The main thing is to master music workflow and sound design by learning to get the nuts and bolts of making music down as fast as possible by failing a LOT really fast.

Embrace and delight in the necessity of failure so you can get enough failure under your belt that you’re ready for success.

This is the part most people can’t handle.

While you’re making a LOT of music that you’ll never play for anyone you want to study STYLE more than anything else. Yes: study the technical stuff while you’re taking tracks apart, but your primary focus should be style.

The goal of all that failure and study is to find a style that feels authentic so you can serve it to us with confidence. This will emerge as you find what works for you, and which areas are just not important.

There is an infinite amount of shit to learn so one of the primary “skills” of production is knowing what NOT to study. Your style should tell you what you need and don’t need.

Your style can evolve along the way, leading you into new areas of study but it’s always essential to recognize that you’re not expected to be good at EVERYTHING and that it’s a fool’s errand to try.

Part of the beauty of music is it is an extension of individual identity: yours and your audience’s. Individuals seek individual expression which statistically creates a need for diversity more than anything else.

People want to feel fresh and nothing scratches that itch like fresh styles of music.

So please: don’t try to be good at everything, that is boring. You should instead try to find your authentic self through your work. You are ALREADY unique, so if you can perfect your self expression your music will become unique as well.

What makes music an inauthentic expression of self is when we fall in love with other styles completely, finding nothing we would change.

Study style, but remember to always reject at least one FUNDAMENTAL element of any style that inspires you.

Maybe it’s the bpm, maybe it’s the tuning, maybe it’s the quantize grid, maybe it’s the fashion, maybe it’s the cultural context, maybe it’s the attitude. Find something FUNDAMENTAL to reject about every other style.

Ask: what do ALL of these things have in common? What rules are they following that I can break?

Learn to break the right rules and it all becomes easy.

If you learned anything useful please consider checking out my renegade music coaching community and record label over at https://ProducerDojo.com.

Lots of love

Dylan aka ill.Gates

Get all of my albums, a slew of singles, remixes, and DJ mixes for FREE! – www.illgates.com