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The Sims 4 debuted in 2014. Ever since then, players from around the world (including me) have become addicted to the famous interactive game. So much so that players have already played 12,205 years worth of The Sims 4.
What makes The Sims 4 so great? They offer many ways for your Sim to pursue their dreams, accomplish their goals, and simply have fun.
Writing music is a great example. While Sims were always able to play a variety of instruments and even pursue a career as a musician, Sims can now take their musical prowess to the next level by writing their own songs.
Unfortunately, writing music isn’t so easy. This is why I embarked on the quest to learn how to write music in The Sims 4 (and to be successful at it).
Buy Your Instrument of Choice
Your first step should be a simple one — buy an instrument. Your Sim has $20,000 Simoleons when you first play the game. After buying property, you should immediately buy your instrument of choice. Fortunately, it can be anything.
Here are the instruments offered on The Sims 4:
- Piano
- Guitar
- Pipe organ (for Vampire expansion pack)
- Violin
- Drums (though there are some limitations)
- Microphone (for singers)
How to Write Songs
Writing songs in The Sims 4 is actually pretty easy. All you have to do is click your instrument of choice and select “Write Song.” You can track the song’s completion by the green bar that circles around the activity.
Once the bar reaches a full circle, your song is written. From here, you can name your song. When you reach level 9, you can find your song in your inventory.
There’s a chance you don’t see that option. Why not? You have to level up to write songs.
What Level Do You Need to Reach?
You need to be a level 8 to write songs. The key is to practice frequently in order to write songs.
How to Advance in Musician Skills
Fortunately, you advance in your musicianship skills whenever you play your instrument. You can simply practice or you can play a song and play for inspiration. Make sure to devote as much time as possible to playing your instrument.
Keep in mind, your Sim won’t stop playing music unless you direct them to. All you have to do is click the activity. This will cancel the activity and the Sim can do something else.
Some players have said they experienced a glitch where they couldn’t cancel the guitar playing action. If this happens, restart the game.
Gaining Success by the Instrument You Play
The way you become a great musician and increase your skills in The Sims 4 largely depends on the instrument you play (other than practicing). Here’s a guide for the three main instruments: guitar, piano, and violin.
Guitar
Sims should read a variety of guitar books that are available to them. Be sure to listen to music that has guitars in them, such as rock, blues, and country.
Piano
Piano players should research the piano, both by reading books and looking up information on the computer. This mainly includes piano playing principles.
Your Sim should also primarily listen to classical music, but many blues songs also feature piano.
Try and find other piano players and have your Sim befriend them. If your Sim can, attend piano concerts or watch piano players at lounges.
Violin
As with the piano, you should research violin playing principles on the computer and by reading books. Connect with other Sim violinists. Listen to classical music as well as country and rock songs that feature the violin.
Should You Play Multiple Instruments?
Yes! There are many reasons to play multiple instruments and write music on different instruments. For one, the musician career path requires you to play piano as well as a stringed instrument (guitar or violin).
However, writing music on multiple instruments is tough. That’s because you need to reach level 8 on all instruments in order to write music.
Why Is It Difficult Writing Songs?
When you get to the point where you can write songs, you’ll notice it might be difficult. Why is that?
It Takes a Long Time
Unfortunately, writing songs takes a long time. But you can easily track your progress. When you’re in the process of writing songs, you’ll see a green circle form around the activity. When a full circle forms around the activity, your song is complete!
Addressing Sim Needs
Your Sim has multiple needs other than their aspirations. These include:
- Bladder
- Hunger
- Hygiene
- Social
- Energy
- Fun
In addition, your Sim will go through different emotions expressed in their moodlet. This may affect their songs and if they want to write them or not.
Tips to Ensure Your Sim Writes Songs
Writing music is easier said than done. But there are ways to ensure your Sim writes music and accomplishes their musician goals.
Choose Certain Character Traits From the Beginning
If you know you want your Sim to be a successful musician, there are specific character traits that will ensure your Sim achieves musical success. These traits include:
- Outgoing — this ensures your Sim makes friends and always has an audience
- Creativity — your Sim will always be inspired to write music and will create amazing works of art because of it.
- Music lover — sure, it’s common sense. But if your Sim is a music lover, they will love writing songs. That’s because playing music will put them in a great mood.
Absorb Them in Music
Playing your instrument isn’t the only way to improve their songwriting. Buy your Sim a stereo so they can listen to music leisurely. Buy your Sim books on their instrument to expand their knowledge. Make sure your Sim carries their instrument with them to play at the park.
Many bars, nightclubs, and lounges in the Sims world include instruments so your Sim can pick them up and play them when they’re out and about.
Play Other Genres
As your Sim advances as a musician, they will gain the ability to play multiple genres of music. It’s important to take advantage of this and play several different styles. This will make their playing more versatile and they will profit more from their music.
As your Sim advances in skills, they will gain the ability to write different song genres. Practicing and playing in different genres will help make them versatile songwriters.
You Can Always Go Back
Don’t have time to write a song? Is your Sim cranky? Do they have too many needs? Don’t worry, you can always go back. That’s because the song always appears in their inventory. Simply access your inventory in the bottom menu bar, find the “Sheet Music” notebook, click on it, and select “Resume.”
Being a Professional Musician
How can your Sim become a professional musician as a career? It all starts with the Entertainment career path!
About the Entertainment Career Path
The Entertainer career path is broken up into two categories: musician and comedian. You’ll work interchangeably with both paths until you can focus on musicianship at rank 5. Yes, that means you will also need comedy skills (you can learn them by purchasing a microphone and telling jokes).
About Career Goals
As you advance in your career, you’ll start achieving career goals. These are tasks to complete in order to advance in your career rank. You’ll also have daily tasks you need to achieve. For an Entertainer career path with a focus on Musician, your daily task is practicing your instrument.
About Aspirations
If Musical Genius is your aspiration, then you’ll have aspiration goals to unlock. Once you reach a certain level, writing multiple songs will become one of your main goals, as well as earning a certain amount of money from your songs (we will discuss this in the next section).
As you unlock these goals, you’ll earn points that you can use toward rewards. Great rewards for musicians include inspired potion (enhances your Inspired moodlet) and savant (increases skill gains by 25%).
How to Make Money From Your Music
All musicians want to earn a living from their craft, right? This includes your Sim. So, how can they make some money off of their genius songs?
Earn Tips
One of the easiest ways to earn money from your music is by playing your music in public.
Simply start by storing your instrument in your inventory (you can do this by clicking the instrument and selecting the “put in inventory” option). From here, you can travel (either by calling for a ride by phone or by riding a bike) to a public place (my Sim went to the park).
If you attract a crowd, you can earn tips! My Sim earned a couple of tips that were 18 Simoleons each.
License Your Songs
Okay, first I have to disclose something. You can write songs at level 8. However, you can’t publish them until your musicianship reaches level 9.
I found this out the hard way. My previous Sim was a writer, so I knew you sold your material by clicking the mailbox. So my Sim writes his song and I click the mailbox. The option didn’t appear. I go to his inventory and can’t find the song. I naturally freak out, thinking there was a glitch.
A simple Google search proves that you have to achieve one more level in order to license your song.
It’s also important to note that you can only license one song per week.
Mastering Your Instrument
No matter which instrument you choose, level 10 is the final and master level. When you reach this level, you achieve many benefits such as mentor status. As a mentor, you can teach others the instrument, which is beneficial if you have a family and want to teach your kids how to play music.
As you achieve your aspirations, your Sim can become a Piper. They will be able to control the emotions of their listeners, which is a nifty little skill.
Your Sim will also be able to play avant-garde songs, which are definitely the most complex out of all styles.
FAQs
Question: How Do You Know When Your Licensed Songs Make Money?
Answer: Your Sim will receive a notification stating which songs earned them money and how much. The money will immediately be deposited into your funds.
Question: How Do You Mentor Music?
Answer: As a mentor, you’ll be able to control another Sim in your household. You’ll be able to control when they practice.
Question: Are There Any Musical Genius Aspiration Cheats?
Answer: Want to get ahead of the pack? You can become a musical genius without all of those hours of practice (if only that applied to real life).
Fortunately, the aspiration cheats are easy to learn and you use the same ones for all aspirations. Unfortunately, you can only complete the current milestone you’re on.
Here is the cheat: aspirations.complete_current_milestone.
In order to enter a cheat, press Control + Shift + C together. This will bring up the console. Simply type in your cheat and press the Enter key.
Question: What Are Other Music-Related Secrets?
Answer: If you’ve played The Sims for a while, you know there are several secrets and hidden gems available on the game. Are there any music-related ones? The only music-related one is Rabbit Hole Events.
If you have the City Living expansion, you can attend a Rabbit Hole Event. Some event examples include an underground rock concert and even an opera. “Rabbit Hole” is a nickname given to these events because they’re not accessible by the game camera. How do you discover these events? You can receive invites from friends.
Some general cheats and secrets that can benefit musician Sims include free money, set your own skills, and hidden traits.
Write a Musical Masterpiece in The Sims 4
Writing songs in The Sims 4 may seem difficult at first. Understand that your Sim has to advance in their musical skills, specifically reaching level 8. Once they reach level 9, they can start licensing their songs.
Want to discover other Sims 4 careers? Take a look at all of the careers that The Sims 4 offers!
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