On House Music Production Courses & School Programs
Suppose you have it in mind to become a world-class house music producer someday. You don't want to be just average; you don't want to make just a few songs—you actually want to spend a lifetime laying down hundreds if not thousands of new beats, tracks, and songs (there are indeed differences!), and you want to be the best in the game at your particular sound. If history is any indication, you need two things (passion is unlisted because it's a given):
An extreme level of experience. That means thousands of hours logged actually making music, practicing, and refining your craft.
A profound understanding of your tools. That means knowing your DAW and hardware inside and out, knowing what you can squeeze out of each element.
These two are cyclical: the more experience you acquire, the better you'll understand your tools; similarly, the more you learn about your tools, the better you'll be as a music producer through your evolving experience.
But what about taking courses or going to school to learn your tools? When I think of my favorite music producers—J Dilla, 9th Wonder, 14KT, DJ Spen, Sean McCabe—I recall that some of them went to school, but several learned their craft through practice and collaboration. Some have musical training or understand music theory, whereas others acquired it informally "on the job". So there doesn't seem to be one simple answer to the question.
In my case as a young music producer who's just scratching the surface of things, I opted to just "dive right in", and though I flirted briefly with MacProVideos in 2010 (I use Logic Pro), I found it much more enjoyable to roll up my sleeves and start making house music, knowing I'd improve along the way. To this day, I haven't sat down and read the Apple's Logic Studio manual cover-to-cover, against the advice of a production mentor of mine. I did read a book on House Music production, have subscriptions to Music Tech and Computer Music (which I barely read due to time), and am working my way through The Producer's Manual, as you already know if you follow this blog. But I definitely spend more time making music than reading about making music, which has its pros and cons.
On that note, I do think that there's value in learning the nitty gritty of what you're doing after you've had time to learn your tools; this gives you an interesting new perspective and might even open up new pathways. Or it could help you see the "why" behind "how" you produce. Finally, you might combine your insight as an experienced producer with your new formal training in exciting new ways, which is the best of both worlds.
An alternative to studying music production at a university is to take a series of online video courses with something like Logic-Courses.com, whose syllabus I've posted below. But in reality, there's nothing preventing you from just working down the list of topics and educating yourself in a methodical, systematic way using online articles, the Logic manual, books, magazines, and Youtube videos that cover each topic. It's a lot of work, but you'll save yourself money and can retain that sense of "I did it on my own" pride (or foolishness, depending on how you look at it).
You could also, of course, pay a top tier producer to teach you or to let you shadow them for a few months; one of my production mentors says that when he learned to make music, he plunked out a thousand bucks to sit through a bunch of sessions with producers he respected and that the knowledge he gained paid for itself. Online (or, if you live in large house music markets, weekend workshop) courses might be much cheaper than that and be well worth the money, though, and there are important differences between learning on your own versus learning through a structured program that lets you interact with other people, so keep that in mind.
I find the process of learning as you go and discovering overlapping concepts organically to be more exciting, but there's something to be said about the expediency of crash course-style trainings.
Whatever you decide, happy learning!
From Logic Courses ONLINE COURSE INFO PACK PDF:
Level 1: Beginner/Intermediate
1. Introduction to the Course and Logic Basic Concepts
2. Getting Started and Creating/Editing Audio Regions - Introduction to Looping and Flex
3. Creating and Editing MIDI Regions - Introduction to the Piano Roll
4. More Region Editing and Arranging - Introduction to the Sample Editor
5. Recording in Logic
6. Processing Audio - Introduction to Compression and Filtering
7. Building a Drum Track - Introduction to Ultrabeat
8. Mixing Part 1 - Levels, Panning and EQ
9. Mixing Part 2 - Working with Effects - An introduction to Reverb, Delay and Chorus
10. Basic Sampling - Introduction to EXS24
11. Introduction to Synthesizing - Using the Bass Station plug-in
12. More on MIDI - Controlling Logic remotely and using Hardware Synths
13. Introduction to Mastering - Using Multipressor, Limiter and other mastering tools
14. Introduction to MainStage - Creating a Concert
Level 2: Advanced
1. Gating and a Lesson in Sidechaining Techniques
2. Automation and other Advanced Mixing Techniques
3. Advanced Drums I - Creating Drum Sounds with Ultrabeat
4. Advanced Drums II - Creating and Processing a House Beat
5. Advanced Synthesizing I - Subtractive Synthesis with the ES Range: ES M/P/E
6. Advanced Sampling - Creating Layered Sounds and Advanced Modulation with EXS24
7. Advanced Synthesizing III - Subtractive and Wavetable Synthesis with ES 1 and 2
8. Advanced Effects - Using Modulation Effects and Delays to Create Glitch
9. Advanced MIDI - An Introduction to the Environment
10. Advanced Synthesizing III - FM Synthesis with EFM, ES2 and Ultrabeat
11. Advanced Synthesizing IIII - Component Modelling with Sculpture
12. Piecing it all Together - Producing a Remix