The honest downsides of learning music production online (and how to avoid them)

Look, at Next Level Production we offer online music production tutoring & mentoring, but we know that online learning isn't necessarily the right choice for everyone. At times, formal education or face-to-face learning are better options. In this article, we're going to take an honest look into the downsides of learning music production online & then how you can avoid them.

1. Isolation

Probably the biggest downside to learning music production solely online is the lack of community. With face-to-face learning & formal education, you're likely learning alongside a bunch of likeminded producers who are just as passionate as you are. You get to share production tips & tricks, plugins/VST's, learnings, and keep each other accountable. Producing music alongside others is a often a much more enjoyable experience, collaboration is such an important part of music production & you just wouldn't be exposed to it learning solely online.

There are some great solutions for this out there though. Discord servers, production communities, mentorship programs & group workshops just to name a few. These groups & events are a great place to find community & collaboration in an otherwise solitary environment.

2. Lack of feedback

This ones huge. Arguably the biggest driver of improvement comes from constructive feedback. If you're learning solely from tutorial videos or online courses, it's hard to pinpoint exactly what you need to improve on as a recorded video can't tell you your kick drum isn't tuned properly or your vocal is being masked by your synths. Sure, you can continue to watch videos & end up fixing the problems, but this could take months. Something a tutor/mentor could've picked up & solved that day.

Discord servers, production communities, mentorship programs & tutors are great options for overcoming the lack of feedback. You will just have to ensure that the feedback is coming from a credible source, you don't want to be implementing feedback from someone who doesn't know what they're talking about. (there's plenty of this out there!)

Always check the credibility & reputation of these places and people before taking any feedback.

3. Specificity

Every genre of music has it's unique production styles & techniques. What works for one genre, may not work or be optimal for another. The problem with learning from generic online courses or videos is that they don't know what music you're trying to make. They won't be able to advise you on the most effective side-chain methods for drum & bass or what type of swing you should apply to your UKG hi-hats.

You might be able to get away with learning from a video called "How to use Ableton Live 12 (Beginners Tutorial)" as understanding your DAW is universal but not "How to Produce Electronic Music in Ableton Live 12" as every electronic genre is made differently. Video's that cater to everyone therefore cater to no-one in particular.

Online learning won't be for everyone. Some people learn better in a class-like environment, some people can't stay focused watching a video & some people just don't know where to start and will need guidance from someone. Whilst there are some solutions to these problems in the online space, only you can decide which will be best for you. I hope you now have a better idea of what path you should take & the different options you have available to you.

Thank you for reading this article to the end,

Max.