What does it take to become a producer for electronic dance music?

The truth is: I don't know, because I only started a while ago. But I do know that it usually takes about 10.ooo hours to master an art – any art, they say.

See this:

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…but forget about his ridiculous claim that already 20 hours would give you some kind of "expertise". Only in the world of public speakers, maybe. )10.000 hours … if you break it down: that's enough to keep you busy for several years to come, even if you spend all your primetime on it. Quite a price to pay, isn't it? In an interview with Deadmau5 about his life, he says that it took him about six years of watching other people in the studio, before even a single note came out of him. And then another seven years of practising … so that's part of what it takes, I guess.

So, it does take learning, for sure. And it won't be short. That may be the bad news. Or the good, depending on how much distance you are planning to put between yourself and the rest. There's not too many people out there, who are willing AND able(!) to go that distance. Bill Cauty (from KLF) once wrote, that you have to be unemployed in order to become a popstar, because otherwise you simply won't have the time to do it. I think he's right.

In the 12 months, since I started to take this thing seriously, I must have read thousands of pages of manuals – just to get the most basic blocks out of the way, in terms of understanding. Not to mention the hundreds of hours of watching video-tutorials and -courses. It has been fun … kind of … but not real fun, if you know what I mean. Rather, a mixture of work and fun, with the emphasis mostly on work and only seldom on fun. But that's how it is, when you're a beginner … and it's how things will stay for a while.

Take learning to play the (electric) guitar, for example. Ah, you thought, we would only be talking about electronic music – where you don't have to play an instrument? Oh well … initially you may think so. But if you are going about it with any seriousness, I'd bet that you'll soon find that without any "real" musical skills you will hardly get anywhere beyond the most basic idiot-level – at least that would be very rare, from what I can tell. So I chose the guitar as my main "real" instrument, and I've been at it since two years or so. Keep in mind, I was/am working under a severe handicap, due to the f**ing cancer, that I contracted. Therefore, for a long time, I wasn't able to practise on a regular basis, and then I forgot it completely for weeks or months … then picked the damn thing up again and picked up what was still left in my memory. Only since a months or two I would say that I'm really making progress. And slowly, little by little, the darn guitar doesn't feel as awful in my hands as it used to when I started. Lately, it has even been fun. I had to work to get there.

It's the same with all the soft- and hardware that I own by now. Native Instrument's Komplete 11 took me about a year to even scratch the surface! Ableton took me more than a year to get comfortable with and be acquainted to most of its functions. And we're not talking about playing or composing yet – just about getting your bearings, reading the manuals, getting the basic routines into muscle-memory.

And then music-theory! Another elephant in the living room. Many "producers" seem to think that they can get by without knowing a thing about it. Well, that's great if you don't mind to re-invent the wheel, sounding like an idiot and to wait for several generations, until someone of your progeny develops an "instinctive" approach that can somewhat compete to what learned musicians are able to do. But mostly, the results are what I would call barbaric: Just boom-boom-boom and some Rap over a few dissonant chords, that are produced with an automatic function. Then put a burning oil-drum in the middle of the street, turn on a camera, dance around the oil-drum while making some cool gestures and bang – suddenly you're a star, bro. Or, if that doesn't work, try the "random" function of any given sequencer, as seems to be the most-often-used feature these days.

I myself, I despise randomness – at least in the way, most producer-hooligans make use of it. If you want to learn to use it right, in the right amount and at the right time – that's an art in itself and must be learned, one way or the other.

Coming back to learning: It can happen by itself, just by fooling around with things. But you want to keep your learning-curve within the 10.000-hours-limit, don't you? So why not boost your progress with some streamlined way of learning your chops? These days, there's no better (and more affordable) way than by signing up with an online-school or at least watching tutorials on Youtube. But sorting through Youtube can be a mess … better to spend a little money and go directly to where the experts are. I myself decided to take two semester-courses (so far) at Berklee-online (https://online.berklee.edu/music-production). Which is kinda expensive and a lot of work. But it did what I expected it to do. I can fully recommend it.

My latest discovery in respect to e-learning is a new academy by the name Kadenze (https://www.kadenze.com). Even if you're not a wanna-be-musician like me, their courses are worth a look, check them out! I'm currently digesting their input on "LOOP: REPETITION AND VARIATION IN MUSIC", which was great. I'm sure, this course will influence me for a long time. Before that, I watched their videos on "SOUND SYNTHESIS USING REAKTOR", which nicely connects to the art of repetition.

I may have loads of things to say about other aspects of electronic music making, about all kinds of equipment and learning resources. But it depends on your feedback, dear readers. Anyone out there, sharing a similar learning-curve? Time we get together.