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Chart Music Production (CMP) Course

Chart Music Production Course is part two of our Songwriting Super-Course.

Why doesn’t my music sound as good as what I hear in the charts? You can use a DAW, you write great songs(especially after completing our packed-full-of insider secrets Hit Songwriting course), you have an understanding of musicality, and if now you want to put it all together and make a good quality demo to show off your song in the best possible light, this Chart Music Production short course is for you. Full of contemporary record production tips and techniques and knowledge you need to put together your own commercial (pop, rock, urban, singer/songwriter and commercial dance) backing track fit for A&R meetings and production music houses. From programming bass-lines, strings, vocal & song arranging, getting the right sounds, and putting it all together to make your track sound as one and ready for a master mix. The course is a two-day crash course which is run in Alex Von Soos’ West London studio. The genres covered during the course include most commercial current and retro styles and can be more focused on students’ personal preferences. You can ask a question and bounce off of your instructor and fellow learners instead of passively taking in information from books and video tutorials. This is why some say that there is no substitute for music production courses in person.

Day 1, Part 1:  Supercharging Your Ears

  • The Big Picture: a whirlwind tour of chart music production from the 1950’s to the current decade
  • Learning To Listen: a method of always being up-to-date with chart production as fashions change and what’s current now may be old hat in 6 months’ time.
  • Extended listening session with the help of the new method covering various genres

Day 1, Part 2:  Drummers & Machines

  • Beat Building Foundation Tips: how to build a beat from scratch with acoustic, electronic/programmed drums or loops or a combination of the above
  • All about swing, groove and quantise
  • All about tempo: selecting the correct BPM for your chosen style

Day 1, Part 3:  Supercharging Your Beats

  • More critical listening: why do hit records sound so punchy?
  • Beefing up your beats to make them sound professional incl. tuning kicks to key, room mic crushing, kick&snare layering etc.
  • Building your own drum sound library for your chosen genre(s) incl. plug-in demonstrations

Day 2, Part 1: The Lowdown On Bass

  • Whether to use electric or synth bass and programming up your own sounds from scratch
  • Experimenting with different bass approaches: solid, funky, robotic etc.
  • Building your own bass sound library for your chosen genre(s) incl. plug-in demonstrations

Day 2, Part 2: Chords & The Rest Of The Band

  • Chords: the good, the bad and the ugly
  • Chordal Instruments: piano, Rhodes, organ, guitars, pads, strings
  • Instrumental hooks
  • Building your own instrumental sound library for your chosen genre(s) incl. plug-in demonstrations

Day 2, Part 3:  Final Production Considerations

  • Filling the timing grid, depth field, frequency spectrum and stereo panorama
  • Using production to create light and shade in your arrangement
  • Getting all your parts to work as one
  • Brief overview of our further production courses&diplomas
  • Extended Q&A session
  • The genres covered during the course will depend on the students’ personal preferences and
  • interests but can include all current and retro styles including EDM, Future House, Trap,
  • D&B, Urban/Soul/R&B, Singer-Songwriter/Folk, Teen Pop and contemporary ballads.

  

Chart Music Production Course(CMP) | 11.30am – 6.30pm | £179

(or £149 when booked together with the Hit Songwriting course (the £30 discount also applies to learners who have already completed the Hit Songwriting course))

2018

Winter: January 16&17
Spring Weekend: April 28&29
Summer Intensive: August 30&31
Autumn Weekend: November 10&11

Or if you have any questions before booking, don’t hesitate to get in touch!

 

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“Attending the course changed the way to write and work on my songs. I have a different view on the whole process. It´s like standing in front of a picture and step back to get the whole overview.” Andreas

“Prior to the course I felt musically ‘blocked’ in a number of areas whereas now, my head is buzzing with ideas and ways in which I can move forwards. Very empowering – thank you!” Mike Campbell

“I think the Chart Music Production Course is useful if you want a great array of skills that are essential for all budding songwriters and producers in today’s world. Even if you don’t strictly produce music with the charts in mind (I don’t), this course will help you raise your production skills – and you’ll probably come away thinking about music slightly differently. The atmosphere in the class was informal, friendly and productive. To cover so much over a weekend is not easy, but Alex was happy to let the class’s interest and questions evolve the syllabus so that people came away feeling they had got what they came for.  Aside from the numerous production tips, I personally found it interesting and useful to gain a little insight into the way an established producer like Alex approaches his work, and approaches music in general.” Rob Mills – CMP

 

“Connections are good and for me we did learn about the music industry, not the real practice or programming on the computer but about how this industry works and what we can expect, interesting.” Lambrechts Wim