QandA – I really want to become a music producer

Hi, I really want to become a music producer and I currently live in tacoma,washington I am in high school and I am a sophmore. I realized that I wanted to become a music producer when I was about 13, but I have no way in getting in contact with people to make my dreams come true. I’m really trying to figure out what things I need to do to have success in my future career. the genre that I want to work on is hip hop- rap. My family isn’t wealthy at all so it’s very hard for me to start with nothing, please help me or atleast give me some advice or connections in to that world.

thank you for listening,

Jalil Lawrence

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Hi Jalil, You’ve got it backwards. If you want to be a music producer, then be a music producer. There are no contacts you need to do that. Or did you really mean “I want to produce major artists right now”, in which case you’ll have to show what you’ve done. If you don’t have experience or a library then that’s where you need to start.

You emailed me, so I know you have a computer. There are lots of free programs (or programs you can get without paying). Talk to the computer geek at your high school to hook you up. (First tip: ALWAYS be nice to computer geeks).

1) Work with cut ‘n paste track software like Sony ACID or Fruity Loops. That’s your first step to creating tracks.

2) If you want to widen the amount of work you can get, learn to read music and immerse yourself in music theory. Most producers are keyboardists, probably because by studying piano they received a strong background in music theory. You can skip learning about music, but then you’ll be stuck juggling samples. There’s just too much competition out there for this to just cut n paste, take it to the next level.

3) Start creating your own samples and experimenting with more elaborate edits.

4) Do free demos for your friends, and each project try to learn something new. Learn about eq, compressors, limiters, reverbs, delays, chorus, and all other special effects available on your software platform.

5) Don’t talk about it, do it. Stop emailing people for contacts, get down and do it.

6) Copy what works. Learn the rules before you break them. Take your favorite hip hop CD, or one off the top 20, and pick a track to copy. Try your best to copy what they’re doing. Don’t just sample it, create it from scratch. You will learn a world of info by doing that. Most successful artists emulated other people’s work to learn their craft. This is true for many disciplines, not just music.

Hope that helps,

🙂

Conrad Askland