Welcome to Production Hacks, a series to inspire producers to break free from old habits and embrace inspiration. Electronic music production is a vast world full of grooves, gadgets, and gear. Still, whether a beginning or an advanced producer, it’s easy to get stuck in familiar patterns. With so many tools at our disposal, sometimes the act of making music can become overwhelming. One of the goals of Production Hacks is to offer tips and tricks. In addition, the series will help you shift your process, expand your toolkit, and streamline your workflow. The result? Become the producer you’ve always wanted to be.
A Sonic Sport
If music is a sport, then musicians are the athletes of sound. Like athletes, musicians must condition their minds and bodies to perform at the highest level. We call this high-performance activity “play.” Fun is essential to playing both a game and a piece of music. Still, there is a difference between athletes and musicians.
Artists tend to believe that they must feel inspired to create. By contrast, athletes are usually motivated by competition and a desire to win. Still, when it comes to production, inspiration must come from a different source. Running drills can help.
"We call this high-performance activity 'play.' Fun is an essential part of the process."
Drill Your Way to Inspiration
When we feel stagnant, it’s often because we aren’t creating enough. One solution is to run production drills the same way athletes exercise to condition their bodies. Do this by creating timed musical exercises lasting one or two hours. Repeat each one several times within an hour, based on the time allotted for each repetition. For example, one could repeat a five-minute drill twelve times in one hour.
The purpose of these drills is to focus on a specific aspect of your production process. Below is a Monday-Friday schedule. These will help you make beats faster and expand your creative tool kit. Don’t be concerned with achieving perfection. The more you create, the more refined the results will be. Set your timers, and let’s get some reps in.
MONDAY
Recreate Drums from a Popular Song: 10-15 min (4-5 reps)
Drums are central to most modern musical genres. That is especially true of styles where producers create sounds digitally. An excellent way to get drums to knock like the songs on the radio is to emulate patterns from the Billboard Top 100. For our first drill, identify and download four or five songs from which to replicate the drums.
Placing the tracks in your DAW will allow you to control playback and do an A/B test while programming. While listening to the track, pay attention to the pattern, groove, sound choices, and arrangement. Replicating the drum pattern is part of the exercise. However, matching sounds can help expand your ear as a producer.
"A good way to get drums to knock like the songs on the radio is to try to emulate patterns."
Instead of trying to copy an entire song, it’s good to focus on four to eight bars to replicate and get the overall feeling of the drums. The great thing about this drill is you can take the drums you’ve created and produce new songs with them. Here’s an example of eight bars of the drums from “ScatterBrain” by Conway the Machine.
TUESDAY
Create Drum Patterns in Different Genres: 10 min (5-6 reps)
Another method you can try is challenging yourself to create drum patterns in different genres. It can be beneficial to focus on styles with which you feel less confident. Ideally, do this drill in 10-minute repetitions. However, when you first try this exercise, you may want to give yourself 20 minutes. This drill is not about copying patterns—it’s about understanding sound choices and rhythmic nuance.
Mastering Different Feels
Every style of music has its unique bounce and groove. Thus, mastering different rhythmic feels will help you to become a more versatile producer. When you can listen to a beat or style and replicate the feel and pattern in 10 minutes, you’ll be prepared to work fast and efficiently. This skill will come in handy when an artist gives references for what they want in the studio.
Try selecting one or two different genres and create multiple loops of four to eight bars in those styles. For this drill, the goal is building a skill, not reaching a higher speed. Try this for two hours every week. After a month, you could have 30-40 drum loops at your disposal to create new beats.
WEDNESDAY
Create Four 8-bar Melodic Loops: 10-15 min (4-5 reps)
Now that we’ve spent some time creating drum patterns, we’ll focus on melodic loops. For many producers composing melodies and harmonies presents a challenge. The most effective practice occurs when we focus on areas we need to develop. Therefore, if you struggle with melody and harmony, devote one day a week solely to this aspect of production. This drill will improve your overall understanding of melody and harmony.
For this exercise, focus on one or two keys per week and create loops using notes or harmonies based on those keys. One example is creating four loops in C minor. Exploring the possibilities inside one tonal center will improve your ear.
Over time, you’ll get comfortable producing in every key without a transpose button or pitch shifting. Pick a major and minor key to create loops in for two hours. The results might surprise you. Below is a tentative weekly schedule for this exercise.
Weekly Schedule
- 1: 4 loops in A minor, 4 loops in F major
- 2: 4 loops in F minor, 4 loops in Db major
- 3: 4 loops in G minor, 4 loops in E major
- 4: 4 loops in Bb minor, 4 loops in Ab major
- 5: 4 loops in C minor, 4 loops in G major
- 6: 4 loops in D minor, 4 loops in Bb major
THURSDAY
Create 4-bar Loops in Different Genres: 10-20 min (3-5 reps)
Now that you worked on drums and melody, we can combine them into short four-bar ideas. Creating loops is a fast way to come up with numerous ideas. A solid loop can expand into a full song with just a little arranging. Try going back to the drum loops you made in different genres. This time, build full four-bar loops (harmony or sample, melody, bass) around them.
This drill is a powerful way to utilize these musical exercises cumulatively. Creating a batch of loops will diversify your personal catalog of beats and make you a better producer.
FRIDAY
Create Full Tracks: 10-20 min (3-5 reps)
For your final drill, pick a prior exercise and build a complete track in 10-20 minutes. This process will be easier now that you have a melodic loop, drum loops, and full four-bar loops with multiple parts. From here out, you’ll be able to create tracks faster without relying on previously produced material.
Like an athlete, you refined your muscle memory. In this case, that’s the creative muscle. If your goal is to create faster and more frequently, these repetitions will turn you into a beatmaking factory. Each day, focus on a different aspect of your production. By the end of the week, you’ll have full beats for your catalog. Then use the weekend to focus on mixing or studying other aspects of production.
DOWNLOAD
Production Hacks: Running Drills MIDI Files
These MIDI files, based on the exercises in this article, can help inspire your practice sessions. Drag the MIDI information into a recording platform and choose sounds from your instrument library.
