What I Learned in my First Music Production Course

Very recently, I decided to learn music production, which is something I have wanted to do for years.

I have wanted to learn music production since college, but I have found the path quite daunting, given the amount of time and commitment needed to become adept. I'd heard producers spend years to actually become sufficient, so the whole process felt a little out of reach.

In late December 2025, I purchased my first Music Production for Beginners online course. If I could at least complete this, I could start somewhere.

I had the Ableton DAW software on my laptop for many years. I had an Audio Technica 2020 microphone, which I had previously purchased, but it had stayed in its box because I didn't understand how to work it. When I previously opened Ableton up and connected the mic, I struggled to use it and understand the system and functions. In fact, I could hardly get the mic to work.

After years of not taking the initiative, I managed to find an online course with an actual Ableton Certified trainer. Thank goodness I did! It was perfect timing as it was also the season for holiday sales!

Many online music production courses are very pricey and expensive, and as a beginner, I tend to be very sceptical when it comes to pricey courses. I didn't even have the full version of Ableton Live on my laptop, just the Lite version that I was having to make do with, so I didn't want to invest in an expensive course and it not be worth it.

I started the course and was very surprised by how accessible learning music production is. I felt like I should have started ages ago! I learned about basic concepts such as MIDI, return tracks, audio recording, delay, and reverb.

The thing that surprised me the most was MIDI. I had thought that to learn music production, I needed to know how to play an instrument. However, my only instrument was my ability to sing and songwrite.

I have a couple of songs that I have written, but am only able to sing it acapella; however, one of my dreams since childhood is to record and sing my own music, so I really wanted to start moving towards this direction and path.

Instead, discovering MIDI enables me to digitally input specific instrument sounds. How cool is that? Even though I still want to learn to play an instrument, MIDI makes it a lot easier!

I started the course, and although some concepts were really confusing, I successfully worked my way through and earned my first music production for beginners' certificate. I can work my way around the Ableton DAW and make a beat, but turning it into an actual full-length song is the next step.

THE NEXT STEPS IN LEARNING MUSIC PRODUCTION

I plan on taking the next course with the same instructor, which is about making a full track. I'm super excited! I plan on blogging more about my music production journey as I go along, and I am hopeful that eventually I will be able to release some original music!