Pop Music Production Course | Nashville

You know how to use a DAW, you are a songwriter and you believe that you have a musical talent. The only thing that you are not sure of is how to put all these things together and create a good-quality demo to impress. If this is ringing any bells, then our Pop Music Production course would be great for you. Packed with a wide range of modern production tips, advice and techniques, we are sure that you won’t find a course like this anywhere else. You will learn how to convert your unique song idea into a successful record, gaining the knowledge, skills, and experience you must have to complete your own high-quality commercial (urban, rock, pop, up-tempo and commercial dance) backing track. You'll learn how to make master quality beats, how to arrange strings, bass-lines as vocals.

Beats & Pieces

• Beat building foundation tips. What to do first.
• All about tempo
• Rules for popular genres – ballads, pop, rock, folk, singer/songwriter, urban, uptempo and commercial dance
• Which sounds to choose and building up your own library
• Percussion
• All about shuffle, groove and quantize
• Using loops subtly to fill space, and when not to use loops
• Getting your elements to work as one
• Beefing up your beats to make them sound professional

Chords & Keys

• Beginners or recap on chord programming
• Tried and tested progressions
• Keep it simple if you want to be cool
• Musical shortcuts – transpose and chord memorizers
• How progressions differ in genres – ballads, pop, rock, folk, singer/songwriter urban, uptempo and commercial dance
• Tension and release
• Outro choruses key changes

Bass-lines & Guitars

• Following root and interval tips
• Alternative tuning and open strings
• Which bass sounds to use and programming up your own from scratch
• Bass guidelines for ballads, pop, rock, folk, singer/songwriter, urban, uptempo and differences in commercial dance subgenres – House, Trance, Dubstep and Garage
• Programming typical acoustic and electric guitar parts
• Convincing voicing in guitar parts

Choosing the Right Instruments & Sounds

• Creating your palette of sounds
• Filling the frequency spectrum
• Getting the right instruments for your genre
• Bending the rules to stand out from the crowd
• Timing and quantize in your instruments to fit your drums
• Placing and shaping your sounds in your mix using filters and panning

Instrumentation & String Arranging

• Programming parts that would work if they were live instruments
• Call and response
• All about string arranging and string lines
• Using pre-programmed MIDI files and MIDI scripts
• Piano rhodes and pads
• Instrument hooks
• Getting all your parts to work as one

Vocals & Arranging

• Lead vocal tracking tips
• Background vocals – roots, harmonies, bringing out your chorus and adding dynamics to your arrangement with vocals
• Arranging for ballads, pop (includes commercial dance), rock, folk, singer/songwriter, urban and uptempo
• Tips on writing bridge
• Using production as an alternative to music to create light and shade in your arrangement
• How to start and how to end your songs (intros and outros)
• Dealing with uncomfortable chord changes with production

Check out the student feedback from our longer Songwriting Producer Program

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