A Producer’s Recipe

Epistemes of Professional Practice Among Pernambuco's Music Producers

Abstract

This article investigates the learning processes that shaped the professional formation of four music producers from Pernambuco, Brazil, through a sociological and epistemological lens. Drawing on Berger and Luckmann (2004), Ben Kotzee (2014), and Christopher Winch (2010; 2014), it analyzes how practical, tacit, and social knowledge were constructed from childhood through professional practice, emphasizing listening, experimentation, and studio-based interaction. Data gathered from interviews and participant observation reveal that these producers’ training occurred largely outside formal education, through primary and secondary socialization processes that stimulated curiosity, imitation, and real-time problem solving. Formal music education, when present, played a minor role in shaping their professional skills. Findings suggest that practice guided the pursuit of theoretical knowledge, making it functional and context-specific. The study argues that higher music education should take into account these situated forms of learning as central to the development of professional competencies in music.