Category: Music Appreciation

Homeschool, Music Appreciation, music production, Online classes, self-paced

Mr. D Math: Self-Paced Digital Music Production Course with Brent Daniels

Little Learner and Mom

We received Mr. D newest course Digital Music Production with Brent Daniel for our honest review. This review may contain affiliate links at no additional charge to you.

When you are married to a music producer life is different. Being woken up to the sounds and music in the middle of the night is normal. Having in-home listening parties is a weekly event for your small family. My son and his dad speak a musical language I do not know, but I am trying to learn.  I have learned a lot of terminology and software, but I don’t have a connection to music production like they do. At least once or twice a week I hear them bickering over which DAW system is better or how to work on projects. Then there is the butting of heads over the learning process of music production. My son wants the end results right now and my husband needs to learn the basics and background.  Thank goodness for Mr. D newest course Digital Music Production with Brent Daniels it has brought calm to my house.  If you have a student who wants to step into the music arena you have to try this course.

What is Music Production?

Music production is the creation of music. A music producer’s job is to compose various sounds into an entire composition. Then there is the engineering or (mixing ) is making the sound cohesive. The last component is mastering when you take the mixed product and make it commercial quality. I know what you are thinking that is a lot of knowledge and work that goes into music production. Lucky for you Mr. D Digital Music Production with Brent Daniels course has built a fantastic course that takes some producers years to learn.

Using Digital Music Production with Brent Daniels

Brent Daniels is a successful music producer with projects with Marvel Studios, Netflix, and Epic Records just to name a few.  Students will have their own platform on the Mr. D Math dashboard, that lists all the lessons and tracks their graded process. Digital Music Production with Brent Daniels provides your student with a deep dive into sixteen lessons on digital music production. Within each lesson, students watch on average 25-35 minute videos. He teaches this course from his personal studio, these are pre-recorded self-paced video lessons. As you journey through lessons your student will want to learn more and get excited.

Mr. Daniel walks students through music production hardware and software, and so much more. He also explains the different career paths for music production and shares snippets of his own projects. There is homework assigned so students can have a hands-on learning experience. The homework assignments allow students to apply what they have learned and explore. Along with videos and homework, students also take quizzes that cover 100% of the lesson’s material.

If you aren’t familiar with a DAW ( Digital Audio Workstation) this is the software that is used to produce music. He mentions several DAW software that work with various operation systems. From the primary DAW to the more complex your student will find something that works for them and their budget. Fortunately for my son, he has experience working with Ableton, FL Studio, Logic Pro, and music production equipment. Remember the earlier mention about the DAW system battle in my house my son prefers Ableton and my husband is a die-hard FL Studio/ Studio One user.  There are included embedded links to Youtube, websites, and other resources for your student. 

The Review

Over the course of the last few weeks, my husband and son took on the course. My husband conveyed to me that he really enjoyed how the course was laid out and presented in a real studio and Mr. Daniels has powerful sounds and visuals. The course gives the viewer the feel they are sitting in the studio or “lab” (producer language).

Digital Music Production with Brent Daniels is not a course for a student who has not shown an interest in music production. The course is for those students who have shown significant interest. He gives the students a complete breakdown of the basics and takes them through to the end of laying down a track using all knowledge they have gained over the course. What we all noticed is this isn’t a course you want to fast forward through because you will miss valuable information. So take your time and enjoy.

I really like this course because it answers questions that I may have about creating music. My dad has taught me a lot and I have a better understanding of what he has been teaching me. It was nice to meet the person that help creat some some the music for Black Panther.

Jai -10

The homework assignments given offer the students the opportunity to try out what they have learned and research. Fortunately for our home, we have an in-house studio so my son has the opportunity to use many of the types of equipment suggested in the course thus far. At the time of this review, my husband and son were finishing up week 6. My husband said this course was a great refresher for him and he did learn about a few programs he didn’t know existed. He further said that it offered our son a fully laid out course that will help him develop his music production skills.

What I wish I had learned earlier is the characteristics of sound such as pitch, timber, and volume that this course teaches. All of these topics are imperative for rising music producers to learn on their journey.

Obscure Shakur -dad

Digital Music Production with Brent Daniels course is also a great referencing course for upcoming music producers. The course will equip students with the knowledge they need to produce music. I feel like this course helped settle some of the frustration my son was having because while he understands how to use the DAW, he now understands the why and the foundation. I also have noticed that it has provided new talking points for him and his dad. He now sees the value behind why he sees his dad going through the steps of putting beats together and as a greater appreciation for the creation process.

Do you need to run out and buy any special music equipment in order to complete this course? I would say no not at this time, but is it helpful to have a USB Midi keyboard which is mentioned in lesson 1.  I wouldn’t suggest investing in music equipment unless you are 100% this is something your student will continue down the path to music production. 

My husband is a self-taught music producer with 20+ years experience, he is very talented and has a gift for music. My son has picked up a lot from his dad and stays in our home studio. My husband has said many times he wished that he could have had a course like this when he was my son’s age to walk him through music production because it could have saved him some time.

We highly recommend Mr. D newest course Digital Music Production with Brent Daniels for students or adults looking to get a feel for music production. This self-paced course is detailed and a wealth of information. We will continue to use this course this year and I know my son will refer to it often and is looking forward to completing the final project.

Homeschool, Homeschool Family, Morning Basket, Music Appreciation, Music Theory, Unit Study

Teach Your Child Piano: Read Music Notes in 6 Weeks and Summer Siesta Music Camp Review!

Little Learner and Mom

Complimentary product received from Teach Your Child Piano!

If you are followers on our Little Learner and Mom IG you know my son, well our entire family loves music. My son was exposed to music early on in the womb because his dad is a music producer and insisted on playing music to my belly every night. So when my son was born he instantly took to all things music.

My son’s first instrument was the trombone it was like love at first sight from 18 months old until the present. We bought his first trombone when he was 3 and he has been playing every since. When Karen asked me if we would be interested in taking a look at the Teach Your Child Piano course Read Music Notes in Six Weeks and the Music Camp: Summer Siesta course, we were happy to review them.

The Teach Your Child Piano courses are on the “Teachable” platform. You will have your own dashboard that includes your course of study. Some of the activities include downloadable pdfs and embedded videos. Not all of the Siesta Summer activities have videos. I think it would be nice if each included one example of the topic. This would be helpful for those students and parents who have no background in music. The platform is easily managed and it tracks your progress as long as you click the continue and complete button.

Read Music Notes in Six Weeks

Read Music Notes in Six Weeks is a great course for beginners who do not have a background in music. My son has a background in music so after looking over the first week, he felt like it was just a little too easy for him. But I am going to base my review on what I think if I had a non-musical child. This is a great course to introduce your students to reading music and music theory. The included a detailed lesson plan, games, worksheets, instructional video, flashcards, and a practice plan.

There are 6 modules that cover:

  • Learning Your Way Around The Keyboard
  • Treble Clef Line Notes
  • Treble Clef Space Notes
  • Bass Clef Line Notes
  • Bass Clef Space Notes
  • Review and Preparing for the Grand Recital

After looking through all the weeks I think this would be great for a family who has no or very little background in music. I do still have plans to have my son review the weeks just as a review in the fall.

Music Camp Online: Summer Siesta

Summer Siesta consists of 120 self-paced lessons for ages 4-14. The course runs from May to August, but I think this can be used year-round and I hope Karen will consider keeping the program going year-round. There is so much to unpack in this course and for a music-loving family like ours, we need more time to really appreciate all the wonderfulness in this course. Summer Siesta is really a music appreciation course that families can pair well with geography, history, and cultural lessons in their homeschool.

Students can study:

  • Musical Era (Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Modern)
  • Various Music Genre
  • Orchestra and Foreign Instruments
  • Cultural Music
  • Composers
  • Chorus
  • Vocal Expression
  • DIY Instruments

There are 120 lessons the summer program encourages students to do 1 activity per day for a total of 60 activities over the summer. You don’t have to do the activities in order, but students will earn a certificate at the end of the course if the activities are completed. For us, that wasn’t going to be something achievable because we kept going down rabbit trails. The activity sheets can be done orally or written. We do them orally and I recorded the answers down for my son because I wanted him to enjoy researching and having fun.

For copyright reasons and to protect the creator’s work I won’t be uploading a copy of the full sheet, but I can tell you that the sheets are detailed and not overwhelming.

My son decided he wanted to spend time learning more about Spanish composer the “Queen of Percussion” Shelia “E” Escovedo! Let me just tell you this was a family affair when my husband got wind that we were doing this study he told us about the Sheila E Master Class. We were all captivated by her wonderful story and percussion lessons. My son was super intrigued and took things to another level and decided to research Pete Escovedo who is her father. We ended up doing 2 lessons on Spanish composers. We also did an instrument study on the bongos. We continued to go down another rabbit hole that led us to Prince. Like really we studied all about PRINCE !!!!

Of course, after we did Shelia E he wanted to research the trombone. So we grabbed the brass instrument and jazz activity sheet and learned about the Trombone and Trombone Shorty. That lesson didn’t stop there because it lead us down the road to New Orleans’ infamous Treme history.

We really like the Summer Siesta and like I said I hope my review persuades the creator to extend the course for year-round availability. Read Music Notes in Six Weeks and Music Camp: Summer Siesta would be a great addition to your homeschool lessons if you are looking for a self-directed course. Self-directed courses work best for us because it allows us the freedom to follow our interest.

Teach Your Child Piano currently has 18 courses available prices start at $49 and up. There is a free course available and a monthly homeschool course. I defiantly recommend checking out Teach Your Child Piano.

Until the Next Time,

Mom and J