Is Producing music really that hard?

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JMD_Music

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In about 2 weeks I'll have all my equipment set up to start producing in my room. But the question is, is it really that hard? Sometimes I'll get excited because I'm about to embark on something new in my life, but then I'll listen to a song and wonder, how did they come up with all that? The music was just so incredible. And I question if I can even do it. I have so much motivation and no exaggeration, I'll be spending about 10-15 hours a day working on music. But I have no idea how to play an instrument and I'm 20 years old. My motivation is people have told me I can't do it and laughed at me when I told them I was gonna try producing. I just really want to succeed in something for once in my life, which is what is driving me to be so good at this. I graduate college in a year so I basically have a year to pull this off. I'm not trying to be some super producer as I know the chances of that are very slim, but I would like to move to LA and produce for established artists in about 1-2 years. I have loads of ideas of what I plan to do with the songs I produce. Sending to them to A&R's, publishing companies, rappers, singers, labels, and basically anyone who will take a listen.
 
it's as hard as you make it. just remember to always do it for the fun, music production is an excellent learning experience :)
 
Anyone can make noise. Making good and interesting music is hard.

Mastering your software and hardware, having the imagination to dream up good beats, and the ability to make them real and get them on your harddrive are the hard bits. Good luck!
 
Man, if you're looking for a short in-depth answer to this question you're not gonna find it. To start out, I'm in the same exact boat, 20 and I'll be graduating college in about 15 months. I've thought about producing for 3 years now and just started about 2 months ago. But unlike others I see on FP, I'll be the first to admit I know NOTHING compared to about 90% of the people on here. I was trained in music early, so I got a good basic knowledge to get going, but man it's a longggg road haha. You don't NEED to know how to play an instrument, but as others will let you know, anything learned can be used to broaden your knowledge base. If you asked me, if you're lacking on your knowledge of music theory, that's the first thing to educate yourself on. Just keep reading, practicing, and especially since you're on a place like this with so many people with deep experiences doing this for years, keep asking questions. I guess that's all I got, others can and will expand who know what they're talking about lol, but peace & good luck dude! Don't let that passion fade.
 
I just get confused about how people start our their songs. If you're laying down a verse, do you guys play the piano or the drums throughout the entire verse. And then copy and paste that part to other parts of the song?
 
You do what sounds good. Some people start off with a chord progression melody, some start with drum, some just hit record and free style to it comes out.

Try to get something that sounds good for 2/4 bars and loop it, then copy that out to 8/16bars whatever, then maybe just work with muting out different instruments.

Let's say you got 16 bars copied. It has drums, horns, syths,strings and bass. 1st 2bars have just the synth playing, next 2bars add in the bass,next bar drop the drums and horns in then a couple of bars unmute the strings whatever, then work with taking some of the instruments back out. I'm just giving an example not how it has to be done or in that order but you can build a song that way

Basically you want an intro,verse,chorus. If you can get that then you can work on changes up and a bridge and outro.

Listen to how music you like today starts and try to mimic that. Do something simple and take it from there. Watch some youtube videos.
 
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It's hard to make it.. I mean your gonna be ass at first.. Your gonna make it beat think it's hot... Ask for feedback and get slammed lol.. But it takes time homie... Took me about 3+ years.... Now i think i'm truly industry ready... Wwho knows how long it will take you feel me
 
you probably shouldn't have the attitude that you have a year and by then you HAVE to be a good producer. just keep producing music and see where it takes you. if you stick with it you'll probably be a good producer in a years time, but don't force it. also, like the post above me says, try to mimic other producers that you like and then develop your own style from there. that's what I did when I started
 
How hard it is comes down to your creativity, how fast a learner you are and how much work you put in. Use your time now before you get your equipment to read up, watch youtube vids etc so you have some basic knowlage when you start. (instruments, layering, eq, compression, chords, scales etc. the more the better) Write down some of the ideas you have if you haven't already. The more knowlage you have the easier it will be to get your ideas from paper to a full song. Good luck :)
 
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I was planning on watching a bunch on youtube videos on logic tutorials to better understand it. I was also gonna teach myself the keyboard. And I am willing to put in the time, I really will be spending about 10-15 hours a day on this.
 
You seem to have the drive and dedication. Just make good music, be consistent, and good things can happen.
 
Yes, it's hard.

And like anything, the more and more you do it the easier it gets.

I'm like 6 years in, it still isn't easy, just more like I've moved on from algebra to calculus.
 
Hey bro check out my music in my sig, and no I'm not spamming lol. The point is I just started makin beats for real about a year ago, last January to be exact. My first beat I made was horrendous and look at what I can up with now. I also go to college full-time and I made music on the side when i wasnt doing a shitload of school work and assaignments. I spent a lot of my summer working on it also.

The overall point is motivation. If I can progress this far with beat composition skills and mixing skills in a year than the sky is the limit. Don't be discouraged I thought it would take me like 3 years just to put out quality beats at that time but you will really, really, really surprise yourself at how fast you improve and progress. You seem To have the dedication for it so you can definetly get it done bro.
 
Thanks man, I like your beat "The Anthem." Right now all I have is my own motivation. My own mother laughed at me and said I couldn't do it so I just wanna prove everyone, especially her, wrong.
 
An advice from me:
try to get know yourself better. Example: I know when my body/brain sends the signals that something is not what I wanna do atm. And I dont push myself at this moment, beacuse I know that after a break I will come back and make more music. Don't get me wrong, its just my personal experience. I got times when I make 5 beats per day like 2-4 weeks straight and after that Im burned out. I cant do anything new. So I take a break and I know that one day Ill got again this feeling "Omg lets produce something my head gonna explode in few mins cuz i got way too many ideas".


Its all about creativity. You cant make Yourself to be creative. You can expand Your creativity but You cant make Yourself be creative.

Hope You will understand what I mean :x
 
abstracted said:
it's as hard as you make it. just remember to always do it for the fun, music production is an excellent learning experience :)
Click to expand...

Couldn't agree more. Never let it be your job. Remember to keep the passion. The hardest part is the part you are weak in. In my case keyboard skills. But almost everything can be taught but creativity.
 
JMD_Music said:
In about 2 weeks I'll have all my equipment set up to start producing in my room. But the question is, is it really that hard? Sometimes I'll get excited because I'm about to embark on something new in my life, but then I'll listen to a song and wonder, how did they come up with all that? The music was just so incredible. And I question if I can even do it. I have so much motivation and no exaggeration, I'll be spending about 10-15 hours a day working on music. But I have no idea how to play an instrument and I'm 20 years old. My motivation is people have told me I can't do it and laughed at me when I told them I was gonna try producing. I just really want to succeed in something for once in my life, which is what is driving me to be so good at this. I graduate college in a year so I basically have a year to pull this off. I'm not trying to be some super producer as I know the chances of that are very slim, but I would like to move to LA and produce for established artists in about 1-2 years. I have loads of ideas of what I plan to do with the songs I produce. Sending to them to A&R's, publishing companies, rappers, singers, labels, and basically anyone who will take a listen.
Click to expand...

It's not hard it just takes a little time to learn. Time and understanding what makes songs work will make the process a lot easier
 
Thanks for all the advice. I'm not looking to be some sort of overnight success. I'm not lazy and I plan to put in all the hard work, I just hope it all pays off for me, since I have no musical background at all.
 
To e$$ence: This is a great opinion. Well said! I was just about to reply with something familiar.
 
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I'm also in the same boat as you. I'm 20 and I decided a few months ago that I was going to take this music production thing a lot more seriously and that I wanted to make a career off it. I know little about music production but I'm definitely learning more as the days pass. I've been reading music theory books, DAW guides, mixing guides, and I'm also taking music and piano classes at a community college. I may even start learning how to play my guitar that I bought a couple years ago.

Like everyone said, just absorb as much knowledge as you can. There are so many skills great music producers have in their repertoire and I'm determined to learn every single one of them, despite the fact that I feel like I started kinda late (compared to everyone else at least).
 
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