Songwriting AND music production for self-produced musicians

Course Curriculum

Chapter 1: Introduction

Lecture 1: Scope

Lecture 2: Who I am

Lecture 3: Three Guiding Principles

Lecture 4: What you need for this course

Chapter 2: Songwriting

Lecture 1: Introduction to a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation

Lecture 2: What is MIDI? – MIDI tracks

Lecture 3: If you only want to use audio tracks…

Lecture 4: Songwriting essential principles

Lecture 5: Songwriting essential principles – melody

Lecture 6: Songwriting essential principles – rhythm

Lecture 7: Songwriting essential principles – harmony

Lecture 8: An introduction to form – the "American Popular Song" format

Lecture 9: Melody and Lyrics

Lecture 10: Pure vs. Descriptive music

Lecture 11: Building your private arsenal

Lecture 12: The Critical Path Method (CPM)

Lecture 13: The "fantasy" stage and "moulding the creature"

Lecture 14: Let's finish the song

Lecture 15: Fundamental principles of music arrangement – Part I

Lecture 16: Fundamental principles of music arrangement – Part II

Lecture 17: Let's arrange our song

Lecture 18: Metronome – to be or not to be …

Chapter 3: Recording

Lecture 1: Basic principles applied to digital recording

Lecture 2: Line vs. Microphone recordings

Lecture 3: Processed vs. Clean recordings

Lecture 4: Balanced vs. Unbalanced signals

Lecture 5: Microphone Types

Lecture 6: Which microphone should I use?

Lecture 7: Phase cancellation

Lecture 8: Monitors and Acoustics – The Room

Lecture 9: Monitors and Acoustics – Types of Monitors

Lecture 10: Monitors and Acoustics – Monitor placement

Lecture 11: Preamps – what they are and why you need them

Lecture 12: Using multiple mics on a single sound source

Chapter 4: Mixing

Lecture 1: How a Mixer works

Lecture 2: The channel strip

Lecture 3: Buses

Lecture 4: Equalization

Lecture 5: Compressors and Limiters

Lecture 6: Noise Gates

Lecture 7: Reverb and Delays

Lecture 8: DAW's in more detail – The track view

Lecture 9: Audio tracks

Lecture 10: MIDI track

Lecture 11: Assigning sounds to your MIDI tracks

Lecture 12: Using a MIDI interface to control your MIDI devices

Lecture 13: Plugins

Lecture 14: Clips editing

Lecture 15: Automation

Lecture 16: The Virtual Mixing Console

Lecture 17: Bus assignment in a DAW

Lecture 18: Bouncing and Rendering

Lecture 19: MIDI controlled devices

Lecture 20: How to develop realistic drum tracks using using virtual (MIDI) drums.

Lecture 21: Human's three-dimensional perception of sound

Lecture 22: Laying down your drum tracks

Lecture 23: Laying down your other instruments

Lecture 24: The mixing sequence – kick drum

Lecture 25: The mixing sequence – snare drum

Lecture 26: The mixing sequence – Hi Hat

Lecture 27: The mixing sequence – Toms and Overheads

Lecture 28: The mixing sequence – Electric bass

Lecture 29: The mixing sequence – Broad range instruments

Lecture 30: The mixing sequence – Other non-lead instruments

Lecture 31: The mixing sequence – Fine tuning

Lecture 32: The mixing sequence – Lead instruments

Lecture 33: The final step – mix automation

Lecture 34: Generating your final mix

Lecture 35: Mixing – Additional considerations

Lecture 36: Final remarks . Mastering

Lecture 37: Additional training