6 years down the line. My advice to anyone getting started

[dsan@mail.com]

1: hookers & blow
2: ????
3: ????
4: ????
5: platinum hit record

2.) Vodka
3.) Frangelico and esspresso
4.) Whiskey or other booze of choice.

Did I win ??? What's my prize???

Happy Musiking!
dsan

[JohnD71651]

1: hookers & blow
2: ????
3: ????
4: ????
5: platinum hit record

Oh no, you've stolen my business plan!!!

...but where is the hooker smiley?

[stardustmedia]

Choose an instrument and take lessons from the best teacher/tutor you can afford. You need to forget about all the technical bits and focus on the art itself. All that stuff about plugins and mastering should take the back sit at least for now. My biggest mistake getting started was thinking that if I knew everything there is to know about the science (DAW,Synths,Effects) I would automatically become a great producer. I couldn't have been anymore wrong. By learning music theory you will gradually learn about composition, orchestration and then the science and all the technical aspects of music will eventually become part of the equation. But i didn't follow the routine and skipped stages so i wasted a lot of time and energy getting here. Don't make the same mistake I did. Stick to the routine.

True. I'd give the same advice. But one very important thing is missing: Network.

Go out there and meet people! You can be the best artist with the best music. If nobody knows you, it will be just wasted talent.

[fese]

yeah you need a teacher that also teaches composition. Or a jazz teacher that teaches improvisation. Both can get you to figure out the incredible complex chord progressions, key changes and counterpoint EDM uses.

now after Jazzrock comes JazzEDM. Which means endless soloing over four on the floor. What fun!

[DodgingRain]

That really depends on the teacher. I've had piano and organ instructors who taught me a lot of theory (and some that didn't), and I personally included a lot of theory when I was an instructor (bass). I'd say the bigger question is not how much theory you learn, but how much learning the instrument helps your composition skills (not really the same the as theory, but certainly related). Improvisation on an instrument is a skill that really helps with composition - not only does it require some knowledge of chords and progressions, but it helps with coming up with new ideas. Ultimately, performance, theory, and composition are all interrelated skills, so IMHO it just makes sense to approach it that way, rather than focusing on just one or two.

Is throwing some stuff into a sequencer and then dumping a bunch of plug ins the way to go about this from the beginning? probably not but learning an instrument isn't necessarily the best either depending on the end goal and could be a big big waste of time (potentially years and loads of $$) and ultimately leave the user with the ability to play an instrument from some pre-written score but no ability at all to compose/record/produce their own music.

The trick is knowing what you want to do and then understanding the what skills need to be developed to get there. Ultimately there is a lot of crap EDM music but there is just as much crap music that isn't EDM by people playing real instruments.

I think probably what someone could get the most value out of as a beginner is spending a few days with someone that creates music similar to what their end goal is and then determining how to start out either through an instrument and lessons or through learning theory or composition, etc. Each of these are large area's and its pretty much impossible to be an expert in enough of them much less an expert in one.

There are also some instruments that simply no-one formally teaches. For example try to find someone that will teach how to play an 808 at a high level. Its a hugely important instrument yet impossible to get lesson/training for through a traditional outlet like a local music teacher. Same thing with synths, drum sequencing, etc. Many of these skills there is simply no way to learn them other then on your own or maybe from a friend. From my standpoint the traditional music establishment is behind the times and doing a bit of a dis-service to the new generations of musicians.

"Oh, you want to learn guitar. Great kid, we can help you... Uhmm.... you want to learn how to do hip hop and create beats? Nope can't help you, how about organ instead? "

[NKF]

It takes both but I think given the nature of music these days and that the only real change is aesthetics, I would argue production and engineering is slightly more useful with traditional musicianship not quite as essential considering how everything is micro djing. Taste is reeally what seems to be the element to cultivate. a knack for knowing what works. Unfortunately this is either second nature or comes with years of being involved with music in a musical way ie not just mixng.

Someone mentioned playing an 808 at a master level.

[Tricky-Loops]

"Oh, you want to learn guitar. Great kid, we can help you... Uhmm.... you want to learn how to do hip hop and create beats? Nope can't help you, how about organ instead? "

Reminds me of the 80ies...

Piano teachers were the kind of people I was most afraid of because they always looked dead serious as if they could kill a cat!

All they offered in my area was piano, guitar or flute - but I was always interested only in synthesizers and in playing keyboard...damn, I HATED flute, I thought that's something for babies, and I thought guitar must be only for long-haired hardcore rockers...

Nowadays it's surely much easier to find a modern teacher!

[knockman]

1: hookers & blow
2: ????
3: ????
4: ????
5: platinum hit record

I thought it went like this:

1: platinum hit record
2: hookers & blow
3: ???
4: ???
5: strictly come dancing/big brother/i'm a celebrity.../etc.

EDIT: forgot to add my original point!

Whether having a 'teacher' or not, actually playing/collaborating with other people is a good idea. It helped me a lot and I was lucky to play with some exceptionally talented individuals. Though little of it rubbed off in terms of my own playing skills, years later the experiences shape what I now do by myself and inform the decisions I make.

[Deep Purple]

Whether having a 'teacher' or not, actually playing/collaborating with other people is a good idea. It helped me a lot and I was lucky to play with some exceptionally talented individuals. Though little of it rubbed off in terms of my own playing skills, years later the experiences shape what I now do by myself and inform the decisions I make.

Agreed, and I don't think having a teacher will get you anywhere quicker - it might just lead you in a different direction. Working with other musicians is something that is invaluable.

[Dúnedain]

There are a lot of producers out there who disprove this claim I think. For me 3 years of piano-lessons was enough. Do I wish to learn more? Yes, but at the moment this is enough for me

[Robmobius]

More important advice imo would be don't quit (no matter how hard you think it is).

[sin night]

Learning an instrument with a good teacher is a good thing. A good teacher forces you to play with the correct technique from the start, before developing bad habits (I started playing keys by myself before taking lessons and I always struggle with the correct fingering, even after years... My instinct guides me to play with a "wrong" fingering, which makes some passages more difficult or even impossible).
I don't think becoming a skilled, proficient player is important in order to compose, I think it's enough to learn the basics... it opens the mind, in my opinion.


I think it's very important to listen to a lot of music and analyzing it continuosly, paying attention to details and how and why they work. I think knowing a bit of an instrument helps since you can decompose more easily the music in parts ("this instrument does this, that instrument has that role", and so on). It helps developing a good taste and it's a big palette of ideas/solutions when composing.
Then it's important to have some good ideas (I don't know how to get them (otherwise I would not be here writing on a forum ) and then you need to make them real. You may need to ask musicians to play something, or write the parts down on a score or in a sequencer (or play them). Knowing the basics of the music language (and how to play an instrument) really helps here; learing an instrument is a good way to learn those basics (I think it's way more acceptable than learning only from theory).


Of course you need a balance between learning an instrument, learning composition/arrangement and learning engineering, but I think it's important knowing the basics of each of these areas (then you may choose on which you want to become very proficient... by the way I think it's pretty impossible doing everything).

So, in my opinion, it's a good idea to start learning an instrument with a good teacher. Maybe not the only possible way, but definitely a tested one.

[herodotus]

20 years down the line, MY advice to anyone getting started;

Don't go into music expecting to make a lot of money. Music is a bad career path from the standpoint of retiring comfortably before you die.

Do music because you love it or feel compelled to do it. All music worth listening to is made for one of these reasons. Some of this music might make money, but this s ifortuitous.

In any case, it is really difficult to make a living doing original music today. This might be less true ten years or even five years from now, but at present there is so much new music, ranging from Merzbow to Tay Zonday to Dave Holland, that between the bewildering amount of music available and the profound unevenness of its quality level (which ranges from brilliant, to bizarre, to boring but palatable, to just plain wretched), it is really hard to get anyone to listen to your music. Unless, that is, you are really hot and young and photogenic. But even then, are people really listening?

Music should be its own reward. If hearing your music blaring out of your monitors doesn't excite you or give you some other form of visceral satisfaction, you are missing the best part.

If there is one great thing about music in the age of the web, it is that you can find and hear less popular music almost as easily as you can find and hear Lady Gaga. This is an enormous gift to anyone who wants to learn about music in all its wondrous chaotic glory, and for all of the oddball geniuses who can share their music with more people, scattered across every corner of the globe, than anyone in 1990 could have imagined possible.

To prospective musical professionals, on the other hand, the internet has been a much more mixed blessing.

Which is why I kinda-sorta agree with the OP in that you are more likely to get a paying gig as a skilled instrumentalist, than as an original songwriter/composer/producer/whatever. You will probably play some music you really hate, but you can earn an ok living doing it. It isn't easy, though.

The risk is that you might forget why you ever felt excited about making music in the first place.

[dewgong]

The best approach is to not take your teacher's advice as gospel. They're human and make mistakes. They themselves will have accrued loads of questionable beliefs over the years and if you unquestioningly absorb everything they have to teach you'll be taking that on. This is why the student should aspire to overtake the teacher. Being able to analyse all their experience and advice secondhand gives you the opportunity to correct their prejudices conceits and ignorance.

If a teacher recommends a particular technique ask why. If you have a musical difference of opinion dont be afraid to wrestle with it until its resolved

[Jace-BeOS]

I tried lessons in guitar and piano when I was much younger. It was my parents' idea that, if I had interest in this music thing, the only way to be serious about it was to get formal training. If I wouldn't complete formal training, they figured I wasn't interested enough. Too bad they never considered the fact that some people have learning styles that are incompatible with traditional formal training (or outright learning disability, in terms of mathematics and the like, which is entirely relevant to music theory).

End result? I create music, tinker on keys, make noises with stringed instruments that sometimes sound like a beginner at music. Things could've gone better maybe had any instrument teacher focused on technique and playing, rather than expecting I be able to read music notation ever.

It's amazing what a bit of encouragement does... or might be, if you've had any. I was never the kind to fight my way through things because I liked them that much. Then again, I AM making music, and I started with trackers and MIDI, not drag & drop loops or remixing the stems of other artists, so...