How to Study Music Tech

Note: this was written in 2011 and needs to be updated.

Objectives:

1. Achieve mastery of the techniques, so you can fluently execute the skills as needed. (either in your own creative workflows or when asked by a client).
2. Creatively APPLY the knowledge.

Another way to look at this is, two of the most important factors to generate income in the media industry are:

1. Skill sets. Ability to do stuff fast.
   • Technical chops.
2. Portfolio. Content YOU have CREATED, or collaborated on.
   • This is MOST important!
   • Could be demos or commercially released, legit credits.

Study the Material

For technical, creative/production based classes, the best way to learn is:

1. Read a short portion of the text, or watch a short portion of the video tutorial.
   • This might be as short as ONE sentence of text, or a few SECONDS of a video.
   • It's often good to read the text out loud, and rewind the video to watch the section a few times.
2. Take good notes!
   • VERY important!
   • Summarize key points and techniques in your own words.
3. Actually DO IT!
   • This is MOST important! You need to actually practice and DO what is presented in the text or video. Passively reading, or watching a video, is not enough. This material needs to be experienced and practiced HANDS ON!
4. If the text/video comes with exercise files, GREAT! Use them. Otherwise, find other audio/MIDI files to practice on. Better yet, CREATE your own!
   • In the process of DOING what is presented in the text of video, you are encouraged to explore different creative variations on the basic material. Feel free to go down dirt roads and rabbit holes when you have any other ideas to explore.
   • Many students just "skim" the text, or watch an excerpt of the video, and they never DO anything!
5. Continue studying small amounts of content.
   • This might be one paragraph or ONE sentence at a time.
   • Pause the video frequently.
6. Take good notes and actually DO it!
7. Repeat until you have studied the entire chapter of text or video tutorial.
8. All of the practice media should be organized on a dedicated (preferably external/portable) hard drive.
   • 7200 RPM is fine.
     • 1TB is good size.
   • 5400 RPM is too slow.
   • SSD is NOT required for this Pro Tools audio drive.
9. Edit and Refine Your Notes.
   • After hands-on exploration and experimenting actually DOING what is presented in the text/video, go back and re-organize your notes. Include practical discoveries that will be useful for you to remember in the future.

Creative Application

After studying, exploring and experimenting with the material and techniques, APPLY what you have learned in your own productions.

• Do something CREATIVE!
• Write a song, make a beat, mix a song, process a sound...
• Do something that EXCITES you! This should be FUN!

Final Outcome

When finished studying a textbook chapter, or video tutorial, you should have:

1. Collection of well written, organized notes.
2. Folder of files used for hands-on practice, explorations and experiments while practicing and DOING what you have studied.
3. Folder of your personal, creative, artistic APPLICATIONS of what you learned.