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Music Production & Beat Making

Make Afrobeats, gospel and hip-hop beats on the phone you already have — and know what to charge for them.

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Free account required to open the lessons. No card, no fees.

About this course

Learn to produce real Afrobeats, Afropop, gospel and hip-hop beats on free or cheap tools — BandLab and FL Studio Mobile on a phone, free desktop DAWs and Audacity on a laptop. You will learn the anatomy of an Afrobeats groove (tempo, the log drum, shakers, the pocket), how to build a beat step by step from drums to arrangement, how to record vocals cheaply in a room you treat with a duvet and a wardrobe, and how to mix and understand mastering in plain language — including how to protect your hearing, which is the instrument you actually work with. The course ends with the conversation nobody teaches young producers: who actually owns a beat, copyright and registration with the Nigerian Copyright Commission, what COSON and MCSN do, split sheets and producer points, leasing versus exclusive sales in writing, sample clearance, and distribution, credits, ISRCs and metadata — honest naira ranges, everything hedged as something to confirm with the authority itself, no promise of hits, and no substitute for a Nigerian entertainment lawyer.

What you'll learn

Course syllabus — 7 lessons

  1. Your studio is already in your pocket14 min
  2. Anatomy of an Afrobeats groove14 min
  3. Building a beat: drums, bass, chords, melody, arrangement15 min
  4. Recording vocals in the room you already have15 min
  5. Mixing in plain language, and what mastering really is15 min
  6. Artistes, money and getting your name on it14 min
  7. Owning it on paper: copyright, splits, samples and royalties17 min

Your project

Produce, mix, price and paper one finished beat

One shareable link (a Google Drive folder set to anyone-with-the-link, or a public BandLab/SoundCloud page linking to it) containing the finished 2:30-3:20 track as tagged MP3 and untagged WAV, at least four stems, a completed and signed split sheet, a sources list with licence evidence for every sound you did not create, and your written producer, price and rights sheet.

Certificates on Skillnaija are earned, not issued for attendance: you submit this project, it is graded against a rubric, and passing issues a certificate anyone can verify.

Frequently asked questions

Is Music Production & Beat Making free?

Yes. Music Production & Beat Making is completely free on Skillnaija. You need a free account to open the lessons, and there is no charge for the course, the project, or the certificate.

How long does Music Production & Beat Making take to complete?

5 weeks · ~4 hrs/week. There are 7 lessons, about 2 hours of material in total. You learn at your own pace and your progress is saved.

Do I need any experience to start Music Production & Beat Making?

Beginner-friendly. You can start from scratch — no prior experience is assumed.

What will I learn in Music Production & Beat Making?

You will build practical skills in Making beats on a phone with BandLab and FL Studio Mobile, Programming an Afrobeats groove — log drum, shakers and the pocket, Building a beat step by step: drums, bass, chords, melody, arrangement, Recording vocals cheaply and hygienically in an untreated Nigerian room, Mixing with levels, panning, EQ and compression, Understanding mastering, streaming loudness and hearing safety, Beat leasing, exclusive sales, splits and credits, Copyright, split sheets and sample clearance under Nigerian law (NCC, COSON, MCSN), Delivering stems, metadata, ISRCs and distribution basics. Every lesson is written for a Nigerian context, with examples drawn from how the work is actually done and paid for here.

Do I get a certificate for Music Production & Beat Making?

Yes, but it has to be earned. You complete the course project — Produce, mix, price and paper one finished beat and submit it for grading. Passing the project issues a verifiable certificate; finishing the lessons alone does not.

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It's free, it's self-paced, and it ends with something you can show an employer.

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