Today, I remember waking up, looking at the clock, and seeing that it was a little past 4:00 AM. I tried going back to sleep, closing my eyes, trying to get comfortable, but with no luck. I was like this for 2 1/2 hours. Then a little past 6:30 AM, I finally decided to just call it quits and get up. Usually even if I can’t sleep, I just stay in bed and try to go back to sleep. It might take a few hours, but I usually end up falling back asleep and then I wake up later much more tired. So this time, I thought while I still feel pretty alert, I’d try seeing how they day goes after I wake up this early. The worst case is that I feel sleepy later in the afternoon and end up taking a nap.
When I woke up, I drank some water, went to the bathroom, brushed my retainers, washed my face, ate breakfast, changed my clothes, and went for a walk. The walk took about half an hour. It would have been closer to forty or forty-five minutes long, but I kept getting cut off by people walking towards me or in front of me. Since I am practicing social distancing, I’d change directions or would end up having to walk on the road. So since I was in front of my house, I conveniently ended up going back inside. I didn’t have a mask on, and even with a mask on, if other people don’t have masks on, you could catch COVID-19 if they are carrying it. So, I’d thought I’d be safe and just head home early.
My Idea for Creating Online Courses
This morning when I was lying in bed, I revisited the idea of creating a course on music production. I thought I could sell two different courses, one on GarageBand for beginners and the other on Logic Pro X for beginners. They’d have different price points. I was thinking $27 for the GarageBand course and $47 for the Logic Pro X course. GarageBand is free to use, so more people have it, and I wasn’t sure if people would spend a lot on learning GarageBand since it’s free. If not $27, maybe $17.
The Logic Pro X course would be higher, maybe $47. People have to purchase Logic Pro X in order to use the software. It’s priced at $199 I believe for regular purchase, and it comes in a bundle of 5 softwares for students at the same price. So, I think people would be more willing to spend money to learn the software. And also, since it has more features, there’s more to learn. So, I’d have more to teach in this course.
Both courses would have at least 10 lessons if I were to make them. They’d probably go over similar aspects. But with the Logic Pro X course, I’d be able to go more into topics such as automation or synthesizers. Not too much, because honestly, I’m just an intermediate at both DAWs. I don’t know too much myself. I did take a music production course though at my local community college, which is why I know some more about the features in Logic Pro X. And, I have created songs on both DAWs. So, I think that’s enough to teach someone how to produce music on their own using GarageBand or Logic Pro X.
I’d probably include a video where I show myself producing a song in both GarageBand and Logic Pro X, explaining a bit of what I’m doing as I’m going along. That’d be a bonus. I thought about doing the same song just to give a comparison. Maybe I could do different songs too. You can import GarageBand songs into Logic Pro X, so it can sound pretty much the same. The user interface is usually different though.
I thought about getting a separate website for showcasing my music and selling these courses. That way, I can have my blog separate (here) and my music-related activities on one website.
I just looked into other Logic Pro X courses for beginners, and it looks like they are priced pretty low. Some instructors go more into depth beyond just the beginner stuff, so they’re priced higher at $150 or so. But some beginner content is even free. So, I might have to modify my pricing strategy. But I’m also seeing GarageBand for beginners selling for around $20, and it’s just 2.5 hours of video content. I think I’d have more than that.
Ideally, I wouldn’t offer refunds since that’d require me to check my email daily and to process the refunds. I’d encourage feedback, and if someone commented that something was missing, I’d find a way to include that in the course. So usually, that means you’d have to price in a way that people perceive value and won’t just look for something fast without putting the effort in, giving up, and then asking for a refund. That’s why I was thinking of $47 for Logic Pro X and $27 for GarageBand. If I did $37 and $17, would that be okay? I guess I could experiment with pricing once I get there. Maybe the actual price won’t make a difference. And if priced lower, maybe more people would sign up.
These were just my thoughts on online music production courses for beginners. I thought I could start my screen recording when I produce songs and explain what I’m doing. I’m not sure how to record computer audio without it being on speaker. Usually, I use a headset, so I have to figure out how to record the computer audio too, with my input being in the mic. I can figure this out.
Anyway, it’s nice that I was able to be a bit productive today. I went for a walk and wrote this blog post. I had this idea for creating passive income through online courses before, even specifically about music production through GarageBand. But, I didn’t know how to structure it. I still don’t have all the specifics down, but I’m more open to the idea. Plus, I know some specific topics I’d discuss (e.g. automation, synthesizers, compression, adjusting volume levels, creating midi regions, figuring out the tempo of a song, etc.). So, this is an idea I’d like to pursue.
2020-09-09
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