long run.
It's the difference between being a builder and an architect.
A builder can put the pieces together. But an architect, with extensive knowledge of engineering/design principles, and physics, designs the building, ensuring each part functions in perfect harmony with its components and environment.
I prefer to be a music architect.
But don't let my opinion sway you.
Perhaps all you want to be is a competent builder.
If you want to make music for a specific purpose (like a podcast or YouTube video intro) and you don't plan on doing it long term, it would completely make sense for you to use an AI tool (discussed more in-depth below) generate a few tracks and be done. Nothing wrong with that.
On the other hand, if you have a feeling making music might be YOUR THING, then I'd highly recommend learning at least basic theory.
You don't need a lot to start crafting songs with more intention.
I'd argue if you learn the following you'll be in better shape than the musician who knows zero theory:
- Basic note intervals (5ths and 3rds)
- Knowledge of major and minor chord triads
- Harmony (to make sure your melodies line up with your chords)
That's it.
I've learned a ton of music theory concepts since I started making music, most of it I don't use.
I'm a fan of just-in-time training. Only learn concepts that you will experiment with or look out for in other songs. That helps it stick and leaves for time for making music. (Because learning about theory can be pretty dull sometimes).
MUSIC THEORY RESOURCES
For those of you who are hungry for it, here are some of the resources I used to build up my music theory.
Jason Allen's Udemy Courses
You know you love music when you get a PhD in it. Jason Allen lives and breathes music theory and history. He's also an experienced producer and instructor.
His comprehensive music theory courses on Udemy are excellent with many examples provided. They can be pricey unless you wait for the daily/weekly 80% price slash Udemy offers. Get the first in the series here.
Hooktheory Interactive Songbooks
My best friend (also a musician) recommended the two Hooktheory books to me and I was forever grateful.
These books break down music theory in a very visual style, making it easy for even complete beginners to learn chords, harmony, and other concepts.
They also have a digital audio workstation (DAW) that takes advantage of their visual style. It's great for learning and making music.
If you do Allen's courses as a main dish, supplement with these and you'll have access to more theory than you can possibly absorb as a novice producer.
Checkout Hooktheory here.
Now that I've touched on theory, I'll cover the next big consideration you might have as an emergent musician.
Instruments.
Should you learn an instrument?
When you think of music you probably think of pianos, guitars, and other common tools used to make music.
But do you need to learn one to be an effective producer? Should you?
You don't have to. You can produce great music without being proficient with a particular instrument.
I'm sure some music purists would disagree with me, but it's true.
Modern computer software can reliably and accurately emulate nearly any sound a traditional instrument can make (without human performance errors).
What's more, software can produce sounds that instruments and humans CAN'T make, providing music makers with a mindboggling amount of choices when creating a song (more on dealing with these choices below).
Now while it is possible to be a good music producer without knowing how to play an instrument, SHOULD you learn how to play one?
It depends.
If you only want to make music for videos, video games, podcasts, for short films, or for other consumer focused digital creations (some not all), then I'd say you probably shouldn't bother learning an instrument (unless you want to of course). The DAW is your instrument.
However, if you like to sing, and you have any desire to perform your songs for a live audience or you're making music for things like churches, plays, and theaters, you should seriously consider learning one.
If you're interested in making music for live audiences, then you should strongly consider learning an instrument.
Advantages of Learning How to Play
My wife has a micro grand piano that she never plays. When I began learning about music production, I saw it as the perfect time to become familiar with it.
Music is a very intuitive sport.
Much like learning how to speak when you were a baby, no one taught you specific words. You just listened to your parents and the people around you enough until one day, you started trying it yourself. Then you could talk!
I think sometimes we forget about these natural abilities that we possess in our information-saturated age. That's why I'm ultimately in favor of newborn musicians at least trying out an instrument that suits them.
Here's the first advantage of learning how to play.
It provides an opportunity to play and experiment with music.
Learning how to play an instrument is another activity that is usually spoiled for most of us when we're young.
We have to sit in a boring classroom (or 1-on-1) with some instructor looming over us, pointing out our every fuck up.
BLOW HARDER. KEEP THE BEAT. STRAIGHTEN YOUR BACK. DO YOUR LIPS LIKE THIS (I played trumpet in middle school). It destroys our desire to continue and makes it a chore rather than something fun.
You're an adult now, and you don't have to do that to yourself anymore. There are no grades to make. No football games to practice marching drills for. Just you, your instrument, and music.
It can be fun again. Give it a chance.
One of my best songs I pecked out on that micro grand piano before I could barely play the C-major scale. I couldn't even play chords yet. My intuition led me there. It can do the same for you, if you listen long enough.
Another advantage to learning an instrument is,
you'll be able to test ideas out faster than with software.
I find that as efficient as software can be, it tends to jam up my creative instinct.
There are so many options to consider (even after you've learned how to use it) that good ideas can quickly drown in the noise of technology.
But without the lines and numbers of the DAW staring me in the face, begging for me to fill in some value, my creativity flows more easily.
That leads to quicker execution of ideas and it allows me to refine them faster to get to a complete track in less time. An important factor in increasing your skill as a producer.
The final positive of learning an instrument is,
it just feels and looks cool to play your own music (and you could open up another revenue stream for yourself)
When you have proficiency with an instrument, eventually you'll be able to play your own music.
Even though this seems like a lame reason, imagine writing then playing music you created.
Live performance is one of those human activities I don't think will ever go away, no matter how advanced technology becomes. People will always want to see other people doing or playing amazing things. In fact they'll pay for it.
From street musicians to mega stars selling out venues, people are making good money playing for other people.
If you get good enough that potential source of revenue could be yours.
What instrument should you choose?
The one that interests you most that you can stand spending A LOT of time with.
There's no way around it, learning how to play can be a grindfest. It takes time to develop the dexterity, mental flexibility, and coordination to be able to play well. No shortcuts here.
So pick something you (and the people around you) can stand listening to for hours on end.
As you can tell I'm an advocate for learning piano/keyboard.
Here's why:
- We already had a good one in the house
- I can practice with my headphones on so it doesn't disturb my wife
- Keyboard is the most versatile for producing music in a DAW (no fancy setups or finger placements required)
If you learn piano/keyboard you'll be able to play virtually -pun intended lol- any instrument.
Interested in picking up some piano?
Here's what I used:
Alfred's Self-Teaching Adult Piano Course
My wife got this book for me when we went to a Guitar Center on a whim.
It's a basic resource, but an effective one. It starts with simple drills, then ramps up the difficulty with tougher and tougher songs.
I kinda like using an old school book to learn as well instead of using an app.
If the thought of learning from a book triggers flashbacks from mandatory lessons you had as a kid, pick something else.
There are so many resources out there to learn piano. Many are free online. Just pick one and start working through it. After a few months of consistent practice, you'll get more comfortable and play more smoothly, I promise!
Next let's cover another sticking point new musicians often get jammed up on. Your gear.
Gear and Equipment (Minimum Viable Setup)
Here's the deal with gear, you probably don't need as much as you think you do to get started making music today. Ignore all the music YouTubers with their fancy setups and full studios, you don't need all that juicy gear to get started.
Take it from me, I was a high school math teacher when I got started making music, I definitely didn't have the budget to go crazy buying new -mostly unnecessary- gear. Perhaps you don't either.
So here' my list of MUST HAVES for the minimum viable setup (MVS) you need to start producing music TODAY.
MUST HAVE GEAR
1. A decent computer
Making music can consume a lot of your computer's internal resources. This is such an issue that many DAWs display just how hard your poor CPU is working as you crank out tunes. Things get worse as your songs become more elaborate and you start tacking on fancy effects.
Most modern computers (perhaps 2015 and newer) should be more than capable than handling the load.
I STILL have a functional 2011 MacBook Pro I used to produce one of my most emotionally powerful pieces of music, so it can be done. Just don't be surprised if your computer freezes or crashes several times in the process.
2. Plenty of storage space
Storage space is like water, most don't think about it until they're about to run out.
Don't let that be you. If you plan to be making music for awhile, I highly recommend investing in a separate storage space (online or offline) just for your projects.
Song files can become ridiculously large really fast. Don't be one of those producers who can't save their project or export it due to lack of space.
1 and 2 terrabyte hardrives are very affordable these days (Under $100 USD). Get one and give yourself the piece of mind you need to focus on making more songs, not whether or not you'll be able to save them.
3. A digital audio workstation (DAW)
Most producers today use DAWs to make music. But what is it?
A DAW is the software equivalent of an old music production studio. Most allow you to input sound data in multiple forms (MIDI, MP3, WAV, etc.), apply varying levels of effects to it, and export the files in a digital format.
All DAWs contain varying degrees of control and different interfaces for doing all 3 of the above tasks.
But which one should you choose?
Deciding what DAW to use can be as frustrating and nerve fraying as choosing a phone service provider, they all appear to do the same things on the surface, but there are subtleties among them all.
Additionally, some DAWs are very expensive. So once you've invested in it, maybe a few plugins, and some instrument packs, it's difficult to change. (Just like your mobile service.)
Also DAWs tend to have their own cultures surrounding the people that use them. People that use ProTools are probably pro-musicians (or wannabes who can afford it). Ableton is for EDMers. FLStudio attracts beatmakers.
These are generalizations I've noticed as I've felt my way around the music producer ecosystem. Of course you can use any DAW to make whatever style of music you like.
While I can't take all of the stress out of this decision for you, I can shine a light on the differences between a free and paid DAWs.
That should help give you a place to start experimenting and eventually dropping some cash if you feel like it's worth it.
Free DAWs
These DAWs are free, BUT, they typically lack the capabilities and features of paid DAWs.
Some popular free DAWs I've tried out are:
- GarageBand (Mac only)
- Audacity
- Reaper
- BandLab (mobile only)
I won't go into specifics for each DAW, but you can look them up yourself (or just open it up on your computer and start experimenting if you're a Mac user)
Paid DAWs
Paid DAWs are music studios in your computer (or online). They are capable of producing anything from phone jingles to triple AAA award winning music. It's truly amazing what you can create with the software.
They have two big disadvantages though: learning curve and cost.
It probably took me about 3 months to feel comfortable making music in Ableton Live. I had to buy a Udemy course just to learn how to use the basic features.
Then there's cost. Some DAWs offer varying levels of access with cheaper offerings containing a stripped down version of the DAW (less instruments, less effects). With others it's all or nothing. Just depends.
I got my license for Ableton Live Suite for $700 USD -that was WITH a discount-. These things aren't cheap.
But typically after you've paid, you won't have to pay again (depending on the DAW).
It all comes down to how long you plan on making music. If you've got plans to make this a continuous part of your life, consider buying the DAW as an early investment in your musical journey. One you can pay yourself back for as you go further along.
Here are some of the paid DAWs that I know:
- Ableton Live
- FL Studio
- FL Studio (Mobile)
- Logic
- ProTools
- Cubase
- n-Track studio (mobile)
For Ableton Live Users
If you're interested in choosing Ableton Live as your DAW, here's the course I used to get spun up on it.
Ableton Live 11 - Music Production in Ableton Live
This course also includes a little music theory, but it doesn't go as in-depth as the resources above.
After taking this course, you will feel comfortable with most of the key features Ableton has to offer.
Now back to the last pieces of gear you need to start making music.
4. You need an ok pair of headphones
As a producer it's important to be able to clearly hear the music you're making, that's why a good pair is essential.
A good pair doesn't mean an expensive pair. I got by with a $30 pair of headphones for my first 6 months of making music, and the music I made came out fine. You can do the same.
Just please, don't use earbuds, wired or wireless.
Wireless earbuds tend to be exceptionally bad for producing music.
There's a slight lag with communication between bluetooth enabled devices. The delay might throw off the timing of your songs. You definitely don't want that.
I'm aware of a wireless class of headphones that are apparently designed for music producers. But they were pretty expensive so stick with wired headphones in the beginning if you can.
5. You need an ok microphone (maybe)
Are you a singer? If you plan on recording your vocal performance in your songs, I recommend investing in a decent microphone.
This will ensure you can focus on singing and not on the quality of your input when you record.
My first microphone was a Blue Yeti USB microphone. It wasn't fancy, but it got the job done.
I'm also not a great vocalist (unless I'm singing karaoke) and most of my music is instrumental. If you're like me, you probably don't need to worry about getting a mic at all.
That's it!
Those are the 5 must haves for getting started making music.
- A decent computer
- Plenty of digital storage space
- A DAW (free or paid)
- An ok pair of headphones
- (Optional) an ok microphone
I would consider anything else to be a nice-to have.
NICE TO HAVE GEAR
Here is my list of nice to have pieces of gear:
- an audio interface (for hooking up better microphones, headphones, and other gear)
- a MIDI controller (so you can use your keyboard skills to play notes in instead of programming them in)
- any other specialized gear like: synths, relays, electronic drum pads etc.
This is the kind of stuff I see in the background of videos by music YouTubers all the time. While it looks cool, it's not necessary at this point. Never forget, they probably started with just a computer and an instrument. You can build up to those elaborate setups in the future, but for now start with the MVS and start making music.
Don't let your gear be the reason you don't start or finish tracks.
(Now a brief interlude.)
Memory is a strange thing. Sometimes it works too well. Others not all. In the case of my dad it began to malfunction years ago.
I can hardly remember the sound of dad's voice at the time of this writing, but I remember the sound of him hitting the floor on that chilly morning 20 years ago.
From my blackened bedroom, I heard the unnatural scraping of a hand on the wall of our hallway, followed by a thump on the floor. There was a heaviness to it. I had never heard it before and haven't heard it since.
Somehow I knew he was dead before I got up the courage to join my Mom in the living room. She was calling out to him with no response.
It would take me years of journaling, time, and distance to convince myself there was nothing me or mom could have done. Then a few years more to unwrap the gifts my father left for me.
Although my memories of him have been worn away by time, the music remained.
I drifted for awhile before I realized that.
Songwriting 101
When I started writing music that drifting feeling hit me again. The freedom became restrictive causing me to desperately cling to anything solid for grounding myself.
Perhaps you've had a similar experience when you've sat down to write music.
It's funny how when you declare yourself a musician all of a sudden the ideas don't seem to come as speedily as they used to. This problem affects makers in any creative endeavor.
So in this section it is my goal to give you some guidelines for song generation.
It is my hope that you can use this as a foundation to construct your own creative process as you get more familiar with the way you prefer to write music.
Start by setting some constraints for yourself
When you first open your DAW, you'll be itching to begin trying the sounds, instruments, and effects out.
You might key or draw in a few notes just to see how they sound in the piano roll and then mess around for hours, swapping out instruments, filters, and drum kits.
Before you know it, hours have passed, and you're no step closer to finishing a track.
I'm gonna bold those words whenever I write them. In order to get better as a music producer you need to finish tracks! Not loops, chord progressions, or melodies. WHOLE TRACKS.
To prevent yourself from screwing around and on to finishing more tracks it helps to set some constraints for yourself.
Here's how I do it.
I call it the 1-effect, 1-music theory, 1-approach method or the 1-1-1 for short.
Here's how it works.
1-effect
In my DAW of choice (Ableton Live), there are tons of potential track altering effects to mess around with. I constrain myself to trying out one new one per track. That prevents me from falling into endless experimentation mode and not finishing tracks.
1-music theory
I select one new music theory concept to try out in my song. This stops me from staying in my head too long, allowing me to let my intuition guide some of my choices as opposed to the theory.
1-approach
As you will soon discover, there a many ways to begin writing a song. I restrict myself to the one that feels most appropriate for the track I'm trying to make then go from there.
Feel free to adopt my 1-1-1 Constraints Method for Music Production. It's helped me keep my eye on the ball and finish more tracks much faster.
After you've set up some bounds for you to build within, let's talk about some of the ways you can start writing a song.
5 Ways to start writing a song
This video by Andrew Huang is a great place to start for getting ideas for starting songs.
A highly experienced musician like him can cycle through these methods quickly. You won't be able to in the beginning. That's ok. (I still struggle with it, too.)
Here are some ways I start songs.
1. Chord progression
This has become my favorite way to begin any song.
It's because with chords alone you can already say so much about the emotion you are trying to convey through your song. (Just a little music theory will help you understand how to do this well.)
From the chords, it's easier for me to craft a melody and a bass line. From there my song's almost done.
There are tons of places online to get experimental chord progressions.
One I used often early on is called Chordchord.
If you don't mind paying some money, Hooktheory has a DAW called Hookpad that is excellent for trying out chord progressions and learning how they work.
They even have a feature that allows you to pull up popular songs to analyze their chord progressions and melodies. It's a great resource to begin any song.
2. Melody
Beginning with a melody is much more difficult for me, but it's another way to start a song.
I often find myself coming up with memorable ideas while I'm out and about or at home. These are good places to start building a song around.
3. Lyrics
Beginning a song by writing lyrics isn't something I do often. But when I can get into it -and the occasion calls for it- these songs turn out to be some of my best one ones.
From what I've seen, beginning with an emotion is the key to a great lyric-based song.
That can be an emotion you're feeling or one you want a listener to experience through your song.
I ask myself: "What would I tell someone to make them feel that emotion?" That usually leads me down the path of good lines.
If you're feeling lazy, want a jolt of inspiration, or just want a laugh try out the AI tool These Lyrics Do Not Exist.
It will generate an entire song's worth of lines for you to massage and mold into your next track.
4. Songs With Sounds
If you listen carefully, you'll hear potential songs everywhere. Try it right now.
Stop reading and listen.
What did you here?
Maybe birds chirping. Could be a TV blaring or a loud conversation in a distant room. Or maybe (if it's quiet enough) the sound of your own breathing or your stomach growling/digesting.
In our always-go endless stream of activities era, it may seem insane get inspiration from the physical world. But I've gotten some great ideas for rhythmic patterns and melodies from people watching or observing nature.
Inspiration is everywhere. You just have to open your eyes and ears up to it.
These valuable moments of precious sound tend to be VERY short lived. Like an extremely rare Pokemon, you might only get a few seconds or a minute to notice, think about, and capture them. So make sure you're ready when they occur!
5. Other songs
This is a technique I learned from my best friend Ryan Fonger who's also a musician and composer. There are tons of great songs already out there, some that you no doubt have listened to hundreds of times.
Why not use those songs as a starting point to create your own?
I'm not talking about plagiarizing the song. I'm talking about taking aspects of the song whether that be the melody, chord progression, arrangement or anything else and using that as a sturdy foundation to build your own track.
That's exactly what I did in the track I created for my audiobook Mission Briefing.
I took inspiration from Carrington Institute in the N64 classic Perfect Dark by Grant Kirkhope.
Carrington Institute (2000)
Mission Briefing (2022)
You may say: but isn't that stealing/illegal?
Well...in this case it wouldn't be. Why not?
- I made this song for a free podcast. It is publicly available and I charge no fees to access it. (No commercial intent)
- Only the melody and structure are similar, everything else (instruments, bass etc.) is original
If you're curious about copyright law in the UK (Rare is a British game company and probably owns the rights to the music in Perfect Dark) read here.
When it comes to music, legal matters are confusing and complicated (which is why I started making my own).
I'm not a lawyer so I won't go too far into copyright issues here. If you're concerned about copyright infringement and other legal tangles speak with a lawyer who specializes in music law in your country.
But real talk, you probably don't have to worry about a major corporation filing a civil lawsuit against you when you're first starting out, so I wouldn't stress about it at this point.
Also don't forget, the point of this exercise is to START a song, not necessarily make a replica of it.
That said, I really like this method for starting songs because:
- your reference track is already a complete song, so you have a clear beginning and end
- it gives you an idea for the kind of instruments to use, as well as a proven arrangement
- you can learn a lot by manually recreating parts of the song
The last bullet is where I get the most out of this method.
When I played the melody from Carrington Institute, I had no sheet music from the original song. I just played by ear until I eventually cracked it. This helped me learn the basic elements of the song and allowed me to finish the track sooner.
Try it.
You might be surprised how different your song sounds from your reference track in the end.
So those are 5 ways I start a track.
- Chord progression
- Melody
- Lyrics
- Sounds
- Other songs
These alone are effective ways to start, but they won't get you all the way to the finish.
Next, let's discuss the 3 absolutely necessary things your early songs should have in order to get you closer to a finished track.
The 3 critical elements of MOST Songs
Notice I wrote in most songs. Of course there are whole (good) songs without these elements BUT, I'd argue as a new music maker, you will want to include them all every time.
Why?
Because together they form skin and bones of music. They help guide the listener to feel or to follow the story of your songs. Without them it's like a book with no paragraphs, chapters, or structure; just chunks of words. Songs that are just collections of random sounds are similarly disorienting and are not very pleasant to listen to.
Always remember your minimum goal as a composer is to make the listener FEEL SOMETHING. These 3 -and ONLY these three- will help you hit the mark every time.
Melody
For me, the melody isn't the most important part of the song, but's the one that people will remember.
It's the series of notes or lyrics that sticks in their heads for days on end. The one they hum or murmur when mentioning it to other people.
If you want your song to be memorable include a melody.
Chord Progression
If the melody is the part of the song that targets a listener's conscious mind, the chord progression works on their subconscious. It's underground, often unnoticed by the casual listener, doing the hard work of driving the motion of your track to your chosen destination.
This is why chords are the most important element of the song.
Without a coherent progression the song lacks a 'sound' or a 'feeling'. Listeners can tell when it's not there or not right. But when it IS there, your song literally moves people to anger, tears, relief -whatever emotion you want them to feel-.
Take a listen to my song Origins. Pay attention to the last 40-seconds (@3:20).
Origins (2021)
Did you hear it? The RELIEF and feeling of RESOLUTION?
The song has a clear somber emotional tone throughout, until that last pivotal moment. This was no accident!
I purposely modulated from a minor key to major key to mark a huge change in emotional energy to close the song.
That is the power of chords!
You can and should learn to harness it in your music. (Btw learning music theory really helps with improving your ability to work with chords.)
Rhythm
This is probably an element you didn't expect to see on this list. I admit it's something I had little clue about until about a year of making music. I wish I had learned it sooner, so I'm including it here.
Rhythm gives your song a distinct character and vibe.
It's the difference between a party rocking funky beat and a church hymn.
You want to start thinking about it early on in your music making in order to expand the range of the music you can make.
I really enjoyed YouTuber and Composer Guy Michelmore's explanation of the importance of rhythm. (It's also a great video for learning how to create good melodies and motifs.)
The tough thing about rhythm is that it can be hard to put into practice in your songs.
Here are a few simple things you can do to improve at it.
Clap your hands
Away from your computer, think of a song you like or listen to it, then clap out its rhythm.
You might feel silly doing it, but it's a great way to get rhythmic ideas for your own music and to hear the rhythm in other music.
Without your DAW or an instrument to distract you, you have no choice but to focus in on the rhythm.
Use varying note length
When you first start making music (especially if you're more traditionally trained to read sheet music), you might feel weird using anything but quarter, half, or whole notes in your music.
You can certainly make good music using only those notes, but great music often comes from weird and unexpected combinations of all kinds of note durations.
Play with the length of your notes in your next song. Don't worry if it sounds like shit.
You might just come up with something you like.
Swap out your percussion
When I first started producing, I thought rhythm automatically meant drums.
It is true, percussion is a very common way to maintain rhythm and many producers use it as the foundation of their tracks.
But what if you exchanged it for something unanticipated like a synth? Or a piano? Or something else?
You can do anything you want when it comes to keeping the 'clock' of your song ticking. Be creative with the rhythmic elements of your song and watch magic happen.
My song Robot Talk is an example of me using a weird instrument for rhythm. Even though it sounds like a drum, it's really a very bassy synth. The result was one of my oddest -and unexpectedly most popular- tunes.
Robot Talk (2022)
With these 3 elements, you can make emotionally resonant music that is good and even great. But you might have wondered: what about everything else? Bass, percussion, counter melodies, ear candy, etc.
You don't need them.
It is true, adding these other elements can take your music from great to exceptional. But they are also things new composers spend hours thinking about, tweaking, and perfecting even when they're close to a complete track. I know I've gotten caught up by these many times before.
Remember your mission as a new composer is to FINISH. TRACKS.
That other stuff can wait until you feel comfortable creating the flesh, bones, and beating heart of your songs.
After you've done that, then you can think about what clothes to dress it up in.
Now you know how to start a track. You also know what you NEED to have in it to make it a complete track.
The above sections can get you to maybe 25% of a complete song. In the next one, I'll give you some ways to get the other 75.
How to FINISH A TRACK
This section assumes you have created at least a 4-bar or 8-bar loop. It can be just a chord progression or a standalone melody with a basic beat, that's good enough.
But where should you go from there?
That's a question me and producers around the world have asked themselves with every new song we create.
Just like everything in this article these strategies aren't the only way to move toward finishing a track, but they can help.
Repeat the loop
I was deathly afraid of repeating my loops when I first started, but it turns out composers use repetition all the time in their songs. They just do it in interesting ways.
This first form of repetition is the most basic. Just copy and paste what you already have, stick an intro at the beginning and a fade out at the end and BOOM! FINISHED TRACK!
Many of my early songs were just that. A looped musical idea to represent one of the characters in my audiobook.
Here's one of my better ones.
Basic but effective.
How to create a quick intro
Repeat the rhythm
This technique is slightly more advanced, but since I already covered rhythm I'll mention it.
Take a part of your melody or chords that stands out and turn it into a countermelody, bass line, or even another part of the melody to extend out your track.
It turns out this a technique that goes back to the time of Bach. It's called a fugue. Sounds fancy, but it's a simple concept. Take your existing melody and repeat it in as many different ways as you can.
There are infinite ways to do this. Transpose the key, alter the rhythm, move it to the bass, the list goes on and on.
Bach wrote entire pieces using this method alone. Now you can too.
Here's an example of me doing it in Refugee (Streets of San Francisco). Pay attention to the beginning part of the melody and the swelling synth (it's the same notes) (@0:18).
Refugee (Streets of San Francisco) (2021)
Change up the chord progression
As you now know a chord progression drives the mood and feel of the song. What if you introduced a completely new one midway through?
Most pop songs do this almost every time. After the 2nd verse they'll typically transition to a section called a bridge.
I like to think of a bridge as providing a different angle on the story or subject of the song; saying the same thing but in a different way.
There multiple ways to write a good bridge, here are my 3 go-tos:
- Change to a completely different chord progression
- Go faster
- Go slower
Which one I use depends on the song.
Here's me doing it in Broken Shield (2022) (@2:48)
Broken Shield (2022)
Add silence
Sudden silence is a great way to add contrast and surprise to a track. You might be hesitant to insert empty space into your song (it's supposed to be music after all!)
But a little bit of silence at the perfect time can immediately retune the listener's ears and make them salivate with anticipation (unconsciously) for the next part of your song. It's also a great tool for marking transitions.
(I find it's especially effective in faster tracks.)
I use it in Lionfish to signal the transition to the final part of the song. (Moment of silence @1:10 and again @1:40)
Let one of your other instruments shine
This is one I haven't used much but I want to do it more. If your melody, chords, and rhythm are firmly established, consider letting all but one fall away and letting that element take over for awhile.
Here's one of the few examples I have from Mission Briefing
Look out for the bass lead section (@1:03)
Mission Briefing (2022)
Like I said, I haven't done this very well yet, but I want to do it more.
There are many other ways to move your song from a 4-8 bar loop to finished track. Part of the fun of making music for me is combining these various techniques to make my songs more interesting.
So open your DAW and experiment!
With a full track complete, all that's left for you to do is a little refining on the back end, then you'll be ready to share it with the world.
Post Production (Mixing/Mastering)
After you've completed your song, you might think the only thing left to do is hit "export".
You COULD do that, but your song probably won't sound very nice to an everyday listener.
The reason is different sounds behave in odd ways when combined with each other. Some are too loud, others are too soft. The interactions between your instruments and pitches might end up sounding like a student choir in early training, out of sync, and dissonant.
This is why it's important to apply some levels of post-production into your tracks.
If done correctly, it can make your tracks clearer and even better at influencing the feelings of your listeners.
Mixing/Mastering
Both of these subjects warrant their own blog posts, but I'll touch briefly on them here.
Mixing is the process of inserting audio effects into your instrument tracks to add order and clarity to your mix (song).
Think of the sound spectrum of your song like a bedroom. There's only so much room to place furniture, decorations, and everything else. If things are untidy, there's less space in the room (more chaos = not pleasant). But when things are put away, there's plenty of space (less chaos = pleasant).
I like to think of mixing as the "cleaning up" of my song's sound space.
There are all sorts of effects you can add when mixing, but only 4 I pretty much apply to every instrument track in nearly every song I make.
They are:
1.EQ - Equalizing allows you to boost or cut certain frequencies of sound. It's great for creating more space in the stereo field overall and emphasizing certain frequencies for various instruments.
2.Compression - Applying compression levels out the peaks and troughs of an audio signal. (Loud stuff gets quieter. Quiet stuff gets louder.) The result is a more uniform sound throughout the whole track.
3.Limiting - A limiter prevents the audio from passing a certain noise threshold. It helps prevent very loud parts of a song from distorting at higher volumes. You can also use it to boost the overall loudness of your track and individual instruments.
4.Reverb - Reverb has an echo type effect on sound. Used correctly, it can create a sense of space for certain instruments in a track.
There's a lot more I could say about mixing but this post is getting pretty long, so you'll have to do some research on your own for more.
Final point on mixing - If you add the above in limited amounts on every instrument track in your songs, they will sound louder and clearer. The goal is to achieve a BALANCED mix where every sound sits where you want it to when you listen to the track. Be sure to play around with the settings to find you desired levels.
Mastering
Mastering is the process for standardizing the sound of your music and getting it as loud and clear as possible on multiple audio sources.
I won't say much about it here because:
- I'm still trying to figure this out for my music
- It's more important for whole albums than for individual tracks
Everything I've learned about mastering suggests it is a traditional music industry standard practice, especially if you're making the type of music you would like to hear on the radio or to win a Grammy someday.
If that's not you, then I'd say don't worry about it too much.
But if you want a few ways to apply it to your own songs then do the following:
- Listen to your song on multiple audio sources, not just in your DAW (listen in your car, on your phone, on your shitty laptop speakers; places where most people who don't make music normally listen)
- Take the feedback and adjust your levels
- If you're working on an album release, ensure loudness levels are standardized across all songs
- Make sure your entire album has the same 'feel' (if you want it very reverby make all the tracks that way for example
When it comes to mastering, I only care about loudness, but that's just me.
If you want the ultimate authority on mastering this guy Baphometrix has incredibly in-depth tutorials about how to do it RIGHT. He even created his own self-mastering system for his music.
Finally, there's a well-established belief among many producers that you shouldn't master your own music. From what I can gather, this is an old-school standard that has fallen out of favor as more producers have gotten access to highly capable software (SoundCloud offers one-button press mastering).
Bottomline: You can absolutely master your own songs! And you should try to do so when you start just to learn how it works and how it can improve your music if done right.
And that's it!
With all of the above you'll have a complete track you can share with the world via your online storage space of choice.
I like Soundcloud because you get so much free space. But you can also share from Dropbox, Google Drive, One Drive, or wherever you store your finished tracks.
Be proud and show off all your hard work! You earned it. You are now a music producer.
Growing as musician
You finished your first song and now you want more. Good!
Here's a list of things you can do to continue improving your music making craft.
Experiment with different production techniques, effects, plugins, musical styles, instruments
Meet other musicians to learn from and support them
Become a student of music
Analyze your favorite songs: What do you like about them? What are they doing musically? Get inspiration and ideas from them
Learn from the greats, but don't compare yourself to them.
Who are your favorite producers, composers, or artists? What do you like about them? Get ideas for your musical style
Don't worry about finding your 'sound' it will develop after you make a lot of music
Make 100 songs. Doesn't matter if they're good or bad, just make them. Some will be good, others not. But you'll learn a lot in the process.
I'm working on my 100 songs thread here. I'm at 34 as of writing this article!
You don't have to show off your work publicly like I do, but keeping track of them will serve as a reminder of how far you've come on your journey.
AI music production (Should you worry about it?)
I wanted to include a brief section on AI music generation because like AI art in 2022, I have a strong feeling highly capable AI music generators will be the next trend to sweep the internet and drastically alter how we create music.
Some very strong applications already exist, they just haven't found a wide audience yet.
This video describes a few of them.
Here's a list of a few that I'm curious to do more tinkering with:
I started to title this section "is this article worthless?" But I don't think it is.
Ultimately, here's my opinion,
you shouldn't worry about AI music production. There will still be demand for human made music in the future.
BUT, don't ignore it.
Learn how it works. Poke around. The more tools you learn, the better producer you'll become.
I don't know how AI music generators will change the way we make music. But I do know as humans we have a natural drive to influence the world around us. One of the primary ways we do that is by creating things.
Music is an expression of that sacred creative act.
I'm all for using AI to help me produce good music faster, as long as the music moves feelings the way I want it to and says what I want it to say.
What do you want your music to say?
Conclusion
As I was writing this article I mentioned to my wife about my flawed memory with respect to my dad's voice.
With every year that passes it becomes foggier and less certain. Truthfully, I can't remember it at all now.
She eyed me mournfully for several seconds. Then I straightened my back and said, "But I still have the music. That's all I have left."
And that's enough for me. I think Dad would like that.
Thank you for reading this lengthy article. I hope it helped inspire, inform, and guide your journey into music production.
I'd like to thank my wife for giving me measured critical feedback on my songs.
I'd also like thank my best friend Ryan Fonger for reaching back and offering me resources for learning music. I'm a better composer because of it.
If you enjoyed this post share it with someone else who's interested in making music.
My name is Keith Hayden. You can find more about my work on my website. You can also follow me on Twitter to keep up with me in semi-real time here.
No spam, no sharing to third party. Only you and me.
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