Teach 1 Tuesday

Finding Your Musical Sweet Spot: Keys, Grooves, and Collaboration

• Toni King • Season 1 • Episode 38

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Ready to transform your musical ideas into fully-realized productions? This episode dives deep into the art of arranging and stretching your music to its fullest potential.

Drawing from my experience creating two successful EPs—"Authentically Me" and "Kingdom Radio"—I share the essential tools and approaches that will elevate your productions regardless of your musical background. While formal education can help, it's absolutely not required to create professional-sounding tracks.

We explore the value (and potential pitfalls) of using sample packs and loops in your productions. These resources can be incredible time-savers, but as I explain, they "can get real weird real fast" without understanding how elements should fit together. The bassline must complement the kick drum, and the overall groove must remain cohesive—these fundamentals matter regardless of how you create your music.

The episode emphasizes two critical factors that will make or break your productions: finding the perfect key for vocals and maintaining a compelling groove throughout your arrangement. I also discuss the importance of choosing appropriate instrumentation for your genre or intentionally blending elements for creative fusion. Perhaps most importantly, I stress the value of finding collaborators who listen to your vision and create a positive working environment.

Want personalized guidance with your music? I'm offering production, mixing, and mastering services specifically for podcast listeners. Check out my new Sonic Kingship Art Blog and other resources in the description. And remember—if you're not having a wonderful day, you can change that with your mindset.


My Class: The Toolkit for musicianship mastery: http://bit.ly/3k5v9Vi 


Youtube Channel: https://youtube.com/@thetonikingexperience7645


Rare Keys Production- https://rarekeysproduction.com


Toni King link: http://www.linktr.ee/toni.king


The Sonic Kingship Art: https://www.rhuffmusic.com/post/it-s-a-big-music-industry-so-where-do-i-fit-in




The Toni King Experience

Speaker 1:

All right, welcome back everyone to another great episode of Teach One Tuesday podcast.

Speaker 1:

We're going to get into a great subject today. I'm very excited about it. We're going to be getting into the tools of really stretching out your music, your arrangement. But before we get into that, y'all know what it is, man let's get into that great theme music. All right? All right, welcome back everyone to another great episode of Teach One Tuesday podcast.

Speaker 1:

Man, I'm so excited about this. I'm here to really serve you guys and to position you to produce the greatest music projects that you can. So I'm continuing to reveal the things that I have done, tools that I have used to create not one, but two EPs have done. Tools that I have used to create not one, but two EPs, the first one authentically me and the second one that came out last year in November 2024, kingdom Radio. All right, so please go check those out. Artist named Tony King, and so, with that, I wanted to share with you the things that I have done that has that have allowed me to produce these projects. Now I'm going to be honest and upfront with you. Yes, I have a lot of experience. I have education in music, so I'm coming from a different standpoint, but today we're going to be talking about music production and I'm going to get into things that you can do. If you're not in my position, that's okay. Please don't feel, because you may not have the education or whatever it may be, that you can't produce great music. It's not true. I'm going to help you today to be able to do just that, okay, so now we're at the place where you know you, you've written your stuff down, you have, you have your ideas recorded, right, you've recorded either in your phone, um, or on a doll digital audio workstation, um. And if you do not have these things again, do not worry, um, there's so many people out here that are willing and ready to help you. Hopefully, maybe you can get into a situation where you know they're your friends and maybe they don't charge you. But if you don't know them, please be ready to. You know, pay some money for someone to help you flush out your music and then let them choose whether they want to do it for free or not, or maybe you can barter whatever you want to do, but there are ways to get things done.

Speaker 1:

Now here's what I want to say about these, uh, these packs that you can get with, uh, pre-recorded, you know, loops and and core progressions and baselines and all that stuff. All that stuff is fantastic, right. So I'm not going to speak against that. I'm not going to go into a whole old man speech, you know, because you know people just want to be purists and you should just do it the regular way. No, I think it's great If you have an understanding and you know how to put those things together, go for it, do what you got to do. But if you do not have an understanding of how music is to be be put together, I would get with someone who has understanding. I know that on those, um, when they, when they're advertising these plugins and these packs and all this stuff that they have for you, that I know, they make it seem like it's just so easy and just, oh, click of a button and tied out out, you have everything you need. But it can get real weird real fast. You know what I mean. Even if everything matches in key, the bass line still needs to match the bass drum, the groove still needs to go together correctly. There's, there are things that need to fit Right, and so that stuff should really be a bonus, right, you should have understanding and it should be a.

Speaker 1:

I am offering just that. I'm offering services, music production services, uh, for my listeners and and and for whoever comes across my uh podcast, um, uh, and also I now have a blog I think I told you about in the last episode. I have a blog Sonic Kingship Art Blogs, what it's called and I'll leave a description. I'll leave a link in the description so you can click on that and find that out and and check it out also, and I'm still doing my, my social media thing, so there's different ways you can. You can uh, uh, listen to what, all the information I'm giving, but if you need a personal touch, please don't hesitate to reach out. Along with that, I'm offering mixing and mastering. You again, you can go to my website and find out all my accolades, all the stuff I've been doing. You can find all that stuff out. Please go check it out. Don't hesitate to reach out to me. So, yeah, so you know, get with someone that can help you right, help you to flush this music out, because that's the stage we're at now.

Speaker 1:

Now we're at the arranging, we're at the arranging stage and now you need to be able to put these things together in a way that makes sense, and what I want to say here is that what's really important to me as um, as an artist and as a producer, is that the groove and it feeling good is really what trumps everything, and so I believe two areas that are important to ensure that happens is the arranging phase and the mixing and mastering phase. It's so important to maintain the groove, it's so important for that to happen, and so have that in mind as you are either arranging your music yourself or um you, or be in the room. Please don't just hand your stuff off. Be in the room or, even if it's online, whatever you need to do, be there to tell the person what you want. Right, make sure that the song is in the right key for you vocally, that is a very big deal. Do not have the song in a key where it's too high or it's too low. Have it in a sweet spot, a great place where you can utilize your range. You know, do all your tricks, whatever you want to do, make sure you have it in the correct key. But that groove is really what's going to set this thing apart, and the, the, the mixing and mastering engineers are the ones, and sometimes they're they're the same person. Sometimes they mix and master it, but some people just just have a mix. So, however you want to do it, but make sure that you're having someone to mix your music. Um, that will allow, that will allow the music to really come across the way you hear it in your head or, um, not, or, but, and or, uh. Have references, have, have uh, references, not to copy verbatim. I'm not telling you to copy anything verbatim, but, but just for a reference. And but be careful with that when you're on the when, when, when you're in the uh music production phase, because, yes, you want to utilize your influences, but you do not want to be a carbon copy. If that makes sense, all right. You want to be in a place where you can just take certain things from what you hear, but not completely, um, copy someone else's song or or, or, or feel, but take the pieces that you need and then go on, all right, and so these things are super important. So make sure you're in the right key for you, make sure that you are establishing the groove.

Speaker 1:

Instrumentation is another area that's very important. Make sure, if you're doing a genre, make sure your. Your instrumentation is genre specific. If you're doing a specific genre, make sure you have the instruments um that makes sense. Or if you are doing some type of fusion, no problem, do what you want to do, whatever. If. If, in that case, if you're doing a fusion situation, then then go ahead and just um, then you know, go for it. You know, do what you need to do, but if you're doing something that's genre specific, make sure you have the instrumentation that makes sense. Listen to your references. Make sure you know what you want.

Speaker 1:

I think I'm going to do another um episode on this because I have more to say, but I don't want these to be um too too long. I want you to get some good stuff, though, from this. So I'm going to cap it there, but I'm going to just finish by saying, yeah, make sure your instrumentation makes sense, have it in the right key, have the right person that you can work with. Make sure you can I'm going to say this before I go Make sure you pick someone that you can have fun with, someone that will be pleasing to work with. They're not to do not mean aggressive, you know, and they're and they're open to hear what you are saying your ideas and it, and they don't just take over the session and just and just do what they want to do. Make sure you have someone that has an ear to hear you, and musically, that's very, very important. And so the next episode I'm going to get more into this because I think this is very, very important.

Speaker 1:

I think this is an episode that's really going to hit home. It's really going to hit home for some people, and so that's what I want to drop for you today. I want to thank you so much for checking this out. I hope you're having a wonderful day. If you're not having a wonderful day, you can change that by your mindset. Thanks so much, tony King out.