Best Instrument To Learn For Music Production?

Music production is for people who love song-writing or love the idea of making something good become something even better. Music producers have the ability to completely shape the sound of a song, album or even entire landscape of band. They are the individuals that have a knack for hearing something and knowing what part of the song it is or what needs to go with it.

My opinion is that the best instrument to learn for music production is the piano. I say this because a lot of music producers today use MIDI or MIDI keyboards when diving into the music production of songs. I hold the opinion that you don’t NEED to be the greatest musician, but having some music theory knowledge and a little ability to play chords and parts on the piano will help with your ability to create. I will go more into depth below on music producers.

The Production Of Music And Music Producers

Music production is pretty literal in the sense that it stands for the creation of music, usually referring to the sounds of the song. When people are talking about music production they’re usually referring to elements such as the keyboard sounds or drum sounds in the song.

I always recommend checking out free software or free drum samples to those who are starting out.

For example, the style of EDM music is heavily reliant on music production. There’s not a ton of actual instruments as a lot of it is done on computers. This is obviously extremely popular in pop music.

A lot of pop songs are written on piano or acoustic guitar and then they bring them over to the computer. This is where the term music production comes in. Finding the sounds for parts of the song.

This is usually done using a MIDI controller as producers can surf through thousands of different sounds before changing the entire sound.

Why Is The Piano A Great Instrument For Producers?

I believe the piano is great for music producers because it allows you to sit in with songwriters. If you know how to play the piano you can essentially help write the song. The more you can do as a music producer, the better obviously. If you can play multiple instruments and have the ability to switch it up, that’s great.

We are in an age where a lot of musicians are just becoming music producers and focusing on songwriting. The reason for this is simply because there is a lot more opportunity and money in it generally speaking.

Now, if you’re Arrianna Grande, it’s a different story, but for the majority if the thousands of bands, there’s way more money in being a music producer.

This is actually forcing music producers to become better musicians as well. When bands and musicians decide they want to learn how to record and produce their own music it really makes it so producers have to know their craft.

Bands want to have a reason to go to a producer. If you’re a producer who knows how to write catchy licks or knows how to use certain DAW’s inside and out, that will really help you.

Lastly, learning the piano forces you to learn the notes. Once you start producing, you will start using different VSTs such as auto tune, in which you will need to know the basics of music theory to make it sound good.

If you’re looking for plugins in the future, I suggest checking out this resource that reviewed some great auto tune software.

Do You Have To Know How To Play Piano?

You don’t have to learn how to. But, in the long run, everyone will tell you that it’s a smart idea. If you’re someone who loves music and is researching what instrument to learn, you can’t go wrong starting with the piano. Even if you just learn the absolute basics, you will then get an idea for chords and song structure.

Being able to offer different chord progression ideas or just knowing what they are might be what ends up inspiring something great.

When it comes to being in music production, become a sponge and learn how to do as much as you can. If you’re able to record artists, write with them and give them ideas, it will make for a great experience for everyone.

Are you an audio fan? I recently did a write-up on my favorite wireless microphones for church that you can check out here.

Music Theory And The Piano

Learning the basics of the piano will also help you learn the basics of music theory. If you want to have a career in music production, then you definitely want to have at least some education. I’m not saying you need to get a degree in music education and have 4 years of music theory, but the more you know, the better.

Trust me, this is becoming a very competitive area of music as there’s a lot of money to be made. Bands are getting tired of 360 deals with labels where labels get cuts of everything. This is forcing a lot of co-writing and inspiring musicians to become music producers. I think this is a great thing as some music producers are just incredible today.

With it being said that it’s more competitive now for music producers, I think this is a good thing. It’s making bands learn how to record properly and set up their own spaces. I’m excited to see where the career of music producers is at in the future.