Level 1
3-Credit Tuition
$1,515Non-Credit Tuition
$1,265Music Production Analysis distills decades of experience from record producers (including course author Stephen Webber, as well as Phil Ramone, Kyle Lehning, Don Was and more) into a focused step-by-step approach of the essential elements of successful records. The genres may change, the message and the lyrics may change, but the actual craft of how to make a great record remains the same. This course will develop your listening skills, and teach you how producers who have 30 years of experience listen to music differently than developing producers.
The course begins with an analysis and appraisal of one of the most important facets of a production: the emotional effectiveness of the music. From there, you'll learn arrangement techniques designed to guide musicians in a way which they add value to the recording, as opposed to just playing their own parts. You'll learn the difference between producing a mix and engineering a mix, and transform the way that you approach mixing a record so your work reaches its full potential.
Music Production Analysis uses many popular music examples (including the Beatles, Miles Davis, Radiohead, Billie Holiday, Bonnie Raitt, Bjork, Randy Travis, Bob Marley, and many others), insights from some of the world's most successful record producers, and rare demos—gathered from the original producers, artists, and songwriters—to reveal the exact production processes which contributed to the final recorded product.
At the conclusion of this course, you'll have the skills to listen to music like a seasoned producer. You'll learn to identify the elements of effective records through in depth analysis of a number of classic records, and you'll gain the skills to bring these elements to your own productions. It's also important to note that by taking this course you will avoid much of the trial and error that comes with learning music production, and by doing so, you will save time and make better records, quicker.
While designed especially for aspiring record producers, this course will also be extremely helpful to recording artists, recording engineers, songwriters, record labels, publishers, artist managers, session players, music journalists, and music educators.
By the end of the course, you will be able to:
- Analyze the essential elements of effective records
- Identify key vocal production techniques: doubling, layering, distressing, tuning, compression, echo, and reverb; and apply these skills to your own productions
- Discover musical, emotional, performance and arrangement techniques designed to make your records into something that people are going to really want to listen to
- Make your recording stand out from the tens of thousands of records released every year
Syllabus
Lesson 1: Conveying Emotion Through Music
- Emotion Is the Product
- Identifying Our Own Emotional Responses
- Music, Prejudice, and the Brain
- Listening Like a Producer
- Your Listening Environment
- Evaluative Emotional Listening
Lesson 2: Artist's Identity
- Understanding an Artist's Identity
- Elements of Musical Identity
- Keeping it Real
- Identity and Repertoire
- The Beatles' Evolving Identity
Lesson 3: Artist's Vision and Intention
- Understanding an Artist's Vision
- Vision Problems
- Focusing Artistic Vision
- Understanding an Artist's Intention
Lesson 4: Using Lyrics to Optimal Effect
- "Showing" versus "Telling"
- Lyric Analysis
- Descriptive/Sensory Language versus Generalities and Clichés
- A Primer on Ten Essential Skills and Most Common Pit Falls of Lyric Writing
Lesson 5: Melody, Song Form and An Elegant Approach To Repetition
- Elements of Effective Melodies
- Range
- Melodic Range of the Chorus
- Prosody
- Song Form
- Verse-Chorus Form
- Repetition
Lesson 6: Charting the Emotional Timeline
- The Use of Climax in Records
- The Effective Use of Space in Records
- How to Chart an Emotional Timeline for a Record
Lesson 7: Groove
- "Groove" as a Verb
- The Secret and Massive Power of the Bass and the Kick Drum
- Any Instrument Can Groove
- The Pain/Pleasure Paradox: When Sad Songs Meet Killin' Grooves
Lesson 8: Focus
- The Hardest Thing About Record Production: Leaving Out Good Stuff
- Record Producer = Record Reducer
- Focusing the Song
Lesson 9: Arrangement and Instrumental Performance
- The Session Players' Creed: KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid)
- Focusing the Instrumental Arrangement: Point to the Song
- Making a Really Good Chord Chart
- Time Correction and "The Devil in the Details"
Lesson 10: Vocal Performance
- Capturing the Virtuoso Singer on a Record
- The Potential Effectiveness of the Singer with "Modest Traditional Talents"
- The Vast Spectrum of Effective Vocal Styles on Records
- Vocal Production Techniques: Doubling, Layering, Distressing, Tuning, Compression, Echo, and Reverb
Lesson 11: Mix
- How NOT to Mix a Record: The List of Favorite Bits
- "Make it Sound Natural" and Other Delusional Statements
- The Magical Secret: the "Rule of Three"
- Choosing Winners and Losers
Lesson 12: Final Analysis
- Pulling Together All of the Elements
- The Wonderful Exceptions to "The Rules"
- Applying Lessons Learned to Your Own Work
- The Final, Comprehensive Analysis
Requirements
Prerequisites and Course-Specific Requirements
This course does not have any prerequisites.
Required Textbook(s)
- None required
Hardware Requirements
-
A professional-level listening setup that can accommodate two listeners at the same time: either full range monitor speakers or two pairs of high-quality headphones (Sony 7506, Sennheiser 280, or better), along with a simple Y adapter.
After enrolling, please check the Getting Started section of your course for potential deals on required materials. Our Student Deals page also features several discounts you can take advantage of as a current student. Please contact support@online.berklee.edu for any questions.
General Course Requirements
Below are the minimum requirements to access the course environment and participate in Live Chats. Please make sure to also check the Prerequisites and Course-Specific Requirements section above, and ensure your computer meets or exceeds the minimum system requirements for all software needed for your course.
Mac Users
PC Users
All Users
- Latest version of Google Chrome
- Zoom meeting software
- Webcam
- Speakers or headphones
- External or internal microphone
- Broadband Internet connection
Instructors
Author
Stephen Webber is an Emmy-winning composer and professor of Music Production and Engineering at Berklee College of Music. In three decades as a record producer, engineer, session player, music director, recording artist, DJ, and studio designer, Stephen has recorded with Ivan Neville, Meshell Ndegeocello, the Manhattan Guitar Duo, and the Turtle Island String Quartet, and performed with Bela Fleck, Mark O'Conner, Grandmixer DXT, and Emmylou Harris. A writer for Electronic Musician, Remix, and Mix Magazine, Stephen is also the author of Turntable Technique: The Art of the DJ, the first book to teach the turntable as a musical instrument. Stephen performs and presents clinics and master classes throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Australia, and has been profiled on the Today Show, CNN, and NPR's All Things Considered, and in the New York Times and Rolling Stone magazine.
Instructor
Mark Cross is an award-winning producer, composer, mixer, educator, and author with an extensive discography in both film and television that spans over two decades.
As an engineer and mixer, Mark has worked on numerous projects, including the Grammy -winning Shelby Lynne album I Am Shelby Lynne, Randy Newman's Oscar-nominated and Grammy-winning soundtrack for the Disney-Pixar film Cars, the Meet the Parents original film score and soundtracks, and hundreds of episodes of the NBC prime time series ER. Mark’s additional film credits include Alien: Resurrection, Seabiscuit, and Beavis and Butthead Do America.
As a composer, Mark has created over a thousand registered tracks for use in hundreds of films and television shows worldwide. He was the lead composer for the NBC prime time series Last Comic Standing and has contributed additional music for American Idol, Curb Your Enthusiasm, the CBS Evening News, HBO’s Getting On, and Comedy Central’s Key and Peele. Mark has created musical themes for Nickelodeon's Wow Wow Wubbzy, the Seinfeld Season 8 DVD, as well as producing and performing with Grammy winner John Legend on HBO's: Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Mark holds a Master of Fine Arts in Music Education from Boston University as well as a dual Bachelor of Music in Music Production & Engineering and Music Education from Berklee College of Music. He currently teaches Music Technology and Composition for Visual Media at Berklee College of Music, California State University Northridge, and Los Angeles College of Music. Mark authored the book Audio Post Production for Film and Television, published by Hal Leonard and Berklee Press. Read Less
Instructor
Clay Cook has made his living through many avenues in the music industry. An accomplished songwriter & multi-instrumentalist, he has recorded & toured with John Mayer, Sugarland, The Marshall Tucker Band, & Shawn Mullins. In 2009 he became a member of the 3-time Grammy winning Zac Brown Band but he still finds time to tour his brand of acoustic singer-songwriter music.
Instructor
Marty Walsh is an assistant professor in the Ensemble and Music Production departments at Berklee College of Music. A veteran of the LA studio music scene, he has worked as a guitarist with some of the biggest names in the business.
The early 1980s found him on the hits "9 to 5" by Dolly Parton, "She Works Hard For The Money" by Donna Summer, and "Heartlight" by Neil Diamond, to name a few. He also recorded with John Denver, Eddie Money, Kenny Rogers, Sheena Easton, and Julio Iglesias, among others.
In 1985, Walsh played guitar on the Supertramp album Brother Where You Bound and then toured with the band in 1985-86 and again in 1988 after playing on their 1988 release Free As A Bird.
Continuing to do recording sessions into the 1990s, he performed on three of Leann Rimes' albums, including I Need You, whose title track set the record of weeks (54) in the top 40.
Most recently, he can be heard on the Freddie Jackson single "Until The End Of Time," which reached the no. 1 spot on Billboard's R&B charts and stayed on the charts for 26 weeks. In 2014, Marty released an instrumental album, The Total Plan, on Weberworks Records. Read Less
Instructor
Matthew Ellard is an Associate Professor in the Music Production and Engineering Department at Berklee College of Music. Over the course of his 25-year career in the music industry as an independent record producer, engineer and mixer based in London, Los Angeles, Boston, he has produced, engineered, and/or mixed well over 250 albums. This includes many world famous and popular artists at world-class studios, where the level of expectation and performance is extremely high. He brings that experience and those standards to Berklee. He has extensive experience with not only guitar driven rock, indie rock, metal, punk, hardcore, and power pop bands, but also with programmed and sequenced, beat based pop, hip hop, remixes and dance music. In addition, he utilizes both “old school” analogue recording and the latest digital recording techniques and formats, bringing a depth of technical and creative knowledge in both the analog and digital realms and a wide breadth of professional music industry experience to the instruction of music production and engineering.
Instructor
Sean Slade is an associate professor in the Music Production and Engineering (MP&E) Department at Berklee College of Music. After graduating from Yale University in 1978, he moved to Boston, playing guitar and saxophone in various beat combos before co-founding Fort Apache Studios in 1985.
Slade has produced, engineered, and mixed records for Radiohead, Hole, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Warren Zevon, Lou Reed, Joe Jackson, the Dresden Dolls, and many more artists. When not teaching at Berklee, he can be found recording music at Quarry Recorders, his studio in rural Maine. Read Less
Instructor
John Broaddus is an instructor in the Music Technology minor program at Berklee College of Music in Valencia, Spain where he teaches Recording Skills for the Musician, Critical Listening and Production Analysis. He holds an undergraduate degree in Music Theory from Drury College, a Recording Arts specialized degree from Full Sail and a Master’s in Music Production, Technology and Innovation from Berklee. As a teacher, technologist and music producer, John brings an infectious enthusiasm to his classes and is driven to see his students succeed as musicians, producers and engineers. He has produced a number of projects in his personal studio beginning in 1998 and has worked in digital media for Warner Bros. and Sony Pictures Entertainment in Los Angeles where clients included Disney, New Line Cinema, 20th Century Fox, BBC, Apple, Amazon, Google, Playstation Network and Microsoft to name a few.
What's Next?
When taken for credit, Music Production Analysis can be applied towards these associated programs:
Associated Certificate Programs
Associated Degree Majors
Related Music Career Role
Employers look for skills learned in this course, when hiring for the following music career role:
Questions?
Contact our Academic Advisors by phone at 1-866-BERKLEE (U.S.), 1-617-747-2146 (INT'L), or by email at advisors@online.berklee.edu.
