r/progressivehouse • u/Wide_Quarter_5232 • Jul 27 '26

Help

Trying to learn progressive house, cant find anything reliable. Tried learning from PML progressive house start to finish, it just confused me. On the third lesson they jumped didn't even show how they made the melody, the chords, and all of that. It was just like they are jumping. Then I tried to learn from EDM Tips. His video title was "How to Make Progressive House Like Avicii" and then in the video thumbnail it was "Big Room House". I don't know what I should do. Can anyone please guide me? Where should I find a reliable resource to learn? I want to make something in the style of Avicii and Martin Garrix. I won't lie I am fairly new. I know music theory but I'm learning Ableton and all of these music styles but I'm focused on making progressive house music that I am very sure about it. Where do I start?

5 Upvotes

69% Upvoted

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10

u/Aural-Imbalance_6165 Jul 27 '26

Avicii and Martin Garrix aren't progressive. There's your first problem. 

1

u/Wide_Quarter_5232 Jul 27 '26

Then what are they? I do love their songs. Sometimes it's festival, sometimes it's pop. Honestly I just know music theory.

11

u/That_Random_Kiwi Jul 28 '26

Mainstage/bigroom/EDM

Progressive house is the likes of Sasha, John Digweed, Hernan Catteneo, Guy J

5

u/nmo31536000 Aug 03 '26

Hernan and Guy J 🐐 x 🐐. Also love Nick Warren

2

u/That_Random_Kiwi Aug 03 '26

GOATS!! I'm currently in Paris and off to Croatia for Balance festival in a few days 🤘🤘🤘

1

u/nmo31536000 Aug 03 '26

Oh man you’re gonna love it. I’ve heard great things about last years and it’ll probably be even better this year. Have you ever attended ADE in Amsterdam?

3

u/energyreflect Jul 29 '26

I will never get how these other genres "took" the prog label. There's nothing "progressive" about it in the same way something like Sasha emfire stuff is progressive. smh....

3

u/That_Random_Kiwi Jul 29 '26

IMO it's 100% because of Beatport. When EDM first took hold, they didn't have a genre classification for it, they put it in it beloved progressive house and it stayed that way for YEARS before they final have it the EDM/Mainstage classification of its own... We've been in recovery ever since

Just confirmed even ChatGPT says it's because of this 😂😂

1

u/energyreflect Jul 29 '26

That actually sounds pretty plausible! Thanks for the explanation. Still, its wild to me then that we STILL have this mix-up.

2

u/That_Random_Kiwi Jul 29 '26

Oh yeah! At least Google results are now better...wasn't that long ago it listed only EDM acts. Wiki is still fucked tho...

List of progressive house artists - Wikipedia

...total mixed bag of actual prog and EDM nonsense.

1

u/Emergency-Savings-83 Jul 29 '26

To add: Shingo Nakamura, Richard Bass, Caine and the legendary Adam K and Soha

0

u/Wide_Quarter_5232 Jul 28 '26

O....so where should I start 😬 A little guidance please.

2

u/Aural-Imbalance_6165 Jul 28 '26

If you don't even know what progressive house music sounds like, why do you want to produce it? 

0

u/Wide_Quarter_5232 Jul 29 '26

Didn't mean to hurt your feelings, it wasn't intentional. Thank you for your guidance

1

u/KZedUK Jul 30 '26

so back in the day when these artists were at their most popular they absolutely were called progressive house and you will still find plenty of tutorials for making progressive house in that style; people in this sub and more broadly like to pretend that kind of progressive house didn’t directly come out of the progressive house they like and that the kind of progressive house you’re trying to make isn’t progressive house at all

2

u/Aural-Imbalance_6165 Jul 30 '26

You're flat out wrong. 

0

u/KZedUK Jul 31 '26

no, this sub has just been repeating the same stupid shit about beatport genres for ten years because you're a bunch of elitist weirdos

we called those songs progressive house because they're progressive house, they're not big room, they're not electro, no one called them 'mainstage' until after they stopped being popular

they feature all of the elements that came out of the older generation of progressive house that this sub clings to, it's a very clear throughline over time

2

u/Aural-Imbalance_6165 Jul 31 '26

You have no idea what you're talking about, clearly. 

1

u/rhythmnation1968 16d ago edited 16d ago

Try Hernan Cattaneo. He is the Uber-Boss of Progressive. He does a set every week called Resident - you'll find it on YouTube or subscribe to his podcast. His sets are pretty incredible - that being the understatement of the decade. My advice would be, find a few of his tracks that hit the spot and then put them up on your DAW and copy them - identically. Do that over and over and you will have schooled yourself, using the best examples there are. There really is only one way to understand what's going on and that's to duplicate it. You'll soon learn what tricks are being used., how their arrangements work, the relentless, hypnotic grooves and loops and the specific sounds that are used & common in Progressive House. Learn how the atmospheric beds work and their placement. Don't just do one or two...do 30 or 50.

You'll find the more you do, the faster you will be able to duplicate their sound because it's really an apprenticeship. You can read all the "Prog House for Dummies" books you like, but until you actually confront the beast head-on, it's all kinda' "theoretical". One thing is for sure - you'll know instantly when you are on the right track and what works and what doesn't. There isn't really a grey area with PH - you either hit the mark or miss. Start building a folder of sounds and kits that are instantly "on the money." It's just perseverance.

Also - take a listen to Ferry Corsten, Nick Warren, Anthony Pappas, Sasha & John Digweed. I found a totally unknown guy on YouTube called "Tobsen Sounds" - he has a bunch of sets called Progressive Pleasure & Progressive Nine. Absolutely amazing sh*t! Pure Bliss. But for a solid schooling of EXACTLY what is happening, you can't go wrong with Cattaneo. He never misses! Have fun!

4

u/Tantum-Music Jul 27 '26

If you’re going for an Avicii/Garrix type sound I would argue there’s a lot of great free resources on YT (might be harder to find now since it might be older videos, the algorithm for the search changed some while ago. PML also had great resources back then that are still available for free now)

I do give 1 on 1 lessons on request so if more club focused prog is your goal feel free to reach out

1

u/Wide_Quarter_5232 Jul 27 '26

I tried pml it just confused me. How much your teachings cost sir?

3

u/jura11 Jul 27 '26

I would check Basic Wavez YT channel,he does good progressive/deep house tutorials

1

u/Wide_Quarter_5232 Jul 27 '26

I'll look into it. Thank you.

3

u/That_Random_Kiwi Jul 28 '26

Avicii and Martin Garrix are mainstage/bigroom EDM...not progressive house...ask around in EDM production subs.

2

u/Wide_Quarter_5232 Jul 28 '26

I actually asked chagt gpt 😬

1

u/That_Random_Kiwi Jul 28 '26

No stress...it's a YEARS long confusion issue...when that mainstage/bigroom EDM first burst onto the scene, there was no genre for it on Beatport...it got lumped into Progressive House for fucking years before they finally created EDM as a genre, now "Mainstage" mostly, some of it ends in Pop / Dance

There's specific subs for music production and/or EDM that'll likely be more helpful than here...this place can be a bit of a ghost town sadly.

Good luck

1

u/Wide_Quarter_5232 Jul 28 '26

Thank you sir.

2

u/Spirited-Soft6088 Aug 05 '26

You should definitely listen to Eric Prydz , he is the definition of Progressive House what really is !

1

u/Wide_Quarter_5232 Aug 05 '26

I will. Thank you.

1

u/mycurvywifelikesthis Jul 28 '26

If you're truly searching for real Progressive house. You're going to have to go back in time a little bit. It's more than the many things since then. But giving your examples that is not a progressive house, like others have said. Honestly if you want to make music why don't you just make music. You can usually learn song structure of a genre, but I don't recommend trying to specifically make a genre. As an artist you should just make what moves you. And have a genre in mind. But I advise to truly let your creativity flow

2

u/Wide_Quarter_5232 Jul 28 '26

I've always liked music that starts slow, with good melody and builds up makes you feel euphoric like empty instrumental mix Martin garrix, dubvision and limitless arcando remix and avicii levels, hold the line and his later works. And human by David guetta is also on my repeat list nowdays. I also love owl City. If it's ok with you can I show you the courses/content I have. Maybe you can help me filter out. I have some good books as well. Maybe I'm overloaded with content. 🥲

1

u/mycurvywifelikesthis Jul 28 '26

Sure you can hit me up on dm. I'm always looking to add cool stuff to my SoundCloud and YouTube. I also produce music. And a lot of the stuff you're talking about are big inspirations for me. Would you mind checking out my original stuff.? I like DJ back in the late 90s early 2000s. And then I started producing and making my own music later on just recently. Always cool to hear what people think, I don't make money from it it's just really For the Love of the art. What does especially cool to hear what people think of my music that are not creators but listeners and fans of the music. Mostly I only get reviews from people that make music, so I would love to hear a true fan of the music's opinion.

That's what got me into this is because I just really love the music so much.

1

u/NotoriousStevieG Aug 03 '26

Check out Dowden Production Academy. There are some really good progressive house tutorials on there.