Can you learn music production from TikTok?
Producers are using TikTok to pass on their music production wisdom. But how useful is TikTok for beginner music producers?
Despite its ever-growing popularity, TikTok is dismissed by many people as a silly app for teenagers. What those same people don’t realise is that the short video app is a rabbit warren of discovery – in the endless scroll, you might just learn something. And one of those skills is learning music production on TikTok.
One of the biggest barriers for beginner producers who want to get started in music production is having to sift through complicated advice online. There’s nothing more off-putting than trying to Google a simple query like “How to add plugins to FL Studio” and wasting time not being able to find a simple solution.
YouTube tutorials are incredibly helpful, but you often need patience to sit through sales-speak and preamble before getting to the useful bits, when all you were after was a simple definition of a music production term.
Barriers to accessibility are not a problem with TikTok. The snappiness of the short videos – up to 60 seconds long – mean that information can be shown quickly and simply for the viewer.
Small pieces of knowledge are able to be communicated in different segments to clearly pass on knowledge such as DAW keyboard shortcuts.
Captions highlight the most important nuggets of knowledge, and the big personalities of TikTokers make things engaging and fun. There’s far less of the music production snobbery found elsewhere on the internet.
If you’re just starting out producing there are no stupid questions – something that bloggers and YouTubers sometimes seem to forget.
Is TikTok any good for learning music production?
I’m not convinced you can teach yourself music production using TikTok alone. TikTok has obvious limitations in the amount of detail available. But the relentless swiping culture means that creators can upload video after video, and users can simply move through, absorbing music production advice.
If you’re sick of being begged to subscribe by creators on YouTube – and fed up of watching producers in overly-long videos bobbing their heads along to their own mediocre beats – TikTok is a fun alternative to test out. When you’re a beginner producer, any and all avenues of education are valuable.
Equally, if you’re a seasoned producer, why not make an account yourself, to teach music production on TikTok and pass on some of your own wisdom? TikTok is a great promotional platform for your music, with a plethora of waiting potential fans.
But caution – TikTok is an attention-sucker. Just don’t forget to stop scrolling and actually get down to doing some producing yourself. All the videos in the world won’t substitute getting stuck in and having a go at music production.