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Miley Cyrus Sued Over ‘Flowers’: The Fine Line Between Inspiration and Infringement

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Music creators often walk a delicate line between drawing inspiration from their favorite songs and unintentionally infringing on the work of others. The recent lawsuit filed against Miley Cyrus...

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Breaking the "Second Verse Curse": Tips to Keep Your Songwriting Flowing

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This is a predicament that many songwriters encounter: You're thrilled with the direction your song is headed, the melody feels great, and you've nailed the first verse and chorus. But then you...

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Improving Vocal Samples After Pitch or Tempo Changes: Tips and Tricks from Music Producers

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Overcoming Perfectionism in Songwriting

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“How can I write songs with perfectionism?”If this sounds like you, you're not alone. Many songwriters, even those who are otherwise confident in their creative abilities, face a similar battle...

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How to Find Your Genre: Narrowing Down Your Sound and Streamlining Your Music Creation Process

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When you're creating music on your own, it can be tough to define your style, especially with so many genres and influences out there. You might feel like you’re trying to piece together a puzzle...

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Unlocking the Art of Cryptic Lyricism: Strategies to Transform Your Writing

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Writing lyrics that are metaphorical and cryptic can feel like a daunting task, especially when you hear others do it effortlessly. It’s easy to feel that your lyrics come across as literal or...

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Efficiently Providing Music Lessons for Younger Children: Tips for Teaching Piano, Drums, and Guitar

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Teaching music to young children is a rewarding but challenging experience, especially if you're used to playing instruments yourself rather than instructing others. Whether it’s drums, piano...

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Finding Your Unique Voice in Music: Lessons from the Greats

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Every great musician has a distinct voice that defines their sound. Think of Billie Joe Armstrong from Green Day, Axl Rose of Guns N' Roses, or Dave Mustaine from Megadeth. Imagine Green Day...

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The Impact of Technology on Modern Music Creation: How to Maximize Tools like DAWs, Sampling, and AI

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In today’s fast-paced, tech-driven music world, having musical talent is just the beginning. Technology has transformed the way music is produced, offering musicians unprecedented access to...

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The Art of Creating a "Luxurious" Sound in Instrumental Music: Lessons from Legends

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Many aspiring music creators are captivated by the lavish, grandiose quality of certain beats. Tracks like Kanye West's "Devil in a New Dress" or many of Westside Gunn's productions embody this...

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Should You Start with an EP? A Guide for New Music Creators

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When it comes to launching your music career, one common question arises: "Should I start with an EP or a single?" This is a crucial decision for any new artist, especially for those who are trying...

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Why Connor Price and Forrest Frank’s ‘Up’ is the Ultimate Feel-Good Anthem

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Connor Price and Forrest Frank’s track ‘Up’. This song has been everywhere, and for good reason—it’s got everything you need to vibe, feel inspired...

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Ryan Tedder’s Studio Review: Writing Three Songs From Scratch

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Photo: Studio

Ryan Tedder is a highly accomplished and sought-after music producer and songwriter. He is known for his work with a wide range of artists including: Adele, Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, and OneRepublic. He has won multiple awards for his production and songwriting, including multiple Grammys. In his pop songwriting and production class with Studio, he teaches a class about the best way to efficiently create music starting from conception all the way to mastering. The cost for this course begins at $19/month and goes to $279/year if you want to utilize more of Studio’s classes. There is great demand for this course and it even has a waitlist at times, when it isn’t running, but is it worth waiting for?

The course promises that you’ll leave the course with three fully completed songs. From concept to recording to production and mastering, Ryan guides you through the process in four short weeks, including helpful plugins, tech like MIDIs and audio interfaces, and melodic inspiration. In comparison to other popular online music courses, the output is much greater and Ryan helps by providing time management skills he has picked up for the artistic process throughout his career. The output promise of the course also comes with a time commitment on the student’s part, with most reviewers saying that they spent more than 10 hours a week to complete the assignment requirements. So if you don’t have that much time in a week, it may need to be put off until you have that kind of time. 

To help you with the time dependent process, each student is put into a small group to work through ideas together and give each other feedback. The small groups really support students in their process and encourage each other to create. These small groups are very important for building the community base that many people enjoy about the course. From these groups, students will find collaborating partners whom they’ll make their third song with. Many students said that this process was very helpful in making them create much more efficiently with a partner as they are given about 4-5 days to finish a collaborative song. Within this, they learn to give each other feedback live and grow in their own respects. Feedback is also a core base of the course and how musicians learn to create better melodies and supporting sound for their tracks. In some instances, Ryan Tedder also will give feedback on some group’s tracks. The students who received feedback said that having an industry professional view their work and respond with constructive praise and criticism, was very helpful and supportive to their process. That being said, very few people got feedback on their songs and for most reviewers, they only had one group of songs have a feedback session from Ryan. For this course, it is very self-directed so don’t expect to be guided along the way, and feedback may be far and few between from Ryan.

Photo: Inc. Magazine

This course will challenge you. From time constraints to fast-paced collaboration to sharing music for feedback, this course will take you out of your comfort zone, in the best of ways. Many reviewers loved the challenge of having to create in such an intense time frame and said it made them create some of their best work. 

Many said that this course would be good for beginner to intermediate songwriters because it succinctly describes some of the basics of melody writing and song structure. Sometimes, it does jump around between concepts, and skip over some explanations of harder concepts though. 

Overall, Ryan Tedder’s Studio Course is an excellent resource for those looking to get into music production or take their skills up a notch. With its comprehensive approach and clear explanations from one of today’s top producers, this course is sure to provide viewers with valuable insight into the world of music production. For the price, the course is worth it for a self-directed and passionate music maker. Be ready to be challenged and sign up!

If you want to watch Ryan react to songwriter’s songs from his class follow the link below!