The music biz is packed with music producers who don’t really understand how to produce music; we’ve all heard those songs that are hot now, but totally forgettable before the years’ out. Now, you don’t want that to be you right? One of my biggest challenges is to create music that is not only current sounding and fresh, but will also stand the test of time and still sound just as fly 15 years into the future.

So let’s get it right like the great acts of the sixties and seventies and eighties and the producers that produced them; like Quincy Jones, Berry Gordy, Rick Rubin, or like the acts of our time who are indeed responsible for some timeless tracks, i.e. Teddy Riley, Dr. Dre, Max Martin, David Guetta, or Timbaland, and learn how to produce music through true musicianship with a lil’ swag on the side.

Study Old Records

Listening to Gucci Mane all day won’t get you anywhere! It pays to listen to albums like Michael Jackson’s Thriller or Earth Wind and Fire’s greatest hits on repeat, simply because those are two examples of some of the greatest music produced within out time. And, for those that are learning how to produce music, there is no better way to study how chord progressions relate in music, what sounds go well together, and how tracks should be arranged that to study timeless old records. This experience may prove to be the best teacher you could ever have if you want to learn how to produce music.

Learn the Fundamentals

Music production is very much like learning a totally new language; at first you will stumble and mispronounce things, but once you can speak the language fluently, there is nothing that you can’t say or do to be a part of that culture. You’ll fit right in, and you'll be producing music that the people love in no time.

So as it is with music. You will need to learn how to read music to some extent, and at least pronounce things. And by pronounce I mean learn your scales, chords within the scales, scale degrees, and how chords relate. A good topic to read up on is how the Circle of Fifths works within today’s popular music. If you understand the circle of fifths, you have much of learning how to produce music down pat. Yeeah!

Learning how to produce music is a topic that can go on and on and on, and really, you’ll naturally begin to ask all the right questions that will get you the right answers, and have you producing dope, timeless music in no time at all. Hold it down yall’, cause it don’t stop… Better beats ahead.