5 music things i learned WAY too late | making hyperpop beats

Here are five things I wish I learned a LOT earlier than I did. Hopefully you can learn from my mistakes! Oh and I also make a hyperpop song too...

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0:00 - intro
0:47 - Seventh chords
1:38 - No repeat letters in a scale
2:30 - Song structure
3:08 - Making the beat
4:36 - Lyrics
6:44 - Separate out sound design
7:12 - Having good sounds is everything
7:34 - Recording vocals
8:17 - Processing vocals
10:05 - Final edits
11:12 - Thank you!
11:31 - Final beat


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In this video, I make a hyperpop type beat while talking about five things that I learned way too late. I both show how to make a beat but also how I go about writing lyrics and recording vocals. I hope that this video helps anyone out there who is wanting to start or is wanting to start sharing their music with other people!

Here is a more extended version of my five points, I had to cut out some of it for the video's sake:

The FIRST thing on my list was seventh chords. I learned this way too late! I had taken a lot of music lessons and I had been playing in music groups growing up but it wasn't until my first year of music school that I actually learned the differences between the seventh chords. They were always a mystery to me and when I figured them out, a whole new world was opened up. I hope the same is done for you!

The SECOND thing that I learned way too late was that there are no repeat letters in a scale. Granted, this one may only be necessary to learn if you're talking to classically trained musicians or if you're trying to go to music school. But as someone who was both of those things, I had such a breakthrough moment when I learned this. Scales were always a half-mystery to me and learning this finally made a bunch of things make sense.

The THIRD thing that I wish I knew earlier is how important song structure is. So I release electronic music under my real name Stephen Flores and a few years ago I signed a few songs to a record label. I really had to check my ego at the door though, because they asked me to make changes to my music to make it better. After giving it some time, I was able to realize that the changes really benefitted the music. Basically, I needed to start the song right away and in the original song I had taken my sweet time with it. If you want to make money off of your music, you have to be able to view it with a business lens. If you fail to grab someone's attention in the first ten seconds, your music will have a tougher time succeeding. This is something I think about in every song that I produce now. Some questions I ask myself are: is it danceable? (aka does the beat continue through the song), does the energy carry in the softer sections? How can I keep the listener's attention on this repeated section?

The FOURTH thing that I learned way too late was to separate out sound design from songwriting. I cannot count how many times I used to start making a song only to get stuck trying to create a synth sound from scratch. The truth is, I was taking myself out of the flow whenever I did this. When you are in songwriting mode, try to do everything you can to get your idea out there before you start making things complicated. Why spend ten minutes trying to find the perfect piano sound if you haven't even finished writing the song? Who is to say that you won't change your mind in a couple of minutes and want guitar in there instead?

The FIFTH thing that I wish I knew earlier was that having good sounds is everything.  Using sounds that sound good right from the start makes life so much easier. I love not having to put an EQ on every single drum sound that I use and needing to tweak it so it sits right in the mix. There is a computer science phrase called ~Garbage in, garbage out~ that really is true for music as well. No matter how good you are with an EQ and compressor, if the original sample is bad, there is a good chance that the output will be bad as well. I used to spend a lot of time tweaking my 808s until I actually started using the 808s that other producers were using and all of a sudden they sounded great right away—what a thought!

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These beats were made in a software called Ableton Live, the synth sounds were made using a digital synthesizer called Serum by Xfer. The guitar I use in this video is a Fender Stratocaster. The bass I used was a Sterling Sub Series 5-string.

If you have any questions about anything in the video, feel free to leave a comment!