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Get Started Making Music

learningmusic.ableton.com

1–10 of 202 posts

Re: Get Started Making Music

#3
Oh my...this is hardly "making music".

Is paint-by-numbers making art? I sure don't think so, so neither is this.

What would have been way way better is a brief introduction to music keys, major and minor, then basic chords, then progressions, then melody, with each section having a few examples of each so that the person going through the article could have some understanding of how music is really made, and how musical concepts actually relate to each other.

Maybe I will shut up and, instead of bitching, actual do something useful and create such a tutorial, using my own beats, progressions, and melodies.

Re: Get Started Making Music

#4
post #3

Oh my...this is hardly "making music". Is paint-by-numbers making art? I sure don't think so, so neither is this. What would have been way way better is a brief introduction to music keys, major and minor, then basic chords, then progressions, then melody, with each section having a few examples of each so that the person going through the article could have some understanding of how music is really made, and how mus…

I don't know anything about making music and haven't really engaged much with other such tutorials.

Those still exist and have their place, but I like this, and it lets me explore with concepts. This is fun and I like it

Re: Get Started Making Music

#5
post #3

Oh my...this is hardly "making music". Is paint-by-numbers making art? I sure don't think so, so neither is this. What would have been way way better is a brief introduction to music keys, major and minor, then basic chords, then progressions, then melody, with each section having a few examples of each so that the person going through the article could have some understanding of how music is really made, and how mus…

There are a lot of different ways to make music, and just as many ways to learn how to do so.

Re: Get Started Making Music

#6
post #3

Oh my...this is hardly "making music". Is paint-by-numbers making art? I sure don't think so, so neither is this. What would have been way way better is a brief introduction to music keys, major and minor, then basic chords, then progressions, then melody, with each section having a few examples of each so that the person going through the article could have some understanding of how music is really made, and how mus…

Did you go past the first page? It does eventually start talking about scales etc.

Re: Get Started Making Music

#7
post #3

Oh my...this is hardly "making music". Is paint-by-numbers making art? I sure don't think so, so neither is this. What would have been way way better is a brief introduction to music keys, major and minor, then basic chords, then progressions, then melody, with each section having a few examples of each so that the person going through the article could have some understanding of how music is really made, and how mus…

"Better" is relative. People will learn that by looking at what other artists are doing and figuring it out themselves, and they will remember it better for that reason.

Everyone I know who is into making music (which includes a large mix of professional and non-professional musicians) started out in electronic music by putting interesting sounds together, and then by imitating what their favourite artists have done.

What you describe is like starting out an art course by teaching students to mix colour -- describing the colour spectrum, which colours lead to what, etc. But really the students will learn all of that and much, much more by just experimenting with combining random colours and seeing what they get out of it, and sharing and comparing with the rest of the class.

I think most people have a prespondence to teach theory first -- indeed, this is how it is generally done in academic settings, but people tend to learn better practicing something first, and then seeing how the theory generalizes what they have learned. After all, you can't really learn something properly until you have experience with it.

I know this, because both of my parents are teachers -- one taught an adult class for decades and is now teaching children, the other is currently long-distance tutor for a university course, and has done/is doing art classes. But here, have a quote:

    According to studies, students who practise what they’re 
    learning first-hand are three and a half times more 
    likely to retain that knowledge than when they’re sitting 
    in a lecture room, hand-scribing notes.
(https://www.studyinternational.com/news/bridging-the-gap-bet...)

Re: Get Started Making Music

#8
post #3

Oh my...this is hardly "making music". Is paint-by-numbers making art? I sure don't think so, so neither is this. What would have been way way better is a brief introduction to music keys, major and minor, then basic chords, then progressions, then melody, with each section having a few examples of each so that the person going through the article could have some understanding of how music is really made, and how mus…

No true Scotsman, eh?

> Is paint-by-numbers making art?

Sure, why not? I have a paint-by-numbers a mate coloured in hung up on a wall.

Is there anything wrong with an 'intro to making and using loops'?

Maybe it'll get a few people interested enough to go through your tutorial.

Re: Get Started Making Music

#9
post #3

Oh my...this is hardly "making music". Is paint-by-numbers making art? I sure don't think so, so neither is this. What would have been way way better is a brief introduction to music keys, major and minor, then basic chords, then progressions, then melody, with each section having a few examples of each so that the person going through the article could have some understanding of how music is really made, and how mus…

I think you are looking from the wrong way. Imagine there is a language you don't speak but you get a phrasebook with 100 useful sentences. Like general experssions what to say, how to ask etc. Now if you visit a country where they speak this language it will be very useful. You don't know the grammar, you don't even know the proper pronunciation. Yet you already have a base to build upon and express yourself. This site is like that. You don't _have to_ know music theory and such to start making music. But that's not just the music I'd say the same applies to writing as well.

Re: Get Started Making Music

#10
post #3

Oh my...this is hardly "making music". Is paint-by-numbers making art? I sure don't think so, so neither is this. What would have been way way better is a brief introduction to music keys, major and minor, then basic chords, then progressions, then melody, with each section having a few examples of each so that the person going through the article could have some understanding of how music is really made, and how mus…

I agree with you but I would put it differently.

The notion that music is at all a grid is just ... not true. It’s true of a tiny subset of music.

I use ableton (and grids) all the time but this way of thinking about “music” is just reinforcing a weird picture of what it is.

Even scales and theory and even music notation enforce a confusing deconstruction of what music is.

But it’s really hard to articulate this.

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