Becoming a Better Music Producer

I have been fooling around on FL Studio for years now but I want to make a serious effort to get better and create some real cool music

Things I can do to get better fast:

• Templates

• Understanding common drum patterns and the moods that they evoke

Drum Patterns and the feeling they evoke

• Breakbeat: feels like a stuttering gangster or a way-too cool mma counter puncher “It’s hard to know what’s coming next!”

• 4 on the floor: driving force, dance groove: bad guy and disco songs

• Kick on 1 and 3: Metronomic, Billie jean

• Trap beat

• Bo-Diddley

• The two beat

• Boom Bap

• Dem bow / afrobeat

• Impeach the president

• Iconic Eighths

• 12/8 feel

• Shuffle feel

Maybe what matters more than the drum pattern is the BPM?

• Blinding lights: 171 bpm

• Wagon wheel: 148

What are the core elements of a drum pattern? the kick? the snare? the two in combination with each other? My current belief is that it’s the combination of the core duo: kick and snare

Next steps: program all drum patterns into FL studio and listen to how each of them sound at different BPMs

Where to get good and interesting sounds?

How to organize my sound collection?

Understanding:

• Chords

• Chord progressions

• The circle of fifths